Photographers are used to being behind the camera, but the prominence and rise of photography – particularly through social media – has created emerging opportunities for photographers. No longer relegated to pimping camera gear and workshops, the contemporary photographer has many more possibilities to endorse everything from cars to credit cars.
Advertisements on Instagram aren’t a new concept, but the folks at Facebook are working to open their image sharing platform to even more businesses around the globe. Beginning on September 30th, small businesses will be able to run advertisement campaigns on the network in more than 30 countries around the world.
Back in July, writer David Sikorski and photographer Kristina Bakrevski gained quite a bit of attention online after publishing engagement photos of Sikorski and his one true love: the burrito.
The idea was so popular and unusual that McDonald's decided to steal it for a new advertising campaign.
Canon has launched a lighthearted new advertising campaign for its PIXMA line of printers. Titled "Never Again," the series of short 30-second advertisements imagine disastrous moments in life when printing out a photo or document could have saved a person from a lifetime of mental trauma and regret.
Over in Japan, the electronics chain Yodobashi Camera places these creative ads on the sides of buses that turn the rear wheel into a lens for a giant camera. Kevin Warnecke spotted this one in Kyoto, Japan.
KFC Romania wants to help you make your life appear more exciting on social media. The restaurant chain's new 'Fakation' campaign features new tray liners that display photos from vacation spots around the world. You're supposed to use the photos as backgrounds to create fake vacation photos for sharing online.
To celebrate 60 years in Canada, KFC created a new bucket for fried chicken that doubles as an instant photo printer.
The "Memories Bucket" is a new high-tech, limited-edition bucket that helps you print your memories on the go as you're creating them with friends.
Artist Brian Kane recently purchased advertising time on digital billboards along interstate freeways in Massachusetts, but instead of putting up more ads to compete for commuter eyeballs, Kane decided to put up photographs of nature. The project is titled "Healing Tool."
Forever 21 has unveiled what it calls the F21 Thread Screen. It's a 2,000-pound contraption that can display any Instagram photo using 6,400 mechanical spools of thread.
Back in the 1970s, Olympus launched an advertising campaign for its Trip 35 35mm compact camera that featured renowned British photographer David Bailey. The 46-second commercial above is one of the ads that was aired: it depicted the popular racing driver James Hunt being confused for Bailey because of the Trip 35 he was shooting with.
Olympus has launched a bizarre and humorous new ad campaign to promote its mirrorless cameras at the expense of "heavy DSLRs." The ads feature a made up medical condition called DSL-ARM: "the affliction of having your arm stretched by using a heavy DSLR." Check out the 30-second ad above.
From the annals of strange photography promo products comes this: a barbecue grill that's designed to look like a roll of Kodak's 200 Kodacolor VR film.
Photographers often take pictures of things that touch them emotionally. Nikon wanted to help dogs do the same.
As part of a new "Heartography" project, the camera company has created a doggy camera mount that uses a built-in heart-rate monitor to snap photos of things that excite the dog.
A couple of days ago, the bourbon whisky brand Jim Beam posted a video to its Facebook page to promote its popular spirit. It was a repeatedly looped clip of its bourbon being poured into a glass with the pouring slowed down for effect. "Everything looks better in slow motion," the caption read.
Sony Australia has launched a new "Move to Mirrorless" advertising campaign that aims to lure people away from DSLRs and to the Alpha line of mirrorless cameras. To get its point across, Sony released the 60-second video above showing large mirrors shattering into little pieces in the desert in order to make way for "a new era in photography."
NYC photographer Joey L was recently tasked by Jose Cuervo, the best selling tequila brand in the world, to shoot advertising photos in its agave fields in Tequila, Mexico. The behind-the-scenes video above, part of Joey's Dudes with Cameras series, offers a look into how the shoot unfolded and the different challenges Joey and his team faced (warning: there's some strong language).
