News

Morning Update: Amazon bans Chromecast sales; The Martian potato stunt; Facebook intros phone buying; Human chew toys

Creativity: Chew Toys for Humans — the Next Great Weight-Loss Invention?

General Mills’ Fiber One’s work out of Saatchi & Saatchi NY has been hilarious recently — first we had the pregnant man who wasn’t, and now there’s a fake infomercial for “Chew Treats” — chew toys for humans.

The idea, so the ad explains, is that instead of snacking on high-calorie treats, you can do as your dog does and just have something to chew on, like a rubber donut or slice of cheesecake.

capt-obvious-verified-hed-2-2015

AdWeek: Twitter Verified a Pumpkin Spice Latte But Not Captain Obvious. He’s Obviously Annoyed

Captain Obvious doesn’t like Twitter telling him he’s not real. Even though, you know, he’s technically not.

Like many avid Twitterers, he’s on a quest to be verified by the network. But Twitter is not yet budging, despite the character’s months of campaigning. Twitter certainly doesn’t seem opposed to verifying brand icons, as you can see from the fact it gave the check mark to Mayhem, Jake From State Farm and even a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Invented last year by Crispin Porter + Bogusky as a campaign centerpiece for Hotels.com,Captain Obvious has been the star of a multi-channel effort to point out the obvious things in life (like, say, where to book hotels online).

The Guardian: Space for a spud: The Martian offers to post filmgoers a free potato

As movie marketing campaigns go it is not quite up there with Godzilla’s (1998 version) crushed cars in central London, The Simpsons Movie’s bid to transform thousands of local convenience stores into Apu’s Kwik-E-Mart, or Chronicle’s flying-people-shaped drones. But 20th Century Fox’s offer to send US fans of Ridley Scott space thriller The Martian their very own potato has to be one of the most surreal.

The studio has joined up with US company Mail a Spud to offer fans the chance to send themselves, or anyone they know, a potato to celebrate the debut of its new release in US cinemas this weekend. The Martian stars Matt Damon as an astronaut left behind after a mission to the red planet goes terribly wrong. With no way to let his comrades on Earth know that he is still alive, he must find a way to survive for years on rations only meant to last for the short duration of the original mission.

The Drum: Facebook regional director, Steve Hatch, joins Trinity Mirror’s board of directors

Trinity Mirror has appointed Facebook’s UK and Ireland regional director, Steve Hatch, to its board of directors.

Hatch will join Trinity Mirror’s board as a non-executive director where he will serve on the audit, remuneration and nomination committees and will take up the role towards the end of the year.

He brings with him directorial experience from Facebook, which he joined in March 2014. Prior to this Hatch worked with a number of leading UK creative agencies including BMP DDB, Y&R and PHD as well as holding the chief executive position at WPP media agency MEC from 2012 to 2014.

Campaign: The Times and Wall Street Journal offer joint deal for corporate readersThe Wall Street Journal and The Times have launched a month-long campaign in London to promote a new joint subscription.

The digital subscription bundle will give readers access to both newspapers, which are both owned by News Corp companies, online and in print. Readers can also access The Sunday Times from their workplace via the corporate subscription bundle.

The new offer follows the WSJ‘s recent launch of new global editions in Europe and Asia and kicks off a month-long series of events in London, including a major sampling campaign that will see one million copies of the paper being distributed at key travel hubs across the City.

TechCrunch: Amazon Bans Sales Of Apple TV And Chromecast On Its Site

In a anti-competitive move that bumps up against one of Amazon’s core principles – “customer obsession” – the online retailer confirmed today that it would no longer allow the sales of some competing media players, including Apple TV and Chromecast, on its shopping site. Specifically, the company informed its marketplace sellers by way of email that no new product listings would be allowed and any remaining inventory would be removed from the site on October 29th.

Bloomberg first reported this news, following a posting on internet forum Reddit which indicated that such a change was underway. Amazon later sent a statement to Varietyconfirming the move, and they’ve shared that same statement with us as well.

Digiday: Call me, maybe: Facebook embraces old-school media buying

Facebook really is embracing the TV way of advertising, even embracing the old-school way of doing business: by phone.

Facebook’s new initiative to measure audiences like TV — using ratings — already was a throwback to the traditional ways of the industry, and the ability to buy over the phone is another old-fashioned nod. The only way to buy ratings points is over the phone or by e-mail.

Facebook is known for its self-serve, automated ad ecosystem, and the rest of the industry is trying to match that technological sophistication with targeting and measurements. That’s why it surprised some of the most digitally minded advertisers that Facebook would embrace the phone as a way of doing business.

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