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Mumbrella live blog: Friday, May 2

Welcome to Mumbrella’s live blog, your rolling media and marketing diary. For the latest updates refresh the page.

Top stories:

4:49pm – Activist organisation GetUp! are asking for those wanting to “safeguard the ABC from Tony Abbott’s chopping block” to gather in Martin Place Sydney at 11am tomorrow, with a Melbourne event also scheduled in Federation Square at the same time.

Speakers at the Sydney event include Jonathan Holmes, Adam Spencer, Wendy Harmer, Tom Ballard and Sam Mclean while Peter Combe, Dan Ilic and Erin McCallum will be speaking at the Melbourne event.

3:35pm – The parents of jailed Australian-born Al Jazeera correspondent Peter Greste say they believe the Australian Government is doing what it can to secure the release of their son and and his two colleagues, who have now spent 125 days in an Egyptian jail. The parents of Greste held a press conference earlier today ahead of Greste fronting a criminal court in Egypt tomorrow. Details here.

3:30pm – GPY&R Melbourne has taken home a grand prize for its direct marketing campaign ‘Air Force FM’ for Defence Force Recruiting at the New York Festivals International Advertising Awards.

The same awards saw The Volvo Group honoured with the 2015 Brand of the Year Award after Volvo Trucks’ ‘The Epic Split’ campaign took home the best in show award in the film category.

2:25pm –  Gatorade has launched a global campaign for the US, Mexico and Costa Rica which uses a remixed version of “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, the fairy godmother track from Disney’s Cinderalla.

It is the first global campaign created for the brand by Lew Lara TBWA.

2:04pm – There are a few appointment stories in the FYI section today including  Guzman y Gomez choosing Lowe Profero as its digital partner and Urban retaining The Galeries following a pitch. While in the people space, Huckleberry Agency has appointed Carmela Soares as creative director and Anomaly has hired a  finance executive for programmatic trading.

Also, Dare Iced Coffee has taken its #brainfail tactical campaign to outdoor and KFC’s Snack! In the Face app has returned.

1:15pm – In February, the heads of M&C Saatchi and BMF quietly left their respective roles. Managing partner of BMF Ricci Meldrum and managing director of M&C Saatchi Kenny Hill have both departed, with Meldrum understood to be taking up a senior role at another creative agency. Details here.

12:48pm – Verve Communications boss and well-known media commentator Prue MacSween is battling breast cancer, reports The Daily Telegraph. We’d like to wish her a speedy recovery.

12:40pm – The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), is threatening a public campaign against recommendations to cut more than $17.5m in funding to the sector recommended in The Federal Government’s Commission of Audit report which was released yesterday. Details here.

12:25pm – Kmart has moved on from its ‘Bom Bom’ campaign, replacing the Sam and the Womp song with ‘The Clapping Song’ in a new campaign from BWM. Read about the campaign here.

12:18pm – The SBS documentary series Once Upon a Time in Punchbowl has been modified after fraud claims delayed its January premiere and will be broadcast in June. You can read about in the FYI section.

12:08pm – Tyler Greer, director of sales, Australia & New Zealand, for AdoTube, looks at how treating online video as TV as it becomes an increasingly important channel risks losing its differentiation. You can read his piece here.

11:27am – The man charged with running ANZ’s new content play Bluenotes, Andrew Cornell, picked up an award at the Citi Journalism Awards last night for his work with the Australian Financial Review.

10:51am – TV ratings are in, and it was a quiet ending for So You Think You Can Dance, which got less viewers for its finale than it did for its debut on Ten. The Big Bang Theory won the night, whilst House Rules dropped on its debut of the night before.

10.22am – The former chairman and founder of Prime Media Group Paul Ramsay has died after reportedly suffering a heart attack whilst on holiday. Full story here. 

9.35am – As Mumbrella reported a few weeks ago, Fairfax Business editor/AFR’s James Chessell is off to London to set up the paper’s UK bureau. Chessell’s official farewell drinks were last night and it has produced this gem with television industry’s so-called “sultans of spin” all posing up for this photo — left to right we have Nine’s David Hurley, Ten’s Neil Shoebridge, AFR’s Chessell and on the right Seven’s Simon Francis. It’s good to see them all getting on so well.

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9:04am – Yesterday saw the release of the Commission of Audit report for the government, which recommended a whole heap of changes to funding for some bodies. Tourism Australia, Screen Australia and small business marketing assistance were all in the firing line. More here. 

8:24am – Apparently it was the final of So You Think You Can Dance last night – and TV Tonight has a wrap of the final show. We’ll have to wait until after 9am to see how it rated.

8:12am – Morning all, and TGIF. Plenty happening today, but we’ll start with the media innovation everyone’s been waiting for – the interactive wheel of the Duchess of Cambridge’s dresses she wore whilst on the recent royal tour. Check it out here.

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