Spotify

Of course, there are pros and cons to this. For listeners, there will be clear ads inside the Spotify app beyond just audio. The company says in-app offers are still in testing, but they’re in the alpha phase in the US with ads for Harry’s on Last Podcast on the Left and in Germany with HelloFresh on Herrengedeck. Spotify also points out that you might hear a deal you want at a time when you can’t immediately investigate the details — like if you’re running, cooking or driving. Obviously, being able to easily get the info without having to remember a code or web address would be useful in those cases.

For podcast creators, it’s going to clean up ad reads. No longer will they have to spend extra seconds repeating the key points two or three times to make sure you heard them. They can say it once and move on, the new in-app card will do the rest.

“The average podcast listener has heard a countless number of ads ending with promo codes or show-specific websites, carefully repeated three times so as not to forget it,” Withrow explained. “In-App Offers makes it vastly simpler for listeners to redeem deals whenever they come back to the app, and we can all benefit from one fewer ‘w-w-w-dot’ spelling lesson from our favorite podcast creators.”

For advertisers, it means removing a key barrier to listeners acting on the ad they heard. It’s a lot easier to tap once than it is to recall specific details you heard earlier in the day, or make the effort to hunt for the ad again just to get that info.

Spotify says it will continue testing in-app offers through the end of 2020. So if you’re not a fan of this news, it could be a few months before your favorite shows start using the “episode sponsors” cards inside the app.

Facebook is suing Basant Gajjar (aka LeadCloak) for allegedly selling software that helped bad actors circumvent Facebook’s automated ad review systems and push deceptive ads around COVID-19 and other scams. As the name suggests, LeadCloak’s software allegedly provided cloaking services, a malicious technique Facebook has been fighting for years. According to Facebook’s announcement, LeadCloack’s software also targeted companies like Google, Oath (aka Verizon Media, the parent company of Engadget), WordPress and Shopify.

Cloaking works by showing a company’s ad review system an innocuous product or website and showing users something completely different. According to Facebook, LeadCloak’s software was used to conceal websites with scams related to the coronavirus pandemic, cryptocurrency, pharmaceuticals, diet pills and fake news. Those shady ads showed up on both Facebook and Instagram.

HBO Max is still a few months away from its May launch, but that isn’t stopping AT&T and WarnerMedia from trying to drum up some early hype. The streaming service has introduced its first trailer, and it mainly serves to remind you that Warner owns a lot of movies and TV shows beyond HBO. The promo starts with a not-so-subtle reminder that HBO Max has the exclusive for Friends, and goes on to show a flurry of clips from titles like Joker, South Park, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Wonder Woman, among others. The ad doesn’t appear to tout HBO Max’s originals, although that’s not completely surprising when many of them won’t be ready for a while.

As reported on Pocket Lint and confirmed by several sources, this video appears to illustrate the Galaxy S20, S20+ and S20 Ultra in what seems to be an ad or trailer. With most of the device’s more salient features now revealed across the internet, will Samsung have anything left to reveal at today’s official event?

Follow all the latest news from Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event here!

It’s billed as the “most powerful” off-road mountain bike yet, and there are some specs to back that up. The machine mates a 750W motor with chunky 4.8-inch tires that (along with Fire-Link suspension) should handle rougher trails. You can also expect up to 40 miles of range. Electrek suspected that the motor is actually a Bafang M620 unit capable of up to 1.6kW, but it might be toned down to avoid destroying the bike chain or tossing riders. It also appears to have high-quality disc brakes from either Magura or Tektro.

The e-Bike won’t go on sale until June 2020. It’s not certain how much Jeep intends to charge, although it’s clear from the choice of components that this won’t be cheap. It’s intended as a companion vehicle for Jeep owners who fully intend to go off-roading, and that kind of ability seldom comes cheap.

The machine should produce up to 1,000HP with 11,500lb/ft of torque and a 0-60MPH time of about 3 seconds.

You still won’t see the full reveal of the Hummer EV until May 20th, and it won’t be available until fall 2021. There’s no guarantee that it’ll compare favorably to Tesla’s Cybertruck or Ford’s electric pickup. Still, the James ad says a lot about GM’s expectations. Where it treated the Chevy Bolt almost as a side project (the Bolt has never been produced in truly large numbers), it’s willing to spend a fortune on a Super Bowl ad with an NBA star to market a Hummer EV that won’t be available for well over a year. GM undoubtedly wants this truck to be a mainstream hit, and it’s hoping some early buzz will help make this happen.

The ad isn’t terribly complicated. It starts with what appears to be a thief stealing the Taycan from Porsche’s museum in Stuttgart, and quickly evolves into a Hollywood-style chase with several more conventional cars (plus one tractor) in pursuit. While Porsche doesn’t talk much about the Taycan, there’s no question it’s the star. The driver even makes use of the Taycan’s virtually silent EV powerplant to escape, although the machine probably wouldn’t get far in real life given the EU’s artificial noise requirement… not to mention that 192-mile EPA range.

A minute-long version of the commercial will air in the first quarter of the football game, but you can watch an extended version now.

The clip is meant to do more than just boost Taycan sales, of course. This is also Porsche’s (and really, VW’s) attempt at “heralding the era of electric mobility,” and that includes reaching out to customers who might never have considered one of the brand’s cars before. We doubt many people will rush out to buy a Taycan after this, especially not the maxed-out Turbo S variant in the ad. It might, however, give EVs some extra cachet while reminding people that there are alternatives to Tesla.

“At this point in time, we do not yet have the necessary level of robustness in our process, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” a spokesperson for Spotify said. “We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities.”

Politicians and groups like Bernie Sanders and the Republican National Committee had used Spotify to share their message. Spotify didn’t tell Ad Age how much it was making off of politicians, but it doesn’t appear to be a significant source of revenue for the company.

Over the last couple of months, several tech companies have taken different approaches to address how manipulative political ads can be. Twitter, for instance, stopped running them altogether, while Google rolled out ad-targeting limits. Spotify’s move puts Facebook in an even more awkward position than it was before. The social media giant is one of the few tech companies that has yet to put any restrictions on political advertisements — though it was reportedly considering targeting restrictions as of last month. With Spotify’s move, Facebook may now feel even more pressure to act.

He added that, while it may be easier for Facebook to “choose a different path,” it is more important to stand up for free speech and free expression. “We need to be careful about adopting more rules that can restrict what people can say,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right for politicians to be censored.” Zuckerberg’s statements come in light of moves from TikTok and Twitter to put a stop to all paid political ads on their services. “For instance, it’s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info,'” said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday, “buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want!”

Dorsey didn’t mention Zuckerberg or Facebook by name, but he didn’t have to. It was clear where Twitter’s new policy came from. Since the 2016 US presidential election, when Facebook was abused by Russia to sow discord amongst Americans, the company has been promising to double down on combating the spread of misinformation. And yet, at the same time, Facebook is allowing politicians to explicitly use ads to tell lies about their rivals. Zuckerberg said this isn’t a “political calculation” and that Facebook isn’t trying to appease conservative voices — it’s about protecting its values on free expression.

Despite what feels like an endless stream of controversies, though, Facebook has continued to rake in billions of dollars year after year. And today it announced a revenue of $17.7 billion during the third quarter of 2019, a 28 percent increase over the same period a year ago. In addition to that, Facebook’s user base is still growing: daily and monthly active users were at 1.6 and 2.4 billion in Q3 2019, respectively, each up 8 percent year-over-year. Altogether, Zuckerberg said, around 2.8 billion people are now using at least one app from the Facebook family, which includes Instagram and WhatsApp.

Images: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan (Mark Zuckerberg)