I feel the same as grandparent, but it's a blurry line. Ideally, promoted ads should be recommendations. Buy more than just reach to a demo, instead ensure a qualified voice authentically highlights your benefits - more akin to social recommendations from friends than banner ads.

This is rarely attempted in a world of publications that depend on ad volume and outsourced ad buyer supply, but examples exist. The webcomic Penny Arcade recently ran a Kickstarter to achieve freedom from ads, but found itself answering questions like "What if I love ads?" (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2012/07/20/what-if-i-love-ads) because they'd built a reputation of only advertising products they would feel comfortable endorsing even without an adbuy (can't find a direct link to when they talk about this, but it's out there somewhere).