advertising - page 2

The iconic creative behind some of Apple’s most beloved ads retires

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Apple
Lee Clow helped shape some of Apple's most iconic ads.
Photo: Apple

Lee Clow, the founder of Apple’s creative agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab and TBWA global director of media arts, is retiring at the age of 73.

A friend of Steve Jobs for three decades, Clow played a crucial role in the creation of some of Apple’s most iconic advertising campaigns. (As well as a whole lot of other, non-Apple ads.)

Even brilliant Pixel 3 ads won’t get iPhone users to switch

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Pixel 3 ads
Google wants you to laugh as you watch its Pixel 3 ads on YouTube. It also wants you to switch phones.
Screenshot: Google/YouTube

Google and Samsung have smartphones many critics say are as good or better than the latest iPhones.

But making a device to rival Apple’s isn’t the hard part. Getting iPhone users to switch is.

Google acknowledges this in a series of video ads launched this week to convince brand loyalists to switch to its newest and well-reviewed flagship, the Pixel 3.

Apple recruits new creatives for its in-house ad efforts

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From The Rock to 'Your Verse': Apple's best ads of the 2010s
Apple wants to keep on churning out brilliant advertising.
Photo: Apple

Apple has reportedly “poached” two teams of creatives from the U.K. advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO to join its own in-house efforts.

The pairings of Mike Crowe and Rob Messeter, and Caio Giannella and Diego de Oliveira are both relocating from London to Cupertino to work on the iPhone brand and overall Apple brand respectively.

Spike Jonze’s stunning HomePod ad dances away with more awards

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2019 Creative Marketer of the Year
Spike Jonze created Apple's most celebrated ad of 2018.
Photo: Apple

“Welcome Home,” a television commercial for the Apple HomePod directed by Spike Jonze, welcomed another slew of advertising awards today.

Apple took home two first-place honors in the prestigious shots Awards. It won three other first-place shots for Best Director (Jonze), Editing house of the Year (Final Cut of Los Angeles) and Production Company of the Year (MJZ of Los Angeles).

Huawei embarrasses itself with jab at iPhone X notch

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Huawei notch
Oliur Rahman didn't have to say much to start the conversation on Twitter.
Photo: Oliur Rahman/Twitter

Huawei can boast about surpassing Apple in worldwide smartphone sales. It just shouldn’t try to one-up the iPhone X on design and interface points.

The Chinese tech giant got a lesson in marketing, user experience and the power of the Apple brand community last week when a presentation showing the notch on the Huawei P20 next to the one on the iPhone X backfired.

Samsung smack-talks iPhone X with more ‘Ingenious’ ads

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Ingenious
Samsung hits Apple with three more blows in commercials for the Galaxy S9.
Photo: Samsung

Samsung continues tyring to sell smartphones with advertising that gives more airtime to Apple.

Three more commercials in Samsung’s “Ingenious” campaign went public today with a belief in accentuating the negative. Each exploits a different criticism of the iPhone X – the need for a dongle, the lack of a fast charger and a camera that gets lower test scores than the Galaxy S9.

Heavy-handed promo of Scorpion stings Spotify

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Drake talks Apple Music at WWDC.
Spotify's promotion of Scorpion may be good for Drake, but it's upsetting some customers.
Photo: Apple

Spotify is taking some flack after getting carried away promoting the June 29 release of hip-hop artist Drake’s new album “Scorpion.” In an effort to commemorate the release by the streaming services most-played artist, Spotify spent the weekend highlighting the Canadian artist’s music. These highlights came through Drake-inspired playlists, banners, and the use of his image on playlists without his music.

Facebook’s scary plan to record your conversations while you watch TV

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the Facebook logo on an iPhone 6 Plus
Here we go again.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Some believe Facebook is already using our smartphones to hear our private conversations. That’s not true, but the social network is certainly considering it.

Facebook has applied for a new patent that describes a method of tapping into our microphones to listen to our reactions to TV ads. It’s just as invasive as it sounds.

Spike Jonze’s amazing HomePod ad wins Cannes advertising award

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From The Rock to 'Your Verse': Apple's best ads of the 2010s
This is the second major award for the 'Welcome Home" ad Spike Jonze created for the HomePod.
Photo: Apple

A Grand Prix in the Cannes Entertainment awards went to “Welcome Home,” a long-form ad for the HomePod created by Spike Jonze. The goal of the “Lions”  is to reward education or advertising excellent enough to qualify as art..

Watch the brilliant 5-minute ad below:

LG disses iPhone in whiny new ad

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LG v iPhone
Put that iPhone down and smile for the ThinQ.
Photo: LG/YouTube

With its smartphone sales in sharp decline, LG takes aim at the iPhone in a television ad that seems desperate to drum up excitement for its new flagship handset.

The commercial for the new LG G7 ThinQ features actress Aubrey Plaza and shows a village of people using every criticism the Android community has ever hurled at the iPhone to try and convince a whiny user named Ryan to switch to the ThinQ.

T-Mobile isn’t America’s ‘Best Unlimited Network’

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T-Mobile isn't America's Best Unlimited Network.
A regulatory arm of the Better Business Bureau told T-Mobile to stop claiming it's the ‘Best Unlimited Network.’
Photo: T-Mobile

T-Mobile uses the self-bestowed accolade ‘Best Unlimited Network’ in its ads. But now an advertising regulatory body told the carrier to knock it off.

To be clear, this recommendation by the National Advertising Division (NAD) isn’t binding. But it’s significant enough that T-Mobile is appealing the decision.

