Gun for the whole family. A Scanning Around With Gene article about historic gun ads. More fun with Gene Gable: Cigarettes, diving, winter fonts, red white and blue, and so much more.
posted on Jan 10, 2008 - View this thread

Osocio is a blog that covers some of the best social marketing and non-profit advertising worldwide - whether it be through a careers fair, a "beauty" ad, or even through sex education.
posted on Dec 4, 2007 - View this thread

The latest All-Bran commercial really pushes out the product's virtues, although not without making a stink. Personally, I still prefer a heaping bowl of Colon Blow.
posted on Nov 12, 2007 - View this thread

"My dad started crying, I started crying, my brother started crying," says Carl Nolet Jr., who sounds on the phone like he's not kidding. "It was exactly what we wanted to say. It was simple, it was black and white, it was genuine."

Dear Ketel One Drinker
Don't You Like Our New Oh So Minimalist Ads?
posted on Oct 3, 2007 - View this thread

These women are supposed to disgust you into buying low-fat yogurt.
posted on Jun 19, 2007 - View this thread

2007 Super Bowl ads (note the multiple pages). And be sure to post your fav (mine = the Coke GTA spot).
posted on Feb 4, 2007 - View this thread

Light Criticism is the newest project by Graffiti Research Lab and the Anti-Advertising Agency.
posted on Jan 25, 2007 - View this thread

Advertising in India (thanks to this post by NickySkye) More ads here and here
posted on Jan 24, 2007 - View this thread

BestAdsonTV.com Browse TV spots from around the world at this industry site highlighting new creative work. Highly rated ads include this one for Carlton beer, this sober PSA, this lovely one for the California lottery and a fun take on evolution for Guinness. And then there's this, um, sausage ad. Browse the controversies (mostly complaints about copycats), ads from Romania and Iceland and Belgium, or last year's best ads. Many of the most amusing seem to be for beer.
posted on Dec 23, 2006 - View this thread

How Advertising Spoiled Me is a blog showcasing mainly magazine & billboard advertising from around the world, with pieces selected based on their inventiveness/cleverness. If you're offended by advertising, you might want to skip this post.
posted on Oct 20, 2006 - View this thread

Top 10 ad-tricks in Tokyo’s train stations
posted on Oct 20, 2006 - View this thread

1950's US Print Advertisements Click thumbnails for larger versions. via.
posted on Oct 13, 2006 - View this thread

1970s toy commercials. From an era when things were more fun, cool, and fresh. Whether you were a hipster or a genius type, there was some creative and smart toy to be had. Many toys were educational and prepared you for the vicissitudes of adulthood. (YouTube alert!)
posted on Sep 10, 2006 - View this thread

craigslist could make $500 million a year. Why not?
posted on Jun 17, 2006 - View this thread

You might be a redneck if ... you enjoy Jeff Foxworthy Jerky. Or maybe you'd prefer some NASCAR brand meat. Remember when sports food tie-ins were simpler? Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? via spofi
posted on Mar 30, 2006 - View this thread

Is is just me, or have Superbowl ads gotten way too predictable. Here's hoping this year offers something new. 2006 brings Fabio sinking a gondola, an approved(!) GoDaddy ad, the first ever bilingual ad, and the commercials being offered on DVD and PodCast. Also keep an eye out for muppets, macgyver and machetes.

I hate linking to heavy, but they have all the banned ads, some of which are funny (especially the anti-mac one) and some were just made to be banned. You can see previous years' ads at iFilm.
posted on Feb 2, 2006 - View this thread

Nice Beer Ad from Down Under a 1000 Auzzies in gowns crossing over the sheep strewn plains of Australia. Ahh..foreign ads..perhaps this indeed the next form of cultural worms? I can see those soulless bastards on Madison Ave.."Yes..lets push hard on the foreign angle and prey/pray some poor sod on MeFi picks it up..we'll be rich I tell ya RICH!!!" Forgive me MeFiers.
posted on Nov 3, 2005 - View this thread

The Best Banned Advertising, from the publishers of the Best Rejected Advertising books, is a collection highlighting quality ads that received numerous consumer complaints and in some cases government bans. Most aren't your typical "too hot for tv" commercials; some are fantastic.
posted on Oct 28, 2005 - View this thread

Post No Bills. At the intersection of life and advertising one may unexpectedly find art, or at least humor. Henry Ho shines a light on it. (42 pages. Or view all thumbnails together)
posted on Jul 29, 2005 - View this thread

adflip - "world's largest archive of classic print ads"
posted on Apr 15, 2005 - View this thread

