There are lots of reasons to have a problem with a billboard. Maybe because it tricks you into thinking there is a suicidal dude perched on top of it, or because it inadvertently mocks someone’s language, or advocates for public urination. But billboards for FX’s upcoming disease-based show The Strain are just good ol’ fashioned gross. [More]
badvertising
The Aaron Paul Xbox One Ad Will Mess With Your Xbox One
By 6.13.14
For months, Microsoft has been airing ads with people hollering “Xbox On” and “Xbox Do This Thing That Doesn’t Really Work The Way You Show It In The Ad” but those ads were somehow not triggering users’ Xbox Ones to respond. That is until the new ads featuring Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul started running. [More]
Facebook Is Now Selling Your Web-Browsing Data To Advertisers
By 6.12.14
You know how it’s really creepy when you go looking for a new TV online and then go to Facebook and the ad spaces that you typically ignore are now populated with advertising for the very brands of TV you just checked out? Until now, they’ve been the product of third-party ad networks and creepy data aggregators like Acxiom while Facebook itself had kept its hands clean by not selling the data it had acquired about your Web browsing habits. But in an effort to bring you even creepier, more targeted ads, Facebook will now be making more info about you available to advertisers. [More]
Amazon Teaser Video Is Either Selling 3D Phone Or Amazing Sex Toy
By 6.4.14
Amazon is trying — perhaps a little too hard — to interest consumers in the mysterious device it will unveil later this month. It’s probably a 3D smartphone, but if you just listen to the things said in the video, your mind might wander to less family-friendly notions. [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]
“Watch Dogs” Video Game PR Stunt Leads To Newsroom Evacuation
By 5.28.14
Back in the day when I worked at places where writers were allowed to receive free promotional crap (mostly DVDs and vodka… so much bad vodka) from PR companies, I got all manner of bizarre stuff, the strangest probably being a box that allegedly contained a few of Troy Polamalu’s signature curly locks. But if I received a tiny unmarked safe with a note to “check your voicemail,” and which beeped when I tried to open it, I might have gotten freaked out enough to call the police. [More]
This Sleazy Pitch Embodies The Worst Side Of Online Advertising
By 5.20.14
Every day, our inboxes are slammed with laughably bad PR pitches that range from the unrelated — “tell your readers to check out our booth at the International Fly Fishing Film Festival” — to the hyperbolic — “this tip-figuring calculator app will literally change the way you dine out!” We don’t share these with you because, well… they’re just awful. But we recently received one that was both insidious and all-too-indicative of the ways in which marketers dangle money in front of blogs in order to get them to deliver on-message content. [More]
Sellers Of “Pure Green Coffee” Accused Of Faking News Sites, Creating Bogus Reporter
By 5.19.14
If you’re a regular watcher of the ethically questionable Dr. Oz, then you may remember how he helped start a minor “green coffee extract” craze a couple years back by declaring it a miracle weight loss drug. In an attempt to cash in on this dubious hype, a number of sites started popping up within weeks, repeating and exaggerating the already puffed-up claims, and using fake endorsements, faux news articles and fictional “reporters.” [More]
Supermarket Display Shows How You Can Get That Chic Slave Look From “12 Years A Slave”
By 5.19.14
It’s pretty common to be watching a TV show or movie and say to yourself, “I really like that outfit. Wonder where I could purchase it.” But that’s probably not what most people were thinking when watching the harrowing Best Picture-winning 12 Years a Slave; a fact that seemed to have been overlooked by the operators of one U.K. supermarket. [More]
New GM Ad: Our Cars Are No Longer “Grenade-Like” Death Traps
By 5.19.14
In the midst of a reputation-damaging string of recalls now totaling more than 11 million vehicles, General Motors is in need of an image shake-up. But the carmaker may be getting a little too honest in a new TV commercial. [More]
Even Sarah McLachlan Changes The Channel When Her ASPCA Commercial Comes On
By 5.6.14
Anyone who was watched basic cable after midnight in the last seven years has probably come face to face with the 2-minute long heart-rending ASPCA commercial about animal cruelty featuring singer Sarah McLachlan and her oft-karaoked song “Angel.” While it’s been a huge fundraising success for ASPCA, it’s not an easy couple of minutes to watch, especially when you’re just trying to watch a 2 a.m. rerun of House Hunters International. Now the Canadian songstress has a comforting message for those of us who reach for the remote: We’re not alone. [More]
Get Through Your Friday With The Help Of This Laughably Bad Anti-Liquor-Privatization Ad
By 5.2.14
Here in Pennsylvania, there’s a heated debate going on about whether or not to ease the state’s byzantine laws on the sale of alcohol. Both sides of the issue have merit, but a new ad arguing against changing the law isn’t doing itself any favors. [More]
Despite Jail Sentence, Scammy Pitchman Kevin Trudeau’s Infomercials Still Running
By 4.28.14
Last month, a court sentenced bestselling author, TV pitchman and scam artist Kevin Trudeau to 10 years behind bars for repeatedly lying to and defrauding consumers. And even though Trudeau is locked up for years to come, his infomercials continue to air. [More]
Definitely Don’t Print Out These Fake Labels And Put Them On Real Products
By 4.28.14
As Coca-Cola recently argued before the Supreme Court, you should be able to call your product anything you want so long as it embodies the essential character of that product… even if that means calling a beverage “pomegranate” juice when an entire bottle contains barely an eye-dropper’s worth of that ingredient. So what’s good for the goose is good for the consumer, right? [More]
Burger King Resurrects Creepy Subservient Chicken, Minus The Chicken
By 4.28.14
Ten years ago, Burger King launched what is still one of the more bizarre marketing ploys of the Internet era — the Subservient Chicken, a “webcam” featuring a person in a chicken suit doing the bidding of visitors to the site. Because there are now people old enough to drive cars and go to college who missed this exceedingly creepy campaign the first time around, BK has (sort of) brought it back… though not quite. [More]
This iPad Ad Placement Is Most Unfortunate
By 3.26.14
On Monday, the Malaysian government announced that they are certain that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean, with no survivors. That’s an international tragedy and an important news story, and was the top story on the New York Times website. Unfortunately, Apple was running a large and beautiful iPad advertisement on the front page at the time. An ad that featured a diver using an iPad underwater. [More]
Rejoice! The Talking E-Trade Baby Is Being Retired
By 3.21.14
TV viewers who can’t always fast-forward through commercial breaks have reason to smile this morning after the announcement that the long-running and ever-creepy E-Trade talking baby ads are finally coming to an end. [More]
Get Ready To Ignore Video Ads In Your Facebook Feed
By 3.13.14
After a few months of testing on a handful of unlucky souls, that hated scourge of Internet browsing — the dreaded video ad — will soon be making its debut in the news feeds of all Facebook users, the company announced today. [More]
