Conventional business theory tells us that if consumers want a product, and if they can afford it, then they'll buy it. For the best items, there's no need to trick people into thinking they should spend money on something they don't need -- like OxiClean or Snuggies.

But gone are the days of conventional business. Now, companies are experimenting more and more with a type of advertising that is at best morally questionable, and desperate at worst. That technique is the fake news story.

The best example of this appeared April 9, when an advertisement dressed as a news story appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. The ad, which had the headline, "Southland's Rookie Hero," under a small NBC logo, was a plug for a TV show about police officers. But it was written as if a Times reporter had gone out and done his own reporting on the fake setting of the show. The first paragraph of the advertisement reads, in part:

"This is the story of one such day when this reporter got a chance to ride along for a rookie's unforgettable first watch."

The ad, no doubt a huge cash grab for the Times (owned by the bankrupt Tribune Co.), was boxed in its own column adjacent to a real news story. The paper's reporters, upon seeing the ad that bumped some story to Page 3, petitioned the sneakiness of the ploy and said it "has caused incalculable damage to this institution. This action violates a 128-year pact with our readers that the front page is reserved for the most meaningful stories of the day. Placing a fake news article on A-1 makes a mockery of our integrity and our journalistic standards."

If only that instance were unique. Fake news ads are rare in print, but the same type of trickery can be found all over news websites online. On the increasingly popular Daily Beast site, for example, a news box below the header "Best of the Beast" teases a story called, "How Bottega Veneta Is Keeping Luxury Relevant." The ad apparently falls under the "Luxury" category and is also tagged as "Sponsored." It leads here, to a fake story under the classification, "Daily Beast Promotions."

At the Huffington Post, the public relations flaks for Shrek the Musical have planted a fake story where a real one might go, leading to a video player showing a brief clip of the performance. The headline is even mimicked in Huffington Post style: "WATCH: Shrek The Musical On Broadway," under a small highlighted tag that says, "Advertisement." The "author" of the fake story, on the ad's own Huffington Post page, is "Shrek The Musical."

The Drudge Report, in particular, has housed this type of ad style for much longer, giving advertisers a picture box in a story space virtually identical to main news items with same-sized graphics. The only discrepancy is this disclaimer below ads in what must be 3-point font: "Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers."

These teases seem dubious and shallow. There is a certain street-sense mantra that can be followed when observing ads, and that is: If an ad is pretending to be something else, be skeptical of both the product and the company. (You wouldn't immediately trust the man taking money from tourists on the side of the street with his trick-card deck, would you?)

The obvious caveat is that news organizations (print and online alike) need advertising dollars more than ever. The New York Times (which ran this front-page ad from CBS in January with the headline, "Front Page News") reported Tuesday that some big papers will report a 30 percent drop in ad revenue during the first three months of this year. Big players in the media circle are also playing with new ways to make money off of news, like asking readers to pay to read stories, similar to how the Wall Street Journal charges for its content.

But the solution cannot be cleverly placed faux features that simultaneously trick readers and devoid their expectations of journalistic integrity. They may not be as irritating as pop-up ads, but at least pop-up ads are more honest.