The New Pitch
posted on Mar 22, 2005 - View this thread

Of Superheroes, Product Placements, and PSAs. A nostagia-filled gallery of comic book covers with all your favourite (and no so favourite) spandex-clad superheroes shilling everything from Hostess cream-filled Twinkies to saying no to crack.
posted on Mar 16, 2005 - View this thread

Amul hits. A series of highly popular ads from Amul, India's largest food products marketing organisation
posted on Mar 13, 2005 - View this thread

Breaking News: Pop-up ads suck. Wired has a little op-ed piece about the netizens' extreme dislike of pop-up and pop-under ads. Using such choice quotes as, "A study conducted last year by Dynamic Logic found that almost 80 percent of those surveyed had a 'very negative' opinion of pop-up ads," the author goes on to chastise mainstream sites that still make use of them. Of course, his advice would be taken a great deal more seriously if his column didn't sport a massive pop-up ad for Blockbuster Online.
posted on Mar 3, 2005 - View this thread

Got hay? The USDA helps you sell hay in Tennessee and buy hay in Minnesota.
posted on Jan 13, 2005 - View this thread

iPod My Photo - Transform your photos into iPod ads
posted on Dec 13, 2004 - View this thread

SA VIGNAC. Welcome to the world of Raymond Savignac, the greatest poster artist of all time, and inventor of the little Bic man. Joyous, naughty, simple, elegant, and beautiful.
posted on Dec 7, 2004 - View this thread

New and When I Grow Up. Two MOVs about the advertising industry.
{Note that the second link is actually an ad for Monster. Apologies in advance.}
posted on Oct 12, 2004 - View this thread

The results are in (NYT - rr). To follow-up on this thread, the favorite ad icons and slogans have been chosen, as well as the recipients of the "Stars of Madison Avenue" award. And I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say...Derek Jeter?!?
posted on Sep 20, 2004 - View this thread

A fantastic clearinghouse for thinking about political advertising can be found courtesy of the University of Iowa's Department of Communication Studies. Links include the previously discussed wonder "The Living Room Candidate" and even advertising consulting firms. Pretty good reading, with enough links to keep you busy for a while.
posted on Sep 5, 2004 - View this thread

Vote for your favorite ad icon and slogan! In celebration of something called Advertising Week in NYC in Sept, Yahoo and USA Today ask for your vote. (more inside...)
posted on Aug 17, 2004 - View this thread

Advertising Copycats is a site where various ad prints are compared for resemblances, from odd coincidences to downright plagiarism. [in French]
posted on Aug 11, 2004 - View this thread

Glen! Glen Glen Glen! [QuickTime]
posted on Jul 2, 2004 - View this thread

The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss.
posted on Jun 23, 2004 - View this thread

Reason magazine uses individualized data to give its subscribers a '1984'-style surprise. The idea surfaced a year ago at a cocktail party: What if you opened your mailbox to find a national magazine with your name on the cover and the headline "They Know Where You Live!" — under an aerial photo of your house? And what if, when you turned the page, the editor's note and the advertisements included details about your neighbors? (LA Times/Reg. Rqd)
posted on May 20, 2004 - View this thread

Google To Start Selling Banner Adverts From the that-didn't-take-too-long-department, Google's ad sales VP Tim Armstrong says Google will now start selling graphical banner adverts. One concession to their old mores is that, for now, the banner adverts will only appear on affiliated websites running their AdSense referral program (as does MeFi), and there is an opt-out. However... "We have no plans to show images on Google.com", said Mr. Armstrong "but we are not opposed to it".
posted on May 12, 2004 - View this thread

Areva! Cool pixel art ad set to the tune of :::gasp:::"Funky Town"
posted on Apr 14, 2004 - View this thread

Subservient chicken - modern advertising...
posted on Apr 7, 2004 - View this thread

This commercial for Nutrigrain is disturbing & hilarious. Link eggregiously lifted from blort.
posted on Feb 23, 2004 - View this thread

Viacom's CBS today rejected a request from liberal group MoveOn to air a 30-second anti-President Bush ad, saying the spot violated the network's policy against running issue advocacy advertising. This, despite running anti-drug and anti-smoking ads. So, is it only issues about which they disagree?
posted on Jan 16, 2004 - View this thread

