Spotify says advertisements that recently appeared to paying subscribers of its music streaming service were loaded by mistake. Over the past few days, a number of Spotify customers complained their music listening experience was interrupted with ads inserted into their playlists.
To be clear, the ads being weren’t those from third-parties, but were rather in-house promotions for… Read More
Category: Ads
Some apps were listening to you through the smartphone’s mic to track your TV viewing, says report
There may be a reason why that ol’ “Facebook is listening to you talk” conspiracy theory refuses to die – and not just because Facebook’s ad technology has gotten so good, it’s downright creepy. As it turns out, some apps are actually listening. Well, kind of! According to a recent report from The NYT, a number of apps using software from a company called… Read More
Barack Obama teams up with Chance the Rapper and Steph Curry for uplifting new ad
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Barack Obama, Chance the Rapper and Steph Curry have teamed up for an inspirational new PSA.
The former President shared the new ad for his independent mentorship organisation, My Brother’s Keeper (MBK), on Christmas Eve. Obama established MBK in Feb. 2014 to address opportunity gaps facing young men of color.
“I want you to know, you matter. There is nothing, not a single thing, that’s more important to the future of America than whether or not young people all across this country can achieve their dreams,” Obama says in a speech featured in the video.
This isn’t the first time Chance and Obama have teamed up. And the appearance of Curry could be seen as a dig at President Donald Trump, who created a petty feud with the Golden State Warriors champ after he declined an invitation to the White House. Read more…
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View More Barack Obama teams up with Chance the Rapper and Steph Curry for uplifting new adJimmy Choo pulls Cara Delevingne ad after online backlash
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For some reason Jimmy Choo thought the end of 2017 would be the perfect time to release an advertisement showing model Cara Delevingne getting catcalled while walking through a city with sparkly boots on.
It wasn’t.
Following serious online backlash, Jimmy Choo pulled the “Shimmer in the Dark” ad on Friday, deleting both the YouTube video and tweet that showed the video.
The ad showed Delevingne wearing a sequined red mini dress and black booties that appeared to be covered in rhinestones. As she walks the sidewalks at night she’s met with several whistles, long stares, and nods — you know, classic elements of catcalling that so many women deal with on a daily basis. Read more…
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Plus-size tights ad takes ‘tone-deaf’ to new heights
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Companies, hello! Hope you are doing great. Here’s how not to advertise.
Wish, an e-commerce business that advertises heavily on Facebook (they’re behind some of the, uh, weirder ads you may have come across), is under fire this week for its product images for plus-size tights. Rather than featuring photos of plus-size models, Wish is advertising the tights with photos of thin models stretching them across their entire bodies.
As several people on social media have already pointed out, the ads are obviously and egregiously tone-deaf. Wish implies that advertising a product incorrectly — that is, in a manner in which it will never actually be used — is preferable to featuring a plus-size person on its website. Read more…
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View More Plus-size tights ad takes ‘tone-deaf’ to new heightsApple introduces a new pay-per-install ad product called Search Ads Basic
Apple today is introducing a new way for app developers to acquire users for their apps: it’s launching a pay-per-install advertising product called Search Ads Basic. The “basic” branding signals that this product is being aimed at smaller developers compared with the existing Search Ads product, which is now being renamed to Search Ads Advanced. Launched last year, Search… Read More
Google bans Android apps that sneak in ads on your phone’s lockscreen
One of the disadvantages of Android being an open operating system is that app developers can pretty much mess with the core experience in any way they want. Like inject ads that show up on your phone’s lock screen.
Nobody really wants that, which is…
Facebook expands its Marketplace section with housing rentals
Facebook today announced its expanding its Marketplace listings section to include “hundreds of thousands” of housing rentals in a move that seems clearly designed to take on Craigslist. While users before could post their own apartment listings to this section, Facebook says it’s now partnering with sources like Apartment List and Zumper to pull in listings. The company… Read More
Weed ad mocks those ridiculous prescription drug commercials
Anyone with a cable TV subscription can relate to the onslaught of prescription drug commercials, and the laughable formula they all use in order to push you to inquire about them with your doctor.
The commercials are messed up on so many levels,…
People think Facebook is listening to them. Here’s how they’re fighting back.
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These days, Facebook seems to know more about you than you do. From eerily accurate “people you may know” suggestions to the creepily perfect ads populating your News Feed, the company undeniably has a Big Brother-like finger on the pulse of its 2 billion monthly active users.
But how does it do this? Could it be, perhaps, that when the boy king behind the half-trillion dollar company isn’t defending himself against charges of subverting democracy, he’s directing his algorithmic minions to listen in on your every conversation so as to better target you with shoe adverts?
Absolutely yes — at least, so goes a long-running theory repeatedly denied by Facebook. But maybe, just maybe, Facebook isn’t being totally honest with us? This seems to be the general consensus of scores of users who believe, despite any and all official proclamations to the contrary, that Facebook eavesdrops on their daily banter. Read more…
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