A new minute-and-a-half long commercial for Chevrolet grabs the viewer’s heart and stomps on it a few times with the story of a young woman and her childhood pet going through life together as best friends and making their final trip to the veterinarian. It’s a beautifully-made ad, currently going viral. But is it real? [More]
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Feds: ADT Paid “Independent” Experts To Shill For Pulse Security System
By 3.6.14
When you see a so-called expert on the Today Show talking up a product, you might reasonably assume that this expert is giving you an honest opinion that hasn’t been tainted by cash or gifts. Alas, not every company is up front about the fact that they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their product mentioned on TV by not-exactly-independent experts. [More]
This Outfield Wall Ad Inadvertently Reveals Hidden Potential
By 2.28.14
Advertisers have been slapping their logos on outfield walls at baseball parks for longer than any of us have been alive, but have any of those advertisers taken advantage of the opportunities available for visual trickery? [More]
UPDATE: DHL Did NOT Use Color-Changing Packages To Trick UPS Into Delivering Giant DHL Ads
By 2.21.14
UPDATE: We were correct to doubt the authenticity of this “prank.” A rep for DHL tells Consumerist that while the shipping company is aware of the video, DHL did not actually pull the prank or have anything to do with the actual production of the clip that has already been viewed more than 200,000 times on YouTube. [More]
FDA May Trim Some Of Those Lengthy Warnings In Prescription Drug Ads
By 2.18.14
We’re all familiar with prescription drug commercials that are basically 5 seconds about how there’s some awesome drug for your “moderate-to-severe” fill-in-the-blank condition, followed by 25 seconds of happy families playing in parks accompanied by the sound of speed-red disclosures about a vast array of warnings and possible side effects. The FDA is now looking for you opinion about whether it should look into trimming down all that fine print. [More]
These Smug Citizens Bank Ads Show Exactly What’s Screwed Up About Banking
By 2.14.14
If a bank wants to offer a checking account that isn’t as terrible as most of what’s out there, that’s fine. But that bank shouldn’t pat itself on the back and act like it’s doing consumers a favor just because it gives them a slightly easier way to avoid being nickel-and-dimed. [More]
Mozilla To Display Ads Within Firefox
By 2.11.14
It’s always a bit of a shocking event when the lion and the lamb go quietly walking around together like they’re meant to be together. Which is why it’s a bit of a head scratcher to hear that Mozilla — the company that once ticked off the advertising industry by announcing plans to test a patch to block third party cookies by default — will now be displaying ads right from inside its browser. [More]
20 Years Ago, Only 1 Baseball Stadium Had A Corporate Sponsor; Now All But 9 Do
By 2.6.14
When the 1994 baseball season started, there was only a single MLB stadium whose name could be considered a result of corporate sponsorship (and the company owned the team at the time, so even that is up for debate). When the 2014 season kicks off this spring, fewer than one-third of the stadiums are without a corporate name over the gates. [More]
Study: Putting Celebs In Ads Is Ineffective, But Everyone Loves Ellen DeGeneres
By 1.29.14
Turn on your TV during prime time and you’ll inevitably see a cavalcade of celebrity faces, ranging from Oscar winners to “Wasn’t that the guy in that show we watched that one time?” Attaching a star to your brand is something that advertisers have done since the first rock retailer made a cave drawing of Thutronk the Hunter carrying one of his store’s special stones. And yet, science says that people just don’t care, and that it may have a negative impact on your brand. [More]
Another Marlboro Man Passes Away From Smoking-Related Causes
By 1.27.14
The wife of an actor who appeared in “Marlboro man” cigarette ads and billboards has confirmed that her husband recently died at the age of 72 from respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), meaning he is at least the third Marlboro man to pass away from a smoking-related cause. [More]
No, That Sansabelt “Action Pants” Ad You Saw On Facebook Is Not Real
By 1.23.14
Everyone loves vintage ads, especially the ones that haven’t aged particularly well. You know, the sexist and racist ads that look horrible to modern eyes, and the ones that sixty years of unrelenting irony have rendered unintentionally hilarious. However, before you hit “share” on Facebook, stop and think: is this vintage ad simply too hilarious? [More]
Nissan Scolded For Ad Showing Truck Doing The Impossible
By 1.23.14
You may remember the car ad from a couple years back in which a Nissan Frontier comes to the rescue of a stranded dune buggy, muscling up the mountain of sand and pushing the buggy over the top. The Federal Trade Commission believes that this sort of thing — showing off a feature of a vehicle that does not exist — is deceptive, and has slapped both the car company and the ad agency on the wrists over it. [More]
Maytag Repairman Gets Makeover, New Job Duties
By 1.16.14
Brand spokespeople need to be refreshed every so often: just ask fictional home economist/secret Time Lord Betty Crocker. You might remember the Maytag Repairman, star of ads with a memorable premise: Maytag appliances were so reliable that the company’s repairman needed to find other ways to spend his hours. [More]
Stephen Colbert Is Ready For Viacom To Insert Ads Anywhere
By 1.15.14
Mirriad bills itself as a company that does “advertising for the skip generation.” What the heck does that mean? They’re the people who insert new ads into reruns of your favorite programs, adding not-yet-released DVDs to nonexistent bookshelves and even adding televisions that show ads to walls in a scene. You can advertise any product in a program, no matter how old it might be. [More]
Ad Campaign Will Highlight Tobacco Companies’ Deceptions With ‘Corrective Statements’
By 1.10.14
This takes an apology tour to a whole new level. Okay, they might not be saying sorry, but tobacco companies will soon be owning up hiding the dangers of smoking from consumers with an advertising campaign of “corrective statements”. [More]
Consumerist Presents The 19 Worst Ads Of 2013, Brought To You By Consumerist
By 12.31.13
While we all have that one friend who is constantly littering our Facebook timelines with YouTube links to “Hilarius!” [sic] commercials, most of us hate advertisements. Even the ones that are funny or interesting the first time you see them will inevitably begin to grate after you see it for the 10th time in an hour. But some ads never even earn that initial chuckle, and instead go right to pushing that nerve that makes you want to body-slam your beloved 55″ TV. [More]
Send Us Your Nominations For The Worst Ads Of 2013
By 12.23.13
With 2014 in sight, it’s time to look back on the worst TV ads of the last year. We watch enough crap here in the Consumerist batcave to come up with our own suggestions, but we want to give our readers a chance to vent about the commercials that drove them crazy in 2013. [More]
Oh, Brother: Here Come Facebook’s New Video Ads… That Autoplay In Your Feed
By 12.17.13
Let’s get the grumbling out of the way now: Yes, Facebook is testing new video ads and yes, they will autoplay in both your desktop and mobile feeds. But hey, at least the sound won’t be on until you click on it, so, yay? [More]