UK bans controversial charity ads In recent weeks, UK newspaper readers have been opening their newspapers to find full-page, colour pictures of a cockroach crawling out of the mouth of a baby. Now the adverts, for children's charity Barnardo's, have been banned. Barnado's maintain that the pre-Christmas ads were justified as "a way of cutting through the apathy."
posted on Dec 10, 2003 - View this thread

Sorry Matt, you can't post in this thread. Google changes its Adsense agreement so that anyone participating in the program is barred from talking about the program. First rule of Adsense, there is no Adsense.
posted on Oct 3, 2003 - View this thread

Sex for Money, Money having Sex? Ban on Russian ads depicting euro having sex with dollar. Immoral or are they just dancing?
posted on Sep 24, 2003 - View this thread

Have you ever inserted your name as you read the Bible to make it more personal? No? Well have you ever wondered if you could pay the guy that says AOL's "YOU'VE GOT MAIL" to say your name for $25? Dream the impossible dream no longer, it can all be done because you're a slave to the current trend of personalizing and customizing everything you own with a splash of me! Marketing droids have already dubbed this as Gravanity (Graffiti + Vanity = Dumb Fucking Marketing Buzzword). After all, nothing says that it's you like slapping your name all over it, right Scott?
posted on Aug 23, 2003 - View this thread

Channel 118. The 118118 experience. [possibly nsfw]
posted on Aug 6, 2003 - View this thread

Dressed as pieces of bologna, ham and cheese, Maryland 3rd graders sing corporate jingle and dance in Oscar Meyer contest...for school equipment money - $10,000 corporate checks for scarce school equipment, Dunkin' Doughnuts free doughnut coupons for students in exchange for homework...."Oakdale Principal Judy Sherman sees no problem with the Oscar Mayer and Dunkin' Donuts contests. No parents complained.... "It's great for the school as well as for kids who have to use their creative-writing and performing-arts skills, not to mention all those good social skills," Sherman said."

Oh my.
posted on Jun 23, 2003 - View this thread

Palmer Cox created the famous Brownie characters in 1883, and a successful series of children's books detailing their adventures. These are the characters that George Eastman chose for promoting the Brownie line of Kodak cameras.
posted on Apr 29, 2003 - View this thread

Down on Khaki Street. Roman Coppola's ode to summer youth. Available cool with The La's, or even cooler with The Shins!
posted on Apr 7, 2003 - View this thread

Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera . Amazing collection of posters, road maps, steamship and airline timetables, (more timetables here), post cards, luggage labels (more labels here and here), brochures and more. Seeing this stuff makes me wish I had been born seventy-five years earlier (and with an obscene amount of money.) (Warning: the site is seriously painful to look at, but the content's good. Link via Coudal.)
posted on Mar 19, 2003 - View this thread

Dude, You're Under Arrest Ben "Dell Dude" Curtis, was arrested in New York last night on charges of criminal possession of marijuana. Thanks to The Smoking Gun we now have something to make us laugh on a Monday.
posted on Feb 10, 2003 - View this thread

Nike Shox NZ: "And he's off like a bull with gas." [Quick Time video]
posted on Jan 25, 2003 - View this thread

Elf, elf, baby.
posted on Dec 10, 2002 - View this thread

don't breath
google shoots out some adds for cheap perfume with a search for perfume allegies...apropriate. but really...it's could be bad.
posted on Nov 28, 2002 - View this thread

Apple's own 'Switch' parody ads with Will Ferrell.
posted on Nov 26, 2002 - View this thread

The Apple Switch Ads have been beamed to a galaxy far, far away. The fad has caught on. We now no longer need "Star Wars: Episode 3." I know why Anakin has... switched.
posted on Nov 6, 2002 - View this thread

Cigarettes are good for you, say "scientists." Yes, that's right. According to the Times of India the National Institute on Drug Abuse did a study in Bethesda, MD that reports that nicotine aids in concentration. The "Times" also says that this means new things for sufferers of ADD. Unfortunately, NIDA doesn't seem to want to say much about this new study on their own website. I wonder why the "Times of India" is all in English. Well, if you need a new reason to justify smoking, you can take this at face value, but something tells me there's more to this story than is instantly obvious.
posted on Oct 30, 2002 - View this thread

So Exactly Why Doesn't Nicole Kidman Want This Commercial To Be Shown In The U.S.? Here in Portugal, for instance, you can't blink without seeing the ruddy thing. Movie stars increasingly have a very profitable but extremely embarrassing advertising life which they're understandbly keen to keep secret from the American market. Wonderful websites like Japander (do check out Jodie Foster's endorsements of the Honda Civic Ferio and Keri Cosmetics, won't you?) conspire to keep them deservedly humble. So why does this double standard exist? Do these movie stars really think that globalization (not to mention the Internet) is just a myth?
posted on Oct 5, 2002 - View this thread

