Morning Update: Samsung goes back to the future with unbox; Euro ads blocked at carrier level; McDonald’s challenges ‘boring’ menu

Samsung takes the now-familiar premise of the “unboxing” video to show far the brand’s mobile technology has evolved over the years in this energetic, effects-driven film from 72andSunny and directed by Asif Mian and Bob Partington of 1st Ave Machine.

In the opening scene, a man opens a Samsung “shoe box” to reveal a gigantic mobile phone with a huge antenna, feeling its hefty weight in his hand. Via some dazzling VFX, he unpacks that, nesting-doll style to reveal increasingly smaller devices.

Ad Age: European Carrier Blocks Ads at Network Level

Some European mobile customers are about to be given the option of blocking ads.

Israeli ad blocking company Shine is partnering with European carrier Three Group to offer blocking of display ads on the mobile web and in apps. Shine’s technology works by blocking ads at the network level.

The effort will begin with Three’s service in Italy and the U.K., then be rolled out across all of Three Group in Europe, which includes Austria, Denmark and Sweden. In total, Shine said that 30 million subscribers will be able to use the technology to block ads.

Mumbrella Asia: McDonald’s ad responds to Singapore critics who say it’s menu is boring

Some brands shun their critics, but McDonald’s embraces them, the burger chain is telling Singaporeans in a new commercial created by DDB.

An unusually downbeat ad from McDonald’s begins with the words “Dear McDonald’s,” as a customer asks if everything is ok. “Your menu has been kind of expected, don’t you think?” says the customer, as a man is carefully preparing a new dish.

Jonah Peretti: BuzzFeed

The Guardian: As publishers lose control, are newspaper websites a dead parrot?

A truth is dawning on media owners (or in many cases it has dawned, but they don’t like to talk about it). Publishing is over. Obviously this isn’t true in its purest sense; publishing is actually flourishing, just not for publishers.

As Facebook last week extended the reach of its instant articles to anyone, as Google invests in making news articles load lightning fast, as virtual reality can be produced by a £200 kit, it is fair to say we have more opportunity today to put out remarkable works of fact and fiction to the world than ever before.

Brand Republic: How Marlboro, Coke and KFC used subliminal advertising

Subliminal advertising has, historically, occupied a legal grey area, not least because it’s not clear when hidden messaging might be coincidence or simply ‘pareidolioa’ (the phenemonon of the mind perceiving a familiar pattern where none actually exists).

But the murky marketing waters are not only populated by tinfoil-hat wearing conspiracy theorists, as some cunningly crafty marketers have indeed intentionally set out to influence their audience by hidden means.

The first reported subliminal ad was from 1947, spotted on a twirling sign urging viewers to buy war bonds in a Daffy Duck cartoon.

Ad Age: Official Launch Date for Google AMP Confirmed

Google will be introducing its Accelerated Mobile Page initiative on Feb. 24, several sources familiar with AMP confirmed to Ad Age.

AMP is a direct response to similar but proprietary platforms like Facebook’s Instant Articles and Apple’s News. Unlike them, however, AMP is open source, meaning anyone can use it.

Google says AMP pages load 85% faster than standard mobile web pages. The company wants to reinvent the mobile web by delivering content at near instant speeds.

Campaign Live: Channel 5 owner Viacom hands PHD £15m UK media account

Viacom, the owner of Channel 5 and MTV, has appointed PHD as its UK media agency after consolidating its planning and buying for all its TV channels for the first time.