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And after we sent detailed questions about this story to McClatchy, a large publisher of regional newspapers, it also ended its relationship with AdVon and deleted hundreds of its pieces — bylined by at least 14 fake authors — from more than 20 of its papers, ranging from the Miami Herald to the Sacramento Bee.
An earlier, archived version of its site bragged that its publishing clients included the Ziff Davis titles PC Magazine, Mashable and AskMen (Ziff Davis didn't respond to questions about this story) as well as Hearst's Good Housekeeping (Hearst didn't respond to questions either) and IAC's Dotdash Meredith publications People, Parents, Food & Wine, InStyle, Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, Better Homes & Gardens and Southern Living (IAC confirmed that Meredith had a relationship with AdVon prior to its 2021 acquisition by Dotdash, but said it'd since ended the partnership.)
By the end of the video, the manager has produced an article identical in structure to the AdVon content we found at Sports Illustrated and other AdVon-affiliated publications: an intro, followed by a string of generically-described products with affiliate links to Amazon, a "buying guide" packed with SEO keywords, and finally an FAQ.
After the Gannett staff called out AdVon's work at USA Today — allegations that garnered scrutiny everywhere from the Washington Post to the New York Times — the fictional names on the company's reviews started disappearing.
He clicks the link on Google and it pulls up a Sports Illustrated product review by Damon Ward, the same fake writer whose Yoga Journal article the AdVon training video showed as being sourced via AI.
"Advon [sic] has and continues to use AI responsibly in combination with human writers and editors for partners who want increased productivity and accuracy in their commerce departments," Spurling wrote in a "declaration" provided to us by one of the company's attorneys.