Morning Update: First ‘Top Gear’ trailer; Coke puts song lyrics on cans; Ronnie Corbett dies; jury out on Facebook Instant Articles
Roadshow – First ‘Top Gear’ trailer: New faces, same old tyre-squealing shenanigans
The new series of “Top Gear” is racing our way fast. Here’s the first trailer for the revamped BBC series, featuring new presenters Matt LeBlanc on three wheels and Chris Evans on all fours.
Globally popular British motoring show “Top Gear” will have a new cast of presenters when it returns next month, but the tyre-squealing trailer suggests it’s business as usual in terms of high-octane action and outlandish stunts. To the raucous strains of “I Just Want To Celebrate” by Rare Earth, the trailer sees a range of gorgeous cars burning rubber, including an Aston Martin Vulcan, an Ariel Nomad dirt buggy and, er, a Dodge Viper with a machine gun on its head.
Ad Age: Coke Slaps More Than 70 Song Lyrics on Cans and Bottles
This summer, Coca-Cola will again try to teach the world to sing — this time with a little help from its bottles and cans.
In the next phase of its “Share a Coke” campaign, the cola giant starting in April will put song lyrics on packaging pulled from more than 70 popular songs. Lyrics cover a range of music, from rock ‘n’ roll classics like Queen’s “We are the Champions” to patriotic songs such as “Proud to Be An American” by Lee Greenwood. (See some examples in the above slideshow.) Coke will also include lyrics from some of its iconic campaigns, such as “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke,” the classic jingle that includes the line, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.”
Guardian: Ronnie Corbett, ‘true great’ of British TV comedy, dies aged 85
Ronnie Corbett, one of Britain’s most popular entertainers, who was a regular television fixture for more than 50 years, has died aged 85. Corbett first came to fame on The Frost Report in the 1960s but was best known as one half of The Two Ronnies with his comedy partner, Ronnie Barker, who died in 2005.
A statement from his publicist said: “Ronnie Corbett CBE, one of the nation’s best-loved entertainers, passed away this morning, surrounded by his loving family. They have asked that their privacy is respected at this very sad time.”
Digiday: The Atlantic’s verdict on Facebook Instant Articles: ‘Jury’s still out’
The Atlantic is not merely dipping its toes in Facebook’s Instant Articles program. It was an early partner in it a year ago and configured its content-management system to automatically push all its new content directly to Facebook.
“Our strategy is to put 100 percent on Instant Articles,” Kim Lau, vp and gm at The Atlantic, said at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado. “We decided we were going to go all-in.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f95abQuPXaw
Ad Week: Geico’s Latest Crazy Talking Animal Is a Shady Alligator With Tiny Arms
It turns out there are advantages to being an alligator, like dodging the check when eating out with friends because your arms are just too short to reach it.
That’s the premise of the latest gag in Geico’s charmingly ridiculous “It’s What You Do” campaign. In the 30-second ad, a talking reptile in human clothing does a poor job of pretending to want to pick up the tab—and inevitably failing—after going for Chinese with some coworkers. (They seem used to it.)