A restaurant's advertisement runs during a special on gay weddings, which causes a christian conservative group to mention said restaurant in a story on their web site, which might alienate some of the restaurant's patrons. So the restaurant tells the AP that the advertisement was not meant for that programming, and that the restaurant only supports "non-controversial" programming, which brings the ire of an even bigger minority group. Applebee's just can't seem to win when it comes to courting the non-mainstream market.
posted on Oct 3, 2002 - View this thread

Spike Jonez's hilarious new IKEA ad (click the TV to watch it, you'll need Quicktime)... ...and here's the Slate.com article that led me to it.
posted on Sep 24, 2002 - View this thread

Smokey's Vault: all about the history of the campaign, the "real" Smokey Bear, and Smokey's unique place in American culture. Created in 1944, the Smokey Bear campaign is the longest running public service campaign in US History. Smokey's forest fire prevention message remained unchanged for 50 years until April 2001, when the Ad Council updated his message to address the increasing number of wildfires in the nation's wildlands.
posted on Aug 24, 2002 - View this thread

Speaking of butts, here's a little game that challenges you to wash a couple of "fag ends" down the hole at the end of the trough. Good luck, this is my Friday Flash challenge to you!
posted on Aug 9, 2002 - View this thread

Pickle Man versus giant Pepperidge Farm Goldfish-Mobile. Who would you put your money on? You can also see them on tour this summer.
posted on Jul 30, 2002 - View this thread

AOL Joins the "Irregularity" Parade? "AOL converted legal disputes into ad deals. It negotiated a shift in revenue from one division to another, bolstering its online business. It sold ads on behalf of online auction giant eBay Inc., booking the sale of eBay's ads as AOL's own revenue. AOL bartered ads for computer equipment in a deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. AOL counted stock rights as ad and commerce revenue in a deal with a Las Vegas firm called PurchasePro.com Inc."
posted on Jul 18, 2002 - View this thread

Popup ads on your TV So, the media moguls have decided that they're tired of you ignoring their advertising...and thus, they will now insert popup ads into the live feeds. And you thought product placement was annoying. From Slashdot
posted on Jul 16, 2002 - View this thread

On July 8, watch your newspaper for a picture of a little girl sleeping under a blanket imprinted with an image of the U.S. Constitution, with the caption: "Security Blanket." It's the first installment in a 13-month, $2.5 million advertising campaign by the American Bar Association to promote the Constitution in a time of terror and get people talking about security and democracy. After all, ads sell. And why shouldn't the lawyers pay for a bit of Constitutional image rebuilding? Without that stained, dog-eared, pissed on, misread, half-shredded little 'ol document, they'd be out of jobs.
posted on Jul 2, 2002 - View this thread

Starbuckling A writer from the NY Post calls Starbucks HQ and says a reader told them that the company's "collapse into cool" ad campaign was too close a reference to Sept. 11 (the campaign posters featured a dragonfly; perhaps the reader misconstrued it as an airplane). As a result, Starbucks pulls the ad, and just to cover its ass said it "had intended no link between the image of the beverages and the terror attacks." Is the company just making a cautious PR move, or is this going too far?
posted on Jun 17, 2002 - View this thread

This ad was banned in the UK. Did anyone see it? Sounds cool to me. In a time when advertisers are struggling to capture people's attention and dull advertising reigns supreme, why haven't we gotten over this fear of offending those with 'delicate' sensibilities?
posted on Jun 6, 2002 - View this thread

Coming soon to a supermarket checkout lane near you -- E Ink Corporation's "Ink in Motion" displays will look like a piece of cardboard (like the back of a chewing gum display box), but will flash a graphic at you. To follow: larger indoor and outdoor signage, screens on PDA devices, etc. Better angle visibility, brightness, contrast, than electronic screens; runs forever on a small battery. Comprehensive and informative site about technology that has gotten little attention but could revolutionize display technology, the sign business, point-of-purchase marketing, and publishing. (Previous 2001 MeFi mention in a comment but much new info.)
posted on May 23, 2002 - View this thread

Polish movie posters. The Polish Poster Gallery has a fascinating collection of artist renditions of american movie posters. The collection compares favorably with the 50 Greatest Movie Posters, as listed by Premiere magazine.
(via fark)
posted on May 16, 2002 - View this thread

