Morning Update: Peter Greste’s Chaser joy; TV audiences sag; Facebook launches 360 videos
Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste learned his colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohammed Fahmy had been pardoned by Egypt during filming for the Chaser’s Media Circus last night.
The trio had been sentenced to three years in jail during a retrial last month for allegedly fabricating “false” news in support of the black-listed Muslim Brotherhood movement, which the army removed from power in 2013.
Greste was also convicted in the retrial, although he had been earlier deported through a presidential decree. Technically he remains a convicted criminal in Egypt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAXPY2dBq9I
Ad Week: Yelp is your awesome, goofy savior in its first national TV commercial
Yelp isn’t just for restaurant recommendations. It can help you find reviews on everything from auto shops to hair salons to “extreme golf” driving ranges, the app and website says in this amusing commercial—its first to air on TV nationally.
San Francisco agency Reid Sheehan Latimer+Crew created the campaign for the crosstown client. It stars Ben Sinclair, who plays a Brooklyn pot dealer on the HBO comedy series High Maintenance.
The tone of the spot—which has been cut into 30- and 15-second executions—is comically absurd, as Sinclair helps (Yelps?) characters stuck in oddball situations with quick, reliable escape routes via app recommendations.
Ad Age: Where did everybody go? TV premier ratings week sag as young viewers vamoose
In a tribute to the late, great Yogi Berra (R.I.P.), let’s just say that it was déjà vu all over again for the Big Four broadcast networks, as sampling on the second night of the new TV season appears to have been about as underwhelming as the first.
According to Nielsen fast national data, every returning Tuesday night drama suffered double-digit ratings declines, while the three new series were a mixed bag.
Leading off the night at 8 p.m., ABC’s reboot of “The Muppets” put up decent numbers, averaging 8.91 million viewers and a 2.8 among adults 18-to-49, making it the night’s No. 2 rated show behind “The Voice.”
Digiday: Facebook rolls out 360-degree to the public with Vice, Star Wars
Facebook has finally unveiled its 360-degree videos to the public after teasing them for months.
The social network showed off panoramic videos from Star Wars, Vice, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, LeBron James and GoPro today. Without the need for a clunky piece of head gear, the virtual reality videos work by users dragging around their cursors while it plays, letting them “explore” the scene.
“To create 360 videos, a special set of cameras is used to record all 360 degrees of a scene simultaneously,” explains Facebook’s video engineering director Maher Saba in a blog post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl3PlrPq8sw
The Verge: The Apple bias is real
If there’s one constant on the consumer tech calendar, it’s iPhone reviews day.
Happening sometime between the announcement and the release of the latest iPhone, it manifests itself with glowing accounts of the latest Apple smartphone at the top of the page, and irate accusations of Apple-favoring bias in the comments at the bottom. This is as reliable a phenomenon as today’s autumnal equinox.
The funny thing is that everyone’s right. Readers are right to claim that the iPhone is treated differently from other smartphones, and reviewers are correct in doing so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gzg9SmQvWo
After chasing Barcelona striker Lionel Messi across the world in previous campaigns Didier Drogba flies solo in new TV ad for Turkish Airlines.
Bogusky London created the ad, in which Drogba, the former Chelsea and Galatasaray forward, is plonked into different cartoon backdrops, each of which depicts a different city where he has lived and shows how that place has influenced his character.
The spot ends with the line “where you go is who you are”. The work was created by Joe Bruce and Kate Baker, both of whom have since left CP&B London, and directed by Richard Bullock through Hungryman.
