Template:Promotional
 | This article contains promotional content. (October 2025) |
 | This template is used on approximately 18,000 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them. |
| Spam warnings |
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| Advertising warnings |
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| Article tags |
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| Policy & Project |
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When to use
Add this to articles that need help from other editors because in whole or part they are written in a promotional manner. For example, they may tell readers to buy the company's product, provide price lists, give links to online sellers, or use unencyclopedic or meaningless buzzwords.
The template is for Wikipedia articles that in whole or part have been made into public relations documents or brochures, with content that portrays an issue, a product, an organization, or a person in an unfairly positive or negative light.
The issue the template addresses is the policy WP:PROMO, which forbids content that reflects:
- Advocacy, propaganda, or recruitment of any kind: commercial, political, scientific, religious, national, sports-related, legal, or otherwise. An article can report objectively about such things, as long as an attempt is made to describe the topic from a neutral point of view.
- Self-promotion. This needs to go well beyond Wikipedia editors believing that the subject created or write the article, and then deciding that the mere existence of the article helps the subject promote themselves.
- Advertising, marketing or public relations. Information about people, organizations, issues, and products must be written in an objective and unbiased style, free of puffery.
If an article appears to be any of the above, the template may be appropriate. This is not a {{COI}} tag. Decide whether to add the template based on the article's contents, and not based on your belief about who wrote the article. If you add the template, you should be able to identify specific, correctable content that tends to "sell" the subject.
This template adds articles to Category:Articles with a promotional tone.
How to use
Articles
- Place
{{Promotional|date=October 2025}}at the top of the article. - You can adjust the default "article" text with something more specific, such as:
{{Promotional|article's "Controversy" section|date=October 2025}}.
Sections
- To mark specific sections instead of the whole article, place
{{Advert section|date=October 2025}}at the top of the section.
Remarks
- To replace the text "promotional content", you may use
{{Promotional|article/section|yourtext}}or{{Promotional|2=yourtext}}or{{Promotional|type=yourtext}}
See also
- {{Promotion inline}} – For marking specific promotional language
- {{Promotional section}} – For tagging single promotional sections
- {{Essay}} – For opinion pieces
- {{External links}} – For marking sections with inappropriate use of external links
- {{Fan POV}}
- {{Resume-like}} – For marking biographical articles that promote the subject by listing achievements in the manner of a CV
- {{Cleanup press release}}
- {{Peacock}}
- {{Promotional source}} – For tagging promotional sources that have been cited in an article
- {{Uw-spam1}} – For warning spammers on their talk pages
- {{Travel guide}}
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam
- Wikipedia:WikiProject External links
- Wikipedia:Cleanup process
- Wikipedia:Template index/Cleanup
TemplateData
TemplateData for Promotional
Template for articles with promotional content
| Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scope (e.g. section) | 1 | This parameter allows an editor to replace the default word "article" with another word, usually "section"
| Content | optional |
| Type | type 2 | To replace the text "promotional content" with another phrase
| Content | optional |
| Month and year | date | Month and year of tagging; e.g., 'January 2013', but not 'jan13'
| String | suggested |