In a bid to persuade Finns that vanilla ice cream isn’t the most boring flavour available, Stockholm-based creative agency Perfect Fools recruited none other than 90s rapper Vanilla Ice to appear in a somewhat bizarre campaign for Consumo. But rather than flying the rapper to Finland and having him appear in person, the agency instead just video called him through the internet. What follows after this is a strange video in which a quartet of Finns engage in a range of games with the rapper.

Speaking at the TNS Connected Life conference, Air New Zealand’s senior social media manager Cassie Roma advised brands to take the bait if the online community is urging them to have a bit of fun. The moral of this story, says Roma, is that if somebody is begging you to be sassy with them, be sassy.

Brands have been acting fast and loose in their application of the hashtag ‘ad’ rule, with only some using it sporadically at best. So, StopPress asks a few people in the industry whether this rule is still relevant or whether it might be time for an update.

Colenso BBDO recently deployed a bit of telekinesis in a teaser campaign for V Energy. And from the outset, there were hints that V Energy (the brand that brought us the V Motion Project) was going to deliver another experiential marvel. The references to telekinesis and the chords sticking out the can seemed to allude to technology that enables users to move items with their minds. And the energy drink company lived up to promise of the teaser campaign by hosting an experiential campaign that gave Kiwis an opportunity to levitate a ship container.

Some believe the reason Australians and New Zealanders are so different is because everything in the Lucky Country is always trying to kill you. And there’s a chance you’ll get munched by something if you venture outside in a number of other countries too. Now the benefits of New Zealand’s relatively placid wildlife are being talked up to get punters along to Wellington Zoo’s new walk-through precinct ‘Meet the Locals, He Tuku Aroha’.

String Theory has launched yet another impressively creative short film to promote not-for-profit organisation Good Books, using production company Plenty. The result is an ethereal rendition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which is a hearty and satisfying feast for the eyeballs.

Energy Online and Contagion got a bit of attention a few weeks back for a stunt that involved a particularly frightening doorknob. And to show that customers can sign up in under five minutes, it’s gone full bogan and helped one brave customer sign up.

Whittaker’s is one of the most loved Kiwi brands on Facebook, with almost 500,000 fans—and a knack for launching new products directly to them. It’s hoping to replicate that success on Instagram. And to launch its account, it appears to have invited the chocolate whisperer back into its midst.

Sick of tossing around that crusty old Gilbert? Feel like you deserve the best in life? Want to celebrate an All Blacks victory with that special something? Then you need some Chanel rugby balls.

Hands together for Hell Pizza, Eastern Bay of Plenty Road Safety, Good Books and Kathmandu.

In two days it will be the 30th anniversary of Marty and Doc’s journey from the 1980’s to 2015. And to celebrate Pepsi is releasing a limited run of Pepsi Perfect, the futuristic looking Pepsi bottle in the second instalment of the Back to the Future films, while Toyota has released a car based on the fuel cell technology of the DeLorean.

Steinlager has gone to an extra effort to ensure rugby fans get up early to watch the game (and perhaps crack open a few Steinys later), by introducing the ‘Steinlatte’.

Motion Sickness Studio launched a unique start-up initiative last week called ‘MSS Startups’, geared towards younger prospective clients, which will see the studio trading its services for equity, a move founder Sam Stuchbury says was a pretty natural step to take. Here’s a look at the new service and how it all works.

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

In an effort to hold politicians accountable to their promises, a cheeky Canadian tattoo parlour called MTL has launched a campaign offering a free tattoo to politicians willing to ink their campaign promises to their flesh.

For the launch of the second season of hit TV series Fargo, Neon has launched a hilarious campaign that brings together Mid-Western sweater fashion with the largely unexpected horrors that take place in the show. Called Fargo Woollens, the campaign features a collection of actual sweaters, which have been made specifically for promotional push. The products stay true to the ugly sweater style that is often celebrated by American families during Christmas time, but the design also feature gory elements in the shape of gashes, knife wounds and cleaver assaults.

Whether it’s ‘natural’, ‘supports’, ‘may’, ‘favourite’, ‘leading’ or ‘from’, the wording in ads is often suitably vague, makes claims that can’t really be disproven and regularly embraces the art of omission. Guaranteed is generally not a word placed in that category, so we couldn’t help but notice a fairly bold claim in a Vodafone ad in the business section of today’s Herald that talked up the benefits of getting a new phone.

Australian fast food chain Chicken Treat has handed its social media account to an actual chicken named Betty. But this isn’t the usual automated tweet approach. Instead, Chicken Treat has put a keyboard in a chicken’s coop and allows the chicken to peck away at whatever keys it chooses. And from the absolute gibberish that has been tweeted thus far, it’s evident that this chicken is not gifted in the literary arts.

To draw attention to the tech underpinning the headlights of its new A4 model, Audi has launched an innovative piece of outdoor advertising that picks up on pedestrians and illuminates them while they are crossing the road. In addition to illustrating the mobility of the lights in the system, the activation also serves make those crossing the road more visible when the streets are dark.

It seems like there’s an unending wave of innovative products coming out of the New Zealand tech sector at the moment. We’re making software and hardware for use in everything from nanotechnology to aerospace to kitchens to shops. And we’re not keeping it to ourselves. But, according to the latest Market Measures survey, New Zealand’s technology exporters are well behind their US competitors in using digital marketing techniques to sell themselves and their products.

Last week we ran a story on Radio New Zealand’s website redesign approach, after it went to the public to ask for suggestions around design and layout. Now, we chat to its head of digital, who has filled us in on some of the thinking behind the strategy.

We’re quite partial to the Monster Detector app here at StopPress, which lets kids (and maybe a few adults) rest easy after a quick scan of the bedroom. And to promote the Halloween launch of indie New Zealand film The Deadroom, Centron Pictures and Stun have employed some similar technology, creating a ‘paranormal investigation’ app that shows ghostly activity in your photos.

For latest extension of the ‘Legends’ campaign Clemenger’s content arm Flare (in conjunction with Eastern Bay of Plenty Road Safety) partnered with social media star Jimi Jackson on a content-led campaign that aims to reach young males who continue to take risks by getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.

Back in 2013, Attitude Group, which has been telling the inspiring stories of New Zealanders living with disabilities, recovering from injuries and dealing with health problems since 1992 and broadcasting on TVNZ since 2005, moved into the online realm with Attitude Live. The site runs versions of its broadcast content, offered live streaming of the Sochi Winter Olympics and has been steadily growing its audience. And for its troubles, it beat competition from 86 countries to win the “inclusion and empowerment” category at the United Nations-based World Summit Awards and was also named by the Grand Jury as “best and most innovative digital innovation with high impact on society 2015”.

Unitec’s pitch process has come to a close, with independent agency Republik walking away with the institution’s strategic, creative and media business. PLUS: Chemistry Interaction and Republik win golds at Echo Awards in Boston.

Sam Gribben, former CEO of Serato, has ventured off to create his own app, Melodics, which aids aspiring DJs to learn the art of pad drumming. We found out more on the new app and how he’s rolling it out into a tech-crowded market.

It’s happening, the robots are preparing for world domination. Well, not really, but they are beginning to take our jobs. Here’s a few examples of robots who have made it to the shop floor as retail assistants.

Hell Pizza has gone free range, and to inform/attract hungry and ethically geared customers it’s enlisted Barnes, Catmur & Friends to roll out a new campaign, which includes a hint of Hell’s usual irreverent marketing style.

Marketing and information technology have always been siloed in discrete parts of businesses. But Accenture’s Michael Buckley argues that the emergence of new cross-departmental roles suggests that things are changing.