[bcpl2000]

That is how we here think, but for covert advertising it is sufficient to get the word "microbiome" in the news as often as possible and to stress that it's important.

The average consumer does not read probiotics research, all that sticks is "Microbiome causes X, probiotics should fix it!".

[slothtrop]

The average consumer is still a whole newscycle behind on that, but I think it's a stretch to say research in itself is advertisement. Headlines (which often do not even reflect the actual research content) might be advertisements.