Technically, this is an ad for Dove. But forget about that and watch as an FBI-trained forensic artist helps them make a very important point.

(via Mashable)

Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Batwoman #17 came out yesterday, and in some of its last pages had a… thing… that happened. It’s a spoiler, sure, but it’s not a plot spoiler, it’s just a surprise. And before you get worried, it was a cool thing, an exciting thing, a bit of a cliffhanger thing, and I’m just puzzled as to why DC didn’t make a bigger deal out of it beforehand. It’s the kind of thing they could probably use right about now.

Okay, I’ll stop beating around the bush and put a jump cut here so that I can actually say what happened. Batwoman #17 spoilers from here on out.

In my rush to remember all the Super Bowl ads from last night that were worth remembering, I forgot this Toyota commercial. It’s got a pretty familiar plot of a genie whose wishes always have a bit of an ironic twist to them. Sort of a monkey’s paw kind of thing. Except there’s one particular wish in here that gets an “ironic” twist that we have entirely non-ironic positive feelings for. See if you can figure out which one it is.

(via Think Progress)

Samantha Escobar at Blisstree has the most succinct summation of why this is cool:

We all know that our society often fat shames people they deem overweight and sometimes body shame those declared too thin, but many men and women consider very muscular women to be “gross” or “unappealing.” I find this strange, since — while I don’t remotely condone it — fat and thin shamers tend to at least cite health as a typical reason for being assholes. When it comes to insulting muscular females, this logic makes no sense; typically, those women work out frequently and eat incredibly well in order to achieve the bodies they have… We’re “allowed” to be strong and toned, but give us some solid definition, and bam — suddenly females are not “feminine” enough anymore.

This MAC ad takes body builder Jelena Abbou and treats her with the glamour they would any other model, even as she gives each and everyone of us a ticket to the gunshow. Striking a powerful pose indeed. Also, relevant Kate Beaton comic.

Forget about the predictable “boyfriend caught acting childish in front of parents” ending (hey, at least it’s not the “boyfriend caught acting feminine in front of parents” ending). If I’d unlocked the hidden potential of winged maxipads to become Wonder Woman bracers (and therefore to not only absorb moisture but also bullets) at a young age, my parents would probably have a lot more embarrassing video tape of me. Probably of me trying to take them off as the adhesive pulled at my arm hairs.

Stick around for a bonus one second of Gregory House being super serious.

(via Jezebel.)

Facebook is pretty secretive with its plans for changing the site, but thanks to the feature going temporarily live to some premium advertisers on Facebook, we now know that Facebook is planning on letting advertisers find people on Facebook using information they may have already collected about their clients: emails, phone numbers, etc.

I know what you’re thinking: “AW HECK NO.” But this is actually not as bad as it sounds. Well. It’s not as bad as the worst case scenario of how it sounds, anyway.

It’s commonly understood that a movie, or any product really, can sink or swim based on advertising. Too little, too much, not in the right places, or the right times, or just a ads that are misleading or poorly thought out can be pointed to afterward as evidence of Where It All Went Wrong. But a study led by Akira Ishii on the release of twenty five different movies to theaters in Japan seems to say that while advertising can help, the only direct indicator of a movie’s success isn’t how much money is spent on advertising, or even how well the campaign is pulled off.

It’s the online social media buzz surrounding the movie.

If you’re a fan of near-future science fiction, possibly of the cyberpunk genre, you might be familiar with many different kinds of terrifying ways that writers and artists have reimagined advertising in the future, whether it’s using subliminal messaging to invade Phillip J. Fry or Spider Jerusalem’s dreams with infomercials, or the world of Neal Stephenson‘s The Diamond Age, in which everyone has a 3D printer in their kitchen, capable of creating, molecule by molecule, any product they see advertised in a matter of minutes.

TiVO and PayPal, however, want to make sure that just because nobody has nanotechnological 3D printers sitting next to their toasters, they can still order whatever magically absorb-ing one-piece loungewear set that also cuts vegetables and makes their computer run faster they just saw during reruns of Law & Order.

Every once in a while, a commercial is hilarious. While this is not an American commercial, but you lucky Argentinians get to see this ad for Zonajobs on your airwaves. With just a dash of horror, someone’s grandmother just wants to rest in peace, but her grandson is just so deeply unsatisfied with his job that she keeps rising from the dead until he finds a gig he likes. And frankly, it’s starting to annoy her.

You know, they’re all smoking weed and dropping acid on Mad Men these days. Can the Argentinians please share whatever they’re taking with the ad wizards on Madison Avenue?

(via I Heart Chaos)

Previously in Old Ladies

Meet Frankie and Dottie! They are the new spokespersons for KRAFT as they begin their campaign to spread the joy and goodness of their classic Mac & Cheese. And if you thought you were scared of your parents texting, wait until you hear this: KRAFT will be handing all of their social media — YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook — over to this macaroni-loving duo, who say they’ve been enjoying the very product they’re advertising for the past 75 years. See? This is what loyalty gets you.

And speaking of old woman taking over social media, Betty White has joined Twitter! Not an April Fool’s joke that was delayed because I couldn’t find my glasses.