Pet owners know that domestic animals have many uses around the home. Thousands of years ago, that’s why we welcomed them into our dwellings in the first place, and we’ve come to appreciate them for their other skills as well. Cats were originally welcomed inside to catch vermin, and now they are also alarm clocks and are fur-covered laptop cozies. Dogs now guard our houses and clean up crumbs on the floor. [More]
advertising
Google To Start Doing Its Mega-Personalized Ad-Serving Thing On TV, Too
By 3.23.15
As dominant as it is and has been for decades, TV advertising is something of a crapshoot. Neilsen ratings are still the gold standard for every network out there, especially since they now finally track time-shifted viewing. But Neilsen still uses their own proprietary tech, and works on a sampling basis. In an age when every set-top box and most of the TVs they’re plugged into are themselves net-connected computers, there’s a more granular and accurate way to measure viewers and to advertise to them — and Google’s taking it. [More]
TV Viewership Down 10%; Industry Blames Streaming Video
By 3.11.15
Even though many of us have hundreds of channels to choose from on cable or satellite, we’re choosing to watch less live TV. But it’s not just because we’ve all decided to go outside and take up steeplechase; it has a little something to do with the availability of subscription streaming services. [More]
Coca-Cola Pulls Fanta Ad Suggesting Nazi Germany Was “Good Old Times”
By 3.3.15
In a recent video recounting the birth of Fanta soft drinks, Coca-Cola explains that its German operation had trouble getting cola-making ingredients to the country’s bottling plants 75 years ago, leading the bottlers to dream up a beverage they could make without Coca-Cola syrup. Perhaps Coke was hoping people wouldn’t do the math and realize that the reason for the syrup scarcity had a little something to do with the Nazis. [More]
The Only Abs You’ll See From Abercrombie & Fitch Now Are On A Cologne Bottle
By 2.27.15
Gone are the days of college dorm rooms papered entirely in panels from Abercrombie & Fitch bags, with abs, golden, undulating abs as far as the eye could see. After announcing last year that the company would be phasing out the ubiquitous stomach muscles in its ads, now the only six-packs you’ll see are on a bottle of the brand’s cologne. [More]
Lawsuit Against Jim Beam Challenges Bourbon’s “Handcrafted” Claim
By 2.19.15
When it comes to making a name for a brand, the words companies use to describe their products are chosen very carefully for maximum appeal. But the thing is, those words have to be true. Jim Beam is the latest liquor maker to face challenges over its claims that its bourbon is actually “handcrafted.” [More]
Cable Channels Speed Up TV Shows To Cram In More Ads
By 2.19.15
Anyone who’s watched a syndicated TV show on basic cable is already familiar with some methods of trimming the fat off of shows — shorter opening credits, sped-up closing credits that may overlap on-screen ads or the next show — but what you may not have noticed is that some cable networks are actually speeding up shows and movies to squeeze in more commercials. [More]
McDonald’s “Pay With Lovin'” Campaign Doesn’t Result In Any Actual Love For Company
By 2.18.15
Nearly four months ago, when we first got hints that McDonald’s was going to be making a Super Bowl-centered campaign about how “lovin’ is better than hatin'” and other folksiness, we predicted it wouldn’t exactly be well received by consumers. And when it finally rolled out the “Pay with lovin'” campaign, our opinion didn’t really change. Now that this brief, G-droppin’ period has passed, it doesn’t look like people have anymore love for McDonald’s than they did a few months ago. [More]
Forbes Now Including Advertiser-Created Content On Front Cover Of Magazine
By 2.16.15
If you thought the demon who goes by many names — native advertising, advertorials, sponsored stories, promoted content, utter bullsh*t — was something that was relegated to the Internet, then go check out the new issue of Forbes, which not only comes complete with some of this bought-and-paid-for crap, but which actually lists it on the front cover of the magazine like it’s just another story. [More]
Ad Execs Pick Their Favorite Fake ‘Saturday Night Live’ Ads From Last 40 Years
By 2.13.15
This weekend, NBC’s Saturday Night Live will celebrate turning 40, which is incredibly depressing for some of us who have fuzzy childhood memories of sneaking downstairs to watch Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi and others do things that we knew were hilarious even if we were too young to understand. So what better way to end the week than to look back at some of the best fake ads ever aired on SNL. [More]
Ad Watchdog Group To Comcast: Stop Saying Stuff That Isn’t True In Your Ads
By 1.28.15
Comcast, like every other company on earth, likes to advertise about how great they are. They run commercials all over about how their internet is better, faster, stronger than the next guy’s. Except, a business group that checks in on badvertising says, Comcast isn’t really as great as Comcast claims it is, and needs to tone it down a bit. [More]
Wait — What Did The Guy In This FarmersOnly.com Ad Just Say?
