Dan Sabbagh
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— Chinese media quickly moved to supress coverage of the decision to swap a supposedly unattractive seven year old Yang Peiyi with the more telegenic Lin Miaoke at the Olympics opening ceremony. First broken on Beijing Radio, the story of the singing girl and her lip-synching double then appeared on an offical news website, and in a Beijing evening newspaper. But the revelation prompted a torrent of mainly critical comments from the Chinese, with repeated complaints that Peiyi, the subsitituted child, was unfairly treated. In the face of the hostility the story began to disappear, and was not reported in the main dailies the next day, and it was removed from the websites where it appeared. Beijing Radio stopped carrying the story on its website. Even those searching for Yang Peiyi or Lin Miaoke on Google in China or Baidu, the local search engine, were told that they were "forbidden by law" to see any results of their search. A case study in censorship.
— It appears that Britain is seeking light relief from the credit crunch, judging by the appetite for light relief at the cinema. Mamma Mia!, the film adaptation of the well-received musical – has taken £39 million and is closing in on Indiana Jones, the top grossing film of 2008. Indiana Jones has taken £39.8 million in the UK, according to distributor Universal. And could Mamma Mia! also be on track to overtake TheDark Knight in the UK? The Dark Knight, although it was released two weeks after Mamma Mia!, has so far taken £34.6 million in Britain. Separately Universal Pictures International (UPI) is expected to announce tonight that it has grossed more than $1 billion in box-office revenue in the year-to-date, thanks to hits like Mamma Mia!
— WPP’s Enfatico, an agency it created to bring together all of Dell's advertising, marketing and public relations across 800 agencies worldwide, is currently a favourite subject of criticism among some in ad land. Snipes and jokes about the $4.5 billion three-year contract with Dell have been appearing on blogs and a spoof site. Enfartico.com, sets out to mimick Enfatico’s own site. While Enfatico’s site reads: "Building a new global agency required a delicate touch…There were loud noises. Broken rules. Crushed silos. Blown-up preconceptions,” the spoof ad has adapted this somewhat. It reads: “Building a new global agency required a strong stomach. There were loud noises. Broken wind. Crushed chairs. Blown-up burritos.” Under its list of clients, it says it is no secret that Enfartico was born of our relationship with ‘Dull’.
— Jazz FM is set to be relaunched by The Local Radio Company — although not on FM — filling a badly needed gap after GCap Media heartlessly shut The Jazz. A launch date of 6 October has been set for the launch on DAB and digital television. Digital radio owners will get it in London, North-West England and the West Midlands.
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