Author Erin McKenzie

Changing the world doesn’t necessarily necessitate huge, ground-breaking actions. Sometimes even small actions can make a difference. To show the simplicity of this process, Amnesty International has released a new campaign illustrating that the substitution of a single word in a phrase can completely change meaning and context of what you are saying.

French publication La Croix (translating to The Cross) struggles with the perception that its publication doesn’t cover serious issues and instead focuses only on religious topics. Admittedly, it is a Roman Catholic publication, and religious content certainly takes up some of the column inches, but the paper is on a mission to show that it might not be exactly what people think it is. Here’s a look at the ad campaign it’s using to spread this message.

Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.

In a bid to ensure that FIFA players take full advantage of its Ultimate Team playing option, FIFA recently sent comedian Llyod Griffith on journey to seek advice on assembling the best team possible on the game. And the resulting 24-minute webisode is surprisingly entertaining for a clip based entirely on one man’s attempt to play a video game.

A clever direct marketing campaign from The Fred Hollows society shows Kiwis exactly how lucky they are to have the gift of sight.

As advertisers spread news about all those fantastic sales out there, the criminals in our midst create personal wishlists of all the items they aim to get at 100 percent discounts. So to help retailers keep an eye on the most regularly targeted goods, software company Auror recently compiled a list of the items stolen most often around Christmas. And as it turns out, meat is the most common target.

Videos shot with 360-degree capabilities are becoming more popular, giving viewers the ability to twist around and see the action unfolding in a clip from myriad angles. Both YouTube and Facebook have released launched 360-degree video capabilities, and various brands have already tapped into the immersive opportunity this offers. As is to be expected, Go Pro has been one of the early adopters, releasing an incredible clip that shows a surfer in Tahiti catching a wave and tucking into a barrel.

McDonald’s is currently showing that it knows how to be boring by running a campaign that simply live-streams footage of the new bacon and egg pies baking in the oven. But while others take their live-streaming and slow TV very seriously, McDonald’s is clearly taking a more tongue-in-cheek approach, calling the live stream Baking News and treating it like a TV news show.

Industry happenings at Ogilvy, Spark PHD, Spark, The Edge, Yellow, The Sound.

Our weekly wrap of good things, strange things, funny things and other things from inside the intertubes.

To celebrate the impending release of the latest movie in the franchise, the Google has launched a pair of quirky digital activations that will almost certainly appeal to fans across the world.

the team at South Park has added a bit more hilarity to the discussion on advertising and news through a new skit that shows the character Stephen contrasting the clean reading experience of student newspaper to the advertising labyrinth encountered online. If anything, Stephen’s ramblings to his wife provide a pretty strong argument for the enduring appeal of print. As he explains: “This is just news. And I don’t get lost in all the bullshit.”

Like all forms of traditional media, photography has also been rocked by the digital age, leaving those who ply this trade in a very uncertain position. And while it’s relatively easy to now access photography of just about anything, a new campaign from Canon shows the important role good photography can still play in telling stories.

Industry happenings at RNZ, Tangible Media, Ogilvy & Mather, ASB, MediaWorks, Reel Factory, Google, Lightbox, Porter Novelli and Nielsen.