Advertising

Horror-themed ads invite you to visit haunted hotels—If you dare

Looking for a haunted vacation destination this October? This series of wonderfully creepy ads channels horror movie posters to promise a spooky stay in America’s haunted hotels. Ad agency Wieden+Kennedy created these ads for Booking.com to advertise the company’s Haunted Destinations finder. Be sure to view them at full resolution to read each hotel’s horrific…

How To Opt Out of Google’s Shared Endorsements

Google recently announced an update to its Terms of Service, focused on displaying your profile name and photo next to advertisements and reviews. The new feature, which goes into effect on November 11, is called Shared Endorsements and will allow you to share your recommendations (whether a +1 on Google Play or a restaurant rating…

Report: Advertisers Could Track You Via a Smartphone’s Accelerometer

Careful how you handle your phone: researchers have been testing out new surveillance techniques, and they think that you could easily be tracked around the web using your phone’s accelerometer. That might sound a little cooky, but according to the SFGate security researcher Hristo Bojinov has discovered that it’s possible to distinguish between individual devices…

Google’s Going to Start Sticking Your Face and Name in Ads

This was bound to happen. Following Facebook’s highly controversial attempts to make social endorsements ubiquitous on the site, Google just announced a Terms of Service update that will enable the company to use your name, photo and endorsements in its advertising network. So how does that make you feel? Google obviously wants you to feel…

Playable Captchas are the Future of Logins

A new way of verifying you’re a real person and not a spam machine might eliminate the chore of typing phrases like “beetle sausage” and so on, with a start-up looking to gamify the art of verifying you’re a human. The PlayCaptcha system, developed by the UK’s Future Ad Labs, replaces the tired old text…

BitTorrent’s Taking Out Pro-Torrenting Billboards and They’re Awesome

“Torrenting” is kind of a dirty word. It makes you think piracy, doesn’t it? Well it shouldn’t. Torrenting isn’t illegal. It’s not even morally ambiguous. It’s just a way to send data, and it’s awesome. Those are the points BitTorrent’s trying to drive home with its rad new ad campaign. Mysterious, anonymous billboards started going…

Watch This Girl With Telekinetic Powers Freak Out Coffee Shop Patrons

This absolutely amazing and terrifying prank, where a girl with telekinetic powers appears to freak out in a coffee shop, is actually a publicity stunt for the upcoming remake of the film Carrie. But that doesn’t make it any less entertaining or awesome. Make sure you watch it all the way through, too, it just…

Samsung’s First Galaxy Gear Spot Looks a Whole Lot Like an iPhone Ad

Sure, tech ads repeat the same tropes over and over and over. But as The Week points out, Samsung’s first ad for Galaxy Gear is strikingly similar to Apple’s first ad for the iPhone. Samsung’s spot premiered yesterday during Sunday’s NFL games. It walks you through all the times we’ve seen fancy watches crop up…

How Much Do You Care When Things Start Getting Ads?

Instagram is getting ads! Tumblr already got ’em. Snapchat probably will. Ads are starting to appear in the Android Gmail app too. Basically, anything and everything you use will eventually have ads on them. That’s how the world spins. And that’s something you have to deal with. So how much do you care when things…

This Giant Submarine Destroying a City Street Is Actually an Ad

Life is strange and unpredictable. Some things have to be seen to be believed, and even then it can be tough to trust your own peepers. Take Milan’s Piazza Mercanti, for instance. It recently became home to what appears to be a submarine bursting through the asphalt. Wait, what? Whether or not anyone questioned how…

Tide-Infused Inks Makes These Shirts Self-Cleaning

In a breakthrough that could vastly improve life for college students—and their parents—around the world, Tide has developed what could very well be the world’s first self-cleaning t-shirt. Created by Leo Burnett, the company’s ad agency in Poland, the shirts feature cartoon images of various moms crying in despair at the mountain of laundry their…

This Advertisement Uses Supposedly Dead Batteries To Charge Your Phone

No one really waits until a battery is completely and utterly dead before tossing it—we usually swap them out when a remote starts to get finicky or a flashlight begins to dim. So it’s estimated that most discarded batteries have an average of 400 milliamps of power left in them; a fact this clever advertisement…

Virgin Mobile’s YouTube page can—if you let it—use your webcam to tell when you blink and change the ads each time you do so. It’s creepy, but kinda cool.

This Chipotle Ad has most beautiful animation we’ve seen all year

This Chipotle commercial almost just made us cry at work. Created by the folks at MOONBOT Studios, this animated masterpiece is one part Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, another part us never eating meat again. Did you SEE the cow’s eyes as the scarecrow worker boarded up its last bit of light? Dear god,…

This Chipotle ad may be beautiful but some still hate Chipotle

“The new Chipotle ad is amazing,” says Gawker’s Neetzan Zimmerman. When asked about the ad, Wired writer, self-professed burrito connoisseur and dedicated Chipotle hater Mat Honan replied: “I’m going straight to Godwin here, because you know who else had good ads?” He echoes the thoughts of billions who hate Chipotle, Coldplay and other things that…

Automated Free Sample Kiosks Thwart Your Complimentary Gorging

There’s bad news if you use your weekly trip to the grocery store to mostly stock up on free samples. A company called Freeosk has developed an automated free sample vending machine that requires store patrons to scan their membership cards before they can partake. So there’s no stopping by again and again, and you…

Is Your Terrible Laptop Posture Ruining Your Back?

Thanks to super-light laptops, you’re not killing your back carrying a computer around any more. But, man, the terrible things we’re doing to our bodies anyway. This Samsung ad is just perfect. Oh the contortions of our spines. How are we destroying our backs thanks to our super-portable computers. Let us count the ways? Working…

The Most Amazing Scifi Themed Ads of the 20th Century

How do you convince consumers that your product has real staying power? Show people using it in the future. These ads are filled with robots, flying cars, and distant planets—and occasionally uncanny views of the future. A Royal Typewriter ad from the 1930s (via Vintage Ad Browser) “A Man’s Home is His Castle,” National Hotel…

3D Ads Between Suitcases Make Japan’s Luggage Carousels Far More Fun

One of the most tedious parts of air travel is waiting for your bag to arrive on the luggage carousel after a long flight. But in Japan, the wait is far more bearable because the luggage carousels are covered in fun 3D advertisements humorously selling you everything from sushi to the local produce. So here’s…

This Tricycle Printing Press Was the Hot New Advertising Stunt of 1895

In an effort to stick out from the crowd, advertisers often come up with clever ways to reach consumers outside the traditional world of media. These efforts come in many names and varieties: experiential, guerrilla, wild postings, the list is seemingly endless. But despite how clever many of these marketing tactics may seem, there’s almost…