Washington Post Super Bowl ad featuring Tom Hanks which could cost over $10M

The Washington Post is running an advertisement narrated by actor and director Tom Hanks during the Super Bowl that could reportedly cost the news outlet over $5 million. The Post announced it was running a 60-second spot during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl LIII matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots that will "highlight the important, and increasingly dangerous, work of journalists around the world," according to the Post's CEO Fred Ryan.

"We feel that this is the right moment, at the right venue, to present this important message to the large audience of Americans and international viewers that watch the Super Bowl," Ryan wrote in a blog post. "While most Super Bowl ad producers have the better part of a year to prepare their spots, we had the lesser part of a week. I’d like to thank everyone across The Washington Post who dove heart-first into this project and enabled us to produce a powerful message that pays tribute to those who provide the knowledge that is essential to our freedom. It’s a message that everyone who values press freedom can be proud of." The ad will pay tribute to missing and dead journalists, including Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered in Saudi Arabia's consulate building in Turkey. Featuring historical events from WWII until the present, the ad was created in partnership with Mark Woollen and Associates, which has run ad campaigns for major movies, including recent flicks "The Shape of Water" and the remake of "A Star is Born."

Although the Post refused to acknowledge the cost of the ad, CNBC reports that CBS, who has the rights to broadcast Super Bowl LIII, is charging $5.25 million for a 30-second hit, signaling the ad cost could have cost the Post more than $10 million. The potential cost for the ad drew criticism from the union responsible for negotiating on Post employees' behalf. Fredrick Kunkle, co-chairman of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild's detachment for the Post, tweeted his displeasure at the move in an airing of grievances regarding the company's treatment of its staff from a financial standpoint.

“While I too am extremely proud of the Post and its legacy,” Kunkle wrote. "This seems like an especially infuriating expense for a company that has: a) tried to take health care insurance from part-time employees b) moved everyone toward riskier forms of health insurance c) made it easier to lay people off d) cut their severance e) frozen their pensions and resisted the smallest enhancements to remaining retirement benefits until Sen. Bernie Sanders shamed it into doing so f) refused to add a single day of paid parental leave to its measly four weeks and g) must know that other media companies, sensing trouble ahead, have been trimming staff.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-post-super-bowl-ad-featuring-tom-hanks-which-could-cost-over-10m

This is how much it costs to air a commercial during the 2019 Super Bowl

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/30/how-much-it-costs-to-air-a-commercial-during-super-bowl-liii.html

>>5020399

4th Quarter

Obama speaking in Canada next month as 2020 race heats up

Former President Barack Obama is set to deliver a series of speeches in Canada next month, coinciding with the early stages of the 2020 presidential race. On March 4 and 5, Obama will visit Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Calgary. The events are being billed as "A Conversation with Barack Obama." Although Obama has been working on a book, it is unclear whether these events are tied to it. His publisher, Penguin Random House, declined to comment. The speaking engagements will be one of Obama's first in the public eye since several Democrats began announcing their candidacy for the presidential contest in 2020.

Obama spoke during a private Obama Foundation reception early last month in Hawaii, during which he called for "new blood" in politics. That speech reportedly stung former Vice President Joe Biden, 76, who is considering a 2020 run. Obama's speeches in Canada will come at a critical time in the early phase of the Democratic primary fight, with the Iowa caucuses set for Feb. 3, 2020, now only one year away. Polling from ABC News and the Washington Post last week showed there is no clear front-runner yet. Biden, who has yet to announce a candidacy, leads the field with 9 percent, while California Sen. Kamala Harris got 8 percent. Harris, a former attorney general of California who, like Obama, is African-American and running for president as a first-term senator, often has been compared to the 44th president. She has even been dubbed the " female Barack Obama." Notably, she drew a larger crowd in Oakland last weekend than Obama did more than 10 years ago officially entering the presidential race.

Other Democrats who have entered the race include Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii; and Julian Castro, who served as secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department under Obama. Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is reportedly close to announcing another tilt after he lost the 2016 Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton. Tickets for the events with Obama, which also come months before Canada's October federal elections, have already gone on sale, with the lowest-end prices in Winnipeg and Calgary listed on Ticketmaster around $92.5 before taxes and fees. The upper end price goes as high as $400.

A spokesman for the the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, which is hosting the Vancouver event, told the Washington Examiner tickets for that speech will start at roughly $151. The spokesman would not say what the upper end of the price range would be. The 44th president won't be the only Obama in Canada next month. His wife Michelle, who has repeatedly shot down speculation that she might run for president one day, will be in Vancouver on March 21 as part of her North American book tour for her memoir Becoming.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obama-speaking-in-canada-next-month-as-2020-race-heats-up

Fire in Iranian space center kills 3 scientists – report

Authorities don’t elaborate on incident, which comes amid US and Israeli concern over Tehran’s efforts to launch satellite into orbit

A fire in Iran’s space research center has killed three scientists, the country’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported Sunday. The report quoted Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi as saying that three researchers died “because of a fire in one of the buildings of the Space Research Center.” Iran plans to launch a satellite into orbit despite US and Israeli criticism that such launches benefit its ballistic missile program, since the rockets used in the two programs depend on very similar technology. The Iranian Space Research Center headquarters in Tehran, Iran. (Screenshot: YouTube)

A fire in Iran’s space research center has killed three scientists, the country’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported Sunday.

The report quoted Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi as saying that three researchers died “because of a fire in one of the buildings of the Space Research Center.”

Jahromi did not elaborate in the report.

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Iran plans to launch a satellite into orbit despite US and Israeli criticism that such launches benefit its ballistic missile program, since the rockets used in the two programs depend on very similar technology.

In January, the country launched a satellite, but authorities said it failed to reach the “necessary speed” in the third stage of its launch due to a technical malfunction. Iran had said that it planned to send two non-military satellites, Payam and Doosti, into orbit. The Payam, which means “message” in Farsi, was an imagery satellite that Iranian officials said would help with farming and other activities.

Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Hatami vowed last week to carry out another satellite launch “soon” and promised “good news” would be announced in the near future about the country’s defense industry. Iran, which has long said it does not seek nuclear weapons, maintains its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component. Tehran also says it is not violating a United Nations resolution that only “called upon” it not to conduct such tests. Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 claimed to have launched a monkey into space.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/fire-in-iranian-space-center-kills-3-scientists-report/