Advertising

The Magic of Making Food Look Good on Television

Here's a fun video -- well, more of an ad/promo reel -- showing how German advertising company The Marmalade creates special effects for food television commercials. The shots involve a special high-speed camera and fake food props (we want to see more of the studio that creates fake food, by the wa ... More >>

Muni Will Now Run Anti-Gay Ads to Accompany Anti-Islamic Ads on Buses

If you were just starting to move on from Michelle Shocked's "God Hates Fags" remark she made here in San Francisco this week, best you take a (Muni) seat to read this story. Starting next month, Muni will run six bus ads featuring Muslim leaders bagging on gays. The Examiner reported the latest c ... More >>

"Islamophobic" Muni Ads Are Back on Buses

Last year Muni came under fire, not only for being perpetually broke and late, but also for trying to plug some of its budget woes with pro-Israeli advertisements that suggested Palestinians were savages. At the time, Muni, which has a policy against running political ads on its buses, defended it ... More >>

Craigslist Sues JamesList, for Obvious Reasons

"Craig" is pretty upset with "James" for allegedly ripping off the well-known and widely used online classified ads idea to create the lesser-known Jameslist.Craigslist, which was created in 1995 right here in San Francisco, is accusing Jameslist of swapping out the name Craig and replacing it with ... More >>

Facebook Ads and Spam: What's the Difference?

People who don't closely follow the online media/advertising business might wonder: How can Facebook be such a great business, commanding a $100 billion valuation when it went public, when it's filled with cheesy, lowbrow ads that are just this side of spam? Those people will be glad to know that s ... More >>

Mad Blokes

Obama's New Marijuana Policies Also Target Alt-Weeklies and the Bill of Rights

Say, is that hemp? Kill it!​​In their unrelenting quest to kill legal medical marijuana dead, President Barack Obama and the United States Department of Justice appear content to incur collateral damage. Last week, property owners who rent to dispensaries were informed that the federal governmen ... More >>

Women's Funding Network Sex Trafficking Study Is Junk Science

Schapiro Group data wasn't questioned by mainstream media.

Commercial Interests

Google Pays Kickbacks -- Or So Say TechCrunch's Anonymous Hearsay Sources

If anonymous hearsay says it, it must be true.​Is Google today's incarnation of Alan Freed, the 1950s R&B disc jockey accused of taking payments to play certain songs? TechCrunch cites anonymous sources suggesting something like that.A major agency "is pushing a ton of advertising dollars thro ... More >>

Facebook Spurns Pro-Pot Ads. But You Still May See Them on Muni.

You won't be seeing this ad on Facebook anytime soon...​Pot delivery service owner says Muni has accepted his ads Facebook's not so special. Updates to your Farmville aside, the de rigueur social networking platform is behind the curve, at least when it comes to denying cannabis-related busin ... More >>

Chron's Pot Ad Section REVEALED

​Earlier this morning, we told you about Herbal Cure Corner, the SF Chronicle's new stab at cornering the medical marijuana market which launched today. Curious to see our competition, we bought a copy of the paper this morning (from a real-live person vendor, too). It took us a few minutes t ... More >>

As Seen on the Telly

Bay Guardian Sued by Weekly's Banks

​The Bay Guardian's total disregard of SF Weekly's lenders' senior lien rights have led those banks to ask a Delaware court to issue a temporary restraining order and injunction that would end Bruce Brugmann's increasingly frantic efforts to bleed money from the Weekly. The lawsuit filed agai ... More >>

Edible San Francisco Looking for a Buyer

The current issue focuses on school lunch.​Edible San Francisco editor and publisher Bruce Cole told SFoodie he's been quietly shopping around the magazine for the past six months, looking for a buyer or investors. Cole blamed the yearlong economic downturn for a fall-off in ad revenues. "I lo ... More >>

Zeppelin Hovering Over San Francisco Wants Your Spit

Our future looms overhead ...​San Franciscans lucky enough to be enjoying our lunch outside today were interrupted by the less-than-appetizing sight of a gargantuan pair of chromosomes looming over our heads. This zeppelin, which belongs to Airship Ventures, currently features advertising from the ... More >>

Local Eco-Conference Swaps Press Passes for Ad Placement

Being forced to trade adspace for media coverage of an event is not the current journalistic norm. Sadly, it may become commonplace in the future.​ In the impending newspaperless world dreaded by journalists, and glowingly touted by futurists, we'll all be glorified ad-salespeople, burnishing our ... More >>

Local Blogger Prompts Two More Advertisers to Abandon Conservative Talk Radio Station

Spocko, KSFO, advertisers, free speech, Beach Blanket Babylon, Lifetime TV

Apparent Ponzi Scheme Advertised in Sunday Chronicle, Fraud Investigator Says

Banking experts qualify the service being hawked in this San Francisco Chronicle ad as a potential Ponzi schemeReaders skimming the ads on page D-2 of the Sunday, July 12 San Francisco Chronicle might have been surprised to see an extraordinary investment opportunity in a quarter-page advertisement ... More >>

Prop 8 and Little Peterson

Appealing to a Higher Authority

We respond to the latest ruling in the Guardian's lawsuit against us.

Video: Adam Werbach Describes New Job

TV's 'Apprentice' Uses Product Placement to Combat TiVo's Fast-Forward Button

Examiner Offers Free Advertising!

And Whether Pigs Have Wings

Actual, Living Advertiser Testifies

The Guardian Gets a Reality Check from The New York Times

Bruce Boils Over

Guardian's Co-Publisher: No Sales Calls in 35 Years

So Does That Mean Weeklies Were Ahead Of Their Time? Shit, They've Always Been Free

Judge Lets Guardian's Loony SF Weekly Lawsuit Go to Trial

Unfair Lawsuit Act

SF Weekly moves to dismiss the Guardian's lawsuit, which is light on witnesses and evidence

Unfair Lawsuit Act

SF Weekly moves to dismiss the Guardian's lawsuit, which is light on witnesses and evidence

Hands Out

Sloganeering

For years the city has been using racy ads to sell HIV prevention. Do they work?

Craig$list.com

The much-loved Web site is taking millions from Bay Area newspapers and causing layoffs that adversely affect coverage. And its founder's well-intentioned support of citizen journalism has a slim chance of fixing the problem.

Real to Reel

Jesse Kipp's job in the emerging field of commercial ethnography could make you the star of your very own advertisement

Dirty Vegas

One

Follow the Money

Why does Gavin Newsom need a backer like the California Urban Issues Project?

Signs of the Times

Have advertisers found a way to end-run S.F.'s ban on billboards?

So I Wrote a Snide Column

On big teeth, demographic pandering, and the Commonwealth Club

Front-Porch Favorites

Old songs for young people

The Pain Train

Two years later, a digital-video short film became an overnight ad sensation

Magazine Dreams

Will San Francisco finally get the city magazine it deserves?

A Sentence Without an Ending

The "used-car rabbi" gets probation instead of jail, but the question of what he did with millions of dollars in donations remains unanswered

Mel Sells Out

What Women Want is a better movie than this two-hour Nike ad

Opening Pandora's Box

Once-secret documents reveal the tobacco industry's battle to gut anti-smoking education in California. Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and former Gov. Pete Wilson helped.

Eat This Logo, Sucker

ValueStar wants businesses to pay for the privilege of sporting its seal of approval. Is it a public service, or a shakedown?

Mulch

Webbing Out