What you see isn’t always what you get, but in advertising that’s a big no-no. After all, the point of ads is to show potential consumers what they’ll be in for if they decide to buy that product. That whole truth in advertising thing is why the British Advertising Standards Authority has put the kibosh on Christian Dior mascara ads featuring actress Natalie Portman. [More]
advertising
We Couldn’t Be Happier That Will Ferrell Has Taken His Old Milwaukee Ads To Sweden
By 10.19.12
Because Will Ferrell himself is an inexplicable bundle of comedic joy, we aren’t even going to attempt to understand or explain why he’s taken his Old Milwaukee ad campaign from Davenport, Iowa to Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedes like beer and comedy, right? So why not. But we’re really happy he did it because the results are, as per usual, hilarious. [More]
Pizzeria Uno Now Offers Soups That Defy The Laws Of Physics
By 10.19.12
On a chilly fall day, maybe you would like a nice thick bowl of soup. Pizzeria Uno can help you out with that. Timothy noticed something strange on this ad for Pizzeria Uno. A wooden board inexplicably tilts all of the food toward each other, and a delicious bowl of soup doesn’t even shift when it’s tilted at an angle toward the pizzas. [More]
Maxi Pad Company Apologizes For Fooling Man Into Thinking Periods Are Fun In Any Way
By 10.16.12
We’ve all been led astray by advertising — maybe it was that choppy kitchen tool thingy you saw on an infomercial or a lip gloss that would land you George Clooney for a husband. But for one man, the maker of Bodyform maxi pads did him a great injustice for fooling him into thinking that when women got their periods, it was all extreme sports, horseback riding and dance parties. His Facebook rant has resulted into a very personal apology by Bodyform. [More]
Pizza Hut Realizes That Offering People Money To Ask Presidential Candidates About Favorite Pizza Topping Is Remarkably Stupid Idea
By 10.15.12
At this week’s town hall-style Presidential debate, at least one of the questions asked by an audience member will be superfluous and about a topic many people deem unimportant. Luckily, no one will be taking Pizza Hut up on its request to ask the candidates whether they prefer pepperoni or sausage, after the restaurant chain realized that might be just a remarkably dumb idea. [More]
Sony Files Very Real Lawsuit Against Fake Sony Executive
By 10.8.12
You probably know actor Jerry Lambert as “Kevin Butler,” the man who has played the character of Sony Executive Kevin Butler in a long-running series of ads for the PlayStation brand. Now Lambert can add “defendant” to his resume, as Sony is apparently unhappy with his appearance in an ad for another company that features him playing Nintendo. [More]
Ads For Controversial Car Insurance Initiative Feature “Real People” From PR Company Hired To Promote Measure
By 10.2.12
Voters in California will soon say yay or nay to Prop 33, a ballot measure that would change the way auto insurance rates are calculated. Ads for the initiative feature real consumers talking about the money they would save on car insurance if Prop 33 were to pass. But what’s not mentioned in those ads is the fact that some of these people work for the PR company hired to promote the measure. [More]
Campaign Ads Are Keeping The Christmas Creep Off TV
By 10.2.12
Whatever your political persuasion, you’ve probably already had it up to here (imagine me holding my hand slightly above my head) with the campaign ads flooding the airwaves. But in the grand Consumerist tradition of looking for a silver lining around every storm cloud, there’s good news for people who hate seeing holiday-themed ads in October. [More]
Everyone Hates Bots: They’re To Blame For $1.5 Billion In Wasted Advertising Spending
By 10.1.12
How annoying is it when you see that you’ve got a new Twitter follower or a reply (“I bet someone loved that last clever bon mot I sent into the Internetz!”) only to have it turn out to be a bot telling you to click on some link to get new followers? It stinks, and I’m pretty sure no one likes bots. Especially not online advertisers, who reportedly lose around $1.5 billion every year in ad spending because of such software bots. [More]
Target Creates “Shoppable” Film To Sell You Target Products While You Watch
By 9.26.12
Are you sick of movies that try to ruin solid product placement with things like plot, action, and characters? Do you also ache to see B-list TV actors cashing a paycheck by appearing in extended commercials for a discount retailer? Then the folks at Target have got the show for you! [More]
General Mills Resurrects Jolly Green Giant; What Other Characters Deserve A Second Coming?
