Do you often have to make the decision between going out for fast food fried chicken and charging your phone? Thanks to this new-fangled box from KFC, you may never have to make the choice between greasy fingers and updating your Instagram. [More]
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Judge Dismisses Blue Moon “Craft Beer” Lawsuit Against MillerCoors (Again)
By 6.20.16
Last year, a California man sued MillerCoors over its continued labeling of its Blue Moon brew as a “craft beer.” In October, a federal court threw out the case against the mega-brewer. A federal judge has now ended the argument once and for all, dismissing an amended complaint the plaintiff filed after the first case was tossed out. [More]
Following Comcast Complaints, Ad Watchdog Says Verizon Should Revise Its “#1 In Internet Speed” Claims
By 6.16.16
Which broadband company has the blah blah blah fastest blah blah? Virtually all of them claim to be the best and speediest, using various surveys and statistics to justify their numbers, and subtly couching their boasts in language that best suits their goal. However, a private ad industry watchdog says that Comcast has a justifiable gripe about the way Verizon has advertised FiOS internet speeds. [More]
Adidas Misspells “Colombia” In Soccer Ads, Gets Sent Back To 3rd Grade Geography
By 6.8.16
Someone at Adidas must have been snoozing during the South American geography lesson in elementary school, because how else could you explain the company splashing “Columbia” all over ads featuring the Colombian soccer team? [More]
Court Slams Brakes On San Francisco’s Mandatory Warnings On Soda Ads
By 6.8.16
Only a few weeks ago, a federal court refused to halt a new San Francisco ordinance requiring soda companies to place warnings on all their ads in the city, but today that same court decided to grant a temporary injunction preventing the rule from kicking in while the beverage industry appeals its case. [More]
Your Kids’ Lesson Plans Are Being Brought To You By Pfizer, WD-40, & Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
By 6.2.16
It’s one thing for a huge drug company, manufacturer, trade group, or media conglomerate to use their considerable coffers to fund educational programs, but what about when the ultimate goal of those programs is to just advertise products, movies, and TV shows to kids and their parents under the guise of education? [More]
Americans Apparently Don’t Hate Mobile Ads As Badly As Rest Of The World
By 5.31.16
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]
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]
Google Invests In Payday Lender While Banning Ads For Payday Loans
By 5.19.16
Last week, Google announced it would no longer include ads for payday lenders — financial services, outlawed in many states, that offer short-term, small-dollar loans, often with triple-digit interest rates — to protect “users from deceptive or harmful financial products.” All the while, Google’s parent company is investing in a startup that offers loans with annual percentage rates as high as 600%. [More]
LearningRx To Pay $200K For Allegedly Unproven Claims That Brain Training Can Improve Income, Treat Autism & ADHD
By 5.18.16
The company behind the LearningRX “brain training” program has agreed to pay a $200,000 settlement and to stop making claims that its system is clinically proven to treat serious health conditions, or that it can dramatically improves a user’s IQ or income. [More]
Court Upholds Judgment Against Napster Co-Founder In Jerk.Com Case
By 5.18.16
Two years ago, the Federal Trade Commission accused Napster co-founder, and creator of Jerk.com, John Fanning of pilfering data from Facebook accounts then charging people $30 each to manage their online reputations. A federal appeals court recently upheld most of the FTC’s ruling that Fanning deceived consumers about the source of the information contained on Jerk.com and the benefits of paying for membership. [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]
McDonald’s Stops Sending Fad Diet Teacher Into Schools To Speak About Eating Healthy
By 5.16.16
If you eat fewer calories than you expend, you’ll probably lose weight. If you use McDonald’s food to prove this piece of common-sense weight loss advice, you make headlines as if you’re some sort of miracle worker, and it also lands you a gig shilling for the fast food industry by going to schools to speak to kids — at least until McDonald’s realizes maybe it’s kind of embarrassing and quietly pulls the plug on your educational program. [More]
Burned By Too Many Scams, Microsoft Bans Tech Support Ads In Bing Search Results
By 5.13.16
Imagine if an entire section of the phone book (remember those?) was dominated by fake companies and scam artists. You’d hope the phone book people would wise up and get rid of that section. That appears to be Microsoft’s way of thinking as it bans tech support ads from its Bing search results. [More]
Tell Us All About The Strange Things Facebook Mistakenly Thinks You’re Interested In
May 4, 2016
As you’re probably well aware, Facebook tracks its users all over the internet, building up a profile of their behavior so that advertisers can target them with a higher degree of precision. While sometimes the assumptions Facebook makes about your profile are accurate, other times it results in some very bizarre conclusions about what you are interested in. [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]
Supreme Court Refuses To Hear POM Wonderful’s Appeal In False Advertising Case
By 5.2.16
After nearly six years of legal wrangling over allegations of false advertising, the makers of POM Wonderful pomegranate beverages ran into a dead end this morning when the nation’s highest court refused to hear the company’s appeal. [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]