Hit The Secret Fun Spot for a concentrated dose of nostalgia and some reminiscing about pirates in advertising. It can be said without exaggeration that pirates are loved by everybody. The statement "all people love pirates more than they love their own families" is truthful, and without hyperbole. It boils down to a simple "if then" statement: "IF you are a living being on earth or otherwise, THEN you wholeheartedly adore pirates and all that is pirate related." So why are pirates rapidly falling out of mainstream advertising? It's enough to make your timbers shiver.
posted on May 10, 2002 - View this thread

"The snack that smiles back... goldfish!" I know... and it's not even Friday. But you know what? This ad campaign just makes me smile... and even though I mute all the other commercials, I turn up the volume for these absolutely ingenious jingles... la la la "until you bite their heads off"... la mmm mmm... Now that the song is stuck in your head, what's your favorite jingle?
posted on Apr 18, 2002 - View this thread

Collected TV Ads of Enron. Quite hilarious. Interesting to be reminded that even Gabriel Garcia Marquez (second old guy in) was prepared to tart himself around for these shysters. Keep asking: why, Gabriel? Why?
posted on Apr 5, 2002 - View this thread

okay, stop, now you're just talking out of your... ahem... well, i guess it is a logical next step for a company that promoted hiphuggers with singing navels, at least for their european consumers.
posted on Mar 26, 2002 - View this thread

The worst Internet ad ever. Hopefully I won't be the only one to see it; it's not clear how long it will be there. They actually obliterate your ability to see the content for a few seconds. Makes me want to strangle Next Day Blinds. Anyone else have examples of horrible (or good) new Internet ads?
posted on Mar 1, 2002 - View this thread

Pixar iMac ads in the Luxo Jr style ... inevitable really.
posted on Feb 20, 2002 - View this thread

Search engines sued over pay-for-placement. "The maker of a popular weight-loss system filed suit against four search engines this week, alleging that their policy of letting advertisers pay to appear in top-ranked search results violated federal and state trademark and fair-competition laws." [from CNN]
posted on Feb 4, 2002 - View this thread

The European Version Of The Burma Shave Billboards: An obsessive Belgian collector, apparently called Bartolomeo Mecánico, has assembled an amazing online gallery of old painted roadside advertisements.
posted on Feb 3, 2002 - View this thread

Advertisers accidentally linked with kiddie-porn. This was never a problem in print advertising. Looks like some big advertisers got caught when buying run of network advertising. Chevron's not very happy about it.
posted on Jan 9, 2002 - View this thread

A pyramid scheme for web traffic? ExitBlaze apparently sends traffic from one member's site to another's (or, no doubt, to other sites they must sell hits to): Bob doesn't know it but a pop-underwindow displaying an ExitBlaze member's site has just shown up underneath the main browser window. And Bob owes it all to you!
posted on Dec 11, 2001 - View this thread

Unknowingly sending all your personal finance information through the servers of a sleazy ad service: Priceless. Do you pay your AMEX bill online at americanexpress.com? If you do, you should know that you're being ported through the ad.doubleclick.net advertising service. Mouse over the links on the AMEX homepage and see. All your information travels through doubleclick's servers on its way to AMEX. Nice, huh?
posted on Nov 26, 2001 - View this thread

A cultural shift reflected in ads: How to make patriotism cool ... and profitable For example, General Motors commercials tell consumers that its zero-interest financing is helping to “Keep America Rolling.” In Ford Motor Co.’s “Ford drives America” ads for interest-free financing, the car company insists the “spirit is alive.” I've been very skeptical to all of the 'a portion of the profits will be donated...' come-ons of late. This addresses similar issues. What do y'all think?
posted on Oct 9, 2001 - View this thread

Bill Maher calls U.S. cowardly; FedEx pulls ads from show It looks like that "Freedom of Speech" thing is too much for some people to handle. What do expect from a show like this? If you can't handle it, don't watch it.
posted on Sep 19, 2001 - View this thread

MSNBC taking advantage of high site traffic; FORCING ads. Personally I'm speechless. I think every other major site out there (no doubt the crippled Yahoo also) is doing this oor will be in the upcoming hours.
posted on Sep 13, 2001 - View this thread

How easily can false memories be created through advertisements? Could you be convinced that Bugs Bunny was at Disneyland? Full results from a larger study will be revealed soon. "Is it OK for marketers to knowingly manipulate consumers' past?"
posted on Sep 4, 2001 - View this thread

Yahoo! Explorer ads the wave of the future? (via RRE) Taking over your browsing in the name of advertising.
posted on Jul 30, 2001 - View this thread

Turn your webwasher off for this link.

