Items tagged with commercials
The streaming wars are heating up. Hot on the heels of Amazon announcing that its Prime members can now download select Prime Video TV shows and movies for offline viewing, Hulu has answered the call for commercial-free viewing. That is, if you're willing to pay extra for the convenience. Hulu charges a $4 premium for the luxury of skipping past its advertisements, which brings the subscription price to $11.99 per month. This is an optional premium -- if you'd rather watch commercials to save a few bucks, the $7.99 per month option is still available. "At Hulu, we pride ourselves on listening to our customers and giving them the best possible experience," said Mike Hopkins, CEO, Hulu. "Many of...
Read more...
The gloves are off now...or, rather, they are on, and then off, and then on again. Last night Robert Downey Jr. turned up at the MTV Movie Awards with an extended heretofore mostly unseen clip from Marvel Studios' cannot-get-here-fast enough Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s a let 'er rip 90 seconds of the Iron Man versus Hulk battle that the film trailers, promos, and television commercials have only teased up until now. Throughout the scene Downey Jr.'s Iron Man is bedecked in the "Hulkbuster" armor — arguably the very essence of <Hot>Hardware — that has had fans all a-tizzy since the first trailer for the film debuted back in October, and...
Read more...
Overly Paranoid Rob Lowe, Crazy Hairy Rob Lowe, Super Creepy Rob Lowe... thanks in no small part to complaints made by Comcast to the National Advertising Division (NAD), these most unwelcome guests who came into many of our homes via television throughout the 2014-15 NFL season are mostly likely being shown the door (and good riddance, Meathead Rob Lowe!). Taking issue with the "Don't be like this me" statements made by their team of "this me" Rob Lowes, Comcast challenged DirecTV's claims of superiority with regard to better signal reliability, picture quality, customer satisfaction, and sports programming. "NAD determined that a reasonable takeaway from the 'Creepy Rob Lowe' commercial was...
Read more...
Remember those awful Genius ads Apple began airing during the Olympics? Reactions to the ads were overwhelmingly negative and were somewhat surprising for a multi-billion dollar company known for more creative ad spots that typically focused on the product. These new ads did not, and instead cast Apple users in an idiotic light. Or at least they used to. The new ads are no longer airing, and officially, that was the plan all along. TBWA/Media/Arts Lab, the ad agency in charge of the commercials, claim they were never intended to run past the Olympics in London. "The ads were intended only for a 'first run' during the Olympcs, which meant just the first weekend of the Games," one of the ad agency's...
Read more...
