Wednesday Wake-Up Call: A scary ad spooks YouTube viewers. Plus, will New York magazine be sold? | Advertising

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device. Search for “Ad Age” under “Skills” in the Alexa app. What people are talking about today: YouTube viewers have complained of being freaked out by the sudden appearance of a zombie-nun on their screens. It’s an ad for the horror flick “The Nun,” and it comes out of nowhere. One Twitter user shared a warning about the ad that was retweeted 134,000 times. As Gizmodo reports, YouTube says it removed the ad for violating its rules on violent and shocking content. YouTube’s list of no-nos includes content with a lot of blood or guts, and promotions that are “likely to shock or scare.”

Just a thought: It’s possible the team behind “The Nun” is delighted the ad was deemed too scary for YouTube. “This is the best possible press for a horror movie,” tweeted John Squires, editor of a horror genre website, Bloody Disgusting. “YouTube removing the ad is infinitely better marketing than the ad having been left up.”

‘This is a commercial’

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