Two of the most popular video ads running in the last 12 months are for U.S. streaming services, according to YouTube.

With the ad world headed to Cannes for the big annual advertising conference, YouTube released its annual leaderboard, which included five ads from the U.S.

The top ad was for Netflix’s series Wednesday, showing The Addams Family’s Thing roaming around New York City.

The No. 2 ad is for Telecom Egypt, while No 3 introduces the iPhone 14 Pro from Apple, a competitor of YouTube parent Alphabet.

The No. 5 ad is for Qatar Airlines, followed by a Korean ad for Samsung, a World Cup-themed ad for Orange Egypt and an Italian ad for Bulgari.

U.S. ads for Peacock and Burger King round out the top 10.

“This year’s Cannes Ads Leaderboard is packed with a range of creative that exemplifies how the YouTube canvas doesn’t box brands in with formats,“ Sunny Kwok, creative director, U.S. Creative Works, at Google said. “There’s incredible diversity in terms of cultural and generational representation as well as production styles and approaches to storytelling. Collectively, they make for a great celebration, and the viewership numbers are testament to how great creative can connect with people.”  

The YouTube Cannes Ads Leaderboard is a list of the top 10 most popular video ads globally from June 2022-May 2023. The ad ranking is determined using some of YouTube’s strongest signals of viewer choice — including factors like organic and paid views, watch time and audience retention (or how much of a video people watched). 

Diversity in television commercials took a hit in 2022, with the share of people of color shown in ads dropping to 27.6% from 34.5%, according to a new study.

White people represented 72.5% of the actors in ads, up from 54.6%, the study found.

Black actors got 14.3% of the roles in ads, down from 16.5%. Hispanics fell to 5% from 9.6% and Asians in ads dropped to 8.3% from 8.4%.

“Diversity is such an important topic, yet there has been little quantifiable information available at scale related to the people featured in advertising creative,” said Melinda McLaughlin, CMO of Extreme Reach, which compiled the study. “We set out to give brands and agencies the information needed to make the decisions that matter to their business. This report provides a high level view of diversity in ads that establishes the baseline for the industry, from which brands can devise their own unique roadmap.” 

The majority of voices heard in commercials are male, with men making up 73% those speaking in ads, up from 65%, the study found. ■

A national ad self-regulatory body has asked AT&T to pull three TV commercials and pull or change a fourth that bad mouthed cable broadband and touted AT&T's superiority, but it did find some comparative claims were supported. Comcast had complained about the ads which AT&T had defended.

That final decision came in recommendations from the National Advertising Review Board (NARB), which hears appeals of decisions by National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs, which oversees advertising self-regulation. NARB's decisions are not binding, but come in the form of recommendations.

AT&T said it will comply but still thinks NARB was wrong to recommend modifying some AT&T Fiber ads.

Specifically, NARB said that AT&T should stop airing three ads with unsupported claims that cable broadband upload speeds aren't fast enough to handle videoconferencing, as well as stop airing or modifying an ad that claimed AT&T Fiber was superior to cable for videoconferencing and overall reliability.

NARB said: “[AT&T’s] ‘Special Lady’ commercial inaccurately conveys the message to reasonable consumers that cable services have a high degree of unreliability in providing basic videoconferencing as a consequence of substandard upload speeds. Further, both the ‘Super Fan’ and ‘Spanish Language’ commercials portray situations where cable subscribers are unable to connect to videoconferencing.”

The decision was just the latest in a regular round robin of complaints and counter complaints among service providers. 

In January, and after AT&T had complained to NAD, got a favorable ruling, and Comcast appealed to NARB, Comcast agreed to drop or modify the claim that it had the Best In-Home WiFi experience after AT&T complained. Comcast also agreed to drop an ad that implied that AT&T customers contracted for a speed they did not get and that AT&T service is substandard.

A month later, NARB, following a complaint from Verizon Communications, recommended that AT&T AT&T should either stop making the claim that it is “building 5G on America's best network,” or clarify that the company is referring to is its 4G network. 

Jif is aiming to get the hip-hop generation rapping about peanut butter with a new multichannel campaign featuring O.G. performer Ludacris and new school artist Gunna.

