You're not at home on the metro! And in Tokyo, the transport authorities have decided to let passengers know it. A lecture in life in pictures, with some interesting lessons to be learnt... Read more.

© G. Nunn/atheistcampaign.org

This is the message that 30 London buses will be carrying from January. Read more...

To publicise his donkey meat, a butcher from Hunan sent fake Japanese soldiers marching through the streets on asses. For once, the Japanese and Chinese agree on something - that the stunt was anything but funny. Read more...

Romanian immigrants have been given such a bad reputation in Europe that the Romanian government has ordered for an expensive publicity campaign to improve the country's image abroad. Some see it as a hidden message- that not all Romanians are Roma. Read more...

Posted on Flickr by "Vents du Nord".

In an attempt to escape the "boring" box that Apple has firmly placed it in, Microsoft is spending $300 million on a full scale marketing blitz. After a disappointing reaction to the first stage - the Seinfeld ads that nobody understood - stage two, "I'm a PC", was launched on Thursday. Read more and see the ads...

A deodorant advert that showed an apparently irresistible chocolate man being gnawed on by scantily clad women has been banned in India. An advertising executive in the country explains why it was so offensive. Read more and see the ad.

This advert for a Nissan-Renault car, aired in Israel, has incensed the Saudi population. Read more...

UPDATE (30 July 08 - 4.30pm): Mars has announced the advert has been withdrawn from British television. Until now it has only been shown on UK TV and not broadcast in the US except for at the Superbowl. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority only received two complaints about it, but the ad was pulled anyway because of controversy in the US.

One of our Observers in Washington, blogger John Aravosis has alerted us to a seemingly homophobic advert from chocolate bar brand Snickers. This is the second time in 18 months that Snickers, who was forced to withdraw a gay-offensive ad last February, has faced criticism for homophobic advertising. Read more and see the ad...

They all follow the same format - an anonymous video, supposedly amateur, of an incredible act or experience appears online. Once a buzz has been created, the so-thought home-made footage turns out to be an advert. A successful marketing strategy indeed, but does it meet ethical standards? Read more and see the videos.

A campaign about the Beijing Olympics produced for Amnesty International France was considered so aggressive by its creators that they decided to call off its release. Too late to stop it from getting to Chinese webusers though... Read more.