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SEAT Ateca Awarded "2016 Crossover of the Year" Is a Sponsored Post?

This is one of those touchy subjects that motoring journalists don't like to talk about: corporate sponsorship. There's a hard line in the sand that says objectivity flies out the window when you accent being paid to say something.
SEAT Ateca Awarded "2016 Crossover of the Year" Is a Sponsored Post? 18 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
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Recently, Auto Express released a 3-minute video explaining how the SEAT Ateca is their crossover of the year with "sponsored" written in brackets. "One of the key reasons why the Ateca won the award is that it's easily one of the most stylish crossovers of the moment," the presenter says. It was followed soon after by CarBuyer's copy of the same clip.

That's a vague way to say something really positive without having to back it up. Features like hands-free parking and phone mirroring are also presented as being amazing, even though many rivals also offer them. But you could argue that cool features might be discussed that way even in a regular review to make it interesting to watch.

I have a feeling videos like these can cost YouTube subscribers. Instead of pointlessly watching 3 minutes of Ateca promotion, people who want to buy one will try and find a comparison, which is what Auto Express should actually have filmed. This is how you're supposed to pick the best car in any category after all.

The elephant in the room here is that Mat Watson left CarBuyer, for CarWow this year and has been doing lots of comparisons. Meanwhile, the Express people have released about a dozen sponsored posts for Nissan and SEAT.

So should another crossover have gotten the award? Well, I don't know, but the Peugeot 3008 and Skoda Kodiaq needed to be mentioned. And I have a feeling the Ateca wouldn't look so cutting-edge next to those two.

The reality of being a modern motoring journalist is rarely talked about. Car companies are wealthy, but we're not, so at every event they try to impress us with silver keychains, USB drives shaped like cars and stuff like that.

Then again, most big YouTubers have sponsorship, and they aren't even obliged to spill the beans. Some bloggers might make $50,000 just to mention Coca-Cola or Star Wars in their videos. Some of Shmee150's car reviews are also sponsored. However, for the traditional press, this kind of action is viewed as poorly as football match-rigging or voter fraud, even though it's not.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
Mihnea Radu profile photo

Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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