Ad blitz will make listening to music on YouTube unbearable — on purpose

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YouTube Music
A for-pay YouTube music service is in development, but free users have to be convinced to switch.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Freeloaders who use YouTube as a cheap alternative to Apple Music should get ready to be annoyed. YouTube is about to intentionally irritate users who treat the video site as a jukebox by increasing ads between songs.

The goal? Driving subscriptions to an as-yet-unannounced paid YouTube music service.

Google Chrome ad blocker could prove good for everyone (even publishers)

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Chrome
Here's why it's a win for everyone.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Google will roll out an awesome Chrome ad blocker Thursday that takes aim at some of the most invasive forms of online advertising.

The new Chrome ad-blocking feature won’t annihilate ads entirely. But users won’t need to worry about full-page ads, ads with auto-playing sound and video, or flashing ads anymore.

Apple ad-blocking features sabotage online advertising firms

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Safari iOS 11
Advertisers aren't keen on the improved Safari in iOS 11.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s new ad-blocking feature for Safari is sabotaging online advertising firms. Some are losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year as a result of Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP), introduced with iOS 11, which helps users avoid being tracked online.

Best (and most memorable) Apple ads of 2017

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Best Apple ads of 2017
From AirPods to iPhone X, Apple sold us the goods in 2017.
Photo: Apple

Cult of Mac's 2017 Year in Review Apple’s pretty darn good when it comes to advertising, and 2017 was no exception. Whether it was Portrait mode, AirPods or the iPhone X, creatives working on Apple ads found new and exciting ways to sell us on Cupertino’s latest innovations.

Check out our picks for the year’s best Apple ads below.

Star Wars characters storm Apple Stores via AR

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Star Wars
Head to your local Apple Store to find AR Star Wars characters.

Popular Star Wars characters will pop up in Apple stores and other retail outlets around the world next week in a promotional event powered by augmented reality. Apple and Disney teamed up for the Star Wars promo, which coincides with the release of new toys for the upcoming movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Apple News may let publishers charge readers

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Apple News
Apple News is about to get magazines too.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple may be planning to loosen its tight control of the way ads are run on the Apple News app. And that could mean big bucks for publishers.

A money fix for the app is supposedly in the works, according to a new report that claims publishers potentially could soon make the same amount of money off ads in Apple News as they do from their own websites.

McDonald’s rips Jony Ive in tasty new ad for ‘the STRAW’

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Screen Shot 2017-02-16 at 15.40.32
This looks weirdly familiar...
Photo: McDonald's

Apple can barely manage a few days without someone else parodying or ripping off one of its iconic ads. The latest? McDonald’s, which just debuted a commercial for a product called “the STRAW” to market its forthcoming St. Patrick’s Day-themed Chocolate Shamrock Shake.

From the white backdrop to the earnest-sounding “person with a British accent,” there’s no doubt who the fast food chain is having some fun at the expense of.

Those fuzzy feelings you have about Apple are by design

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Apple nail art
Trading up iPhones was such a big deal to Lauren WIlkin, she artistically marked her nails for the occasion.
Photo: Lauren Wilkin

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ uncompromising demands and brutal assessments of products in development paint a picture of a CEO who cared little about his colleagues’ feelings.

That’s because he was obsessed with yours.

A report published this week points to this and shows what is arguably the most brilliant and enduring part of his legacy.

Cupertino taps NBCUniversal to sell Apple News ads

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Apple News
Apple News is about to get magazines too.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s News app is getting some much-needed help at selling ads.

Instead of continuing to sell advertising on its own, Apple has reportedly inked an exclusive deal with NBCUniversal that will allow the company to sell ads for the News app.

Microsoft attacks MacBook in latest Surface Pro 4 ad

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Does Surface Pro 4 have more to offer than MacBook?
Does Surface Pro 4 have more to offer than MacBook?
Photo: Microsoft

The iPad Pro has taken a ton of fire recently from Microsoft, but the company’s latest ad shifts targets to attack the MacBook.

The company busts out the old-school disses in the ad, which calls the MacBook “square” during an annoying song that brags about the Surface Pro 4’s detachable keyboard, pen and touchscreen. And it runs Windows!

Listen to Microsoft’s horrible jingle:

Videos on Instagram just got four times longer

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Food photography
And you can throw in multiple clips, too.
Photo: Brigham Young University

Once an app only for photos, Instagram is now greatly extending its video capabilities. Coming soon, users will be able to share videos up to 60 seconds in length. Instagram started rolling out this change today and says more improvements to video are coming in a future update.

One such improvement Instagram says will arrive sooner rather than later is the reemergence of multi-clip video on iOS. This means that you’ll be able to import multiple video clips from your Photos library and stitch them together for a single Instagram video. It might sound familiar because Instagram actually used to have this feature… before taking it away.

Sprint ad hits Verizon right in the balls

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sprint-ad-hits-verizon-right-in-the-balls-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201601verizon-sprint-att-t-mobile-balls-ad-jpg
Sprint isn't satisfied with Verizon's ballsy claims.
Photo: Sprint
verizon-sprint-att-t-mobile-balls-ad
Sprint isn’t satisfied with Verizon’s ballsy claims. Photo: Sprint

The war between mobile carriers in the U.S. continues to heat up and with the latest battle, it’s personal. Sprint came out with a new ad that directly targets Verizon’s from just a few weeks ago. Using big, colorful balls to symbolize network quality and performance, Sprint claims Verizon’s ad is rubbish and outdated while the yellow network is the true champion.