Will Facebook Comply with California’s New Consumer Privacy Act?

Regulation. Few industries need it applied to them more stringently than high technology, social media platforms in particular. Few industries are as free to set their own agendas today without regard to public safety. California, following Europe’s lead, is tightening standards in an effort to protect its citizens’ privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) […]

Twitter To World: Political Message Reach Should Be Earned, Not Bought

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of @Twitter, and founder and CEO of Square, made some interesting Tweets today to announce Twitter’s new policy that bans all political advertising from the platform. We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A […]

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Mark Is Responsible. Mark Is Irresponsible.

Mark Zuckerberg testified, a.k.a. whined a lot, in front of Congress this week. U.S. Representative Katie Porter from California, a law professor and graduate of Harvard Law, cross-examined the witness. She asked Mark if he cares about privacy as he claims to do, why is he arguing in federal court that consumers can’t hold  Facebook […]

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Facebook’s Rogue Founder, Chris Hughes, Funds Anti-Monopoly Efforts

Do you know Mark? Mark knows you. Do you know who does know, Mark? Chris Hughes knows Mark. Hughes was there along with fellow Harvard undergrads Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, and Dustin Moskovitz when Facebook was founded in 2004. Incidentally, Adpulp was founded a few months later that same year. Because Hughes knows Mark, Hushes […]

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Facebook Blows Technicolor Chunks

Facebook blows technicolor chunks. Let’s count off a few of the leading reasons for the giant suck. Facebook lies about its traffic, inflating their numbers by 900% in some cases. Facebook allows politicians (and Russian agents) to run paid lies on its platform. Facebook is the world’s largest excuses factory. The San Jose Mercury News […]

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Åsk Wäppling’s Adland Torpedoed By “Nuisance DMCA”

Åsk Wäppling is a warrior in the midst of a legal battle to preserve 20 years of her digital work. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the lawyers who misuse it to intimidate everyday citizens, Adland.tv is now offline. DMCA criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures […]

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In A Dallas Courtroom, The N.R.A. and Ackerman McQueen Meet Again

Q. How do men in suits fight? A. With lawyers in a court of law. In the legal skirmishes that continue between the National Rifle Association and its former ad agency, Ackerman McQueen, there is much tit for tat. It seems to me  that their differences might be settled the old way—in a duel. But, […]

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Common Problems Call for Comprehensive Solutions

Digital media is one of those inventions, like television, with the potential to change the world for the better. Instead, many digital spaces have become a cesspool, and a cesspool is an unhealthy place for marketers wanting to connect with future customers. Meet GARM Some of the world’s largest advertisers including Adidas, Diageo, Mars, Procter […]

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The New Frontier In Privacy: Your Face

Agree or disagree? Communications technology, like all new technology, is neither good nor evil. I believe what we choose to do with technology is what matters. For instance, Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) can be used for the good of all, or it can be used by a draconian surveillance state to control a population. Last […]

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Accenture Fumbles Ball, Loses Game; Hertz Is Pissed

Hertz paid Accenture $32 million for a new web presence that the consultants never delivered. The unresolved dispute was recently filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York. Accenture disputes their former client’s claims. Accenture has also filed a motion to dismiss Hertz’s claim under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices […]

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There’s Just So Much Digital Smoke Being Blown Up Our Asses

If you haven’t yet had to good fortune to read BadMen: How Advertising Went From A Minor Annoyance To A Major Menace by Bob Hoffman—his “frightening and highly entertaining look into the hidden, corrupt, and dangerous world of online advertising”—may I suggest an audio preview on the topic, care of Radio New Zealand? “There is […]

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Legal Marijuana Businesses Need Sophisticated Marketers

It’s quite an experience to be living in Seattle, where marijuana has been legalized for recreational purposes. However, retail shops aren’t open yet, and communities and the State of Washington are still passing other laws to cope with the realities of this new business.

And there’s also one thing missing right now: Marketing and advertising on a grander, more sophisticated scale for marijuana-related businesses. This article in Ad Age only gives a hint of what’s happening, or not happening.

