In 1898, artist Francis Barraud memorialized his dog Nipper in the lovely 1898 painting "His Master's Voice." The image became an iconic trademark of the music industry, used by multiple record labels, from Deutsche Grammophon to RCA Records to HMV. While there's some uncertainty about Nipper's breed, it's suspected that he was a Smooth Fox Terrier. โ Read the rest
Every so often, a game designer gets the bright idea to score a little more development capital by partnering with a real-life brand to put advertisements in their game. Sometimes, this is unintentionally hilarious, like Nathan Drake endorsing Subway, and sometimes it's downright bizarre, like Norman Reedus downing Monster Energy by the gallon in Death Stranding. โ Read the rest
If you've wondering who's behind those warm, fuzzy, and seemingly inclusive Jesus Gets Us ads that are all over TV, did you have "shadowy Christian billionaires" on your bingo card. One of them is the virulently anti-LGBTQ Hobby Lobby guy. And those ads are about to appear during the Super Bowl.
Like any social media platform, Truth Social relies on advertising to drive revenue, but as Twitterโs highly publicized struggle to retain advertisers has shown, itโs hard to attract major brands when a companyโs content moderation capabilities appear undependable. Thatโs likely why Truth Socialโwhich prides itself on sparking an โopen, free, and honest global conversationโ by largely avoiding content moderation altogetherโhas seemingly attracted no major advertisers.
A New York Times analysis of hundreds of Truth Social ads showed that the social media platformโs strategy for scraping by is taking ads from just about anyone. Currently, the platform, which was founded by former president Donald Trump, is attracting ad dollars from โhucksters and fringe marketersโ who are peddling products like Trump tchotchkes, gun accessories, and diet pills, the Times reported.
In addition to Truth Socialโs apparently struggling ad business, SFGate reported in November that Truth Socialโs user base also seems to be dwindling. According to The Righting, a group monitoring conservative media, Truth Social traffic peaked last August at 4 million unique visitors but dropped to 2.8 million by October.
โUnearth all the rats that have seized power and shoot them,โ read an ad approved by Facebook just days after a mob violently stormed government buildings in Brazilโs capital.
That violence was fueled by false election interference claims, mirroring attacks in the United States on January 6, 2021. Previously, Facebook-owner Meta said it was dedicated to blocking content designed to incite more post-election violence in Brazil. Yet today, the human rights organization Global Witness published results of a test that shows Meta is seemingly still accepting ads that do exactly that.
Global Witness submitted 16 ads to Facebook, with some calling on people to storm government buildings, others describing the election as stolen, and some even calling for the deaths of children whose parents voted for Brazilโs new president, Luiz Inรกcio Lula da Silva. Facebook approved all but two ads, which Global Witness digital threats campaigner Rosie Sharpe said proved that Facebook is not doing enough to enforce its ad policies restricting such violent content.