By 2010, nine in 10 American homes were subscribed to a pay-television service. Many had also come to hate it. Whether delivered by satellite, cable, fiber-optics, radio tower or DVR, “traditional” television had become overrun with klaxonic advertisements and series aimed at the widest possible audiences while meeting the narrowest of advertiser whims. Most television […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has built an extensive network of tracking technology outside of its core social network to bolster its targeted advertising business. That has allowed the company to collect information about its users’ browsing habits, even when they were not using the social network. On Tuesday, Facebook said it was changing its practices […]
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The hit NPR podcast “Serial” was the audio investigation that launched a thousand true-crime dramas, inspiring podcasters across the country to attempt ambitious reporting projects with gritty subject matter. There were “Dirty John” and “Hollywood & Crime,” “Death in Ice Valley” and “Atlanta Monster.” And then there was “The Sauce.” That three-episode “investigative podcast” was […]
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[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Depending on your point of view, they are either miracles of modern marketing or a heinous eyesore on the city’s waterways. Either way, the digital billboards that had been plowing the East and Hudson Rivers over the last several […]
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A highly engaged group of conspiracy theorists can override a fact-based endeavor’s internet ads. This was a lesson that Benedict Redgrove, a photographer, said he took away from his recent attempt to advertise his space photo project on Facebook and Instagram. Another lesson was that flat earthers and lunar landing deniers can be difficult to […]
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LONDON — Two television ads have been banned in Britain under new rules against harmful gender stereotypes, the country’s advertising authority said on Wednesday, the first such action since the regulations came into force last month. The ads, from the local branches of Volkswagen and the food giant Mondelez, were found to be in breach […]
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As a heat wave bears down on parts of the country, what could be better than wrapping your sweaty palms around a steaming pumpkin-flavored latte? If that is not your idea of summer fun, take it up with the coffee and doughnut chain that now goes by the name Dunkin’, which announced on Monday that […]
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Scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., were concerned when a young man contacted their department last year complaining of a heart-pounding, hallucinogenic high he had neither expected nor wanted to have. The team, led by the forensic toxicologist Michelle R. Peace, had published a study about mysterious ingredients in vaping liquids. That’s how […]
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The Chicago publishing legend John H. Johnson laid the foundation of an empire in 1945 by styling a new magazine called Ebony as a love letter to the black elite. African-Americans were virtually invisible in the white press at the time — unless they committed crimes — and were held in such contempt in the […]
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Universal Pictures on Saturday canceled plans to release “The Hunt” — a thriller about a group of “globalist elites” killing people for sport — after two recent mass shootings that left a total of 31 people dead in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. “The Hunt,” which stars Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank and Emma Roberts, […]
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There is so much sex on the New York City subway now. Have you noticed? If you’re here, you must have. It’s inescapable. Sometimes, train stations are just coated in phallic cactuses. They jut out in every direction, advertising a company called Hims that sells not plants, but pills to help treat hair loss and […]
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Moments after the United States women’s soccer team won the World Cup last month, Nike released a bracing commercial celebrating the championship as a triumph of female empowerment. “We will keep fighting not just to make history, but to change it, forever!” the ad’s narrator says as a crowd of voices bursts into the ubiquitous […]
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In May, executives from the giant public relations firm Edelman went to Florida to pitch a potential client: a private prisons company with contracts from the Trump administration to run immigrant detention centers. The GEO Group, a multibillion-dollar business based in Boca Raton, was being battered by negative media attention in the uproar over reports […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — Uber said it laid off around 400 people from its marketing team on Monday, as the ride-hailing company tries to cut costs and streamline its operations after its initial public offering in May. The cuts, which were also announced internally on Monday, are taking place in 75 Uber offices around the world, […]
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In 2015, an indie retailer called Otherwild unveiled a remake of the iconic 1970s “The Future Is Female” T-shirt. The design was an instant success, with the first batch reportedly selling out within two days. As one of many fledgling feminists trying to make sense of the cultural whiplash surrounding the F-word at that time, […]
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At the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the rule is sacrosanct: Never publicly disclose client advice. And for the most part, adherence to that rule has served the company well. But in recent months, as government officials seek to assign blame for the opioid crisis that has strangled large parts of the nation, McKinsey’s […]
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Telecommunications firms and mobile-based apps make billions of dollars per year by selling customer location data to marketers and other businesses, offering a vast window into the whereabouts of cellphone and app users, often without their knowledge. That practice, which has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism in recent years, is now the subject of […]
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LOS ANGELES — Conventional wisdom in Hollywood has long held that big, lumbering “tentpole” movies require protracted promotional campaigns. Walt Disney Studios spent more than three years promoting “Tron: Legacy,” which came out in 2010. Warner Bros. began beating the drums for “Godzilla” nearly two years before its 2014 release. Universal Pictures first publicized “The […]
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Lindsey Aldrich Walsh said the onslaught started almost immediately after her husband’s obituary ran in the Houston Chronicle. Both she and her husband, Patrick Walsh, had come into their marriage owning homes, and they had been trying to sell his when he was diagnosed with brain cancer in June of last year; he died in […]
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In 2016, Morgan Mandriota and Lester Lee, two freelance writers looking to grow their personal brands, decided to start a podcast. They called it “The Advice Podcast” and put about as much energy into the show’s production as they did the name. (After all, no one was paying them for this. Yet.) Each week, the […]
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