Morning Update: Why TV needs Donald Trump; Gears of War remakes ‘Mad World’ trailer; Behind Tinder’s ad
AdWeek: How Tinder Told the Thoroughly Modern Tale of a Woman Swiping Right Around the World
Girl meets boy. Girl travels the world with boy. Happiness ensues.
Tinder’s ad for the paid version of its dating app, Tinder Plus, follows one woman as she travels to some of the most romantic locations with her new online beau. Given its relentless pace, the 90-second ad was one of the most logistically challenging for Magna Carta, which produced the video for Tinder. Dating in the digital age, it is safe to say, is certainly different than what our parents experienced. One minute the heroine’s at a football match in London’s Wembley Stadium, and the next thing you know, she’s in front of the Louvre in Paris.
“It all sort of began as an experiment, seeing how much information we could throw at an audience all at once,” says the video’s director Matthew K. Firpo.
NY Times: Where Clicks Reign, Audience Is King
Early last month, a lion known as Cecil was killed by a hunter near Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe.
The first international news articles on his death appeared in mid-July. By the end of the month, once it had emerged that the man who killed Cecil was an American dentist, the global news media had claimed its own trophy.
The phrase “Cecil the lion” now returns about 3.2 million Google News results. Among those are celebrity takes (“Jean-Claude Van Damme Responds to Cecil the Lion Outrage”), emotional takes (“Like All Lions, Cecil Had a Huge Capacity to Love”) and contrarian takes (“Eating Chicken Is Morally Worse Than Killing Cecil the Lion”). There were local takes,millennial takes, arguments that other global concerns were more pressing, roundups of previous stories and condemnations of the amount of coverage. (Not to mention articles like this one.)
AdAge: Why TV Needs Trump
Whatever your feelings are on Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, there’s no denying he makes for good TV.
Despite his polarizing viewpoints, blunt assessment on the state of America and crass comments regarding women — or maybe because of it — TV networks (and advertisers) are eager for Mr. Trump to remain in the race for as long as possible.
If Fox News’ massive ratings from the first Republican primary debate are any indication, Mr. Trump could do what few things outside of sports and zombies have been able to accomplish — revitalize TV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aGqlTofWFs
Creativity: Xbox Remakes ‘Mad World’ Trailer to Promote ‘Gears of War’ Ultimate Edition
In 2006, Xbox released a stirring spot that arguably, was unlike anything yet seen in the world of videogame advertising. Set to a Gary Jules and Michael Andrews’ stirring cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” and directed by Joseph Kosinski (Tron, Oblivion), the ad stood out not just for its cinematic quality, but for introducing a surprisingly human and thoughtful approach to an industry known for its high-octane, testosterone-fueled trailers.
Now two more games and a prequel later, Xbox debuts a “remastered” version of the original Gears of War trailer, to herald the launch of the franchise’s upcoming “Ultimate Edition.”
The Guardian: Twitter flunks examination as university endowments dump stock
America’s smartest schools have given Twitter an F. Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities have all sold big chunks of their Twitter stock as the nine-year-old social media company struggles to prove to investors it has a trajectory of growth.
Yale University, which has a $23.9bn endowment fund, sold all of its 34,345 shares in Twitter – worth just under $1m at Monday’s stock price – over the last quarter. Harvard University, the world’s wealthiest university with a $36.4bn fund, sold 29,856 Twitter shares between April and June. Stanford, which has an endowment fund worth $21.4bn, sold 18,000 shares.