By 1.27.15
If you’re a fan of basic cable, you’ve most likely seen any number of the many ads for FarmersOnly.com, the online dating site targeting rural Americans. The ad’s recent slate of commercials are more professional-looking than some of the bottom-dollar spots that first got that darn jingle stuck in our heads, but there’s one new-ish ad that we had to rewind a few times just to make sure we heard it correctly. [More]
Conde Nast Proudly Using Editors To Write Sponsored Content For Advertisers
By 1.26.15
For quite some time, we’ve been telling you about a particularly pernicious evil that goes by various names — advertorial content, native advertising, brand reporting, branded content, sponsored stories, pure crap — that a growing number of websites have tried to slip past their readers as actual editorial content. The most ethical sites take measures to call these stories out as being bought and paid for, and many sites refuse to taint their editorial process by allowing their staffers to work on this nonsense. But Conde Nast has decided that the best way to use its highly qualified and talented staff is to have them writing shill content for advertisers. [More]
Startup Claims It Can Automate Copywriting Process, Leaving Copywriters Time To Finish Their Novels
By 1.22.15
All that junk promotional mail that ends up in your mailbox or e-mail inbox is presumably written by a human being. But many of these items are just variations on themes that have been played so many times that you could teach a machine how to write them. Which is apparently why some investors are putting their money into a startup that aims to automate the copywriting process. [More]
CBS To Continue With Thursday Night Football Next Season
By 1.19.15
Even though the current NFL season has yet to reach its peak in the annual “I Watch It for the Commercials Bowl,” the professional sponsorship league that also involves football has already announced some plans for next season, like the fact that CBS will continue to prop up the NFL Network by airing a bunch of primetime weeknight games again. [More]
Woman Suing Clothing Company After Tights Failed To Deliver A Happy Ending For Her Feet
By 1.15.15
We all want the products we buy to provide a certain sense of satisfaction, but one New York woman is claiming that the makers of tights she bought did not bring her the nearly orgasmic return on her investment she says the company promised in its ads. [More]
McDonald’s “Signs” Commercial: Heartwarming Message Or Crass Cash-In?
By 1.12.15
Over the weekend, McDonald’s extended its latest “lovin'” campaign with a new ad featuring a series of McDonald’s restaurant signs bearing messages about everything from natural disasters to the Boston Marathon killings to birthday greetings. Some viewers had their hearts warmed by the reminders that local fast food franchises can spread messages of more than just Happy Meals, while other viewers were less won-over, viewing the ad as a crass way for McDonald’s to attach itself to national tragedies. [More]
Sprint’s “Framily,” NFL’s Family Of Disloyal Fans Lead List Of 2014’s Worst Ads
December 31, 2014
There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about what exactly constitutes a “family” in a time when people can have deeply felt connections with those they’ve never met while simultaneously having no meaningful relationships with their kin in the next room. But regardless of how they define familial relations, Consumerist readers have resoundingly let it be known that there were two advertising families that they wanted nothing to do with in 2014. [More]
