Author StopPress Team

Pass The Idea, a cloud-based service that ‘helps everybody have more, better ideas’, has worked with local companies like DB, Frucor, Ara Wines and NZ Lotteries. It’s also got a few more big projects on the go, and, after receiving a grant from the Callaghan Innovation Fund, the two founders are planning on taking the upgraded platform to the world.

There are a rare few brands that have nailed the ‘commercial absurdity’ approach, chief among them Old Spice, Skittles and Tango. Many others have tried to replicate it and it often comes off looking slightly desperate, derivative and cringey, as evidenced by this spot from Coca-Cola, which is asking punters to explore the world of Ahh on a new website filled with a huge array of time wasting, fizzy beverage-related games.

The government recently gave SkyCity the right to operate a few extra pokies in exchange for building a new convention centre. More than a few commentators were aghast at the decision to increase the number of filthy money suckers and concerned about the impact it might have on low-income families. But please, won’t someone think of the rich people? What impact will more conventions have on them? Turns out there are some similarities between the two groups because in an article in Wired magazine about the rise of meditation and mindfulness in Silicon Valley, it described another, some might say even more insidious addiction that is becoming increasingly prevalent in some areas of the business community.

We at StopPress HQ are big fans of sandwiches. Footlongs, six-inchers, club, cucumber, PB&J and even the occasional Marmite one. Putting things between two layers of bread is the best way to eat them. Which is why we’re frothing at the mouth to be giving away two $50 Subway SubCards to our readers.

Old Spice has gained a reputation for entertaining hyperbole. But an architect who gets his hands dirty? That’s taking things too far.

At first glance it’s a photo so incredible it must have been made up. A Whittaker’s van crashed into Paeroa’s iconic L&P bottle monument. The positioning of the two iconic New Zealand food brands’ logos seem to be right out of a Hollywood movie product placement. It turns out it is too good to be true.

Music streaming service Spotify recently conducted a dubious survey in a few different markets to find out the most misquoted song lyrics. Surprisingly, AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, which definitely features the words ‘I was caught in the middle of a rhino attack’, or the Aussie anthem, which definitely features the words ‘Australians all let us ring Joyce’, didn’t make any of the lists.

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

When he was alive, Bruce Lee was a fighting machine. But for a Chinese ad, Johnnie Walker and BBH have managed to turn the CGI version into a boring, overly earnest, self-help guru who runs his hands through water slowly and says things like ‘do you have the guts to follow your gut’. Where are the flying kicks?

Do you know a business or marketing department that could benefit from real-time reassurances of their supposed awesomeness? You might want to treat them to a ‘fliike’ Facebook like counter.

Offices are great. Free envelopes, unlimited instant coffee, beautiful fluorescent light, increased chances of early death. But how do you accurately portray this scene? Getty Images has collated a series of strange images from its collection. And we’re sure everyone (especially those who find life-size parrots attractive) will be able to relate.

There have been plenty of column inches dedicated to matters of online security and data collection in recent months. So how easy is it for ‘freaks to take over your life?’ by stealing someone’s identity? Duval Guillaume Modem, the Belgian agency behind the fantastic ‘Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square’, decided to find out by scaring the bejesus out of one Tom Degroote in an effort to draw attention to safe internet banking behaviour.

Today’s Best Thing on the Internet award goes to this little gem from UK pop culture blog Us vs Th3m, which produces rather convincing plot lines for Doctor Who using only six lines of JavaScript.

Dumb TVs are out. Smart TVs are in, although several studies show very few actually use the TVs for their intended purpose or even connect them to the internet because, as Wired says, “Smart TVs are the literal, biblical devil.” According to NPD, “fewer than 15 percent of smart-TV owners are listening to music, surfing the internet or shopping on their TVs.” But BGH is trying to change all that with a new campaign via Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi and Primo that shows a man with an annoying erection, a man getting punched in the face and a man looking for a prostitute—and all of them like to send emails to actors from their TV.

On the latest NZ Digital Podcast, host Paul Spain talks to ASB Bank’s online marketing team about its digital campaigns and social media activities, including #LikeLoan.

O2 risks the wrath of cat people with its latest—and awesome—pro-canine campaign.

Are you a social media guru? Do you want to show the world how guru-ey your social-fu is? Then Social Media Stars is the show for you!

Broken arms and smelly old casts are no match for Kiwi ingenuity, thanks to a 3D-printed exoskeletal cast concept designed by a New Zealand student.

Not surprisingly, the British press went berserk after Andy ‘History Boy’ Murray became the first British male to win Wimbledon since 1936 (check out a few of the front pages here, the best of which was from The Times). And, also not surprisingly, the sponsors are getting their pound of flesh too.