Advertising

Doctor Who will take advertising to a whole new level

If you’re watching tomorrow’s Doctor Who midseason premiere on BBC America, you’ll get to see an extra 60-second sequence which was sponsored by AT&T. At one point in the episode, Amy and Rory take off on a motorcycle in pursuit of someone — and then they arrive, soon after. The BBC wanted to include a…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 26

A Splendid Reconstruction of Tron‘s Most Famous Scene, Using Duct Tape

Have you ever wanted to Tron’s famous lightcycle race recreated with duct tape? If so, then the internet is here for you, thanks to this creative/weird new ad for Duck Tape. To be honest, the whole thing is pretty awesome, but the coda, in which Tron Guy hurls his frisbee at his wife in an…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 22

Crossing a telephone with a TV set in 1968

In this most gloriously futuristic year of 2011 we somehow find ourselves awash in videophones. In a way, they snuck up on us. And they most certainly didn’t show up in the ways that people had been predicting them for decades. The videophone was to change the way we looked at home schooling, job interviews,…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 11

LinkedIn Goes Down the Facebook Route Of Using Your Image For Ads

Here’s something every LinkedIn user should disable today, lest you want to see your name and face used in advertising for the social-networking site. All you need to do is go into the “account” section in the settings of your LinkedIn profile, then click “manage social advertising.” Where it says “LinkedIn may use my name,…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Aug 11

Nokia, It Might Be An Idea to Check a Stock Photo’s Phone Brand Before Passing It Off As Your Own

Nokia’s Australian ad-team’s been caught out in a hilarious accident where they passed off a Stockphoto image of a woman using an iPhone (see left pic) as a Nokia phone in a recent advert (right pics). Whoopsie? [Giz AU]

Tech News Kat Hannaford Aug 10

Is Jonathan’s Starbucks Card a Slick Marketing Campaign? (Updated: Good news, its legit!)

You know that Starbuck’s pay-it-forward idea hatched by Jonathan Stark? The one where you buy a coffee with a card and add money for the next person. Well, it may be a viral marketing campaign, not some feel-good social experiment. The Jonathan’s Starbucks Card hit the tech blogs earlier this week with the story of…

Tech News Kelly Aug 10

Stop Whining: Ads in Twitter Are Awesome

Twitter, at long last, put ads in its stream today. Predictably, people are angry! But that’s just dumb. It’s good for Twitter, and it’s good for you. The basic idea is that short form ads, which it calls Promoted Tweets, will now appear in your timeline. They’ll only appear from companies you follow. So, for…

Tech News Mat Honan Jul 28

TARDIS Burritos and Twilight Spaz Bags: Comic-Con Radvertising

Yesterday we showed you the biggest ad fails at Comic-Con. But now it’s time to talk about the very best of the Comic-Con advertising onslaught. Check out our gallery. https://gizmodo.com/catwomans-massage-booth-and-playboy-supergirls-comic-c-5824965 The cast from Doctor Who handed out TARDIS burritos to hungry line sitters waiting outside of Hall H for the morning presentation. Via Anglophenia and…

io9 Meredith Woerner, Jonathan Wilkins & Annalee Newitz Jul 27

Catwoman’s Massage Booth and Playboy Supergirls: Comic-Con Badvertising

There’s advertising — and then there’s badvertising, promotions so awful they make you cringe. We saw a lot of the latter at Comic-Con 2011. We’ve rounded up the best of the worst advertisements, for your enjoyment. It’s an NCIS flashdance, as they do on NCIS every week! Oh wait, they don’t break dance with little…

Movies Meredith Woerner Jul 26

Douche Ad Proclaims Vagina Most Powerful Entity in History

Okay, preemptively, enough giggling. Feminine hygiene is serious business—and booming business, too. Which is why Summer’s Eve has dropped this big budget yonic ode to the female genitalia, which they say shaped the course of history. It’s not often that you get to reflect upon both vaginas and ninjas at once, but when offered the…

Tech News Sam Biddle Jul 18

Olympus Still Doesn’t Like Your Cellphone Photography

After last week’s look at Olympus’ first anti-cellphone ad in Australia, our commenters were divided: many found it arrogant and tasteless, while the other half (and myself) thought it hilarious. Luckily photographer Mark Matthews managed to snap this new one for us—what do you all think? [Mark Matthews] https://gizmodo.com/olympus-hates-your-cellphone-photography-and-your-li-5821497

Tech News Kat Hannaford Jul 18

The refrigerator of the future, today! (1959)

We’ve looked at the multitude of ways that advertisers have used “the future” as a way to position their products as cutting edge or fantastical. Today we have an advertisement from the June 11, 1959 Galveston Daily News in Galveston, Texas. At first glance, the ad appears to be for refrigerators; showing a child peeking…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 17

