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.

From 2014, Sacha McNeil will be swapping her late-night TV slot for early mornings, as she steps in to co-host Firstline with current 3 News business editor Michael Wilson. And there will also be key staff changes elsewhere, with Mediaworks announcing that Janika ter Ellen will be brought on as the news anchor for The Paul Henry Show. PLUS: read about additional changes behind the scenes.

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.

Mobile advertising company Snakk Media has notched $3.02 million revenue for the six months to 30 September, its first unaudited half year result since since listing on the alternative exchange in March. The amount is 83 percent of the revenue it posted for the last full reporting year and a 147 percent jump on the previous half year.

Many of those who work in this industry have skeletons in their closets. But nothing could prepare…

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.

The venture that opened our desktop screens to advertisers and charities has made the shift to mobile and created a new identity, Little Lot.

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

The Warehouse Group outdoor gear online seller Torpedo7 has made a suitably adventurous foray into mainstream TV advertising, thanks to new creative partner, fellow Hamiltonians Bettle and Associates. The ad is all about inspiring Kiwis to get into the great outdoors.

ASB is on another crusade for Facebook likes, this time with a competition to push up the value of a True Rewards dollar prize pool and give it away. It’s the reverse of the bank’s earlier Facebook app that pushed home loan rates down.

bcg2, which already holds the Yates Australia account, has now also added Yates New Zealand to its growing portfolio of clients. This win, which comes as the result of a successful creative pitch, is the third trans-Tasman account the agency has penned into the books in 2013.

Auckland City Mission has revisited its 2010 and 2011 ‘Become Someone’s Angel’ campaign with a new 30-second TVC that aims to pull at the heartstrings of Aucklanders over the month of December. But rather than following the previous trend of including a depressing case study, this year’s commercial has instead opted for a subtle approach that shows the difference that a donation can make to people who are closer than you think.

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.

New Zealand Cricket’s overhauled blackcaps.co.nz site is designed to satisfy the appetites of fans who can’t resist a peek at the score on their mobile behind a restaurant menu, or who leave the action running on a small browser window at work. The demand to view live scoring is at the heart of the revamp.

Ikon, which recently added the 2degrees account to a client portfolio that includes the likes of Coca-Cola New Zealand, Kiwi Bank, L&P, Mercury Energy and Trademe, announced that it has decided to restructure its offering, and as a result both managing partner roles have been made redundant.

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.

Hell Pizza has enlisted trans-Tasman digital marketers One Fat Sheep and Wellington’s Inject Design to make its pizza boxes the passage to an augmented reality world full of zombies. But it’s as much about loyalty and sales as fun and games.

New Zealand’s own version of a global online spendup has achieved strong sales and traffic numbers for the nearly 70 retailers that took part. The organisers say a proven international business model and the competitive nature of retail were big contributors to the results.

McDonald’s New Zealand has just launched the ‘Our food, Your Questions’ campaign, which allows members of the public to send in questions on any topics related to the food on the menu. The fast-food juggernaut hopes that this will help to dispel some of the myths related to way its meals are produced.

Want to pimp your office with a new mascot? How about this moa, once an exhibition prop at Auckland Museum that’s now surplus to requirements?

The promotion for Anchorman 2: the Legend Continues has become a multi-faceted advertising stunt that makes it seem as though Will Ferrell has actually morphed into the gaffe-prone news anchor from the film. Now, after two trailers and cross-promotion with Dodge Durango, Ron Burgundy and his crew have decided to educate the world.

Google seems to be making a habit of making us get all emotional. In a recent effort in India, it told the story of how search can bring about a touching reunion, now it’s showcasing a French boffin’s labour of aircraft love.

A collaboration between product design and development company Blender Design and miniature video camera provider Teknique to create a camera in a cube has hit Kickstarter with a funding target of US$100,000.