Author StopPress Team

The long-anticipated release of Sky’s subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service has been accompanied by a TVC that positions the offering as a form of escapism.

Now, if we had seen an ad, say 10 years ago that said “don’t selfie and drive” no one would have had a clue what that was about. But with new technology (and front-facing cameras) comes new dangers, and now Volkswagen has released a campaign which aims to stop drivers taking selfies while on the road.

The Blackcaps’ decimation of England on Friday was a joy for many Kiwis to behold. Rebel Sport took the opportunity to congratulate the lads on the win with a print ad that ran on Saturday. And no words were needed to convey the sense of smugness.

American comedy Parks and Recreation, set in the fictional town of Pawnee, has now released a fictional burger joint commercial for a fictional burger joint – Paunch Burger, which we’re sure die hard fans will recognise.

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

From Paul the octopus, to Paulo the octopus, to Futnik the pig, to Citta the elephant to Nicholas the llama to our own Richie McCow, supposedly psychic animals predicting the outcome of sports games is like catnip to media. And the Herald has introduced a new soothsaying creature to the list, with Cricket the cricket so far nailing three out of four games in the Cricket World Cup.

Storage company National Mini Storage has for quite some time now been borrowing the comedic talents of Leigh Hart to convince Kiwis that storage might be a viable solution to their clutter. And in a new, completely ridiculous spot, the bald funny man advises that house-selling Kiwis with weirder interests might benefit from storing a few of their more unsightly items away.

Whenever Photoshop is in the news, it’s generally because of doctored images, whether it’s models or celebrities promoting unattainable body image, grievous errors or duplicitous signs. But doctoring images has also played a positive role in society, as evidenced by this great spot for Adobe by Goodby Silverstein to celebrate the omnipresent software’s 25th anniversary.

Advertising agency netplus is sharing the love with its clients—past, present and future—by resurrecting the cultural phenomenon that was the mix tape. The agency embarked on a Valentine’s mission to cosy up to its clients by launching a website called ‘mixplus’, a digital interface where clients the agency loves, clients its lost and clients it wants can select different mix tapes after which the appropriate ’80s tunes (sourced via SoundCloud) sing out from the computer.

Since Legacy launched its first campaign in the United States in 2000, it has contributed to dropping down smoking rates from 23 percent to the historic low of eight percent. However, this isn’t quite enough. The organisation wants to “Finish It,” and is encouraging this generation of teens to be the one that ends teen smoking for good. To do this, the organisation has launched a quirky new campaign that plays on the fact that smoking is actually a major turn off to many teens that inhabit the world of Tinder.

In a visual, social and increasingly electronic age, GIFs have become an important cultural force. Last year, Crispin Porter + Bogusky started a new award called the .GIFYs that aimed to acknowledge some of the best examples of the art form. And it’s back for a second year with some entertaining finalists.

2014 was Android’s biggest ever year, with one billion handsets shipped around the world (Apple shipped 193 million and made more on app purchases). It has a big focus on growing that number and getting its phones into developing markets. So, it’s done the logical thing and embraced the power of animals in advertising as part of its ‘Be together. Not the same’ campaign.

We live in social times. And it’s easier than ever to share information with fellow humans. It’s also easier than ever to get stuck in a Google/Wikipedia/YouTube/hyperlink rabbit hole and end up with 42 tabs open on your browser. So Kiwi start-up Twingl is trying to make it easier to share knowledge—and to see the journey people take to get there—with a clever Chrome extension called Trailblazer.

Wendy’s has tapped into technology developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the promotion of the return of the Big Kahuna burger. In a new spot developed by Image Centre-owned ad agency &Some, several Warriors players are shown playing music by tapping the ingredients, which usually go into the product. This bizarre occurence is only possible because of the MaKey MaKey technology, which allows users to turn everyday objects into touchpads for playing music.

If you’ve got nothing to say, sing it. But if you’ve got something to say about working conditions, rap it. Wise advice that Swedish trade union TCO has done to show how good it is to do “business like a Swede”.

Some of today’s best audio-visual content is coming from slightly surprising quarters. Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Vimeo and even brands like Chipotle are stumping up cash and proving that they can make great original shows, not just distribute them. And judging by a slightly misleading phrase on the promotional material for Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, it seems like Lightbox wants to be in that club too.

Since we’ve already done a bit of a run down on what Kiwi brands been up to this Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d better see what kind of stunts went on further afield during the romantically charged weekend.