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Morning Update: BMW’s Super Bowl ad takes viewers back to a time when nobody ‘got’ the Internet

Mashable: BMW’s Super Bowl ad takes us back to a time when nobody ‘got’ the Internet

A new Super Bowl ad for BMW flashes back to a time before memes and Twitter — back when everyone was just started to wrap their heads around the concept of the world wide web. In the clip from 1994, Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel are trying to explain what the Internet is; the “@” symbol proves particularly confusing.

The campaign for the BMW i3, an all-electric vehicle primarily composed of carbon fiber, pokes fun at the clumsy way we adapt to new technology.

AdWeek: The 10 Super Bowl Ads You Won’t Want to Miss This Year

Even with all the competition for eyeballs and the rise of second-screen and cord cutting, the Super Bowl remains not only the biggest televised sports event in the U.S. but the year’s most anticipated advertising showcase.

And yet the game is a bigger gamble than ever, with an unprecedented $4.5 million price tag for a 30-second spot. Super Bowl stalwarts General Motors and Volkswagen have pulled out this time around. And though the release of teasers in the run-up to Super Bowl Sunday has become standard, marketers like Nissan (which returns to the big game after an 18-year absence) have been reluctant to divulge too much about their campaigns before kickoff.

AdAge: Coke’s Super Bowl Ad Seeks to Make the Internet Happier

Coca-Cola has an ambitious plan for its Super Bowl ad. “Our goal is to inspire America to become a collective force for positivity,” Jennifer Healan, Coca-Cola’s group director of integrated marketing content, said Monday on the marketer’s corporate blog, which previewed the 60-second spot.

The ad, by Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, will “tackle the pervasive negativity polluting social media feeds and comment threads across the Internet,” the company stated. At the end of the spot Coke will tout the hashtag, “#MakeItHappy,” as “a call to action to promote positivity both online and in the real world.”

 

Mumbrella Asia: TODAY reporters banned from government briefings for repeatedly breaking embargoes

Journalists from Singapore’s second-largest circulating newspaper, TODAY, have been banned from attending government press briefings for repeatedly breaking embargoes.

The ban – which Mumbrella understands will be in place for a month starting from today – will mean that the MediaCorp-owned paper could miss out on important technical briefings around thebudget, which is one of the biggest media events of the year. Around half of the local news that runs in TODAY comes from government announcements at events.

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