The 'crass' aspect of this is the thinness of the disguise, as many capitalist cultural ventures do not make attempts to hide their true purpose. In capitalist societies, such articles are very common, and so what is crass commercialism depends largely on perception.
Crap commercialism is a more disrespectful term in commenting on articles that are commercial in nature, implying a worthless or wasteful use of time and resources in producing a cultural article of no socially redeeming value, designed for profit only.