Adblock Plus, the sophisticated surfer’s best friend, is trying something that is sure to make waves: Adblock Plus is going to start showing “Acceptable Ads” by default. Yep. There’s no arguing that this flies in the face of, well, Adblock’s very name, but there’s actually some very strong logic behind it if you give it a little bit of thought. The assumption is, however, that most user’s won’t give it a little thought, which is why it’s going to be enabled by default. Don’t worry though, you can turn it off if you really, really want to.

How Reddit tells it, someone — presumably poptent user trunstyle – was assigned to make an advertisement for a film class. This unofficial, in no way endorsed, ad for the Sour Patch Kids candies was the result. Like the candy, it attempts to be sour, then sweet. Unlike the candies, it starts really weird, gets okay, and then gets really, really weird.  See the video after the break, but the above image is only a taste (pun) of what is in store.

A few months ago, we reported that Twitter ads were taking the next step and putting Promoted Tweets, otherwise known as ads, in users’ streams. The upside to this was that if a user wasn’t following the Twitter account from where the Promoted Tweets originated, said user would not see the Promoted Tweets. However, that didn’t seem to last very long, as Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that Promoted Tweets are going to take another next step, and will appear to everyone, whether or not a user is following the account from which the promoted tweet originated.

Costolo said:

“We’re expanding Promoted Tweets.

You’ll start seeing them from companies you don’t follow. We’ve been super cautious about that, we didn’t want to sacrifice user experience.”

And yet, here we are. The Promoted Tweets, however, won’t just be a random sampling of ads from Twitter.

Twitter‘s relationship with advertising has been a bit of a saga, but now it seems that “promoted tweets” are finally going to be put into action. In short, promoted tweets, or what you might call advertisements, will now start showing up in your main tweetstream, if — and only if — you follow a particular brand. For instance, you won’t have to deal with promoted Coke tweets if you are a devout Pepsi fan, as doubtless you are.

For the moment, this new promoted tweet thing will only pertain to certain beta-testing companies like Starbucks, Groupon, Dell and Gatorade. (Full list here.) On the upswing, it appears that promoted tweets will also be available to charities as The Red Cross and the Make-a-Wish Foundation are included in the beta organizations.

Google has released the first US edition of its marketing magazine Think Quarterly. Print copies of the magazine will be sent to a limited number of businesspeople and executives through the mail. If you aren’t lucky enough to be on Google’s mailing list, never fear, you too can browse through the magazine, you’ll just have to settle for the online version. The print edition is apparently pretty luxurious with a magnetic cover, heat-sensitive end paper, and a blue ribbon fastener.

The magazine is essentially a very pretty advertisement for how wonderful Google is, with a feature story highlighting the positive work done at Google. In addition to several pages dominated by advertising executives, the magazine also has several essays on the future of the Internet and society.

The Federal Trade Comission has filed a whopping 10 lawsuits against some of the companies responsible for the ubiquitous Internet ads selling fruit-based diet products, according to the Washington Post. Trust me, you’ve seen these ads around. They all feature shoddily animated bellies oscillating back and forth from fat to thin, and promising a “tiny belly” or “one tip” for weight loss. Clicking on such an ad usually leads to a faux-news website which in turn leads to another site where customers can order weight loss products derived from acai berries or mangos.

Of course, it’s a scam. Many of the ads sell products from companies like HCG Ultra Lean Plus, using a formula copied by many other marketers. Placing an order for a “free” sample through one of these sites usually leads to something much worse. From the Washington Post:

Someone who orders a sample offered by one hCG marketer, for example, is technically agreeing to pay an additional $79.99 for another shipment of the product two weeks later, and another $79.99 six weeks after that, according to the disclaimer. The charges and the product keep coming until the buyer calls a toll-free number to cancel.

The ads were made by a cadre of companies operating independently of each other and spending around $10 million in total to place the ads. All told, this seems to have brought in billions of pageviews for the advertisers, which the FTC claims led to huge profits. 

Word on the street has it that Twitter is currently in the planning stages to increase the visibility of advertisements on the service. Since Twitter has historically been unable to create the same kind of revenue that competing social networking sites make (coughFacebookcough), the company is now exploring a number of ways to make their already present advertising a little more prominent. Possibilities include placing ‘promoted tweets’ in the main tweet-steam; offering and promoting Groupon-esque, limited time offers; and commercial media management tools that would allow advertising accounts to pre-schedule tweets.

These moves could prove risky however, as Twitter users have become accustomed to the present level of advertising and have responded aversely to changes in the past. When the Twitter for iPhone app introduced the ‘Quickbar’, which gave promoted tweets some preferential treatment, users complained loudly enough that the feature was ultimately removed. For the moment, there’s no telling what advertising changes will actually be made on the service, but users of any service usually don’t react well to more advertising. Twitter definitely makes a good platform for ads, but this may prove to be a little too much a little too late in the game.

(via Financial Times)

Google Will Eat Itself (GWEI) might be an artistic statement, an economics project, a prank, a subversive attempt to take down “the man” or all of the above. But whatever its motivations, the creators of GWEI have sent a clear message about their feelings toward Google and online advertising. Little by little, a giant corporation can be disabled.

The idea is simple: Use Google’s own marketing practices against them. GWEI earns money by generating fraudulent clicks on Google ads on a series of hidden websites. With the money earned from clicks on the ads, the owners of GWEI “automatically” buy shares of Google.

If you pulled your hair out over Skype requiring a paid account for group chats, than you’ll simply love this news: the VoIP company announced that they will be bringing advertising to their service. Starting this week, ads will appear on the home-tab for windows users. No word yet as to other operating systems, though they are sure to follow in short order.

Thankfully, the Skype developers are well aware that this has the potential to blow up in their faces. They promise that the ads will be useful, unobstrusive, and apparently also infrequent. From their blog:

You may only see ads occasionally. Our initial plan is to show an ad from one brand per day in each of the markets where advertising is being sold.

And although the ads may involve an exchange of “non-personally identifiable demographic data,” they are providing tools to let you opt out of such exchanges.

After years of ad-free, unlimited use from Skype, it’s very hard not to scowl at the recent changes. But to stay relevant, Skype will need money. Hopefully they’ll continue to keep their focus on providing the service so many users have become reliant on, while working towards profitability.

(via Geek.com, Skype)

For people looking to get a slice of the Facebook pie by advertising on the popular social networking platform, Google’s AdSense has been a major workhorse. AdSense provided users the means to post their ads, with Google taking a cut off the top. However, Facebook recently changed its policies regarding advertising providers, and AdSense appears to no longer be among those cleared to operate on the entire Facebook.

There is no word as to why AdSense is not on the approved list, only that it will no longer be operating with Facebook. In the past, Google has often cited AdSense as a vital asset producing most of its revenue. It’s possible that Google found some aspect of Facebook’s new policy unacceptable, and opted not to be involved.

The change has started rumblings on Facebook’s forum, with many former AdSense users upset about the change. Many are concerned that the approved companies have bad track records, or are too young and small to handle the advertising needs of users. Facebook’s representatives are quick to point out that new providers can be added to the approved list at any time, opening the door to AdSense in the future. But for now, the message is clear: if you’ve been using AdSense for Facebook ads, it’s time to find someone else.

(via Geek.com)