By 9.17.12
Like a lot of older actors who just assumed had died years ago, we didn’t realize until recently that the frozen veggie-shilling Jolly Green Giant had gone missing for most of the last decade. But after eight years of lying dormant in the back of the freezer with that block of peas you don’t remember buying and never quite feel like eating, General Mills has decided to bring back the 84-year-old character in a move to get kids eating vegetables. [More]
Cable Industry Says It Shouldn't Have To Adjust Volume On Ads Because C-SPAN Doesn't Have To
By 9.11.12
On December 13, a new piece of legislation intended to prevent obnoxiously loud TV advertising from ruining your nap will take effect. But the cable industry is making a last-minute move to get an exemption for “promotional” ads (aren’t all ads supposed to be promotional?). Their reasoning? They just want the same leeway given to that ad-bloated TV powerhouse C-SPAN. [More]
Which Type Of Ad-Skipper Are You?
By 9.5.12
While we sift through the mountain of nominations for this year’s Worst Ad In America Awards, one thing has become very clear — y’all hate TV commercials and are doing whatever you can to avoid them. [More]
Twitter Says It's Going To Start Aiming Ads At Users Based On Content Of Tweets
By 8.30.12
As my astute colleague Laura had cause to mention today — if you’re using a free service without paying anything, you’re probably the product. Twitter, long the bastion of those averse to the marketing tactics already displayed on social media sites like Facebook, has announced it’s going to start taking users’ tweets and aiming ads at them based on the content. [More]
Nominate Your Most-Hated Commercials For Worst Ad In America 2012!
By 8.20.12
With the exception of a handful of arguably entertaining commercials — and even those tend to grate over time — TV commercials are the bane of a TV watcher’s time in front of the boob tube. This is why we invent technology to skip over ads, or mute buttons to quiet them, or sudoku games to play while they are on. It’s also why Consumerist is announcing its third-annual Worst Ad In America awards! [More]
Facebook Takes Big Step Backward Toward Traditional Advertising
By 8.15.12
As we predicted back in its pre-IPO days in May, Facebook would need to give up on its current model of minimal and oddly placed ad units if it wanted to survive as a publicly traded company with a value anywhere near what it wants the stock market to think it’s worth. And as that stock price continues to hover at half of the IPO value, the company appears to have taken the first big step toward more traditional advertising, by testing a way for businesses to pay for ads that pop up in the streams of users who did not necessarily “like” that particular advertiser. [More]
Should NBC Leave Schmaltzy Olympic Profiles To The Advertisers?
By 8.7.12
Long before anyone could get mad at NBC for its glitchy Olympic webcasts, the network was padding out its tape-delayed broadcasts with overlong pre-taped video profiles of various competitors from the U.S. and around the world. But here’s an idea — rather than irritate viewers by interrupting the diving competition for a 10-minute bio of a 16-year-old and then going to commercial, why not just leave these stories to the people who specialize in heartstring-tugging schmatltz: advertisers. [More]
Comcast Launches Marketing Campaign To Get Across What The Heck Xfinity Is
By 7.27.12
Comcast is a cable company. But what is Xfinity? Initially, we thought it sounded like a great name for a porn company, but it’s actually the brand name of the various products that Comcast offers. Of course, there’s XFINITY Internet. (Yes, they use all caps.) Cable television is XFINITY TV. Home security systems are XFINITY HOME. Phone service is called XFINITY Voice. Despite Comcast spending $640 million in the last two years advertising the brand, experts say that most consumers still don’t really understand what “Xfinity” represents. Their solution? More ads. [More]
