But if McDonald’s and Visa are not enough for you, maybe you ought to check out the Nikon Digital Learning Center. Or how about the Kiss and Be Kissed Group (sponsored by Nivea)? Or you can tell Kodak what your story is here. Or you can hang out in the uber cool “Life’s for Sharing” group sponsored by Deutsche Telekom (warning it’s in German). Or check this out. Ford Motor Company is now inviting a few very lucky select flickr members to be a guest editor on their “This is Now” blog through their “This is Now” group on Flickr (your bailout dollars hard at work I guess). All of these groups, by the way, are now prominently displayed on the main groups page for all free *and* paid Pro account Flickr members. Now. I’m as much for Yahoo/Flickr making money as the next Taurus driving Nikon shooting hamburger hawking clown. But the point is, why are they pumping all these adverts out at paid members when they promise you an ad free experience on Flickr if you pay and upgrade to Pro. Whatever happened to, in the - Thomas Hawk

Agreed. It's sloppy. Hiding them is a least an option. Some paid members may well like to participate or at least know about some of these "paid groups/advertorial/contests". I hid mine and I'm fine with that. Good on Yahoo for trying to monetize the site. If they are successful with it, then Flickr may stick around instead of being marginalized or forgotten by the non-using management team of Yahoo. - Robert Kenney

If Flickr is getting paid for this stuff, then they should offer a rebate or a extra value service for the paying members. Personally I'd like some cash back. - Grant Bierman

I'm totally *not* against flickr getting paid. They are a company and deserve to make a profit. I just think it's misleading to tell people that by upgrading to Pro that they can have an ad-free experience and then not delivering. If they need to charge more for Pro accounts so be it. But to mislead people is wrong in my opinion. - Thomas Hawk

Advertise to the free accounts all you want. And even advertise to the paid Pro accounts if you remove the "ad-free" claim in your advertising. Although personally I've always liked (and have paid) for the privilege of an ad free flickr experience. I worry that this is just the start of a new trend on Flickr and hope it can be nipped in the bud so to speak, and by bud, I don't mean Budweiser. - Thomas Hawk

Umm NO!! That is bad, really bad - Susan Beebe

Wait, the promise is "ad-free browsing and sharing." Thomas, aren't these sponsored sections separate from the browsing and sharing features? To me, Flickr is just saying that pros won't see any banner ads when they browse or share. But I don't use Flickr much so maybe I'm totally wrong. - Stephen Mack

Stephen: that's pretty much my take. To me, a sponsored group isn't an ad if the content is user-generated and "organic". I admit that's a pretty tricky line, though. - Roger Benningfield from BuddyFeed

Is what they are doing an "advertisement" or "product placement"? - TranceMist

Are they really planning to advertise on my pro account??? I thought they were making enough money advertising on all the photo pages that come up in yahoo search... - Paula W

Stephen, the sponsored sections aren't really separate. Ads for these groups appear on 100% of Pro members pages when they go to the main "groups" page on Flickr. You can choose to hide them there but of course many paid accounts will not and will be repeatedly advertised to until they choose to click on hide there. Even then though these paid sections will still appear in search results (and not distinguished as sponsored groups, like say a Google ad would be segregated from regular content). - Thomas Hawk

So if someone was say searching for Visa on Flickr, they would come across this group (on the first page search result by the way) even if they'd previously clicked on "hide" on the actual banner ad. Flickr is slowly integrating paid groups into your paid Pro viewing experience. The intrusions may seem small and no big deal at this point, but it crosses a line in my opinion and think it should at a minimum be disclosed. I also think paid groups ought to carry that disclaimer in search results. - Thomas Hawk

There is no way to opt out of seeing paid groups in your search results. The spirit of what Flickr is selling with their Pro accounts is an ad free experience and what they are doing is selling access to these paid members to corporate interests in a round about way. I worry that it's just the tip of the iceberg. Again I have no problem with flickr adverts. Facebook advertises at me and I could care less. It's more about the paid account their promise and disclosure. - Thomas Hawk

Glen, even if you click "hide" they still show up in search results on Flickr (many people won't click hide of course and they still get at least that first shot at you on one of the most prominent pages on flickr). John, I absolutely agree that they have a right to try and sell you stuff. That's the bargain you make with them. I just think that if they want to do that to paid accounts then they shouldn't advertise them as ad-free browsing. - Thomas Hawk