The Lil Jif Project is built around a video. Ludacris is having trouble finding his flow but discovers a new hot new sound after rapping with a mouthful of Jif. In the ad, the new mumbled song becomes a sensation and Jif’s parent, the J.M. Smucker Co., hopes life imitates art and has peanut butter on the roofs of mouths of music fans as Ludacris is releasing new music, Butter.ATL.

“We are honored that both Ludacris and Gunna chose to collaborate with us to prove our theory correct,” said Rebecca Scheidler, VP of marketing, Jif. “We think Butter.ATL is proof positive that everything is better with Jif peanut butter.”

The music video will be available on YouTube and commercials start airing Monday on TV morning shows including ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today and in primetime as Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns to NBC. Jif has also bought time on Disney’s Hulu and on Amazon.

The campaign uses the slogan “That Jif’ing Good.”

Jif is also using social media and influencer marketing to spread its message. The brand has created a TikTok challenge that asks them to perform a duet to Butter.ATL -- but they must perform with a mouthful of Jif peanut butter.

To add a bit of bling to the campaign, Ludacris worked with jeweler Icebox to create two limited edition 37 carat diamond and ruby Jif jar pendants. One is for Ludacris, the other for a “special use” to be announced, the company said.

Jif peanut butter is also making a contribution to the Boys & Girls Club, Ludacris’ charity of choice.

“Those who know me know I am a die-hard peanut butter lover – I even have it on my rider! The opportunity to bring together two things I love – Jif peanut butter and hip hop music – was a creative challenge I just couldn’t pass up,” said Ludacris. “I’ve been anticipating getting back into the studio for a while now and I saw this as a cool way to merge the best of my roots, inspired by the amazing sounds from artists like Gunna, to see what new-to-the-world magic I could create.”

Avoiding commercials isn’t the most important thing to TV viewers according to a new study that finds consumers interested in enduring ads even on Netflix if they get a lower price for the service.

Hub Entertainment Research’s TV Advertising: Fact vs. Fiction report finds that on 17% of consumers said they can’t tolerate advertising and would never sign up for a TV service that has commercials. A whopping 57% said they can tolerate some ads and another 26% said that if the content is interesting, it doesn’t matter whether or not there are ads.

Consumers are even more tolerant of ads if they get a discount on the price of a subscription service, with 58% saying that if they got a $4 or $5 discount, they’d choose an ad-supported option, while 47% said they’d rather avoid ads.

Netflix has long said it would never sell advertising, making this new survey particularly interesting.

Hub found that if Netflix created a tier with pre-roll ads that costs $5 less per month, 46% of Netflix subscribers said they’d switch to the ad supported service. If there were a tier with pre-roll and mid-roll ads for $5 less per month, 39% would sign up.

Among the viewers who said they can’t tolerate ads, 73% said they subscribed to ad-free Netflix, 57% got Amazon Prime Video and 57% said they used a free streaming service with ads.

For the group that said content mattered most, 58% subscribe to Netflix, 44% to Prime Video and 52% use free ad-supported streaming services.

Hub found that 95% of viewers watch both ad free and at least one ad supported channels.

Hub asked viewers who recently watched a show with commercials to tell them how they felt about the ad load. Among viewers who thought they saw 5 spots or fewer, 47% thought the number was reasonable and 32% thought it was unreasonable. When viewers said they saw six to 10 spots, 33% called it reasonable and 34% said it was unreasonable. When they said they saw 11 or more commercials, just 27% thought it was reasonable and 49% called it unreasonable.

Among the viewers who said they saw five or fewer spots, 35% said they paid attention to all or most of the ad, while just 23% of those who saw 11 or more spots said they paid attention.

“What’s clear from these findings is that what matters to consumers is not whether ads are included in the content they watch, but how ads are delivered,” said Mark Loughney, Hub senior consultant and co-author of the study. “Even consumers who say they’re categorically opposed to ads will use an ad-supported platform if the price and ad delivery are right.”

Hub’s TV Advertising: Fact Vs. Fiction study is based on interviews conducted among 3,0001 US consumers ages 14-74, who watch at least one hour of TV per week. The data was collected in June 2021.

The FCC is seeking comment on whether it needs to update its rules limiting excessively loud commercials.

That came in a request from the Media Bureau and following a letter to FCC acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), author of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act that the FCC rules implement, citing a press report that complaints to the FCC about loud commercials increased sharply from April 2020 through February 2021, with the article concluding that "2021 is poised to be the worst year since the initial rollout" of the CALM Act.