The opportunity is there for marketing and advertising folks to gain new business and do great creative, but it requires a level of understanding and maturity that the conversation around marijuana hasn’t reached yet for many people. Potential customers are likely to be those people seeking more reassurance about what they’re buying and who they’re buying from, not people who already have their own sources to buy pot.

There’s still a stigma attached with even discussing cannabis. Even legitimate journalists and news anchors can’t resist making Cheech & Chong references or Cheetos jokes. I think savvy marketers who can rise above those cliches have a real shot at changing the way we think about marijuana.

kind bud advertises itself

For ad agencies, the fuzzy legality of working with marijuana-related businesses is holding many people back. With local, state and federal laws often in conflict with one another, there’s a lot of real risk involved. Like many businesses, ad agencies are smart to be skeptical, and for the biggest reason of all: Financial. Most marijuana businesses use cash for everything from paying their suppliers to paying their taxes. There are many nascent startups who can’t guarantee they’ll be in business for long, and paying their agencies may not be a priority. Couple that with evolving tax and liability implications, and it’s no surprise many are taking a wait-and-see approach.

From a creative standpoint, the look and tone is also evolving. It appears that graphic designers and other folks are tapping into either the stereotypical “420” stoner mentality, or trying to pass off an old-world “medicinal apothecary” look and feel for medical marijuana shops, which can make the whole concept look like snake oil. And at the moment, most marijuana-related businesses aren’t scaling beyond their cities.

Still, the market potential is huge. Growing, distributing and retailing are just the start. Banking, insurance, security, payroll, legal, and other services specializing in marijuana businesses will need marketing and advertising. There will be well-funded entrepreneurs looking for their piece of the action, and there will be big corporations seeking to cash in as well.

And those will require sophisticated, experienced advertising and marketing people to help. Language, visuals, and the brand stories involved will have to reflect a new conversation people will have as they discover they can buy marijuana legally and without stigma. And it’s both an online and bricks-and-mortar need. It’s a great creative challenge, and heck, I wouldn’t mind taking it on.

Editor’s addition:

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Whether Perpetrated By Bots or By Babies, Click Fraud Is A Crime

Digital advertising will account for 22.7% of all worldwide ad investments this year, or about $117.60 billion — up 13% compared with 2012, according to estimates from eMarketer and Starcom MediaVest Group.

I’m not certain this is a good thing. Unless, brands and their agency partners clearly know what they’re doing with all that money.

 
I posted this new Adobe commercial from Goodby Silverstein & Partners on my friend Bob Hoffman’s Facebook wall. Hoffman is a champion of common sense and logic in the face of much digital advertising speculation. Recently on his Ad Contrarian site, he pointed to a Solve Media study that claims 46% of the viewership reported by websites seems to be fraudulent. That’s a lot of ghost traffic.

As someone with feet in both the media and marketing worlds, I can say it’s not all that simple to say exactly how many people are visiting your site, where they’re coming from and if they are real people or not. Yes, there are tools aplenty, but tools are biased. How you choose to measure something impacts the data and flavors the results.

If we can’t trust the data, or the people who willfully manipulate it, what or who can we trust in terms of getting value for our ad dollars? We can’t trust the traditional ad guys who are invested in making TV. We can’t trust the digital demigods either. This is not a good situation for the ad business, nor for the clients who need to trust someone to help them reach their communications objectives.

My take is create a media plan that makes sense for your particular business situation. I often drive by a large lot of shiny Airstream campers, and I think here is a company that desperately needs well-made TV to tell the story of weekends in the mountains. Naturally, a client like this would also be well advised to develop its digital assets. Thus, the divide between TV and digital is a false divide. Companies need to spend on both TV and digital and apply the best metrics available to each, while keeping in mind that persuasion is an art.

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Transparency Or Jail

According to Ad Age, Word-of-mouth marketing in the U.K. will face radical restrictions starting May 26, when it will become a criminal offense for brands to seed positive messages online without making the origin of the message clear.

The rules make it an offense to blog, use brand ambassadors or seed viral ads while “falsely representing oneself as a consumer.” They also apply to bloggers who fail to disclose they have accepted money to write about a product.

