Facebook Is Testing AR Ads in News Feed

(Image credit: Facebook)

Facebook has announced a rollout of mobile ads utilizing augmented reality. Soon, your feed will be filled with interactive experiences with the intent to sell you products.

On Tuesday, Facebook announced their new AR ad feature that will place virtually engaging advertisements in the News Feed. In its announcement to advertisers, Facebook claims that, “by incorporating calls-to-action within the camera experience, people can seamlessly go from engaging with your product—such as trying on a lipstick shade or exploring a new game—to making a purchase or installing an app.” Facebook’s marketing team seems to be attempting to make advertisers’ products as tangible as possible.

Michael Kors will be the first to test Facebook’s new AR advertisements, allowing customers to ‘try on’ their sunglasses through an augmented selfie. The new service is reminiscent of advertised Snapchat filters, and Facebook will also redirect users to product pages after a Clueless-closet-type virtual styling. The hope is that using AR in marketing will make consumers engage in ads, rather than just scroll by them.

This new ad experience is intended to lure in holiday shoppers, who do more and more gift-giving through online shops. In the lead up to peak holiday rush, more ads will start showing up for testing. Expect to see brands including Sephora, NYX Professional Makeup, Bobbi Brown, Pottery Barn and Wayfair in your augmented News Feed this summer.

  • dextermat
    "Facebook has announced a rollout of mobile ads utilizing augmented reality. Soon, your feed will be filled with interactive experiences with the intent to sell you products."

    Sounds like cancer to me. Marketing and ads are cancer! People pushing advertisement like this is cancer. If you need to lie, deform reality, overhaul, play psychological games with people mind to sell your product, it should not exist.
    Reply
  • salgado18
    Amazing where tech has led us.

    I just hope I can turn that off.
    Reply
  • funguseater
    Great, just another way to piss on consumers. We can only hope ad-blockers keep up.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    21130501 said:
    Great, just another way to piss on consumers. We can only hope ad-blockers keep up.

    It's a constant cat and mouse game between ad companies and websites and tools for removing said ads. I've noticed that websites that depend a lot if not mostly on ad revenue get sneaky with embedded videos on their sites that Ad Blocker Plus misses. I when I come across a website that has a bunch of crap spamming up my computer, I vote with my mouse click finger and don't ever visit it again.

    Regarding Facebook, I continue to be at a loss as to why so many allow their privacy and personal lives to be abused by such a wicked monster that in my opinion is out of control. Well no, it's not just my opinion. It's the opinion of the DOJ, FTC, FBI, and SEC who all four are investigating Facebook for possible user privacy violations.

    By the way this reminds me of the scenes in Minority Report where Tom Cruise's character sees billboard type ads tailored just for him while walking around in public. Are we far from governments mind reading us and sending us to prison if they see a thought they do not like? We are already halfway there with some "activist" groups and politicians labeling speech they do not agree with as "hate speech" and want to make it a crime. Case in point? The phrase "illegal alien."
    Reply
  • bit_user
    IMO, the only thing really wrong with this is how they're going to push it in people's faces. If it were completely voluntary, then it would be all good. I guess the other thing is that FB needs strong protection around any data captured from people's cameras. Not sure we can trust them with that...

    On a pragmatic level, big concerns are going to be loading speed and battery drain. Laptop users might also get annoyed by their fan continually spinning up and down, as these ads open and close.
    Reply
  • Non-Euclidean
    Well, you can always grow up and stop using Facebook.
    Reply
  • AnimeMania
    So I can take a picture of a woman and tell Facebook I want to see what she looks like in a bikini and sexy lingerie and Facebook will whip me up some pictures. Sweet!!

    i wonder what her husband will say when I show them to him?
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    21132490 said:
    So I can take a picture of a woman and tell Facebook I want to see what she looks like in a bikini and sexy lingerie and Facebook will whip me up some pictures. Sweet!!

    i wonder what her husband will say when I show them to him?

    LOL! Or you can simply just get a life off the smart phone/computer and get out in the real world to ogle her when the couple is on the beach and then deal with how her husband reacts. Who knows. Depending on where you are, you might get lucky and they are swingers. Odds turn more in your favor in LA and Miami of encountering those couples. This is just my experience working in hotels while in college and later on one cruise ship. And no, I did not get into that just for the record.
    Reply
  • AnimeMania
    21132833 said:
    LOL! Or you can simply just get a life off the smart phone/computer and get out in the real world to ogle her when the couple is on the beach and then deal with how her husband reacts. Who knows. Depending on where you are, you might get lucky and they are swingers. Odds turn more in your favor in LA and Miami of encountering those couples. This is just my experience working in hotels while in college and later on one cruise ship. And no, I did not get into that just for the record.

    I am just saying that before, perverts had the cut out the picture of the woman's head and glue it onto a picture of a sexy woman. This software does it for you.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    21133034 said:
    I am just saying that before, perverts had the cut out the picture of the woman's head and glue it onto a picture of a sexy woman. This software does it for you.

    Before the internet it was a full scale sized cardboard store poster stand of a supermodel with a surfboard guys would steal and take home to sleep with. Family Guy has a great episode mocking that.
    Reply