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Mullvad VPN: Banned TV Ad in the Streets of London [video]
- vanyauhalin 7mo agoThe ad itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzvUW8qaWY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzvUW8qaWY (4min)
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 7mo agoPlease bring back port forwarding
- pestaa 7mo agoI have a use for them too, but unlikely to happen. Too powerful to abuse. https://mullvad.net/en/blog/removing-the-support-for-forwarded-ports https://mullvad.net/en/blog/removing-the-support-for-forward...
- _giorgio_ 7mo agoPeople where using it to run webservers behind a Mullvad VPN? It's quite bad not having a port forward when filesharing though.
- basilikum 7mo agoIt's more what's on the webserver than the webserver itself
- petcat 7mo ago> Mullvad was rejected by Clearcast, the organization responsible for approving all TV ads in the UK and ensuring they comply with the rules set by the authorities > “The overall concept lacks clarity.” “It is unclear why certain examples are included, who the ‘speaker’ represents, and the role of individuals depicted in the car.” > "Referencing topics such as: Paedophiles, Rapists, Murderers, Enemies of the state, Journalists, Refugees, Controversial opinions, People’s bedrooms, Police officers, Children’s headsets … is inappropriate and irrelevant to the average consumer’s experience with a VPN." Maybe it's just from an American perspective, but this is absolutely wild to me. Even just the concept of a government-mandated pre-approval body for advertisement seems like a completely pants-on-head concept [1]. I think the American First Amendment would obliterate this government body and probably the whole institution if it was ever tried. [1] Yes the FCC has limited authority after-the-fact to impose fines for things like indecency.
- wrboyce 7mo agoMy British perspective: I don’t want advertisers free to lie as much as they want. I’ve had ads taken off the TV for being clearly misleading (anyone can raise a complaint to the ASA - the Advertising Standards Agency).
- observationist 7mo agoDoubleplusgood, comrade, carry on the fine work.
- Mystery-Machine 7mo agoCensorship is not a solution. Instead, companies, whose messages are misleading, could pay a fine for their misleading message. Otherwise, you end up in 1984...sorry, I mistyped "UK in 2026".
- tw04 7mo agoA fine doesn’t undo a lie that’s already made it around the world. Although given Brexit I’d question how useful the ASA actually is. It seems Russian funded politicians were free to spew endless lies at the average citizen with no repercussions.
- Animats 7mo agoStrange ad for a VPN. Without the controversy, would people get it?
- NicuCalcea 7mo agoI saw the ads on the tube and was very confused. I knew about Mullvad, but it never crossed my mind they were trying to get me to search for "and then".
- pydry 7mo agoI was a customer before they started advertising. I saw the ads saying "and then?" and still didnt get it. I like the product but i think their ad campaigns suck. If they want exposure and controversy i think they should run adverts to kill new proposed laws, target privacy hating politicians, etc.
- OJFord 7mo agoMe too, but I don't think one's supposed to 'get it', the hope is that people wonder what it's all about and search 'mullvad ad "and then"' or whatever. Which as pre-existing customers we're probably already less likely to do.
- blendo 7mo agoI'm in SF where they advertise a lot, and the ads are incredibly niche and nerdy. But a general sense of paranoia comes through quite strongly.
- level87 7mo agoPersonally I find the advert a bit confusing, even with an understanding of what they are trying to achieve and their business. Was expecting something along the lines of Led By Donkeys...
- Kreutzer 7mo agoAwareness, I suppose. >Mass Surveillance is a slippery slope. It does not belong in Free and Open Societies.
- youngNed 7mo agoFWIW - I don't think this ad has been banned. But i stand to be corrected https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/rulings.html?q=mullvad https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/rulings.html?q=mull... This smacks of viral campaign to me.
- whywhywhywhy 7mo agoIt was Clearcast that rejected it you can see the reasoning here [0], seems to be mostly that it implies VPNs facilitate criminal activity and "irrelevant to the average consumer’s experience with a VPN". Either way they gave a real gift to the marketing team in rejecting it. Every person in advertising dreams of having to write the phrase "our banned ad" even more perfect when the ad was about tracking/censorship. [0]: https://cybernews.com/news/and-then-mullvads-anti-surveillance-tv-ad-blocked-in-the-uk/ https://cybernews.com/news/and-then-mullvads-anti-surveillan...
- ignoramous 7mo agoIn what world does rejection mean a ban? > way they gave a real gift to the marketing team A gift to us in how dishonest marketing can be, yeah. > "irrelevant to the average consumer’s experience with a VPN" Clearcast doesn't like snake oil, it'd seem.
- whywhywhywhy 7mo agoIt doesn't but it's a gift to marketing because they can claim it was a ban, which was my point. Yeah turns out marketing people lie and stretch the truth.
- akimbostrawman 7mo agoIn what way is a VPN a snakeoil? not to mention that Mullvad does a lot more than just that.
- edgyquant 7mo agoThe word ban has taken on the meaning of “not allowed in certain places”
- MitPitt 7mo agoMullvad becoming popular with huge ad campaigns is very sus. Either way I don't use it anymore because its ip ranges are banned on most websites.
- pixelesque 7mo agoYeah... I can't use Mullvad for several banks in the UK with IPv4 - if I switch to IPv6 in the app settings I sometimes can, but often I have to just disable it completely... I can't use Youtube anonymously (i.e. without logging in) within the last month or so either, as Youtube very often won't play content due to my IP as well...
