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Are You a Felon? According to Google, You Just Might Be

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 03/04/2014 - 02:59

For the record, Pete Kistler—age 26, resident of New York, brown hair, slender build—is not a felon. The problem is, until recently, just about anyone who Googled him would have thought he was. It started in 2009 when Kistler, a junior at Syracuse University, couldn’t figure out why all his friends were getting internships but he couldn’t even land an interview. He was an honors student with a 3.9 GPA, clean cut with a professional demeanor, and his “criminal” past amounted to a single speeding ticket.

Geico's Talking Pig Runs for Mayor of 'Portlandia'

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 22:38

Last year, Geico and Portlandia had fun with the insurer's pig character, Maxwell, in an IFC spot that referenced the comedy's farm-to-table skit. Now they want to take the talking swine all the way to the Rose City mayorship.  Geico's spot, called The Nomination (see below), debuted on Feb. 27 during the first episode of Portlandia's fourth season.

Newsweek Makes International Hire

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 22:13

Newsweek has hired Richard Addis to head up its overseas coverage as it gets ready to resurrect its print edition as a slick, upmarket weekly this week. Addis, the former editor of Canada’s Globe and Mail and London’s Daily Express, started today as editor in chief of Newsweek EMEA, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Ad of the Day: Cute, Quirky Chevy Commercial on the Oscars Was Made for $4,000

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 19:45

Imagination and ingenuity can drive you almost anywhere—even to the Academy Awards telecast. So learned Jude Chun, a South Korean independent filmmaker whose delightful minute-long winning entry in Chevrolet and MOFILM's international Oscars competition aired during Sunday night's gala on ABC. The film-within-a-film, created with co-directors Eunhae Cho and Sunyoung Hwang, shows some imaginative kids making a movie of their own, called "Speed Chaser." Chevy's 2014 Cruze is prominently featured, in both life-size and toy-model versions.

FCC Cracks Down on Misuse of Emergency Alert Signal in Ads

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 18:43

When will advertisers learn not to use the broadcast emergency alert signal in an ad? And when will networks realize the Federal Communications Commission is dead serious about the integrity of the EAS system? A promotional ad for the film Olympus Has Fallen has earned Viacom, ESPN and NBCU the largest aggregate penalty ever imposed by the FCC. Seven Viacom networks, three ESPN networks, and seven NBCU networks were fined a combined $1.9 million. Each of the companies admitted running the ad multiple times on multiple networks.

Arnold Pulls Out of CVS Review

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 17:43

Arnold, the incumbent agency in CVS’ creative agency search, has withdrawn from the process. In late January, Arnold advanced to a place within a relatively long list of finalists, including corporate sibling Havas Worldwide, BBDO, Grey, Ogilvy & Mather and Lowe Campbell Ewald, according to sources. CVS' media spend last year was $115 million.

Bumpy Start for Oscars Live Streaming Initiative

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2014 - 17:21

ABC’s first pass at live-streaming the Academy Awards didn’t exactly go off without a hitch last night, as user demand knocked the service out of commission. The live video feed streaming on the WatchABC app conked out during the network’s Red Carpet coverage, an outage ABC chalked up to “a traffic overload” caused by demand that exceeded expectations. The service was up and running again at around 10:45 p.m. EST.