Woody Violated By Dov Charney

According to The Wall Street Journal, Woody Allen filed a lawsuit Monday seeking more than $10 million from clothier American Apparel Inc. over unauthorized billboard and online advertisements featuring the actor and director dressed as a rabbi.

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image courtesy of Curbed

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleges the Los Angeles clothing maker and retailer, without his permission, put up billboards in New York and in Hollywood, Calif., in May 2007 that featured an image of Mr. Allen, who is Jewish, dressed as a rabbi from one of his films.

The images also were displayed in advertising on American Apparel’s Web site and in sponsored advertisements on other Web sites, the complaint said.

The complaint said the unlawful use of Allen’s image for commercial advertising was “especially egregious and damaging because Allen does not commercially endorse any products in the United States of America.”

Dubious Claim Du Jour

Eat more food to become skinny.

Or, shop Wal-Mart and save your family $2500 annually. It’s a claim the Arkansas-based retailer has been making in its ads.

According to The New York Times the claim dates to 2005, when Wal-Mart, under mounting criticism from unions and elected leaders over its business practices, commissioned a study of its economic impact on Americans.

An outside firm, paid by Wal-Mart, found that the company’s emphasis on low prices led to a 3 percent decline in overall consumer prices. That translated into $287 billion in savings in 2006, or $2,500 a household, whether a family shops at Wal-Mart or a competitor.

Sadly, fuzzy math is becoming standard practice in business today. Where Wal-Mart went wrong, is using this favorable, but suspect, data for the basis of an ad campaign that specifically tells shoppers they’ll be able to buy a used car or take that long dreamed about vacation, when they choose to shop Wal-Mart.

The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus says, “the advertiser provided no support (for the claim) and, in fact, conceded that there was none.”

Who’s Your Natty?

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I don’t understand how this got by legal. You can’t overtly market beer to kids, including college kids. Everyone knows said demo is a must have, but rarely do you see it called out like this.

[via Your Monkey Called]

Lipitor Ads Go Under The Microscope

If you’re old enough to remember the early 80’s, then you may recall that Dr. Robert Jarvik’s artificial heart was a really revolutionary invention.

But Jarvik is now under fire for his ads promoting Lipitor. One ad features him rowing. Only it’s not him. It’s a body double, seen here:

lipitor.jpg

As The New York Times reports:

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is looking into when and why Dr. Jarvik began taking Lipitor and whether the advertisements give the public a false impression, according to John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee’s chairman.

“It seems that Pfizer’s No. 1 priority is to sell lots of Lipitor, by whatever means necessary, including misleading the American people,” Mr. Dingell said.

Lipitor, the world’s single best-selling drug, is Pfizer’s biggest product, generating sales of $12.7 billion last year. But as it has come under competition from cheaper generic alternatives, Pfizer has used the Jarvik campaign, introduced in early 2006, to help protect its Lipitor franchise.

To today’s stand-up comedians, drug ads are what airline food was 20 years ago. It’s easy to poke fun at ’em. But this is some serious deception. It makes everyone in advertising look bad. That’s why Congress is poking around in it.

Virginia Beach Police Crack Down On Abercrombie Ads

So is this photo obscene? Virginia Beach police think so.

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Police, saying they were responding to citizen complaints, carted away two large promotional photographs from the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Lynnhaven Mall on Saturday and cited the manager on obscenity charges.

Adam Bernstein, a police spokesman, said the seizure and the issuance of the summons came only after store management had not heeded warnings to remove the images.

The citation was issued under City Code Section 22.31, Bernstein said, which makes it a crime to display “obscene materials in a business that is open to juveniles.” He did not say what was being done with the pictures and when the manager, whose name was not released, is scheduled to appear in court.

I think that obscenity laws are different in every community. So does a national brand like Abercrombie have an obligation to conform to local standards?

Quiznos Consumers Depict Subway in a “Disparaging Manner”

According to The New York Times, Subway is suing Quiznos and iFilm, for running less than flattering content about their sandwiches.

The spot shown above was the winning entry in a 2006 contest conducted by Quiznos. Its creators won $10,000, and their video was shown on VH1 and on a giant screen in Times Square on New Year’s Eve in 2006.