For the past year or so companies have been working to streamline the buying process by cutting out the need to toggle between several pages to purchase a product. There’s one social network that’s decided dipping its toes into the world of e-commerce apparently isn’t worth it anymore: Twitter has shifted its focus away from the concept of a “buy” button. [More]
ADS
Google Maps Directions Could Soon Include Ads For Businesses Nearby
By 5.24.16
In the future when you’re looking up directions to get somewhere on Google Maps, you could see an ad for a business that happens to be nearby. You know, in case you didn’t realize you probably need to stop for a pizza snack on your way to dinner. [More]
Google Bans Payday Loan Ads In Search Results
By 5.11.16
Google can’t stop you from searching for “payday loans,” and the company’s search engine will continue to turn up results for people inquiring about these short-term, high-interest loans, but it can choose to stop running ads for payday lenders. [More]
Instagram’s New Ads Will Target Shoppers Who Look At Stuff Online But Don’t Buy It
By 5.10.16
One of the ways I save myself money when shopping online is pretty simple: I put a bunch of stuff in my online cart that I want, then immediately close the window and don’t return. Facebook is going after people like me with its rollout of dynamic ads on Instagram, which will be targeted at shoppers who browse online but don’t pull the trigger when it comes to actually buying items. [More]
Study: Ads On The Mobile Web Don’t Just Suck, They Suck Up Valuable Data
By 3.17.16
You’ve got a limited allotment of monthly LTE data to use, so you’re careful with it. You just load up the news and read it — on a reputable website — while waiting for a coffee or the bus, let’s say. And yet at the end of the month you’ve used way more data than you feel like you should have. The culprit? Those annoying ads that get in your way anyway. [More]
VA Suspends DeVry University’s Participation In “Principles Of Excellence” Program
By 3.14.16
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday that it would suspend DeVry University’s status as a Principles of Excellence institution after reviewing a federal lawsuit that accuses the popular for-profit college chain of deceiving prospective students about their employment potential after graduation. [More]
Well, At Least Advertisers Like The Nudity-Free Version Of Playboy Better
By 2.16.16
A few months ago, Playboy magazine announced that it would be acknowledging that the Internet is a thing and getting rid of full-frontal nude pictures, going for more PG-rated content, wider availability in stores, and some nice free publicity. Is it working? The magazine’s most important customers are pleased with the change: advertisers. [More]
San Francisco Wants High-Rise Verizon And Visa Ads To Come Down Before Super Bowl
By 1.28.16
With visitors coming to town for a high-profile sporting event next week, two high-rise buildings in San Francisco sold exterior ad space to Verizon and to Visa. There’s a problem, though: the ads, which are 15 and seven stories high respectively, are illegal, and the city wants them to come down before the Super Bowl. [More]
DeVry University Accused Of Deceptive Advertising & Misleading Students On Job Prospects
By 1.27.16
Federal regulators continued a crackdown on allegedly unscrupulous for-profit college companies Wednesday, filing a lawsuit against DeVry University. The popular chain of schools stands accused of deceiving prospective students about their employment potential after graduation. [More]
Report Finds That As E-Cigarette Ad Spending Increases So Does Teens’ Use Of The Devices
By 1.6.16
About 2.4 million teens smoked e-cigarettes last year, and that number is poised to rise, thanks in part to the tens of millions of dollars device manufactures have poured into advertisements for the products, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [More]
Competitors Looked To Their Wallets To Prepare For McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast
By 12.22.15
Competitors were happy to brush off the idea that they should worry about McDonalds’ new all-day breakfast, but the amount they spent on their own advertising tells a different story. [More]
Twitter Starts Showing Ads To Non-Users Just Wandering By
By 12.10.15
Twitter doesn’t use banner ads, but instead shows users sponsored tweets that are theoretically targeted to them. Yet plenty of visitors to the site aren’t registered users: they’ve followed a link despite not having an account or not being logged in yet. Twitter hadn’t tried selling these visitors’ eyeballs to advertisers until now. [More]
Ad Watchdog Recommends DirecTV Cease 4K Claims
By 12.9.15
AT&T may already be killing off the DirecTV name, but that doesn’t mean its recently acquired pay-TV brand doesn’t have to answer for its possibly misleading advertisements. As such, a national ad review board has directed the company – at the behest of Charter Communications – to discontinue claims made in its “Hannah and Her Horse” campaign that suggests all of its programming is available via 4K technology. [More]
Google Testing Ads That Let You Try Mobile Games Before Downloading Them
By 12.3.15
Sometimes, a mobile game may catch your eye — all bright, blinking, beguiling colors — but after you’ve downloaded it, it turns out to be rather… meh. Yes, you can simply delete it from your phone easily enough — but if wasn’t a free game, that might smart a bit. In an attempt to defeat downloader’s remorse, Google is playing around with ads that would allow folks to try games before they’ve taken the leap to install them on their mobile devices. [More]
YouTube Launches $9.99/Month “Red” Ad-Free Subscription Service
By 10.21.15
Six months after reports began to swirl that YouTube would offer users an option to watch videos sans ads, the company officially unveiled its $9.99/month subscription service. [More]
AdBlock Plus Will Use An Independent Board To Choose Ads To Unblock
By 9.30.15
One way that ad-blocking programs make money is, paradoxically, by showing you some ads. The popular add-on AdBlock Plus shows users ads that it deems “acceptable” by default, and has been accused of charging some publishers a percentage of the ad income that otherwise would have been lost. Now the maker of AdBlock Plus, Eyeo, is changing how it decides which ads deserve unblocking. [More]
Popular iOS Ad-Blockers Charge Advertisers For Access To Your Eyeballs
By 9.24.15
Now that ad-blockers are available for Apple’s iOS phone and tablet platform, the ad industry is nervous. Yet not as nervous as it could be: adding ad-blockers to iDevices is just an extension of how ad-blocking works on your desktop. Depending on which extension or app you use, advertisers may be paying the developer for access to your screen. [More]
Burger King Proposes Unholy Alliance With McDonald’s To Promote Peace Day
By 8.26.15
Vinegar and oil, soda and pop rocks, Burger King and McDonald’s: those are just a few things that don’t quite mix well together. Well, except that last one, apparently, as The King is calling on the Golden Arches to set their differences aside and give consumers what they want: something called a McWhopper. But it appears this unholy alliance won’t see the light of day, as McDonald’s just isn’t felling the love for its archrival. [More]