Vitaminwater Bus Stop Phone Chargers May Be Ads, but They’re Still Convenient

The public cellphone charger concept is nothing new, especially if you’ve done the convention or concert circuits over the past few years, but it’s nevertheless cool to see the idea has spread to another area where they make sense. That area would be a bus stop, where Vitaminwater and its ad agency, Crispin Porter +…

Tech News Jack Loftus Jul 17

Olympus Hates Your Cellphone “Photography.” And Your Little Dog, Too

Spotted in Australia, this anonymous ad directs people to GetARealCamera.com. And hey, would you look at that? It only goes and redirects to Olympus’ Australian website! Very cute, Olympus. [Mark Matthews via Chase Jarvis via PetaPixel]

Tech News Kat Hannaford Jul 15

Now you can buy groceries using augmented reality, in South Korean subway stations

First South Korea decided to remove inefficient non-electronic textbooks by 2015. And now they have created the first successful augmented reality supermarket chains in subways. Called E-Marts, these virtual stores are stocked by supermarkets like European grocery store giant Tesco and Home Plus – but they sell their goods via glowing pictures on subway platforms.…

io9 Jonathan Wilkins Jul 13

Our Drunken Videophonic Future (1943)

The 2002 Taschen book Future Perfect is kind of like a dead-tree Tumblr; no credits for illustrators, no dates, and no context. I even tried to reblog a page from the book by nailing it to a tree, but my neighbors tore it down. What a bunch of jerks. With a little old fashioned detective…

Tech News Matt Novak Jul 7

Product Placement Goes Back in Time

It’s bad enough that every current television show and movie shoves brand names in your face. Now, networks are digitally inserting new products into old television shows. Consumerist spotted a magazine emblazoned with an advertisement for the new Kevin James movie Zoo Keeper in a rerun of a 2007 episode of How I Met Your…

Television Adrian Chen Jul 6

Orange You Glad Advertising’s Going Eco-Friendly?

For Tropicana juice’s latest ad campaign, they went back to basics and filled billboards with hundreds of oranges, the acid of which generated enough electricity to light up the billboard. Advertising agency DDB may’ve wasted dozens of perfectly-good oranges, but in using the copper and zinc spikes to harness the acidic electrochemicals inside the oranges,…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Jul 1

Smurfette Fashion Show: Kill It With Fire

Harper’s Bazaar has released a Smurfette fashion spread to promote the new Smurfs feature film. Which means we now have horrifying images of Smurfette, milking her status as the only female of her species, in a $1,720 Lanvin hat. To the left is Marc Jacobs: Beret, $685, gloves, $400, fur bag, $4,695, socks, and shoes,…

io9 Meredith Woerner Jun 29

Captain America’s Dunkin Donuts Super Soldier Slushy will turn you into the Red Skull

The X-Men have shilled for an insurance company, and Green Lantern did a campaign for Subway. But the most hideous movie tie-in of the summer may well be Captain America’s collaboration with Dunkin Donuts. https://gizmodo.com/so-why-exactly-do-the-x-men-want-to-learn-to-be-insuran-5804865 As we showed you this morning in “morning spoilers,” the Sentinel of Liberty is doing tons of Dunkin Donuts promo,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jun 28

Doctor Who will take advertising to a whole new level

A Splendid Reconstruction of Tron‘s Most Famous Scene, Using Duct Tape

Crossing a telephone with a TV set in 1968

LinkedIn Goes Down the Facebook Route Of Using Your Image For Ads

Nokia, It Might Be An Idea to Check a Stock Photo’s Phone Brand Before Passing It Off As Your Own

Is Jonathan’s Starbucks Card a Slick Marketing Campaign? (Updated: Good news, its legit!)

Stop Whining: Ads in Twitter Are Awesome

TARDIS Burritos and Twilight Spaz Bags: Comic-Con Radvertising

Catwoman’s Massage Booth and Playboy Supergirls: Comic-Con Badvertising

Douche Ad Proclaims Vagina Most Powerful Entity in History

Olympus Still Doesn’t Like Your Cellphone Photography

The refrigerator of the future, today! (1959)

Vitaminwater Bus Stop Phone Chargers May Be Ads, but They’re Still Convenient

Olympus Hates Your Cellphone “Photography.” And Your Little Dog, Too

Now you can buy groceries using augmented reality, in South Korean subway stations

Our Drunken Videophonic Future (1943)

Product Placement Goes Back in Time

Orange You Glad Advertising’s Going Eco-Friendly?

Smurfette Fashion Show: Kill It With Fire

Captain America’s Dunkin Donuts Super Soldier Slushy will turn you into the Red Skull

The ‘Mass Effect’ Show is Getting Rewritten to Get Greenlit

See the Early Stages of How ‘Project Hail Mary’ Brought Rocky to Life

‘Cognitive Surrender’ Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Marshall Acton III Home Speaker Drops to a Record Low, the Deal Countdown Has Already Started

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

I’m Worried About the Helpless AI Disruptors of the Future

Russia Allegedly Swung at VPNs but Accidentally Hit Its Own Banking Sector Instead

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Let us help find what you are looking for...