Consumers in the U.K. who buy one of two models of Panasonic Ultra HD Blu-ray players will receive a free copy of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call in an exclusive bundle, Panasonic U.K. said in a Friday announcement. Panasonic is running the promotion to trumpet the “imminent launch” of its new DMP-UB700 Ultra HD Blu-ray player, though the offer also will apply to buyers of the existing DMP-UB700 model, the company said. Consumers who act on the offer when it begins Nov. 3 will get a three-week head start on the new Ghostbusters title, which Sony Pictures Home Entertainment won’t release to the British public on Ultra HD Blu-ray until Nov. 21, Panasonic said. The title was released Oct. 11 in the U.S. on Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Enforcement of Digital Advertising Alliance guidance on how companies collect and use consumer data, deliver targeted ads and provide notice and choice to people across their multiple devices will begin Feb. 1, said a DAA Thursday news release. "This enforcement date sets a common marker for the industry to achieve compliance with the DAA cross-device guidance, so consumers have access to more uniform notice around cross-device practices and know their choices on each browser or device are honored," said Executive Director Lou Mastria. DAA said the guidance explains how its principles apply to browser- and app-based choices made by consumers to data collected on that browser or device and used elsewhere. The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will independently enforce DAA's cross-device guidance for all companies that collect and use data covered by the DAA principles.

Facebook is talking with the Association of National Advertisers on how the company and ANA can work more closely together, emailed a Facebook spokesman, in response to criticism the company overestimated video viewing for two years (see 1609290075). "Trust and transparency with our partners are paramount to the operation of our company," emailed a spokesman Thursday. "Our focus has always been on driving business results for our clients, and we strongly believe in third-party verification. We have a history of working with industry leaders including Nielsen, Moat, and comScore -- and we continue to explore more partnerships.” ANA President Bob Liodice said Thursday in a blog post that Facebook should be audited and accredited by the Media Rating Council or another third party, which he called "table stakes" for digital ads.

Facebook's recent disclosure that it overestimated video viewing for two years is "troubling," and the site hasn't reached "the level of measurement transparency that marketers need and require," said Association of National Advertisers President Bob Liodice in a Thursday blog post. He said Facebook's metrics aren't accredited by the Media Rating Council and it's time for the company and others to be audited and accredited, since marketers spend billions of dollars on Facebook. Last week, the company said in a post it discovered an error in how it calculated video metrics on its dashboard and fixed it. The company didn't comment.

Updated draft industry standards for digital ads that can fit across any type of screen and incorporate encryption and privacy principles were released for comment, said the Interactive Advertising Bureau in a Monday news release. Comments on the updated IAB Standard Ad Unit Portfolio will be received through Nov. 28 and will be evaluated by an IAB working group, which will release a final version. “Its flexible ad units will allow for creative to scale to different sizes without losing any of its original messaging and impact," said IAB President Randall Rothenberg. "By incorporating the tenets of LEAN into the portfolio, consumer experience on ad-supported sites will greatly improve." Lean refers to a set of principles, including: light or limited file sizes; encrypted with HTTPS/SSL compliant ads; the Digital Advertising Alliance's AdChoices opt-out tool; and nondisruptive ads for all display, mobile, native and video formats. The revised standards also provide guidelines for virtual reality and 360-degree video ads and those that use emojis and stickers. Once the standards are finalized, IAB and IAB Tech Lab will provide webinars, visuals and additional guidance and tools to help with the transition from older standards. Adoption will be "supported by an updated file weight-sizing grid to better allow for ease-of-use and innovation," the release said.

Comcast and Dish Network are being advised to drop particular ad claims having to do with availability of content and with costs associated with the service, by the National Advertising Division (NAD), the investigative unit of the ad industry’s self-regulation system. In a news release Thursday, NAD said DirecTV challenged Comcast ad claims about the DBS service being based on old technology and having a quarter of the "unique TV show and movie titles" that DirecTV offers. NAD said it didn't agree with Comcast that consumers would understand the claim to include identical programming each time it's available on different platforms, such as via set-top box, online or mobile app. In a statement, Comcast said it "will take NAD’s recommendations into account in developing future advertisements.” In a separate news release Thursday, NAD said Dish agreed to drop ad claims challenged by DirecTV, saying Dish had adequate support to back other claims. NAD said Dish voluntarily dropped claims about the average monthly bill amount for DirecTV customers and DirecTV assessing a particular price increase. Dish "agrees to comply with NAD’s decision," the company said in a statement. Though pleased with NAD determining the local channels fee claim was supported, it disagreed with NAD treating claims that it didn't even review as though it had recommended their discontinuance when Dish independently decided to end the ads before the initiation of the NAD process, Dish said.

