An awareness campaign conducted by Cancer Research UK earlier this month illustrated how people tend to ignore things that are blatantly obvious. Developed by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and titled ‘The Lump’, the campaign features a bulge on a busy street that grows with each passing day.

Back in 2011, Vogel’s received plaudits for a pun-laden outdoor campaign that cheekily tapped into the hype around the Rugby World Cup, even though it wasn’t a sponsor. And it’s trying something similar during the Cricket World Cup.

Yup, you better belieb it, Justin Bieber has now parodied his own “not photoshopped” Calvin Klein ads with Jeff Ross dressed as model Lara Stone. Too soon? Apparently not.

We see them everyday. These strange, hyper-real, ultra-bright, excessively cheesy stock images. They hardly penetrate the consciousness anymore, but with a bit of tweaking and some superior photo-shopping skills, the stock photos used to promote Vince Vaughn’s new film Unfinished Business do.

Mac’s has undergone something of facelift, which has seen the brand livery across its range of beers and ciders change. And this news has also coincided with the announcement that Mac’s drinkers will have seven new options to choose from.

Modern humans already have plenty of gadgets around them. Now they have gadgets to put on them. And Apple is the latest to enter the wearables market with the launch of the Apple Watch, which will go on sale in April 24 in nine countries and in New Zealand later in the year. And, in traditional Apple style, the product has taken centre stage in the advertising.

The way we see men and women is evolving, and many brands have started noticing and reflecting this in their advertising. To highlight some of these examples during International Women’s Day, Getty Images recently compiled short list of the international ads that are leading the charge in representing women as powerful, independent and capable. Plus: Getty looks at the growing trend of androgyny in representations of men and women.

Following a competitive pitch, Shine has won the Huawei account and will now take charge of the tech company’s creative and strategy in New Zealand.

Last year in April, Trustpower’s research team found that many Kiwis didn’t realise that the company offered services beyond energy. To counter this problem and showcase its broadband, phone and gas services to potential customers, the company launched ‘The better together’ campaign, which aimed to highlight the benefits of having a single multi-utility bill. The campaign was initially limited to Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington, but now Trustpower has launched its first nationwide campaign to share its multi-utility story with more Kiwis.

Uber has delivered kittens and ice-creams as part of its promotional activities in the past. And now, as part of a campaign via Whybin\TBWA to launch the new PlayStation 4 game The Order: 1886, it’s embraced horse-power.

This year marks 100 years since the ANZACs got involved in Word War One. And to honour the sacrifice, an Auckland artist has embarked on the massive undertaking of creating the world’s largest poppy, which will consist of 59,000 red metal discs with contributors’ names and messages placed by him and members of the public on Auckland’s Domain in support of the RSA. PLUS: a few other ANZAC initiatives.

Launched in the lead up to International Women’s Day this Sunday, a new campaign by creative agency WCRS for not-for-profit organisation Women’s Aid featuring an interactive billboard that depicts an abused woman being healed when passersby look at it. The campaign is powered by face recognition technology, and aims to encourage people not to ignore the issue of domestic violence.

NZRetail magazine is nearing its 70th year in publication, but the grandest dame in Kiwi retail news has lost none of her pizzazz. And it’s just emerged from a rebranding with a bigger format, perfect binding, a bi-monthly publishing schedule and a long-awaited online arm, The Register.

Not-for-profit organisation Bias has released a new campaign that has since 3 March bounced around the internet, collecting millions of views along the way. The short spot, which is based on the premise that we are all the same under our skins, shows several couples, who while dancing behind a giant X-ray screen are reduced to skeletal figures. When the couples step out from behind the screen, they are revealed as a diverse assortment of characters, illustrating that our biases and judgements are only skin deep.

Spark’s subscription video on-demand (SVOD) platform Lightbox has been experimenting with some marketing avenues, through the use of bloggers and social influencers in order to support its traditional media channels.

Ford has been giving Toyota a bit of grief in its advertising after sales of its Ranger topped those of the Hilux last year. And now it’s taking a swipe at a bunch of other car brands—and the ponces who drive them—with an ad for its new Territory SUV.

Innovative data-sourcing site Wiki New Zealand launched in December 2012 as something of a test model to see what users wanted from the site and how it could run more efficiently. Two years on, the site has now been redesigned and chief executive Lillian Grace says feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive”.

Active in the Kiwi market since 2011, ditial marketing software provider Kenshoo recently announced the launch of a mobile display channel service in partnership with AppNexus, a company that facilitates more than 16 billion ad buys through real-time bidding every day. And following on from this, the company has also brought together all its software under a single platform called Infinity Suite.

ASB is the latest brand to bask in the reflected glow of the All Blacks after its partnership with New Zealand Rugby was announced today. And, in celebration, the bank has rebranded for a day.

So risky is Twitter that Wendy Thompson, the founder of social media agency Socialites, advises clients not to dabble in platform. And while this might sound counter-intutive coming from someone who pays the bills thanks to social media, Thompson’s company has already generated some impressive results for major brands such as Mitre 10 and Spark, and she has just penned House of Travel into her ledger. So is this a case of digital smoke and mirrors or is a social media agency something that more businesses should think about bringing onboard?

Samsung put on a big show for the launch of its new phones early this week. But just a few days before that showoffery we heard a story from the BBC about the environmental problems of a throwaway culture, the mining of rare earth minerals—and the mining of old phones—and the unwillingness of manufacturers to give plans to those who want to try and repair their broken products. So, rather than leaving a number of old phones festering in the bottom drawer, we decided to collect a few and hand them over to Starship. And this is what we found bursting out of an old Galaxy Note 2.

People who like new things were treated to the live-streamed unpacking of Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. And, instead of referencing its main competition Apple with its long-running ‘the next best thing is already here’ campaign, it’s changed its tune slightly, backed its more stylish metal and glass-laden phones and gone with the line ‘next is now’ for its early promotional clips.

In an ongoing series, StopPress chats to a few cerebral types in the industry on the expanding influence of digital technology and how agency life is changing in response to this. Last week, in the first edition of ‘Rise of the Machines’, we featured the creative perspective, and we now shift attention to the media side of the industry as we ask Jane Stanley, the PHD group strategy director and managing director of PHDIQ, a few questions.

The collection of screeds of data offers seemingly limitless possibilities, from lights that flash when your favourite teams scores to fridges that can order more milk to services that can tell us where a free park is. And many companies are trying to show what can be done with it all (GE’s Datalandia was one of our favourites). Sid Lee Paris has joined that club and, in conjunction with Arduino, set up 17 sensors that show exactly what goes on in its office.

Yesterday, Tinder launched its new paid version of the app, called Tinder Plus, which includes new features. But it isn’t showing the love to ‘older’ users, charging over-30s more to use the app.

Peruse enough mainstream news sites and you’re likely to eventually see the Getty Images label tagged to the photography featuring on some of the stories. This is because the company today serves as an image provider for many publications throughout the world. Due to this affiliation with news, it’s important for Getty to provide imagery that accompanies current affairs suitably.