Author StopPress Team

A filmic glimpse at the life of the great man.

New Zealand’s history of sports sponsorship goes back a long way, and it has become common around this time of the year for the sponsorship shuffle to start as brands renew old deals, strike new ones or depart from teams entirely. And this year has been no exception, with Ford, Telecom, NIB, Adidas, Steinlager and a new Kiwi startup all getting in on the action.

Strahan Wallis will step into the role of managing director of Porter Novelli New Zealand on 1 January 2014 in a move that will see him replace Jane Sweeney, who is set to leave the company at the end of the year, after approximately nine years of service.

Since 2006, five Nando’s franchises have gone into liquidation, and a recent Herald article revealed that several of the current franchisees are unsatisfied with the current franchisor’s reluctance to invest in advertising. We decided to have a look at how the brand was being represented in South Africa, and what we found was a parody-loaded collection of commercials that were topical, controversial and sometimes humorous.

Good to see Mazda’s sponsorship of Campbell Live is paying dividends, as this Christmas card that John Campbell received from ‘Alice’ proves.

Shayne Currie, editor of the New Zealand Herald, will be able to put his feet up for one day as former All Black and anti-depression campaigner Sir John Kirwan steps in to take over the editorial responsibilities for the 10 December edition of the paper.

Whybin\TBWA’s Digital Arts Network and Assembly have brought Middle Earth to life online for Tourism New Zealand. The tourism organisation is making the most of content developed for the Book of New Zealand, a digital installation in Los Angeles that promotes four locations used in the filming of The Hobbit sequel The Desolation of Smaug.

The voices that were sent to the Moon as part of Dr Who’s 50th anniversary celebrations have made a safe return to planet Earth and can now be heard at the Moonbouncer website.

TV and movie streaming service Netflix has gone all warm and fuzzy with the story of a Christmas tree-topping ornament who’s seen it all. As the porcelain decorated character says, it’s hard not to smile when a happy expression is painted on your face.

We’ve always thought runners are a bit of a mad bunch, and a new TVC for Nike by Wieden + Kennedy in Shanghai is further evidence. Let The Run Tell You Why, it says. Better yet, let the guy in the hotdog costume explain himself.

Jeff Bezos, the mastermind at Amazon, is planning to give online shopping an Orwellian twist by introducing a squadron of unmanned drones to deliver products purchased on the website.

It’s supposedly better to give than receive. But tell that to the capitalist hordes trampling on their fellow humans in order to get 50 percent off some crappy goods they probably don’t need. So as the scmaltzy Christmas ads about family and generosity and animated animals come thick and fast, upmarket UK department store Harvey Nichols has taken a different, possibly more honest approach and launched a campaign that promotes cheaping out on gifts for others and spending all your money on yourself.

Many of those who work in this industry have skeletons in their closets. But nothing could prepare us for the revelation that TBWA’s chief creative office Toby Talbot…

Building on the tradition of madness that pervades the annual Black Friday shopping sprees, a woman at a Philadelphia mall whipped out a taser at this year’s event. PLUS: watch a compilation of some of the craziest things that have happened at the post-Thanksgiving sale over the years.

In addition to the creamy goodness of crushed peanuts, every jar of Pic’s Really Good Peanut Butter also comes with the deep and meaningful musings of Taumaranui poet Bill Smith, whose work is printed on the reverse of the label.

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

Craft brewers have a penchant for experimentation and, judging by the growth of the sector, that seems to be working out pretty well for a few of them. But Wellington-based ParrotDog is one of the few to have applied that philosophy to the audio-visual realm and it has once again gone loco in its newest ad.

Ellen DeGeneres has removed all the cigarettes from Mad Men to draw attention to the Great American Smokeout, an annual anti-smoking campaign arranged by the American Cancer Society that encourages nicotine puffers to stop for a day on the third Thursday of November.

With sledging cricketers grabbing headlines this week, it’s timely to put the spotlight on tuning out hardcore abuse. One NBA superstar’s solution is a poker face and a set of Beats By Dr Dre headphones.