Opposite of 硬广 ('hard ad') — 软文 is the 'soft' sell disguised as editorial content, product-review posts, or lifestyle pieces. Xiaohongshu and WeChat public accounts run on it.
culture
Chinese netizens are famously skeptical of 软文 — comments like 这是软文吧? ('this is an advertorial, right?') appear under any suspiciously glowing product review. The savviness is higher than most Western audiences.