I hate banner ads, which is why I use webwasher, they're annoyingly large, wasteful, and don't work. The reason they are dying and taking the rest of the dot-com industry along with them.

I don't know much about Hondas or cars all entirely, but prius seems like a good idea, better fuel efficiency saves on money and doesn't pollute as much. The reason I like the ad though, is it's not intrusive, it doesn't have a 200k gif of a windows alert box telling you 'your connected is too slow. CLICK HERE to make it faster OK', it doesn't blink or use flash. It is tailored to a specific audience, people that look up directions and drive their cars, the product that the company sells.

I hope this is the future of advertising on the web, but then again, how exactly are you suppose to fish out people to buy your 'ultra small hidden bathroom cameras'?
posted on Jul 27, 2001 - View this thread

What's it like to be born a sellout? Two parents not only expecting a new child, but expecting a corporate donor to give them half a million dollars for the naming rights to their son. Their ebay listing claims it's for the child's education, though the article says they're looking to buy a new home. And if you actually think naming your offspring "Aaa-Oh-El" is a good idea and would like to copy it, too late, the imitators have already sprung up. (via NextDraft)
posted on Jul 26, 2001 - View this thread

I am really, really, really tired of the popups for the Tiny Wireless Video Camera - the ad that always has a picture of a hot chick and trumpets "FITS ANYWHERE" (in the girls' bathroom, wink nudge.)

If there are any browser coders listening, here's a feature I long for: an anti-bookmark list. Stumble on a page that pops up garbage like the above, add it to your anti-bookmarks list and it's locked out instantly and forever, no forgiveness, no rehabilitation, capital punishment for bad web pages. Yes, yes, I know about junkbuster and webwasherand hosts files. But at this late date crap lockout should be part of the browser the way kill files were (and are) part of newsreaders. Sic 'em, Fang.
posted on Jul 11, 2001 - View this thread

World's Greatest CEO? Comparison shopping site MySimon.com had its namesake character animated by Blur studios, and placed into a live-action commercial where he goes to a party and tells everyone how much cheaper they could have gotten various items in attendance. Apparently Frank DiMauro of Chapel Hill, NC didn't like the commercials and told the CEO of the animation studio who really could've cared less what Frank thought. I wish all CEO's had the nutz to reply to jerks like this guy. (Thanx to the Digital Pimps at BadAssMofo for this story and link).
posted on Jul 1, 2001 - View this thread

Woohoo! Follow the link to a post at the beloved-by-all-metafilterians Jason Levine.

read the fourth paragraph: it seems that i'm not the only one highly ticked off by the recent slew of x10 pop-under ads.

Jason has kindly provided links that will set cookies to prevent them from appearing for 30 days, 1 year or 10 years.

I modified the url yet again to keep it from popping up ever again within my lifetime.
posted on Jun 2, 2001 - View this thread

Huge ads on NY Times site Quite enormous and obnoxious. I thought their long, skinny ads were a reasonable innovation, but this invades the "editorial space." (Hit reload a few times; they've got different aspect ratios.)
posted on May 20, 2001 - View this thread

"Big government is good for you, and we'll spare no expense making sure you know it!" New figures show the largest advertiser in the UK is now the British government, with the government blowing about 2 1/2 times as much on ads per year as it did before before Labour's rise to power. This is far more than than any other country's government spends. Dissemination of truly important information, or taxpayer-funded plugs for Labour?
posted on Apr 17, 2001 - View this thread

If you're into such things, how to remove the advertisements from ICQ and AIM.
posted on Apr 1, 2001 - View this thread

View this ad or we shoot this dog: Forget CNET's poster-size adverts. The latest trend is a user agreement that requires visitors to view your banners.

What other websites will attempt to adopt this trend? And what will the backlash be? I for one won't go to sites that "require" me to view advertising.

