When Microsoft teamed up with Machinima to launch a promotion that paid affiliated YouTubers for shilling for the Xbox One console in January 2014, we questioned whether any potential negative publicity and regulatory hassle would be worth it. Turns out, we were right to think the company would face scrutiny from federal regulators, as the Federal Trade Commission says it has cleared Microsoft of wrongdoing and settled charges that Machinima pushed videos of people endorsing the video game without disclosing they had been paid. [More]
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Company That Paid YouTube Users To Promote Xbox One Settles Charges Of Deceptive Advertising
People Mad About Dinner Roll Lawsuit Keep Calling Wrong Attorney
When you’re the lawyer behind an infamous lawsuit against a beloved institution, members of the public will call you. For example, there’s the one where a woman is suing a restaurant after she was injured by a hurtling dinner roll at a restaurant famous for its “throwed rolls.” Fans of the restaurant are looking up the lawyer behind it and calling or e-mailing to complain. The problem: they’re calling the wrong attorney. [More]
Twitter Removes Its Ads With Autoplay Videos After Epilepsy Group Calls The Promos “Irresponsible”
Twitter has pulled two ads promoting its new music service after an epilepsy organization complained that the auto-playing videos with brightly flashing colors could trigger seizures. [More]
YouTube Kids Accused Of Running Beer Ads, Crotch-Grabbing Lessons, Wine-Tasting Tips
Since Google launched the YouTube Kids app in February, the service has come under fire from consumer advocates for its advertising practices. Now, instead of focusing on the commercials shown through the service, several of those same groups are raising concerns with federal regulators over what they call disturbing and potentially harmful content for young children to view. [More]
Watch The Very First YouTube Video, Uploaded 10 Years Ago Today
It might be hard to remember a time when getting one’s mug on the Internet involved more than just point, shoot and upload, but it was only 10 years ago that we came stumbling out of the Dark Ages and into the light of web videos for all, where we promptly posted whatever the heck we wanted to YouTube for strangers to watch. To that end: The first video ever uploaded, 10 years ago today, features thrilling commentary on the nature of elephants. [More]
Watch Workers Replace A Retention Pond With A Trader Joe’s
The dilemma at a shopping center in Schaumburg, Illinois was a true modern one: Trader Joe’s wanted to build a store there, but there was no vacant space in which to build a store. The resourceful owners decided to make more space by covering an artificial pond with the store and its parking lot. [More]
JetBlue Wants Us To Talk About In-Flight Etiquette While We’re On The Ground
When you’ve been guzzling coffee and soda during your flight and have to squeeze past two dozing strangers to get to the rest room, what do you do? What do you do? Recently, everyone from on-board animals to airline executives have been behaving like jerks during air travel, and flights have been disrupted because of legroom wars. and JetBlue wants us all to start talking about it while we’re still on the ground. [More]
Lewis Black Rants About The Expansion Of Black Friday
Most Americans don’t go shopping on Black Friday or on Thanksgiving Day, but it remains a popular topic for us in the media to yap about. This year, the increasing number of stores opening on Thanksgiving Day and growing controversy over the practice has prompted Lewis Black, professional ranter, to weigh in. [More]
JCPenney Will Make You The Most Fashionable Family In 1986
The winter holidays are coming up, with family gatherings and parties that you don’t want to attend, but have to look nice for anyway. That means it’s time to go shopping for red sport coats and bow-bedecked blouses, to keep your family looking sharp! Because it’s always 1986 in my imagination, let’s go to…JCPenney. [More]
Here’s A Video For Anyone Who’s Dared To Wonder What’s Inside A Slim Jim
I still remember eating my first Slim Jim, at the age of 5, purchased from the concession stand at my neighbor Mitch Mitchell’s softball game. In the three decades since, I’ve probably consumed enough of the salty meat-like sticks to feed a small island nation for a few weeks, but I’ve never once wanted to know what goes into making one of them. [More]
Coke And Mentos Geyser Tests The Limits Of A Condom
It probably isn’t necessary for us consumers to test the structural integrity of our condoms, but this video published last week features a bold Italian experimenter doing just that. [More]
Home Depot Worker Swoops In To Save Falling Baby
So imagine you’re working at the store one day when out of the corner of your eye you see a baby about to fall to the floor from atop a shopping cart. Would you be fast enough to save the day? [More]
This Video Will Forever Change The Way I Sleep
In spite of a college education and decades of legally being a responsible adult, paying my bills, not getting arrested, keeping a job, occasionally shaving, I have yet to figure out how to properly insert a duvet into a duvet cover and then keep it from quickly turning into mangled mess. And judging by the response to this video, I’m not the only one who has been losing the battle of the bedcovers. [More]
This 1976 Commercial Shows How People Never Used To Feel About Kmart
In the company’s early history about a hundred years ago, a now-familiar brand was called Kresge. That doesn’t roll off the tongue very easily, so in the ’60s they changed their name to Kmart. You know, that store where other kids in school made fun of you for buying your clothes there. It’s still around, of course, but people just aren’t as enthusiastic about it as they apparently were in this 1976 commercial. [More]