infomercial

On television, an infomercial is a short or regular-length television program that combines information presentation with an integrated suggestion to buy a particular product or service. Exercise equipment and correspondence courses are two products sometimes sold through infomercials.

In the print media, the equivalent to an infomercial is the multi-page "advertising supplement" that is formatted to look like the news part of the medium and contains real information content.

The Internet analog of the infomercial appears to be what advertisers generally refer to as "rich media," including interactive banner ads that sometimes include Flash animations.

Similar neologisms include infotainment and edutainment .