Story towards bottom of the page
posted on Mar 31, 2001 - View this thread

What Would This Do To the 'Net? Would such legislation be Constitutional?
posted on Mar 28, 2001 - View this thread

Two words: Bad Taste The Washington Post today is running an article on Alcatels new pitchman, Martin Luther King, Jr! Yes! MLK joins the likes of John Wayne and Alfred Hitchcock as undead spokespeople.
posted on Mar 28, 2001 - View this thread

Covergent irony, perhaps, maybe intentional commentary. So the New York Times writes an article about the relationship between globalization and commercial messages, particularly the insertion of globalization itself into the commercials and advertisements. The headline: "Globalization on Film: Message in a Coca-Cola Can." Guess what was in the advertisement to the right of the story. Right: a Diet Coke advert. The ad rotates on re-load, so here's a screenshot, 36k.
posted on Mar 23, 2001 - View this thread

Salon's new strategy: make the banner ads AS ANNOYING AS HUMANLY FUCKING POSSIBLE. Now it's either the subscription model or horrifying Flash ads that take up more column inches than the articles. Are they on crack, or merely dumb?
posted on Mar 21, 2001 - View this thread

"After the J. C. Penney ad ran, they got a letter from a fan wondering how they could be that desperate; did they need the money for an operation or something?" Tomorrow's New York Times Magazine covers the Apples in Stereo and other bands that are jeopardizing their realness by selling songs to advertisers.
posted on Mar 10, 2001 - View this thread

"They're going to kill us eventually," one top TV network executive said. TV advertising faces a new challenge. They might actually have to make their ads so that people actually want to watch them. Imagine that!
posted on Feb 28, 2001 - View this thread

Joe Isuzu is Back!!! "He is not going to be this smarmy, lying, bad car salesman person. He is going to be more corporate."
posted on Feb 27, 2001 - View this thread

Have you been getting those annoying ICQ ad banners like me? Well, it appears that AOL/TimeWarner has been testing out ads in the ICQ IM interface. The backlash has begun. Here's a site that'll tell you how to get rid of some of the banners. My friend's also gone ahead and taken the liberty to hack the ICQ dll that causes the ads to appear and has full instructions on how to remove the ads permanently from your ICQ. Hurry and grab those dll's before he gets slashdotted!
posted on Feb 26, 2001 - View this thread

Cyber Soap PC World is trying to sell magazines, but could it also be entertaining?
posted on Feb 26, 2001 - View this thread

The truce shortlived. I thought what I was hearing was great news. But watching TV this afternoon I've seen a Caring Foundation and NARAL commercial back-to-back at least 3 times. It's been years since I've seen it this bad.
posted on Jan 31, 2001 - View this thread

Maybe I spoke too soon. A lot of semipro tech-zines, sort of like blogs except with specific subject matters to cover, are financed by ad networks. In the recent past a bunch of them have lost their funding when their ad networks went out of business. Now one of the biggest networks which remains is changing their terms to the detriment of the web sites. I gather that a lot of the ad networks were running at a loss, and of course new funding has dried up. [more inside]
posted on Jan 5, 2001 - View this thread

The Opera Browser is now ad-supported freeware. What does this mean for Internet Explorer and Netscape?
posted on Dec 10, 2000 - View this thread

Advertisers Who Hate XY a letter from the editor of the gay youth magazine about institutional bigotry. and i think it is way out of line. [more inside]
posted on Nov 28, 2000 - View this thread

Mobile Advertising? As if the bandwidth limitations and content quality weren't good enough reasons for not using the "wireless web," consider the downgrade of it's usefulness once you have to start reading wireless ads.
posted on Nov 8, 2000 - View this thread

Damn! They sure are pushing this obnoxious cuecat thing, aren't they? Informercials galore. I don't know about your area, but I can hardly turn on the tv anymore without seeing how "Digital Convergence" crap is going to better our lives. Now they're trying to give this cat thing away. Let me get this straight: you swipe the cat over any barcode, and it takes you straight to a commercial for what you just bought. No more need for silly content on the Web! Now the Internet can be nothing but banner ads 24 hours a day! Ooh! Sign me up! *rolls eyes*

By the way, Happy Voting Day. =)
posted on Nov 7, 2000 - View this thread

Nader's new television ad parodies those hilarious monster.com ads with the little kids hoping they'll grow up to have crappy jobs. In the Nader ad, the kids hope they'll grow up to have the same crappy politicians, sold out to corporations, with no real change.
posted on Oct 31, 2000 - View this thread

Free TiVo? Heck, I want a Free Car. I don't care if Amazon is selling Cars online now, I want my next car to be free. This company gives you a free car, wrapped in advertising, for up to two years. Not a bad deal considering the cost of cars these days. You can get a Ford explorer (no word on the tires) or a VW beetle. I'll be watching my TiVo TV from the back seat!
posted on Sep 27, 2000 - View this thread

"Ahhhhh the atmosphere" should get at least a giggle out of you. Commercials at their best.
posted on Aug 15, 2000 - View this thread

I approached this review expecting it to be of the "major media providers are the problem, not the solution" sort, but discovered something somewhat different: "It’s not that the medium of the modern political campaign–television advertising–failed to do justice to men of substance, but that men of substance failed to adapt to television advertising..."
posted on Aug 7, 2000 - View this thread

I am not comforted. Anything which is based on voluntary compliance by those bastards is an empty promise at best and a delaying tactic at worse.

