Morning bulletin: 4K TV ad KO’d, Verizon bloatware & WSJ paywall lowered
This morning’s clutch of stories culled from the web includes a number of bans handed down by the Advertising Standards Authourity with both Walkers Crisps and Currys PC World in the firing line. We also look at a significant ratcheting up of bloatware from Verizon and an experimental lowering of the WSJ’s paywall to drive subscriptions.
First out of the blocks is Ad Exchanger which spreads word of an interesting experiment in content access by the Wall Street Journal, as the paper further lowers its paywall. Instead of blocking non-subscribers the Journal will trial 24-hour guest passes and the ability to share content via social media for free in a bid to lure more lucrative subscribers.
Retail Week casts an eye over the latest accounts filed by women and homeware chain Laura Ashley, which has recorded an increase in both profits and like-for-like sales driven higher by a stellar online performance and furniture sales.
Ad Week has a scoop of its own in the form of a claim that telecoms giant Verizon has been offering to install marketer’s apps directly onto the phones of millions of customers, charging up to $2 per phone for this service
Campaign reveals that a 4K TV ad by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO for Currys PC World has been KO’d by the Advertising Standards Authority for incorrectly implying that live Euro 2016 matches would be watchable in the ultra-high definition format.
Reuters picks up on significant new investment by Apple in the key territory of China as the technology firm battles to maintain market share amidst crashing demand for its iPhones and increasingly onerous government restrictions on foreign firms.
Business Insider turns to grim news from Cisco Systems this morning following publication of a report which recommends shedding 14,000 jobs, equivalent to 20 per cent of the manufacturer’s global workforce.
The Guardian covers revelations that both Twitter and YouTube refused to take down inflammatory material posted online by hate preacher Anjem Choudaray, despite repeated appeals from the British government to do so. This stance was maintained even after Choudary’s arrest for inviting support for Islamic State and fears he had broken UK anti-terror laws.
Meanwhile Walkers crisps have seen their holiday competition banned in a crunch decision from the Advertising Standards Authority, which ruled that the Spell and Go campaign was ‘misleading and likely to cause unnecessary disappointment’ agreeing that the holidays offered were virtually impossible to win.
Over at The Times comes news that Karen Millen has lost a High Court tussle with her eponymous company to claw back the right to use her name, after she sold it to an Icelandic investor for £95m in 2004. As a result Millen is banned from using her own name in any of her subsequent homewares and lifestyle businesses.
Lastly Ad Week says Gold’s Gym has been tarnished by an ill-advised campaign run by an Egyptian franchise which declared that a pear ‘is no shape for a girl’. In the resultant furore the gym chain has posted a groveling apology on Facebook and terminated the franchise agreement.