If you’re using ad-blocking technology on your smartphone, you’re not alone. Some 2.5 million Americans are employing mobile browsers and other tech on their devices to avoid unwanted ads, but that’s nothing compared to the vast number of consumers blocking ads in China, India, and Indonesia. [More]
advertising
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]
This Is How You Fail At Sponsored Social Media Posts
By 5.20.16
We’ve written in the past about how it’s illegal not to disclose when you’re getting paid to post about a product on social media like. There was nothing under-the-radar about a recent sponsored Instagram photo reality TV person Scott Disick posted, however. [More]
Court Won’t Stop San Francisco’s Mandatory Warnings On Soda Ads
By 5.17.16
In 2015, San Francisco enacted a new city ordinance requiring warnings on ads for soda and other sugary drinks. With the new rules set to go into effect later this summer, a number of trade groups are suing the city to overturn the law. The plaintiffs had hoped to get an injunction preventing San Francisco from enforcing the warning label requirement, but today a federal court said the city can go ahead with the ordinance for now. [More]
StubHub Becomes First NBA Jersey Advertiser, Thanks To 76ers
By 5.16.16
The Philadelphia 76ers are arguably the perfect choice for a company looking to test the waters by being the first to advertise on an NBA jersey. The team has been awful for the last few seasons, so most fans’ opinion of the Sixers can’t sink any lower. And those fans who still have some reserve venom in the tank now have a new reason to scream at the team. [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]
Budweiser Temporarily Renaming Its Beer “America” Because Why Not?
By 5.10.16
There’s one surefire way to link your product to the land of the free and the brave — just slap the word “America” on it: Anheuser-Busch InBev is taking a patriotic tack as part of its summer advertising campaign, replacing the “Budweiser” name on its 12-oz beer cans and bottles with the word “America,” and swapping “King of Beers” for “E Pluribus Unum.” [More]
Why Is An Old Billboard A Treasured Symbol But A New One Is An Eyesore?
By 5.3.16
If someone told you today that a new, brightly lit neon sign was going up across the street from where you live, you might react with disgust at the thought of such a commercial eyesore invading the skyline of your community. Yet when some older sign or billboard is threatened, everyone is suddenly up in arms, rushing to its defense. How does something as mundane as outdoor advertising grow to become considered an essential piece of the urban fabric? [More]
NBA Jerseys Will Carry Sponsors’ Badges Starting Next Season
By 4.15.16
Nearly four years after the NBA’s Board of Governors first gave its blessing to the notion of turning their players into dribbling and dunking billboards for advertisers, the league is finally moving forward with the idea. [More]
Companies Agree To Stop Promoting Beauty Products With Synthetic Ingredients As “All Natural”
By 4.12.16
One would assume when buying a product marketed as “all-natural” or “100% natural” that said product wouldn’t contain synthetic ingredients like phenoxyethanol or polyethylene, right? Wrong. At least, that’s the cases for five companies facing action by federal regulators for allegedly making false claims about their products’ ingredients.
Judge Tells Minnesota Vikings & Wells Fargo To Settle Stadium “Photo Bombing” Spat
By 4.8.16
It’s the first week of baseball season, and pro hockey and basketball teams are making their final pushes for the playoffs, so the last thing on many sports fans’ minds is football. Perhaps that’s why the judge in the “photo bombing” spat between the Minnesota Vikings and Wells Fargo is telling the two parties to stop wasting everyone’s time and just work something out. [More]
Ad Watchdog Intervenes In Dispute Between Campbell’s And Progresso Over Local NJ Ingredients
By 4.6.16
Does Progresso soup come from an agrarian paradise where all of the ingredients are locally harvested and lovingly stirred into small batches of fresh, tasty soup? Not really, no, except for the “tasty” part. Progresso, owned by General Mills, has a series of ads airing that feature this faux-farmer’s market back story, and their national canned soup competitor Campbell’s isn’t buying this back story. Campbell’s took their issue with the spot to the ad industry’s self-regulation mechanism to sort out their differences. [More]
Sure, Fine, Listerine Is A Lifestyle Brand Now
By 4.5.16
When you think of Listerine, or of any mouthwash, what comes to mind? Anything at all? That’s the challenge in marketing oral care products: people are bored with hearing about our gum health and being shamed for our bad breath, and how else can you market mouthwash? Listerine has found a way: by marketing their product as a lifestyle. [More]
Groupon Still Exists, Gets $250M Investment From Comcast
By 4.4.16
Last fall, things didn’t look good for Groupon — the deal site that three of your friends wouldn’t shut up about in 2011. Its stock price had sunk to a new low as it fired more than 1,000 employees and closed operations in six countries and Puerto Rico. But the company got some good news today in the form of a $250 million investment/partnership with Comcast. [More]
Comcast Says FCC Privacy Rules Will Hurt Consumers By Not Allowing Them To See More Comcast Ads
By 4.1.16
The number-one complaint we get from Consumerist readers is “You guys just don’t have enough ads on your site! Where are all the pop-ups, roll-overs, pop-overs, auto-play videos, and page-crashing ad units that make surfing the web so dang enjoyable?” We hear you, we do; we just don’t have the staff to sell all those ads you want bogging down your browser and tracking you across pages and platforms. And even if we did, those pesky jerks at the FCC are trying to rob us — and consumers — of more options to be marketed to, and commodified by, our Internet service providers. [More]
Makers Of Peeps, Lemonheads, Jelly Belly, Others Promise Not To Advertise To Kids
By 3.16.16
For years many companies have abided by self-regulation programs that outline how they can and should market their products to children. Today, six candy companies took a step to ensure they also responsibly advertise to often-impressionable — and sweet-toothed — kiddos by creating a new self-regulatory initiative. [More]
Lord & Taylor Gets Slap On Wrist For Paying Instagram “Influencers” To Run Secret Ads
By 3.15.16
If you’re getting paid to chat up a product or brand on social media, you need to disclose your relationship with what you’re shilling. That’s why retailer Lord & Taylor ended up in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission after paying high-profile Instagram accounts to secretly market their clothing without revealing that these were just ads. [More]
Great Harvest Bread Suing Panera Over Trademarked Slogan
By 3.10.16
Back in 2014, Great Harvest Bread Company trademarked what it thought was a neat slogan: “Bread. The Way it Ought to Be.” So when fellow baked goods peddler Panera Bread introduced its slogan, “Food as it should be” in 2015, that hit a little too close to home for Great Harvest. [More]