DJI announced the Phantom 3 yesterday, updating the world's most popular line of drones with much fanfare. However, one of the "filmed on Phantom 3" videos is drawing some ridicule and laughter.
In a short film titled "Lasting Love" (shown above), DJI touts the Phantom 3 as a great way to photograph and film indoor wedding ceremonies.
Israeli photographer Ronen Goldman was recently commissioned by UK-based premium luggage manufacturer Redland London to shoot a series of advertising photos promoting an upcoming line of luggage. The company wanted to show the durability of the product and how it helps you "be prepared for anything," so Goldman created a photo of a man protecting himself from a cloud of falling lemons. The video above is a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how the image was created.
It pays to have a lot of Instagram followers -- literally. Top users on the photo-sharing service these days are finding that their simple picture snapping can be turned into real dollars, and a lot of them at that. The numbers may astound you: some users are receiving thousands of dollars in exchanging for sharing a single photo that promotes a company's products.
Justin Poulsen is a conceptual photographer based in Toronto, Canada, who specializes in building physical props for his surreal photos rather than relying on digital trickery. To convey this fact for his latest promotional mailer campaign, Poulsen decided to take the idea of "thumb drives" very literally.
Advertising imagery for everything from basketball shoes to weightlifting attire usually features muscled athletes performing some amazing (if occasionally Photoshop-enhanced) feat. Photographer Dean Bradshaw decided to turn that idea on its head with his series Golden Years.
Online content studio Rubber Republic recently created something called #PictureBelfast, a photography-based viral campaign designed to showcase their city on behalf of Tourism Ireland.
But this isn't just a set of pretty pictures -- it's an interactive challenge that wants to see if you can tell the difference between a film photograph, and a filtered wannabe taken with a smartphone.
Annie Leibovitz is known for capturing photographs of the most exclusive and well-known celebrities in the world. So when The Corcoran Group launched their new Live Who You Are campaign to show off their high-end and exclusive brand of real estate, naturally, they called upon the renowned photographer to get the job done.
Update: Major changes have been made after learning a majority of the online coverage of this updated was incorrect.
Tumblr users post approximately 130 million photos every day. And starting this week, they will begin to sort through every single one of them for various brands and items, with the help of Ditto Labs.
If you've been thinking of swapping out your old DSLR for a more nimble mirrorless camera, but you just don't want to go through the hassle of selling your old kit and raising the necessary funds, Samsung has one hell of a deal for you.
On June 4th between the hours of 12pm and 6pm in Times Square, Samsung will GIVE you an NX30 for free if you're willing to hand over your DSLR (any DSLR) in exchange.
Editor's Note: This video is a tiny bit NSFW. All nudity has been censored, but the models are at times very scantily clad so you may want to wait until you're at home to watch it.
While The Body Issue of ESPN Magazine usually keeps the focus on bodies in a sporty sense, Fiat wanted to make an impression in its advertising pages as well.
And so, taking the Fiat 500C's motto "Made of Pure Muscle" to its most literal sense, Fiat used 15 circus performers, acrobats and artists to turn human bodies into a car without the help of Photoshop.
The popular wedding blog The Wedding Chicks has become the focus of much of the photo community's ire today after an article on the popular photography blog Fstoppers brought attention to one of their business practices. Namely: that they offer "social media packages" in which photographers can pay the blog to have their work featured on the Wedding Chicks Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter.
Media giant Clear Channel recently stirred up some controversy when it decided to flat out reject an advertising image of an American soldier embracing a veiled Muslim woman from its Times Square billboards due to its 'uncomfortable' nature.
Purists might not take to all of photographer Erik Almas' work, and in particular the work featured here, but if you can get over the fact that these are composites that necessarily need some help in the computer to come to life, Almas' advertising photography will blow your mind.
We knew that it was only a matter of time before Instagram bit the bullet and started adding advertisements to the app, and now the news is official. The Facebook-owned company itself has confirmed that ads will indeed be showing up in US users' feeds "in the next couple of months."