Free Republic

Volokh: The order came down today; it noted that no judge called for a vote on the en banc rehearing petition. Here's my post on the panel decision, from September. From Junior Sports Magazines, Inc. v. Bonta, decided today [Sept, 13, 2023] by Ninth Circuit Judge Kenneth Lee, joined by Judges Randy Smith and Lawrence VanDyke: "This case is not about whether children can buy firearms. (They cannot under California law.) Nor is this case about whether minors can legally use firearms. (California allows minors under adult supervision to possess and use firearms for hunting, target practice, and other activities.)...

The commercial "What Does the Data Say?" from Monday dot com has three actors: - an older black male - a white female - a white male. If you've been watching TV ads over the last few years, can't you basically write the script? 999 chances out of 1000 you'd get it 100% correct. The older black male is the boss, the white female is a super-competent employee, and the white male is an incompetent doofus that the other two mock. No company would ever have the black male or the white female as the doofus: it's almost always a...

Walmart said Friday it is not advertising on social media platform X, one of the latest major companies to say it has dropped the Elon Musk-owned site. “We aren’t advertising on X as we’ve found other platforms to better reach our customers,” a Walmart spokesperson said

A few updates: I will appear on Faux News's "The Korean War" special with Brett Baier, Sunday night, May 28, 10:00. I know may of you are boycotting FAUX, and I respect that. Did this for an old filmmaking friend. Also, I have begun a MWF youtube show "Patriot's History," where I just read through "A Patriot's History of the United States" at 12 noon EST on the Wild World of History channel. Just started the Revolutionary War. We are 24 episodes in, all in the video archives. We are working to make "Patriot's History" in to a "John Adams/Sons...

A new San Francisco political group is launching an ad campaign sure to get attention: a series of pastel-colored ads joking about the city’s response to the fentanyl crisis, tied together by the jaunty slogan, “That’s Fentalife!" This week, the ads will appear in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, the two places where overdose deaths have been the most prevalent. The group responsible — TogetherSF Action — is insistent that the ads aren't insensitive to the hundreds of people who have died from drug overdoses in the city and that the “That’s Fentalife” moniker on the ads comes...

The marketing genius behind some of Budweiser's most iconic ads has slammed his former employer for destroying the image he helped create. Robert Lachky, who created the memorable 'Whassup?' promo of 1999 and the 'Talking Frogs' commercial that debuted at the Super Bowl five years earlier, said it took him two decades to establish Budweiser as one of America's most prominent beers. But, he said, that all came crashing down last month when TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, 26, announced she was partnering with Bud Light and showed off cans featuring her face. Now, sales of the light beer are down...

Anheuser-Busch has taken its damage-control campaign to Capitol Hill, and one conservative group is warning the GOP not to take the bait. The beer giant, which is owned by Belgium-based brewing conglomerate InBev, has hired a lobbying team of former Republican Senate staffers to woo lawmakers as it seeks to repair Bud Light's image among conservatives following backlash over the brand's partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Disclosures show weeks ago A-B secured lobbying firm Origin Advocacy, LLC, to represent the company on "general policy regarding the alcohol-beverage industry." The lobbyists handling the account are Origin founder Sean McClean and...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal judge on Friday rejected a motion from Google to toss out the government's antirust case against it. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled the lawsuit alleging Google wields monopolistic power in the world of online advertising can proceed in its entirety. Her ruling is the second setback for Google at the federal court in Alexandria. Google had earlier tried to get the case consolidated with a similar lawsuit that's been ongoing for several years in New York. But Brinkema ruled last month that the case can proceed in the Alexandria courthouse, which is known as...

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Dylan Mulvaney is continuing to face outrage over her brand collaborations, and this time it is because of her appearance in a skincare company ad. Following the Nike and BudLight controversy, the 26-year-old transgender TikTok star has now stoked anger online for an advert with Olay Women, which debuted in early March 2023 and shows Mulvaney getting ready using Olay SPF moisturizer. Commenting on the partnership between Mulvaney and Olay, Oli London, a social media influencer who underwent 18 surgeries to look like BTS singer Park Jimin, took to Twitter writing, "DYLAN MULVANEY stars in new Olay...

Bud Light VP ADMITS They Are Panicking About The Future As Dylan Mulvaney Sponsorship Backlash GROWS (Video is 13 minutes long)

Executives at companies like Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade, whose brand endorsements have turned controversial trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney into today’s woke “It girl,” aren’t just virtue signaling. They’re handing out lucrative deals to what were once considered fringe celebrities because they have to — or risk failing an all-important social credit score that could make or break their businesses. At stake is their Corporate Equality Index — or CEI — score, which is overseen by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the world. HRC, which has received millions from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation...