U.S. and European advertising, media and technology organizations announced Thursday the formation of a coalition to develop new global standards for online ads. In a joint news release, the 17-member Coalition for Better Ads -- including the Association of National Advertisers, Google, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and Washington Post -- said it will create "consumer-based, data-driven standards ... to improve the consumer ad experience," develop technology to implement such standards and solicit consumer and business feedback. "Members recognize that there is room for improvement with the current online advertising, as indicated in part by the emergence of ad blocking,” said Nancy Hill, CEO of American Association of Advertising Agencies, another member. She said the ad industry needs to find out why consumers aren't responding to such ads and fix it. In a speech last week, IAB CEO Randall Rothenberg criticized the ad-blocking industry, but conceded the ad industry hasn't responded to increasing consumer dislike and distrust of online ads (see 1609090057). NAI CEO Leigh Freund said in the release that when consumers have a bad experience with ads, it affects publishers, ad tech companies, agencies and advertisers. Fixing the issue "in a structured way" will put consumers first and hold the industry accountable, she said. Other coalition members are BVDW Germany, Digital Context Next, Direct Marketing Association, European Publishers Council, GroupM, IAB-Europe, IAB-Tech Lab, News Media Alliance, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and World Federation of Advertisers.

EvanTube's YouTube channels that provide content to families and children will now include an audio disclosure before new sponsored videos to let viewers, especially children, understand they're about to see advertising, said the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU), the ad industry's investigative unit administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, in a Monday news release. EvanTube channels, including EvanTubeHD, EvanTubeRAW and EvanTubeGaming, feature videos of a young boy named Evan and his family involved in art projects, field trips, games and other activities. EvanTube generates 85 percent of revenue from pre-roll ads, which run before the family-produced content, said CARU, while 15 percent comes from sponsored product deals made directly with children's marketers. The investigative unit said it determined that sponsored content is both national advertising defined by the Self-Regulatory Program for Children’s Advertising guidelines and native advertising, which means ads look like the editorial content of the channels. In examining 132 sponsored videos on EvanTube, the investigative unit said 84 provided some text disclosure and only 36 included an audio disclosure. Citing FTC guidelines on native ads (see 1512220031), CARU said it didn't agree with EvanTube's arguments that children understand "brought to you by [brand]" or "sponsored by [brand]" nor did EvanTube provide evidence how children understand or interpret such terms. CARU concluded sponsored videos are ads and should be labeled as such with a "prominent audio disclosure" before the sponsored content begins. EvanTube didn't comment, but CARU said EvanTube said it appreciated the review and agreed with the recommendation.

Capitol Records partnered with Crate & Barrel to promote its 75-year anniversary with a vinyl-inspired home furnishings line and accompanying sweepstakes. Top prize in the sweepstakes is a trip to a “star-studded” party on Capitol’s back lot in Los Angeles, round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations and a $500 Crate & Barrel gift card. The home furnishings retailer recently launched a vinyl-inspired collection of furniture and accessories called Listening Room to commemorate the anniversary. The collection includes 75 Capitol releases priced from $19.95 to $34.95. The Beatles' Abbey Road was selling at Crate & Barrel Thursday for $22.95 vs. $19.87 at Amazon. Under Accessories in the Listening Room collection were an Orbit Plus turntable ($379), Bowers & Wilkins P5 wireless headphones ($299), Audio Engine desktop speakers ($249 per pair), and brass and black metal LP frames ($49).

LG’s 55EG9100 55-inch 1080p curved smart OLED TV was an Amazon Deal of the Day Monday, selling for 21 percent off at $1,099. The model year 2015 TV had a 4.5-star rating from 89 reviews. Among the 64 questions about the TV were queries on Wi-Fi, burn in, 1080p vs. 4K, 5.1 audio via the optical output, mounting bracket compatibility, Netflix and Amazon streaming, measurements of the supplied stand, game mode and response time, Bluetooth compatibility, refresh rate, headphone jack, number of HDMI inputs and compatibility with AV receivers. Questions showed customers’ continued confusion over different TV features and labels. One asked if 1080p or 4K was the better investment. Another asked which was better, OLED or 4K. The listing had numerous questions about 3D playback including whether the supplied 3D glasses had a clip-on pair for prescription glasses and whether active 3D glasses could be used with a passive 3D TV. One customer asked how picture quality of OLED compared with the CRT TV he wanted to replace.