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There are no recruitment ads for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) running on Spotify at the moment, the streaming service has told Variety. A spokesperson has confirmed the news after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, but they also clarified that the ads stopped running in late 2025. The advertisements mentioned were part of a US government recruitment campaign that ran across all major media and platforms, they explained. Spotify caught flak back in October for playing ICE ads, asking people to join the mission to protect America, in between songs for users on the ad-supported plan. The advertisements even promised $50,000 signing bonuses for new recruits. Campaigns were launched to urge users to cancel their subscriptions and to boycott the service, and even music labels called on the company to stop serving ICE advertisements. Spotify said back then that the ads dont violate its policies and that users can simply mark them with a thumbs up or down to let the platform know their preferences. The company reportedly received $74,000 from Homeland Security for the ICE ads, but thats a tiny amount compared to what other companies received. According to a report by Rolling Stone, Google and YouTube were paid $3 million for Spanish-language ads that called for self-deportation, while Meta received $2.8 million. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-is-no-longer-running-ads-for-ice-130000672.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Another first-party Xbox game is making the leap to PlayStation 5. This time around, Obsidians Avowed one of our favorite games of last year is crossing the great divide. The fantasy action RPG will hit Sonys console on February 17, one day shy of the games first anniversary. As it happens, an anniversary update is set to go live on all platforms at the same time. This includes a new game+ mode (allowing those who have beaten the RPG to replay it with all their gear and upgrades from their previous run), a photo mode, a new weapon type and more. Avowed is set in the same universe as Obsidians Pillars of Eternity games. It tasks you with investigating a fungal plague that has infested the world. The writing is stellar throughout, though the sidequests that reveal your companions backstories are particularly poignant," Engadget senior reporter Jessica Conditt wrote. "Avowed is gorgeous, its combat systems are fully customizable, its characters are intriguing and its encumbrance limit is generous. Theres a real sense of magic about the entire game and no, thats not just the mind-altering mushrooms talking."Microsoft has brought a string of first-party Xbox games to PS5 over the last couple of years, freeing them from console exclusivity. Forza Horizon 5, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II and Sea of Thieves are among the games that have crossed over to PlayStation. Later this year, youll even be able to play a Halo game on PS5, something that was utterly unthinkable not too long ago. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/xbox-is-bringing-avowed-to-ps5-120000035.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Midway through singing at Taipei Dome late December, Jolin Tsai mounted a 30-meter mechanical serpent that carried her through the venue while she performed "Medusa" a spectacle that left 40,000 attendees stunned and went viral online.The pop star's "PLEASURE" world tour, which cost around USD 280 million to produce, opened with a three-story-tall ceremonial bull procession before Tsai appeared unexpectedly on an elevated platform wearing a dual-faced mask expressing both pleasure and pain. The massive snake, which she rode as she circled the entire dome, was just one element of what ETtoday reports was the most expensive concert production in the Taipei Dome's history. The show's five narrative chapters also featured nearly 30 large-scale art installations and 20 hybrid fantasy creatures.TREND BITEAs generative AI makes digital spectacle infinitely reproducible, physical experiences are moving into the realm of the impossible to fake. Tsai's serpent too massive, too mechanical, too viscerally present to be dismissed as a deepfake exemplifies how live entertainment is weaponizing scale and IRL overwhelm against the flattening effect of screens.The strategy extends beyond concert stages: Louis Vuitton's ship-shaped Seoul flagship and Gentle Monster's theatrical retail spaces demonstrate that when algorithms can conjure anything, brands compete by building what AI cannot: three-dimensional absurdity that demands physical presence to fully comprehend. The question facing industries from hospitality to automotive isn't whether to embrace maximalism, but whether they can engineer moments so deliberately excessive that "you had to be there" becomes the ultimate social currency.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
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