- 0_____0 7mo agoI'm also weirded out by how much ad spend they have. Billboards? Ads on buses? Why? I want my VPN provider to be like the domain registrar Gandi, not super well known, consistent, and no-nonsense. I am a Proton user now, mostly because I finally realized VPN came with the email service I was already paying for. No complaints.
- mrweasel 7mo agoMaybe it's just me, but there's something extra dystopian about surveillance and privacy invasion, when presented with the London skyline in the background.
- ignoramous 7mo agoPlace a giant video ad in tourist places in London to sell adblock? And how much "surveillance" does a VPN prevent anyway? This is a regulatory & legislative problem and I don't see how any public VPN is part of the solution.
- pickleglitch 7mo agoThey aren't selling adblock. That's not the purpose of a vpn.
- ignoramous 7mo agoFor the universal right to choose whether or not to block ads and trackers, Mullvad VPN https://mullvad.net/en/blog/how-were-knocking-down-ads-and-tracking https://mullvad.net/en/blog/how-were-knocking-down-ads-and-t... / https://archive.vn/TMnG6 https://archive.vn/TMnG6 https://mullvad.net/en/blog/how-set-ad-blocking-our-app https://mullvad.net/en/blog/how-set-ad-blocking-our-app / https://archive.vn/cfyPe https://archive.vn/cfyPe
- mhitza 7mo agoThat's an extra service. I have it enabled but I don't recall it blocking much, an in-browser adblock is still required.
- lan321 7mo ago> And how much "surveillance" does a VPN prevent anyway? Changing your acc number every other month and paying anonymously is much easier on Mullvad than on the ISP level. You can also get multiple people on the number very easily. And Mullvad is likely an entity outside of your home country, hence more difficult to coerce than your ISP. In my eyes ISPs are compromised by default so the aim is to guard against them, if Mullvad is also as compromised it's more difficult for them to track me across account numbers and, even if they do, my data is then in another country, which worries me less than it being local since I'm not important enough to warrant international action.
- tupac_speedrap 7mo agoThe whole ad is vague slop tbh, I can see why it wasn't allowed to air, also I don't know why people fixate on CCTV when the vast majority of it is used by private companies and the government doesn't have access to it without a request, there isn't any mass surveillance in this case just business owners managing risk and monitoring for crimes on their property
- Telaneo 7mo agoIf we're going to ban ads, just ban them all.
- dizzy9 7mo agoSadly, it's Mullvad VPN itself which may be banned in the UK. VPNs will require identify verification. Not a problem for companies which require credit cards for payment, but Mullvad famously allows anonymous cash payments through the post.
- sunaookami 7mo agoWhen will the UK citizens stand up against the regime?
- direwolf20 7mo agoWhen they don't like it. You disagree with the regime, but the vast majority of UKranians do not.
- karel-3d 7mo agoHonestly both Labour and Conservatives are bound to take a beating next elections. I have no idea how will Greens and/or Reform government look like, we shall see.
- aPoCoMiLogin 7mo agonot gonna happen, the issue is very deeply rooted already, you can't change that without force
- sph 7mo agoMass surveillance and living in a police state is an ingrained part of British culture. It is no wonder to me that police procedurals are the most popular genre of TV shows in UK by quite a margin. They really are high-quality, but it does really feel like thinly-veiled propaganda (often commissioned by the BBC) portraying the State and police as the good guys in their endless quest against the baddies. Thank god there are CCTVs at every corner keeping the peace!
- walthamstow 7mo agoWeird extrapolation. They're popular in lots of places - Law & Order has been running 30 years. None of this is unique to the UK. I'm old enough to remember 24, the show that whitewashed torture while people were getting renditioned by the CIA. I'd be more surprised if there was a country where this kind of thing didn't happen.
- keernan 7mo agoWhat I have wanted for a very long time for America: 1. The government cannot ban any speech in advance of publication (eg verbally making the statement; or airing; or publishing etc). 2. If proven in Court that the statement maker: (a) knew the statement was false; (b) made the statement for the purpose of influencing public opinion regarding a law or government policy or election; or for the purpose of marketing a product for sale to the public; then the penalty upon conviction is...: here is the secret sauce: super severe penalty such as: imprisonment without chance of parole or pardon for 10 years unless you are an elected official or candidate for office, in which event life in prison; or loss of 50% of your assets; or something similar In other words, keep freedom of speech but if you are intentionally lying to the public for the purpose of impacting government affairs or the sale of a product - then you are going to suffer an incredibly punitive penalty.
- jeffwass 7mo agoLol, my band (London-based) has a song and YouTube music video called "Streets Of London". I had a minor panic/WTF moment when I saw the submission saying : "Streets of London [video] (youtube.com)".
- jeffwass 7mo agoFYI link is below, for the off-chance someone is curious. (not sure what are the unwritten rules of self-promotion here, but hopefully providing a link in a sub-comment instead of the comment itself makes it okay-ish?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3xj9cM0jk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI3xj9cM0jk
- ndr 7mo agoAt 2'58'' you can see a frame of them projecting on Senate House, London. During WW2 that was used by the Ministry of Information, and it inspired Orwell's description for the building of the Ministry of Truth. His wife Eileen worked in the building for the Censorship Department. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_House,_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_House,_London
- benterix 7mo agoWhy would I trust Mullvad VPN?
- Coeur 7mo agoMullvad's focus on privacy has been fantastic so far. But this ad made me reconsider: I want a VPN service that silently does its job in the background, not one that screams "look at me" with silly stunts and attempts at becoming viral.
- hashstring 7mo agoWhat if they can’t protect your privacy, if they do not create a successful and sustainable business?