Here is a list of major corporations promoting and glorifying gender dysphoria. Rather than highlight the dangerous and irreversible procedures associated with transgenderism, such as chemical castration and genital mutilation, many major corporations have opted to champion trans ideology — even for unsuspecting children. In order to help Americans hold these companies financially accountable, The Federalist has compiled a list of major businesses promoting and glorifying gender dysphoria. 36. Amazon Amazon has a history of catering to LGBT activists by promoting their content and memory holing any products or materials that discuss the severe and irreversible damage ill-named “transitions” have...

The U.S. Army halted its multi-million dollar advertising campaign over the weekend after Jonathan Majors, the campaign’s featured actor, was arrested for allegedly attacking a woman. The Army paused the “Be All You Can Be” campaign on Sunday after Majors was arrested on charges of strangulation, assault, and harassment, according to Army Times. “The U.S. Army is aware of the arrest of Jonathan Majors and we are deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest,” said a spokesperson for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office. “While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until...

There’s a movement brewing to shut down conservative websites that offer views and information contradicting left-wing orthodoxy. Investigative reporter Gabe Kaminsky did an excellent job of uncovering how activist organizations, some partnered with the State Department, work to blacklist and defund conservative media. His ongoing series at the Washington Examiner is worth reading and explains how this is part of a larger effort to effectively shut down conservative media publications. It’s predictable—yet nevertheless disturbing—stuff. “Major ad companies are increasingly seeking guidance from purportedly ‘nonpartisan’ groups claiming to be detecting and fighting online ‘disinformation.’” Kaminsky wrote. “These same ‘disinformation’ monitors are...

In June 2020, just weeks after a white police officer murdered unarmed George Floyd, AdAge obtained an internal memo from Top Five advertising agency Interpublic Group that showed just 2.6% of its executives were Black while 86% were white. Then-chairman and CEO Michael Roth didn’t need a public shaming to realize the numbers were abysmal. “We can all agree that we MUST do better,” Roth wrote in the memo, according to AdAge. Since then, advertising firms and marketing departments at consumer-products companies have done better at pushing forward on executive representation. The industry, however, is backsliding in a different, essential...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R.-Ky., have struck a deal to include the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to Axios. If the deal holds, it will move this essential piece of legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk. The NDAA must pass by year’s end to fund America’s military. The JCPA would allow news organizations to band together to negotiate fair fees from online platforms, such as Facebook and Google, who derive ad revenue from the hard work of newsrooms — mostly small, local, community-rooted...

The campaign to pull corporate advertising from Twitter, following its purchase by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, is being led by a network of left wing dark money activists with ties to prominent Democrat politicians and mega donors. An advocacy group formed in 2020 called Accountable Tech is organizing the pressure campaign, which has thus far succeeded in having the likes of Pfizer, Audi, General Mills, and other corporations pull their advertising expenditures from the platform.

Rewarded traffic is a marketing tactic that works through online gaming apps. Players win reward points purely for consuming ads in the middle of a game. Click the ad and you’ll be redirected to a promotional web page and earn tokens in exchange for your attention. Close the ad and you’ll miss out on those points. So essentially, brands are ‘paying’ gamers to view their ads. When a player clicks the ad, this auto-downloads a podcast episode to their device and they earn reward points if they listen for longer than 20 seconds. But because they also download more than...

With all of the hype about 3-D printed guns, I've noticed a surge in interest in constructing your own guns. Not just assembling, but also building a rifle from scratch. The growing interest appears to be centred on making a political statement rather than evading rules. A declaration that the signal cannot be stopped. With a renewed interest in this type of build, I wanted to compile a list of all the guns that can be made from 80 percent receivers. 3-D printing guns is cool, but they aren't particularly good or effective weapons. 3D printers are costly, and the...

As midterm election campaigns heat up in the Senate’s top battlegrounds, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is canceling millions of dollars of ad spending, sending GOP campaigns and operatives into a panic and upending the committee’s initial spending plan. The cuts — totaling roughly $13.5 million since Aug. 1 — come as the Republicans’ Senate campaign committee is being forced to “stretch every dollar we can,” said a person familiar with the NRSC’s deliberations. Republican nominees in critical states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina — places the GOP must defend this fall — have failed to raise enough money...