How to opt-out of auto-play videos in Facebook

If you hadn’t heard, Auto-play ads videos in the Facebook mobile app (and desktop) are on their way.

Facebook Videos - DEATH

Good? Bad? Annoying? All three? Yeah, maybe. But look, here’s the bad news: on mobile, you can’t actually switch them off. What you can do however is prevent them from playing over your mobile network. In other words, make the videos only download over Wi-Fi only, and ostensibly opt-out of letting them auto-play on your handset.

Here’s how that works.

  • On iOS
    Go to Settings -> Facebook -> Facebook Settings -> ‘Auto-Play videos on WiFi only’
  • On Android
    Go to Facebook -> swipe right to the options pane -> App Settings -> ‘Auto-play videos on WiFi only’

Switch off auto-play videos in Facebook mobile

The benefits of this are two fold:

  1. If you’re hardly ever connected to wi-fi, you can pretty much ‘opt out’ of this auto-play media completely.
  2. If you’re not on any kind of unlimited data plan with your network provider, this will prevent Facebook eating into that precious data.

 

Hat tip to he who spotted this, Charles Arthur.
Go give him a follow.

 

REKALL

Creative print advertising on the tube shocker. 2012 edition.

Rekall

While the above ad isn’t as inventive (or as contextually aware) as the awesome Limitless Clear Pill ads from early last year, the above ad for the new Total Recall film (yes, another re-make) the similarities between the two still shine through – and I like it.

Let’s start with the basics: the above ad is not for Total Recall. No no. It is for the entirely fictional company [from the film] ‘Rekall‘.

Using real world reference points for what is a very futuristic film is a touch of genius, I love it. There are two main variants on the ad, one puts you as a football star and the other gifts you women and a yacht.

Rekall

“Tell us your fantasy,” the ad says “We’ll make it real*”
– the asterisk is used to perfection

Rekall Tube Ads

Why else does this work?

1. Title [or lack thereof]
If you slap ‘Total Recall’ on anything the first question that’d pop into anyone’s head is ‘Where’s Arnie?’. The original film is such an iconic sci-fi of its generation; it’s cheesy as hell and some of its Paul-Verhoeven-directed moments are stalwarts of early 90s pop-culture. Getting over that is not easy. So just ignore it! If we don’t mention the original, we won’t get the Schwarzenegger mind pop! Win!

 2. They make it REAL
As I mentioned, it uses real world fantasies to bring the message home and to pique commuters’ interest. I love the idea of fictional companies advertising fictional products from the films that they feature in and communicating this in the way – making it real, if you will – works perfectly.

How could it be better?

First and foremost the ad doesn’t work as hard as the Limitless efforts from March 2011. The two call to actions (one web, one Twitter) are semi-usable in our new kind-of-online London Underground BUT I don’t think its strong enough to warrant an online only response. There’s no recognition that you’re without mobile signal, and for that REKALL lose points.

Overall though, it’s a good effort and hey, I’m blogging about it!

Grade: B+
Better than most, but still room for improvement.

 

Notes:

  • The website is actually ace (up until you realise the Facebook bits don’t work).
  • Apologies for the blurry photos; it’s really hard to take photos on the tube without looking like a complete weirdo.
  • Finally, it turns out the new film isn’t actually that good either.  Damn.

Parallels

I found this yesterday via one of my favourite blogs, Brandflakes for Breakfast.

It’s a great ad. Not because of the product it’s selling, or because of the star that features (although I doubt anyone else could pull it off quite like Dafoe) but ultimately, it’s a wonderful story – extremely well told.

Admittedly it’s arguable what the video is actually selling; it’s obviously Jim Beam, but it could quite easily be Greyhound too – especially given the language structure around choices and decisions etc.

Either way, it’s a stellar piece of film-making.
Good job.

Come on, someone just do it already #1

This might turn into a semi-regular feature.
Hence the number. We’ll see.

On with the post.

_________________________________________________________________

These adverts – from UK-based electronics retailer, Dixons – have been springing up all around London lately. Take a look:

Read all that? Good. Right then.

Is it just me or is there a MASSIVE opportunity here for a competitor to come along and have some fun with this?

Alright the ads are actually quite well done. Providing a playful spin on the words ‘the last place you want to go’ as well as taking a cheeky swipe at some of the more… stuffier… of London’s largest department stores, these billboards do raise a smile.

But still. If I was a keen-eyed ad man I might be tempted, with the right client, of course (someone like ebay maybe?) to go away, knock up some good-sized stickers and then in one night, do one big hit on them all.

Guerrilla style.

You see what I mean? Bam.

So come on, someone just do it already!

And that was going to be it from me but, when I researched the ads some more it turned out that not everyone is a fan of this new campaign.

Nigel Paine writes:

“Then there are the nasty Dixons Ads on the tube at the moment. They tell you to spend your time learning about your product from well-trained (threfore ponsy) shop assistants in well-known stores like Harrods, Peter Jones and John Lewis and then buy at Dixons on line. Why do I not find this amusing?

.

Firstly because of the snobbery, and secondly that Dixon’s shop assistants are the diametric opposite of knowledgable and helpful, and a terrible glimpse at what shopping might become if Dixons had its way. Thirdly the idea of checking out the store first and talking about what you want, and then checking out online vendors to get the best price happens all the time.

.

Better not bite the hand that feeds you!”

He makes a good point.

The value of the online shopping market is growing year on year while that of the high street is steadily declining. And while you have to applaud Dixons for attempting to drive traffic to their online store, I for one can’t help thinking that there is a slight danger of them shooting themselves in the foot:

Time will tell.  After all, similar things have happened before.

Thanks for reading.