They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But what if that flattery comes in the form of the largest fast food restaurant copying your creative take on engagement photos for a national ad campaign? That’s what two artists have accused McDonald’s of doing, and now the Golden Arches is publicly apologizing. [More]
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McDonald’s Apologizes After Couple Says Ad Campaign Ripped Off Their Viral Engagement Photos
By 8.21.15
Appeals Panel Hands Second Loss To DirecTV Over Rob Lowe Ads
By 8.14.15
Four months after an ad review board, acting on a complaint from Comcast, recommended DirecTV pull its quirky promotions featuring Rob Lowe and a parade of peculiar alter-egos, a review panel upheld the original findings that some of the spots contain unsubstantiated claims — despite the fact the ads are “very funny.” [More]
Pornhub Censors Commercial Likening Video Service To Parmagiano-Reggiano After Cheese Group Complains
By 8.13.15
Although dairy lovers might compare a beautifully shaped, delicious, hard cheese to food porn, an Italian cheese group says an ad that likened a streaming porn service to its famed Parmagiano-Reggiano cheese is basically blasphemy. [More]
Amazon Ending Pay-Per-Click Ad Program That Took Shoppers To Other Retail Sites, Creates Text-Only Ads
By 8.12.15
Smaller retailers who pay to have ads appear on the bottom of Amazon search results will soon see less of their products and more text, as the e-commerce giant prepares to shutter a pay-per-click ad program that took shoppers away from its site. [More]
Why Do I Keep Seeing Commercials For Everest University?
By 8.4.15
If you’re sitting at home watching television on any given afternoon, you’re likely to see a few commercials touting the supposed convenience and benefits of attending a for-profit college. But with the recent, very public collapse of now-bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc — and the closure of many of its schools — you might be wondering why your Jerry Springer show is being interrupted with ads for Everest University. [More]
McDonald’s Billboard Offers Free McFlurries For The Hot & Hungry
By 7.20.15
Everyone likes to get free stuff, especially if that stuff happens to include food and drinks. Earlier this year companies began using “drinkable” billboards to dispense beverages to thirsty consumers. Now, McDonald’s has taken that idea and made it their own by giving away free McFlurries to pedestrians when the temperatures reach scorching levels. [More]
Marketers Of Memory Supplement Must Pay $1.4M To Settle Deceptive Advertising Charges
By 7.8.15
Using fake news stories and trumped-up, unsubstantiated claims, the marketers of a supplement that claimed to be the answer to memory loss problems sold nearly $100 million worth of the stuff in just a few years. Now they have to fork over $1.4 million to federal and state authorities for making these deceptive statements, and face millions more in penalties if they fail to comply. [More]
Hyundai, Nissan Dealerships In Las Vegas Settle Deceptive Advertising Complaints
By 6.30.15
Back in March, federal regulators teamed up with their Canadian counterparts to crack down on auto dealers’ deceptive, fraudulent practices. While that operation culminated in six enforcement actions resulting in more than $2.6 million in judgments and consumer refunds, that wasn’t enough for the Federal Trade Commission, as the agency has now charged two Las Vegas auto dealers with similarly misleading practices. [More]
Ad Board Recommends McDonald’s Focus On Actual Meal, Not Just The Cool Toy
By 5.15.15
By now we all know that McDonald’s is trying to appeal to a younger audience, but a commercial the company aired last fall geared toward its youngest customers apparently didn’t sit well with an ad review board. And now that group is warning the fast food giant to stick to its food and not to use toys to appeal to youngsters.
[More]
Ad Watchdog: Scooter Commercials Show Too Much Unsupervised Fun
By 4.29.15
Zooming along the sidewalk at up to 13 miles per hour on an electric-powered scooter sounds like a lot of fun. However, one scooter company has run into trouble by running its ads that show an unsupervised teen zipping around the neighborhood during shows for inappropriately young kids. Their commercials caught the attention of the ad watchdogs over at the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council. [More]
YouTube Will Let Viewers Watch Videos Ad-Free For A Monthly Fee
By 4.9.15
If your dream is watch hours upon hours of animals from different species being best friends without the insistent interruption of ads, you are within reach of that reality — if you’re willing to cough up a payment every month to YouTube. [More]
Following Complaint From Comcast, Ad Board Recommends DirecTV Discontinue Rob Lowe Ads
By 4.7.15
If you’ve been near a TV in the last six months (and don’t fast forward through every commercial break), then you’ve likely seen the quirky DirecTV ads featuring Rob Lowe and a parade of kooky alter-egos. How much longer you’ll see those spots is up for debate after an ad review board, acting on a complaint from Comcast, found many of DirecTV’s claims to be unsubstantiated and recommended the company pull the promotions. [More]
Google Play Search Results Will Now Feature Sponsored Ads
By 2.26.15
The next time you visit the Google Play store to download an app, you’ll likely be greeted with an ad or two. [More]
Coke Ad Suggests Maybe You Should Pay For That 140-Calorie Soda With Some Exercise
By 6.6.14
Either Coca-Cola is crazy like a fox or just the kind of crazy that means showing people exactly how long they’ll have to exercise in order to work off the calories in a 16-ounce can of Coke. Speficically, its new campaign points out that it takes the average person 23 minutes of cycling to “pay” for those 140 calories, at which point a Rube Goldeberg-esque device will deliver the goods. [More]
Once Upon The ’80s, Someone Really Approved This Ad
By 5.30.14
Every advertisement tells a story. The story that this advertisement tells is that ladies can’t even exercise without yapping on the phone, and that FaceTime was invented sometime before 1984. [More]
Comcast Commercial Claims Their Fast In-Home WiFi Can Make Your Offline Game Work Better
By 5.28.14
Comcast’s been irking a large segment of the internet again this week. This time, though, it doesn’t have anything to do with their pro-merger mania, their stance on net neutrality, or the problems with their actual service. The latest kerfuffle is all about a thirty-second commercial — one that doesn’t even seem to get the basics of its own technology right. [More]
Company Wants To Beam TV Ads To Mobile Devices So You’ll Be Forced To Pay Attention
By 4.22.14
Hey, you. Yeah, you, the one with the audacity to be playing Sugar Smashers or looking at the weather on your phone/tablet while the commercials are on. You need to be paying attention, and so ads on TV should be beamed directly to your phone and/or tablet to make sure you are. Well, that’s according to one company’s nightmarish vision of our TV-watching future, at least. [More]
Great Moments In Badvertising History: Save Wives From Working, Doc Loves His Camels & Babies Guzzle Soda
By 4.19.14
As we’ve told you before: Anyone looking through old magazine ads could only conclude that the past was pretty darn terrible… At least if that past includes a mission to save your wife from having a job outside the home, doctors that smoked like chimneys, and babies drinking soda like it’s the nectar of life itself. [More]
