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Round one to Apple
Apple has won an early court victory over Epic Games in its dispute over “Fortnite,” but the Battle Royale isn’t over yet by any means. 

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ ruling late Monday means Apple won’t immediately have to reinstate Epic Games’s Fortnite to its App Store, reports Bloomberg News. But Rogers, who set a Sept. 28 hearing on Epic’s request for a preliminary injunction, warned that the case isn’t a “slam dunk” for either side. She also granted Epic’s request for a temporary order blocking Apple from limiting the game developer’s ability to provide Unreal Engine, its key graphics technology, for other apps. 

Apple came out with a statement saying the judge’s ruling recognizes that Epic’s problem is “entirely self-inflicted.” “Our very first priority is making sure App Store users have a great experience in a safe and trusted environment, including iPhone users who play Fortnite and who are looking forward to the game’s next season,” the company said. 

While the ruling preserves the status quo, the two parties are expected to file their arguments in the coming weeks. Don't expect them to play nice.

Young steps down from Periscope
Nathan Young, the former president of the 600 & Rising organization, has resigned from his role as group strategy director of Minneapolis agency Periscope, writes Ad Age’s Lindsay Rittenhouse, and he’s not even sure he’ll continue in the advertising world.

"I had to step down from everything and I'm honestly not sure I'm going to come back to advertising," Young told Rittenhouse in an interview, adding that he is prioritizing his family at this time. Periscope confirmed Young's departure in a statement, saying that "Nathan helped to push the industry—and our own agency—to have important and often difficult conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Young announced his resignation from 600 & Rising on Twitter earlier this month, his departure coming after he tweeted criticism about the ADCOLOR awards. He says that he since regrets that tweet and notes that "there needs to be more collaboration and less competition" to tackle the "enormous" issue of racism in the industry.

Dems beat Republicans on TV
As Melania Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, figures came in for Monday's opening night that revealed that it drew a far smaller audience than the Democrats did last week. 

As reported by Bloomberg, about 17 million people tuned in to watch the convention Monday, according to Nielsen data, down from the 19.7 million who watched the first night of the Democratic convention. Viewers were down on every major broadcast and cable network except Fox News, which led the night with 7.06 million total viewers, and had, reports The New York Times, “one of the biggest ratings days in the network’s history.”

Meanwhile, actress Bette Midler seemed to be watching Melania Trump last night: As reported by the New York Post, she unleashed a "tweetstorm" about the First Lady, calling her an "illegal alien" and poking fun at her accent, causing one person to comment, "I'm a Democrat and this is xenophobic."

Battle of the plant-based meats
Forget carnivores versus vegans; the new fight is between the different companies trying to take a bite out of the plant-based meat market.

Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl reports that Lightlife Foods is calling out competitors Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods over how they make their meatless patties. “Enough with the hyper-processed ingredients, GMOs, unnecessary additives and fillers, and fake blood,” Lightlife Foods President Dan Curtin writes in an open letter to Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, which appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Impossible Foods, however, wasn't going to take it lying down. It issued a lengthy response to Lightlife's letter on Medium, calling it "a disingenuous, desperate disinformation campaign" that the company finds "highly misleading," while also pointing out that Lightlife is owned by a company, Canada's Greenleaf Foods, that also makes meat products.

You can hear about what's trending in the plant-based industry by attending Ad Age Next: Food & Beverage, a virtual event on Sept 22. Register here.

Just briefly
More trouble at McDonald’s: McDonald’s said on Tuesday that it is examining the actions of its human resources department, and that its investigation into misconduct now includes whether former CEO Steve Easterbrook covered up inappropriate actions by other executives during his tenure, reports The New York Times.

Off to Camp: Nicole Sander, Camp’s VP of partnerships, talks to Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli about the family retail brand’s response to the pandemic on this week’s Marketer’s Brief podcast. Rather than opening more stores, it's been hosting virtual parties, entertaining kids for Walmart and bringing experiential activations to families, including a roaming arts and crafts truck. Listen here. 

Woman to watch: Renee Vaughan Sutherland, an artist and creative director who founded Greater Than 11% after hearing the sobering statistic that “only 11 percent of women held the title of Creative Director in the UK Media & Communications industry,” is one of the honorees at Ad Age’s virtual Women to Watch Conference & Awards, taking place on Sept. 15. Vaughan Sutherland tells Ad Age’s Jessica Wohl how she’s been navigating the pandemic and giving back to the creative community, here. 

Trump as breakfast: The first day of Republican National Convention happened to coincide with National Waffle Day, prompting Playboy to run a photo feature turning President Trump's face into a whole array of breakfast foods, writes Creativity editor Ann-Christine Diaz. They include a waffle (entitled “Waffler”), egg on toast ("Bad Egg"), a short stack of pancakes (“Short Stack”), a bowl of cereal (“Cereal Liar”) and more. Check out the original piece here. 

That does it for today’s Wake-Up Call, thanks for reading and we hope you are all staying safe and well. For more industry news and insight, follow us on Twitter:@adage. 

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