I want a law.
posted on Jul 27, 2000 - View this thread

IBM's Linux commercial. Part of their Avery Brooks "serious software" ad campaign, which I like a lot, I have to say.
posted on Jul 22, 2000 - View this thread

No wonder my mom got hooked. My mother turns 70 years old on the 26th of this month. She's smoked since college. It's the only thing that I really bug her about; try to stop. She quit about five years ago for almost a year, then started again. I know she's lonely, living alone, but then when I see ads like the link above, I get a better understanding of the cultural acceptance of smoking that was prevalent when she was in college. I watch her immediately reach for her smokes when she gets out of the car after a ride; is that her body chemistry screaming out for more nicotine? I just know there's a special place in hell for the cigarette executives; a special room where they're forced to watch videos of their own children lighting up for the first time.
posted on Jun 1, 2000 - View this thread

Advertising on Your GPS Reciever It looks like advertisers are already dreaming up new uses for the higher quality GPS signals.

"You're walking down the block, your phone goes off as you pass every store and tells you that there's a 50-percent-off sale." Someone remind me why it was a good idea to deregulate the GPS?
posted on May 27, 2000 - View this thread

We're all doomed. You think the spam level is bad now, just wait.
posted on May 16, 2000 - View this thread

Yeah, I think we'd definitely have to say that the ad campaign was a success. You'll note that MasterCard hasn't sent a cease and desist...
[ sent to me by a friend ]
posted on Apr 29, 2000 - View this thread

Madness ...I tell you. Pure Madness. Stop the insanity...I thought they gave it their best shot with the frogs...I thought wrong. This new campaign is catchier than the frogs could ever be...
posted on Apr 5, 2000 - View this thread

Epinions looks like they are ready to start kicking ass and taking names. They've got themselves a new logo (which I dig) and some television commercials that they will soon be airing nationally. If you do nothing else today, look at the Breast Pump one. (thanks to ariana for finding this)
posted on Mar 10, 2000 - View this thread

Big Ben passes this one on to me: New Yorker inane ad of the week. "It's worth it just for the modified 'monocled man' drawing," he says. And he is correct.
posted on Mar 6, 2000 - View this thread

The Lot, a New Zealand e-commerce site, has a hilarious commercial (2.7Mb mpeg) that a friend sent to me with the title "Shopping in LA." The NRA could not be reached for comment.
posted on Feb 11, 2000 - View this thread

Ad Critic is going to be featuring all the superbowl ads right after the game. So I guess there's no need to tape it anymore, just check out the site afterwards...
posted on Jan 30, 2000 - View this thread

Here's a list of all the superbowl ads with their length, company, and ad agency that created them. I couldn't find this info anywhere on the web, so I'm pointing to a text file of the email that was sent. Here's a fun game: Count all the dot com's! Make bets on which dot com's will still be around next year!
posted on Jan 28, 2000 - View this thread

Net advertising behemoth DoubleClick has been quietly buying up marketing databases to allow it to match up your DoubleClick cookie with your name and address. Time to opt out.
posted on Jan 25, 2000 - View this thread

Carl wrote a great Industry Standard article lampooning online marketing, and I couldn't help but laugh at seeing a "B to B Convention" banner ad running at the end of it (screenshot).
posted on Jan 19, 2000 - View this thread

Nike this weekend will unveil a new 50-second commercial. The first 30 seconds will appear in a TV commercial before Saturday's Dolphins-Jaguars game. The second 20 seconds will be available at the Web site. The ad was created by Wieden & Kennedy of Portland.
posted on Jan 12, 2000 - View this thread

Can someone please tell me why X10.com has such warm and fuzzy 'family' style pages to describe their wireless camera, but their ads look like they are promoting cameras for the sole purpose of catching beautiful women on screen? Are they promoting hidden cameras in bathrooms, changing stalls, and other privacy-robbing public places? Why the descrepency between their advertising and their site?
posted on Jan 4, 2000 - View this thread

Can you say burn rate kids? I knew you could.
posted on Nov 10, 1999 - View this thread