Constipation can be stressful but what about from the turd’s point of view, tucked up inside you? McCann Health in Shanghai had this very thought when they created this ad for laxatives, which ran in Singapore newspapers and bus shelters. “Instead of approaching the dramatization from the patient’s [point of view], we approached it from the excrement’s,” McCann Health says.

After 14 years, the New Zealand Sponsorship Agency recently rebranded as Spur. And, as more brands see the benefits of creating experiences for customers that can then be amplified online, it seems the planets are coming into alignment for this small but growing agency.

BMW Canada created a bit of online conjecture recently over a recent spot showing its new M4 skidding around a racetrack located on top of an aircraft carrier. Not surprisingly, given the distinct lack of racetrack-enabled aircraft carriers in the world, it was accused of being fake. But no-one seems to care whether it is or not, because it’s been viewed nearly five million times online. And now New Zealanders are getting a taste of it for the local launch.

First up in our new section, Ben Rose, head of brand at Sovereign, professes his admiration for Z Energy.

The brands that New Zealanders trust the most were announced by Readers Digest recently, with Whittaker’s winning first place for the third year in a row, and also taking out the New Zealand icon and confectionery sections. So do these little badges make a difference to consumers’ decision-making processes? And are most trusted lists like this pointless?

People will recognise the work of Coats Design from the aisles of their local supermarket and logos of their local retailers. It’s responsible for wrapping design around the products of big Kiwi names such as Michael Hill, Rodd & Gunn, Barker’s of Geraldine, and last year’s redesign of Hubbards cereal. And the man who kicked it all off was founder Rob Coats, who passed away on the weekend and is remembered fondly by his colleagues and contemporaries in the industry.

One fact that has stuck with me over the years—and flashes up in front of me occasionally when I’m deep in a time-sucking online/social media rabbit hole—is that the same part of the brain that responds so favourably to pokie machines is the same part of the brain that responds so favourably to the constant arrival of notifications on your phone, in your inbox or on social networks. So, like digital meerkats, many of us are constantly popping our heads up and looking for the next information fix. And, as a recent Victoria University study has shown, the online realm is having an impact on our reading behaviour.

Whittaker’s and Griffin’s have colluded in sugary goodness to produce a limited edition product mashup called the ‘100s and 1000s Bar’ that combines Cookie Bears, chocolate and a significant sprinkling of hundreds and thousands. And to promote their product fusion, which was released on 21 July and will be available for only three months, the co-conspirators have launched a competition via a Facebook-hosted microsite that encourages Kiwis to cover random items in hundreds and thousands and then send in images of the results.

Motorola has launched a tattoo that allows smartphone users to unlock their phones instantly. So is it a henna tattoo of a QR barcode? Is it a microchip inserted into the skin? Or is it an actual tattoo etched onto the body with electronic micro fibre ink?

Every brand and his dog seems to have been trying to get in on the selfie craze recently, and, as yourselfieideaisnotoriginal.tumblr.com shows, it often smacks of desperation. But if you’re going to get punters to take a photo of themselves, at least make it challenging. Samsung, one of the few brands to have had success when it comes to selfie-related campaigns, is doing just that, with what could be seen as a tech-related version of the ice challenge.

Adding to the avalanche of selfies, ‘dronies’ might soon be saturating the social media feeds of snow-goers, with a camera-equipped drone hitting the South Island ski slopes in Tourism New Zealand’s latest stunt.

While tagging is often seen as an activity worthy of punishment, brands often seem to get away with it. BNZ and Unitec have done it in recent years. And Comedy Central got in on the stencil action recently to promote the new series of Chris Lilley’s Jonah from Tonga, which plays on Mondays at 9.25pm. But as a Sideswipe reader asked, why the hypocrisy and is it appropriate to have a big brand-sanctioned schlong on the streets?

Back in 2010, tampon brand Kotex confronted the Netherlands and used the word vagina in an ad. Last year, Carefree followed suit and online tampon service Hello Flo went even further with a couple of hilarious spots. The same trend towards openness seems to be developing in the bum wiping sector, long a haven of rolly dogs, tacky euphemisms and smiling actors, and Kleenex Cottonelle has convinced comedian Madeleine Sami, someone who seems to revel in public displays of awkwardness, to get on board and spruik its moistened wipes to New Zealanders. PLUS: Why wastewater experts are waging war on ‘flushable’ wipes.

Over the course of the last week, the nation’s major supermarket chains have been embroiled in a discount battle that the Herald has dubbed ‘bread wars’. The first shots of this this retail skirmish were fired on 17 July, when Countdown dropped the price of its budget white bread from $1.48 to only $1, a discount that was immediately promoted via radio and television advertisements under the ‘Price Lockdown’ banner that has been giving Kiwis reduced prices since October last year. On the very day that Countdown dropped its bread prices, New World released a similar campaign and shortly thereafter Pak ‘n Save did the same. And this effectively served as the next phase of a back-and-forth discount battle that has seen both Foodstuffs and Countdown taking aim at each other in numerous campaigns.

Carlton Draught has just started rerunning a 30 second TVC that originally aired in the the 1980s. With an action packed montage, perfectly poured beers and an impossible amount of enthusiasm, there is a lot to love here.

Karl Lagerfield called selfies ‘electronic masturbation’ and a number of studies have shown the compulsion to take selfies is actually a serious mental health condition. The online narcissicism appears to be continuing unabated, however, with selfie sticks seemingly flying off the shelves. But why simply post a classic duck face to your social networks when you could take it up a notch and burn your beautiful face onto a piece of toast.

Lydia Ko took out her fourth professional win yesterday, making the 17-year-old golfing phenom the youngest ever player to make it to US$1 million in prize money. ANZ sponsors Ko (and the ANZ Golf Show) and it’s celebrating her win with a simple social game via Whybin\TBWA that offers Facebookers a chance to win $2000 if they can guess where she’s hit her tee shot.

Following on from the 2013 redesign of its bottle, Tuatara has once again played around with the aesthetics of its beer-carrying devices—and this time the company has received a helping hand from the vampires behind Kiwi mockumentary Delicious Necks.

One of the country’s larger PR companies, SenateSHJ, has merged with PR Partners in Auckland, bolstering its expertise in consumer and ICT sector and making it one of the largest privately owned communications consultancies in Australasia.

At its essence, on-site marketing is about getting a message in front of consumers at a time when they are most susceptible to purchase. And while this might seem simple enough, Chris Coffey, the founder of the In Group, explains there’s a little more to it.

The New Zealander who helped give human faces to creatures in movies like Avatar and King Kong has teamed up with an Auckland company making airport software to develop an avatar for self-service check-ins. And there’s plenty of scope for more robot-human interactions in retail, marketing and pretty much everywhere else.

Uber may not be flavour of the month with the powerful taxi industry, but it’s gaining plenty of fans around the world, including Google, which invested US$258 million in it last year. And, as part of a global promotion, it’s hoping to draw attention to the on-demand driver service by offering Aucklanders a chance to have some of Auckland’s finest ice cream delivered to their door.