Also Read: CALM Act Creator Eyes Streaming

The CALM Act, which passed over a decade ago, requires TV stations and MVPDs to make sure all commercials are transmitted "at the appropriate loudness level in accordance with the industry standard mandated in the statute," a standard that was subsequently adjusted by the FCC to ensure that silent parts of commercials couldn't be used to bring the average down for loud passages.

"We seek comment on the extent to which our rules have been effective in preventing loud commercials," the FCC said. "In particular, we invite consumers to tell us their experiences as they watch programming provided by television broadcasters and MVPDs."

The goal of the law is to prevent commercials from being delivered at volumes louder than the surrounding programming.

While viewers won't see some of the usual advertisers, the Super Bowl ad game will still be strong. 

Take a look below at a sampling of the big ads for the big game.

After securing a $75 million funding round in April, its second major cash infusion, start-up virtual pay TV operator fuboTV is about to launch its second national TV ad campaign.

The first in the series of four 30-second spots under the don’t “Don’t Compromise” campaign banner will begin running in September during national TV coverage of the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball games, as well as on regional sports networks.

Related: fuboTV Raises $75M More

The broadly targeted spots will feature adults enduring the silly consequences of modern-life compromises, but who ostensibly eschewed giving up ground on their TV package.

As is often the case, the video market share of cable companies is a major target. 

“Last year's campaign targeted male sports fans who wanted the most sports for the least money. Today, we're leading with sports but, with the addition of premium entertainment and news networks to the lineup, we’ve built a true cable replacement for the whole family. More value means no compromise.” said Alberto Horihuela, co-founder and chief marketing officer, fuboTV, in a statement.

fuboTV hasn’t released an official subscriber count, but Strategy analytics put out an estimate for all major vMVPD operators last week that pegged fubo’s customer base at around 325,000. MCN ran that by a fuboTV rep last week, who didn’t confirm the figure … but didn’t challenge it, either. 

You can watch fuboTV's latest spots below:

"Yoga"

"Cat"

Rentrak has received patents for its method of calculating exact commercial ratings and it means to generating ratings when the return path data is incomplete.

The Nielsen research competitor says the U.S. patents afford it and its clients an advantage when it comes to gauging the new ways television programs are consumed.

“Once again, the U.S. Patent Office has recognized Rentrak’s unique inventions that help it measure TV everywhere,” said Rentrak vice chairman and CEO Bill Livek.

U.S. Patent 8,887,188 is for a method that secures Rentrak’s intellectual property rights around “Exact Commercial Ratings.”  Rentrak provides, to the second, the rating for national commercials to give advertisers precise accountability. That differs than Nielsen's average of commercials in a pod, according to the company.

The government awarded Rentrak U.S. Patent 8,893,165 for its method and system that compensates for problems with return path TV data storage. In some cases, a return path TV is unable to store all the channel changes before sending them back for processing by Rentrak. This patent detects when this problem occurs, enabling Rentrak to fix the problem quickly.

We tv will look to encourage viewing of its shows within three days of air through an new social promotional initiative.

The network’s Watch W/In initiative will offer prizes to viewers who watch WE Tv’s most popular shows live, on demand or via DVR within three days of the show’s airing, said network officials. The initiative encourages viewers to watch through commercials and promotional spots to be eligible for weekly prizes and one grand prize drawing, as well as to spark participation in social media conversations.

The Watch W/In effort will debut Thursday during the network's Tamar & Vince series.During a WE tv spot within the show, a specific code word will be featured which viewers can enter at wetv.com to receive a Tamar & Vince swag bag. All participants will also be automatically entered into a grand prize sweepstakes to win a home theater system.

“We know many viewers today want to time shift their favorite shows and watch on their own timetables, but promoting urgent viewing within three days is meaningful for the network and our advertisers,” said Marc Juris, WE tv’s president in a statement.  “Watch W/In is a fun and innovative effort to encourage viewers to watch our most popular shows within three days, which is significant both for our advertisers and for promoting the kind of communal and conversational experience consistent with our new brand. Whenever possible, we want people watching and talking about our shows in a variety of ways as they happen, and Watch W/In serves this important brand-building goal.”