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WHOPPER OF AN ADVERT (Andrea)
Burger King has launched a new interactive TV campaign whereby fast food lovers can win their very own free Whopper by staring at a picture of it for as long as possible. All you have to do is stare at a screen for long enough and that burger is yours – so far Burger King has given away 50,000 coupons and have raked in 5,000 hours of Whopper viewing. This is a inventive strategy and the thinking behind it is the company wanted to do something that was “beyond a Facebook like”. Well, it worked, and now we just wait for it to hit the UK. Get those matchsticks for your eyes ready.
http://mashable.com/2011/06/15/free-whopper-tv-campaign/
BELLA, BELLA – MOZZARELLA (Raymond)
Ok, let me declare an interest straight away – I have share more than a passing interest in pasta. In fact, a large majority of my more happier moments in life have involved pasta. So it was no surprise to me to find that pasta has topped a global poll of the world’s favourite foods. So while it’s reassuring to know that I am not alone my mild obsession over pasta, the levels of interest from some unusual quarters of the world is still surprising. Not unexpectedly, Italy is world’s biggest consumer of pasta – but behind them comes Venezuela, Tunisia, Greece and most surprising of all – Switzerland. This BBC report provides some good analysis as to why pasta is so popular – and confirms the myth-scorching tale that Italy was introduced to pasta by Marco Polo returning from China.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13760559
GAIMAN’S GODS GET THE GREEN LIGHT (Adrian)
I’ve got to confess, this is phenomenally exciting news for me. I’ve been a fan of fantasy author Neil Gaiman’s books for some time now and have thoroughly enjoyed the cinematic adaptations of Coraline and Stardust – so the revelation that another of his works is being turned into a dramatic production is great news for geeks.
This time it is Gaiman’s opus American Gods that is in line for an outing the small screen, with Oscar winner Tom Hanks taking on the reigns as producer for a six-season run. Considering the epic TV currently being produced in the U.S., this could easily be as ambitious a production as the popular fantasy show Game of Thrones – and should attract more people to the author’s novels, which is no bad thing.
All it needs now is for HBO or Warners to come along and announce a multi-million dollar screen version of Neverwhere – easily Neil Gaiman’s best novel – and I can die happy. Probably from nerdgasm.
http://io9.com/5811012/tom-hanks-producing-6-seasons-of-neil-gaimans-american-gods-for-hbo/
BUY THE DISCOUNTED HYPE AT YOUR OWN RISK (Scott)
They hype around Groupon is amazing. Yet, scratch the surface of the so-called fastest-growing business in history and it looks a lot like a Get Rich Quick scheme for the founders and early investors who’ve just pocketed $930m (despite being at least $230m in debt and waiting at least 60 days to pay merchants).
I wrote recently that I am suspicious of reports about the ‘success’ of Groupon. I have no special financial expertise and based that purely on feedback from businesses which had a bad experience and from a long-held cynical views that anything that looks too good to be true is … well, too good to be true.
This article is by someone who does have specialist financial knowledge. If you are a business thinking about running a Groupon offer, or an investor thinking of buying shares, read this. You might then think again
LANTERN DOESN’T TAKE OFF (Emily)
The Green Lantern, a movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively has been ripped to shreds by critics, branding the £100 million blockbuster ‘dumb’, ‘boring’ and ‘joyless garbage’. Some harsh words are being said about the film which is set to grace UK’s screens tomorrow, Friday, 17th June. Of course, these opinions are from the critics and maybe it’s just a coincidence that they all didn’t like it. Maybe they all got out of the wrong side of the bed that day – or maybe it really is just that bad. It’s out tomorrow so if you’re feeling daring, why not buy a ticket and tell us what you thought of it?
