In every pharmaceutical television commercial there's the bit at the end while a voiceover intones a litany of potential side effects and drug warnings likely to startle anyone thinking of taking it. Of course, that's when the video usually takes in an intimate hug on a
sailboat or a walk in the woods with a golden lab. And millions of people in the audience apparently are more tuned in to the pictures
than the cautionary message inserted into the promo.

US search ad spending will maintain strong growth this year, boosted by major national elections and the Summer Olympic Games, before growth begins to taper off, reflecting the maturity of this online ad format.

Paula Deen, TV personality and doyen of deep-fried desserts, came out of the diabetes closet, announcing she was diagnosed with the Type 2 form of the disease three years ago.

So why is it fodder for a marketing mag? Because her illness is not just bad news for Deen, it's unfortunate for our industry as well.

In an unusual move, the Food and Drug Administration has warned a marketing company and eight surgery centers in Southern California that their billboards and other advertisements touting weight-loss surgery are misleading because they don't adequately describe the risks from the procedure.

The agency's letters ask the surgery centers and the marketing firm 1-800-GET-THIN to pull the allegedly misleading advertising.

31% of Americans say they find advertising on social media sites to be either not very or not at all useful, according to a study released in December 2011 by Epsilon Targeting. Data from the “2011 Channel Preference Study” indicates that just 13% find social media advertising to be somewhat or very useful. These patterns hold for Canadian consumers too: they are more than twice as likely to find social media advertising useless (33%) than useful (16%).