January 29, 2016
2016 has been interesting from day one, and now we’re capping January off with updates to long-running stories that deal with a snowstorm, celebrities and some more controversy. Here are my top picks on stories from the past week!- #WinterStormJonas – It was news last week, and just like the sheer mass of powder itself, the buzz stuck around. At least 48 people died in the storm, a quarter of a million customers lost power, and travel was sidelined into the early portion of the week. As if that wasn’t bad enough, D.C. isn’t taking it easy on bad parking jobs either. But there is one good bit of news from the storm – over 10 million Tinder matches were made. Let’s hear it for true love, people!
- Super Bowl 50 – The big milestone for the even bigger game is fast approaching. In anticipation, brands from Mini Cooper to Skittles have begun the process of unveiling their plans for advertising spots. And the biggest bets this year seem to be riding on pure celebrity power. Taking the pre-show spotlight include celeb partnerships like Liam Neeson for LG, Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen for Bud Light and Christopher Walken for Kia – in a spot entitled “The Walken Closet”. Genius.
- Standoff in Oregon – Since their seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 2nd, the Bundy Oregon militia have remained in the news. The Bundy family, long known for their protests with government over land rights, had their month-long protest interrupted on Wednesday after an incident with police that killed one militia member. Leader Ammon Bundy was among the seven members arrested, and is now encouraging the rest of the armed group to “please stand down.” Watch for news from this story to trend on into the future.
- #OscarsSoWhite – Nearly two weeks ago, the Academy Award nominees were announced. Since then, the all-white nominations have set off a wave of controversy – encouraging many celebrities, including Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith and others, to boycott the ceremony. This week, the buzz didn’t settle down, as President Obama gave his thoughts on the diversity issue in Hollywood.
- Beef Twitter – What is Twitter really for? That’s a question that reached a peak this week when Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa entered into some vulgar form of public beef – the likes of which originated as a result of another buzzworthy moment – Ye changing the title of his upcoming album from So Help Me God to SWISH, and finally, to WAVES. Twitter has long been an “insiders platform,” but this was enough to unite all Twitter users in the name of sweet, juicy beef.