Two years after the Federal Trade Commission sued the marketers of the “Pure Green Coffee” for using fake news sites and fictional reporters to push the weight-loss supplement, the man behind those companies has been ordered to repay $30 million to customers tricked into buying the product. [More]
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Walmart Launches Free Streaming Movie Platform — But Don’t Expect New Releases
By 10.19.16
Users of Walmart’s streaming video service, Vudu, have been able to pay for TV shows and movies for years. Now, the retailer has launched a companion service that will provide customers with free streaming videos — if you don’t mind commercial interruptions and movies that are a few years old. [More]
Apple’s App Store Now Features Ads
By 10.6.16
Next time you search for that gotta-have-it app on Apple’s App Store, you might have to sort through more options than you had anticipated, as the tech company now plans to include ads in search results on its iOS App Store. [More]
Ad Watchdog Warns Comcast & Dish To Use Caution When Dissing DirecTV
By 9.22.16
Pay-TV services might need to be a bit more careful when it comes to the messages they put out into the universe following an ad watchdog’s suggestion that Comcast and Dish revise some of the claims made against competitors in national ads.
Chipotle Shows Off New Food Safety Measures In Effort To Win Back Customers
By 9.21.16
Still reeling from a string of food-borne illnesses in 2015, Chipotle is making a big public push to alert customers to its improved safety measures. [More]
Companies Surprised To Hear That Adblock Plus Is Running An Ad Network With Them
By 9.14.16
Yesterday’s announcement that the company behind popular ad-blocking browser extension Adblock Plus started its own ad network wasn’t all that surprising in hindsight: the company had been selling the right to show some users unobtrusive ads to publishers for five years. The news did take two companies that Adblock Plus claimed would be its partners in the ad exchange by surprise: ad companies AppNexus and Google. [More]
Facebook Testing Autoplay Video Ads That Have The Sound Turned On By Default
By 8.24.16
If you scroll through your Facebook newsfeed right now, you might see video ads that start to play, but silently, at least until/if you decide to turn the sound on. But according to a new report, Facebook confirms that it’s testing ads that will blast sound at full volume as soon as you encounter them. Because that’s a pleasant experience. [More]
Crackdown Coming For Stealth Social Media Ads
By 8.5.16
We’ve seen Warner Bros. get in trouble for paying YouTubers to hype a new game without properly revealing they were paid, and we’ve seen Lord & Taylor caught paying Instagram influencers to shill for a new dress. Yet our social media feeds are still overflowing with celebrities and semi-celebrities pushing products without disclosing that they are receiving a paycheck to do so. [More]
Facebook Will Let Small Companies In Emerging Markets Sell Directly Through Their Pages
By 8.3.16
In an effort to expand into online commerce in regions outside of the U.S. and Canada — and get the ad dollars that go with it — Facebook will let small companies in emerging markets sell their products directly through their account pages for free. [More]
McDonald’s Accused Of Copying Animator’s Work For Ad Featuring Dancing Cows
By 8.2.16
A year after McDonald’s apologized to a pair of photographers after modeling a Twitter ad campaign based on their work, the Golden Arches is once again being accused of copying someone else’s work. [More]
Mercedes Pulls Potentially Confusing Ads For 2017 E-Class That Call The Car ‘Self-Driving’
By 7.29.16
Fully autonomous cars will be available to consumers someday, but not yet. After consumer advocates, including our own parent organization, Consumer Reports, complained to Mercedes and to the Federal Trade Commission about the misleading nature of an ad that shows off a new model’s driver-assist features. The car isn’t autonomous, but advocates were concerned that the ads imply that it is. [More]
Tumblr Users Will Soon Be Able To Make Money From Ads
By 7.28.16
Just in case you didn’t think Tumblr pages were cluttered enough with cribbed photos and seemingly endless lists of comments and notes, the micro-blogging platform is rolling out ads in an effort to let users earn something from the stuff they post. [More]
Google Wants To Make Mobile Ads Less Annoying By Making Them Load Faster
By 7.19.16
Mobile ads are horrible. They eat up too much data [link] and load slowly, resulting in a growing number of wireless users turning to ad-blockers. In an effort to improve the mobile browsing experience — and, oh yeah, protect its sizable stream of ad revenue — Google is looking to speed up load times for ads. [More]
Snapchat Wants To Send You Ads By Identifying Objects In Your Selfies
By 7.18.16
Try to remember the last photo you took on Snapchat: did it include a recognizable tourist spot? Perhaps a cup of coffee? The next time you take a similar photo, you might find a handful of ad-heavy filters waiting to be applied to the scene as Snapchat recently received a patent that would allow it to use image recognition technology to send users ads and other filters related to the picture content. [More]
Facebook Would Like To Know If An Advertiser Scammed You
By 6.30.16
It’s one thing if an online ad is misleading or misrepresents the site that you click on, but what happens when you order an item that isn’t as promised? As overseas clothing companies that market solely through Facebook have proliferated, some customers blame Facebook, even though the site doesn’t vet the products and services of every advertiser. Now, at least, Facebook wants to listen if you’re scammed or misled by an ad on the site. [More]
Amazon Selling Android Phones At A Discount, If You Like Ads
By 6.29.16
In the market for a new phone, but don’t want to pay retail? Amazon is offering $50 off unlocked Android smartphones, but that discount comes with a slightly big catch: the e-commerce giant gets to pre-load the device with its own apps and send ads to the lock screen anytime it wants. [More]
Lawsuit Claims GM Exaggerated Fuel Mileage On Some SUVs For Seven Years
By 6.16.16
General Motors announced last month that it would provide compensation to owners of their models of SUVs after admitting it had incorrectly calculated the fuel economy on the vehicles. But that apparently isn’t enough for some GM owners who have filed a potential class action against the carmaker. [More]
Snapchat Users Will Now See Ads Between Their Friends’ Stories
By 6.14.16
Whenever a new social media company comes around, ad-free and full of vim and vigor with a select group of devoted users, it’s only a matter of time before that clubhouse for the cool kids starts opening itself up to the masses… which in turn, leads to advertisers banging on the door. Snapchat is the latest social company to join its peers in opening up that door a little wider to advertisers. [More]
