SCROOGE, SONY & SQUIDOO / ROUND UP

   The Onion on staggering form this week, turning its eagle eye on the media:
Pepsi to Cease Advertising: http://bit.ly/1bHegh
Man's Facebook Status Given Book Deal: http://bit.ly/aWFhf

Disney have partnered with director Robert Zemeckis and animation company Imagemovers Digital to create their interpretation of the Charles Dickens' classic 'A Christmas Carol' using performance capture techniques which represent, in our humble opinion, another leap forward in the evolution of animation. A member of the Contagious team saw the trailer in 3D on iMAX. Mark our words, this is going to be AMAZING. A new trailer and making of featurette were launched this week and can be viewed here:  http://bit.ly/svbls
 
America Express have launched a new campaign to inspire people to get more out of their cards and more out of life. The nicely put together microsite feels a bit Hewlett Packard, which is no bad thing. http://bit.ly/3xBunx 

Sony push their low light camera capabilities in this great campaign masterminded by Fallon, London. It brings together 6 lucky amateur photographers and 60 footballers for a synchronised series of 5 'Twilight' football matches in France, Italy, Australia, Argentina and the UK http://bit.ly/puSbx 

An unavoidable deluge of iPhone stories, starting with news that in the UK Orange and Vodafone are now joining the party. Good news for all about to renew their contracts. http://bit.ly/FLeUV

Next up eBay, whose iPhone app has reportedly generated a gigantic $400m in business. $350,000 of this came from a guy buying a Lamborghini on his iPhone, woah....maybe they should start mashing something together for Vertu handsets. http://bit.ly/16gpIV

The Apple apps store has just hit the 2 billion download mark in double-quick time: 'After the App Store launched on July 11, 2008, it took nine months to hit 1 billion, and only six more months to hit 2 billion, noted Carl Howe, an analyst at Yankee Group Inc'. Full article here: http://bit.ly/eRUOT  

Lastly, news that CNN will be launching a $1.99 iPhone app allowing personalised news streams and the ability to contribute photos and videos to news stories Bild.de style, amongst other features. As CNN is currently ranked as the number one mobile news site, it would only take a small percentage of their 12 million unique visitors to download the app for this to prove a pretty lucrative sideline. http://bit.ly/NNCH5

Seth Godin's $5k a year social media buzzometer Squidoo has certainly created division and debate. Not to be one upped, masters of division and debate Microsoft have stepped in with what appears to be a worthy competitor, Looking Glass: http://bit.ly/17QohW 

Make your own comic book fun with skin and hair care brand Kiehl's new microsite: http://bit.ly/ftXKa

This great report on how teens use social media from the ever wonderful three billion is well worth a look: http://bit.ly/tNeWR 

Staggering video games sales continue, with still so much room for growth: http://bit.ly/8fFVi 

Apparently if you make bad television people are more likely to watch the advertising. This is something ITV have been piloting every Saturday night for several years. http://bit.ly/1SzJAL 

Great piece from Fast Company on fictional entertainment products making it to the supermarket shelf: http://bit.ly/2owR5e