Newsweek has hired Richard Addis to head up its overseas coverage as it gets ready to resurrect its print edition as a slick, upmarket weekly this week. Addis, the former editor of Canada’s Globe and Mail and London’s Daily Express, started today as editor in chief of Newsweek EMEA, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Arby's is paying Pharrell Williams $44,100 for his Vivienne Westwood designer hat, which achieved Twitter fame when the pop artist wore the eye-catching lid during the Grammies
Imagination and ingenuity can drive you almost anywhere—even to the Academy Awards telecast. So learned Jude Chun, a South Korean independent filmmaker whose delightful minute-long winning entry in Chevrolet and MOFILM's international Oscars competition aired during Sunday night's gala on ABC. The film-within-a-film, created with co-directors Eunhae Cho and Sunyoung Hwang, shows some imaginative kids making a movie of their own, called "Speed Chaser." Chevy's 2014 Cruze is prominently featured, in both life-size and toy-model versions.
When will advertisers learn not to use the broadcast emergency alert signal in an ad? And when will networks realize the Federal Communications Commission is dead serious about the integrity of the EAS system? A promotional ad for the film Olympus Has Fallen has earned Viacom, ESPN and NBCU the largest aggregate penalty ever imposed by the FCC. Seven Viacom networks, three ESPN networks, and seven NBCU networks were fined a combined $1.9 million. Each of the companies admitted running the ad multiple times on multiple networks.
When Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres snapped that epic selfie with the Samsung Galaxy Note during last night's ceremony, it effectively snagged "Best Picture"—among marketers, that is.
Arnold, the incumbent agency in CVS’ creative agency search, has withdrawn from the process. In late January, Arnold advanced to a place within a relatively long list of finalists, including corporate sibling Havas Worldwide, BBDO, Grey, Ogilvy & Mather and Lowe Campbell Ewald, according to sources. CVS' media spend last year was $115 million.
ABC’s first pass at live-streaming the Academy Awards didn’t exactly go off without a hitch last night, as user demand knocked the service out of commission. The live video feed streaming on the WatchABC app conked out during the network’s Red Carpet coverage, an outage ABC chalked up to “a traffic overload” caused by demand that exceeded expectations. The service was up and running again at around 10:45 p.m. EST.
Twitter stole the Oscars last night, reaching new milestones and just dominating the conversation. It’s not a stretch to say Twitter outshined the actual show. Ellen Degeneres’ selfie with the stars was the most retweeted post of all time. Here’s what else happened on Twitter and at the Academy Awards: 1. Bradley Cooper’s arm wasn’t long enough to get Jared Leto’s full face in the picture, but the now famous selfie has more than 2.6 million retweets as of this morning. That’s more retweets than President Barack Obama’s re-election photo of him hugging the first lady.
The Walt Disney Company is planning to cut funding to the Boy Scouts of America beginning in 2015 because of a policy that bans gay adult leaders, The Washington Post reported.
Even as native ad’s naysayers argue for clear labeling and design cues so readers don’t confuse them with actual journalism, publishers and advertisers have pushed to make the units look more like editorial. The latest example comes from The Washington Post.
