Friday Social: Don’t Scroll and Drive, Psy knocked off YouTube charts and Duolingo teaches High Valyrian
- Social Media
Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days. Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf/@natashagraham_
Mazda creates car crash Facebook ads
Japanese car company, Mazda, has created an immersive Facebook advert – highlighting the dangers of using your mobile phone whilst driving.
Called the ‘Distracted Driving’ campaign, ad works by taking over the entire mobile screen and having an out-of-control car screech across users newsfeeds, it then crashes – leading the screen to look like its cracked, and finishes with text saying ‘Don’t Scroll and Drive’.
Gangnam Style gets knocked off YouTube charts
We all know the song, and we DEFINITLEY know the dance moves, but Psy’s 2012 hit song Gangnam Style is no longer the most streamed song on YouTube. This week, the catchy tune was overtaken by a different music video – See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth.
The powerful 2015 ballad has now been streamed 2,903,806,866 times, beating Psy’s song which was streamed 2,896,499,721 times (both accurate at the time of writing).
According to BBC News, that adding up the total time See You Again has been streamed, ‘it would be a total of 21,759 years. If one person was to listen to each of those streams consecutively, they’d have to have started during the glacial peak of the last Ice Age.’
Duolingo launches High Valyrian language class
With Game of Thrones season seven starting in just a matter of days, popular language-learning app Duolingo thought now would be the right time to start teaching High Valyrian lessons.
The language is famously used in the hit HBO series – especially by lead female character Daenerys Targaryen. The course launched yesterday, so don’t delay because you only have three days to be fluent in the language, ready for the series to start on Sunday night.
According to Duolingo, the language course got an official thumbs-up from Game of Thrones language specialist, David J. Peterson by simply saying, “Valyrio Māzis” – which roughly translates to “Valyrian is coming”.
This is the first time there’s been an official course for the language, but there are nearly-complete dictionaries in multiple places online.
Facebook introduces ads to Messenger
As the world’s largest social media company makes bigger moves to make money from its popular chat app, which now has 1.2 billion monthly users, Facebook announced on Tuesday that it was testing advertising on its Messenger app on a global level.
The global move comes after initial tests launched in Australia and Thailand, way back in January. The ads will be displayed in the home area of the Messenger app, and users that click on the ads will either be taken to the advertiser’s website, or go to a chat window where they can interact with the brands directly.