Small talk: Pink lights, games with cats, Google ads

The news that didn't quite make the headlines. This week: using pink lights to deter criminals, an interspecies iPad game you can play with your cat, Google replacing ringtones with ads.

Companies use ads to pitch issues over products

Aug 8, 2017
Tackling social problems in campaigns can be tricky. Just ask Pepsi.
Procter and Gamble's "The Talk."
Proctor & Gamble ad screen shot

Who in their right mind approved this ad?

Jun 13, 2017
'There’s a lot of client engagement and collaboration along the way,' ad executive says.
What would Don Draper do?
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Team Trump unleashes its first TV ad

Aug 19, 2016
But political spending on air time isn't nearly what stations expected.
Trump speaking at a rally in Florida. 
GREGG NEWTON/AFP/Getty Images

Facebook blocks the ad blockers

Aug 10, 2016
Why the social network is making it harder for ad blockers to work on its site
Dan Kitwood/Getty Image

For public good, not for profit.

Chaos monkeys are driving innovation in Silicon Valley

Jun 28, 2016
Antonio García Martínez created Facebook Exchange, an ad generator that saved the company post-IPO.
The Nasdaq board in Times Square on the day it debuted as an IPO. 
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The NFL on Twitter, with ads

Jun 23, 2016
Twitter is selling space for ads to run next to its live streams of NFL games
Aqib Talib of the Denver Broncos vies for position with Ted Ginn, Jr. of the Carolina Panthers during Super Bowl 50 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California February 7, 2016.

 
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

Facebook figures out Wall Street

Jan 28, 2016
The social network's latest earnings report shows big gains in mobile
Mobile ad revenues were responsible for 4.5 billion dollars of Facebook's earnings in the latest quarterly report.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GettyImages