Niklas Roy, the self-described inventor of useless things, talks to the Semi-Permanent crowd about the colliding worlds of engineering, design and artistry.

Raising money for charities and not-for-profits is a much more difficult job than it used to be, given the number of competing organisations and the economic strain of recent years. But there were plenty of impressive efforts showcased at the Fundraising Excellence awards in Wellington earlier this month.

We kick off this assault of creativity and thinking with a presentation from artist and illustrator Sandra Dieckmann.

Facebook has launched a new verification feature (in the form of a small blue checkmark icon) to set apart official brands and celebrity accounts from the faceless masses wanting to impersonate them.

Robot voice will never get old (especially if it involves getting a machine to say naughty words). And it’s also one way to avoid exorbitant talent fees. So, to launch its $1 options in the US, Taco Bell and Deustche employed the cheapest voice artist it could find.

Cyber security isn’t always as exciting as watching Angelina Jolie “hack” into a mainframe, a la the 1995 hit movie Hackers. Getting the public interested and aware of online best practice is a difficult task, but one that NetSafe has tackled well with a series of videos tying in with Cyber Security Awareness Week.

New Zealand companies looking for a slice of that sweet, sweet Kiwiana can now show off their Zillund-ness with a .kiwi internet domain name. For instance idealog.kiwi instead of idealog.co.nz. The generic top-level domain (gTLD) has been given approval by the world wide web naming authority ICANN.

The FujiFilm Finepix X100S looks as if it fell through a crack in spacetime leading to the 1960s. This is a camera designed to imitate the beautiful “space age” cameras of the era. But with a $1,800 price tag, it’s a pretty hefty premium to pay for looks. Is the X100S a hipstery fashion accessory or a handy little camera in its own right?

Premium cars have long associated themselves with fashion brands. And BMW has become much more fashionable in New Zealand in recent years, with Kathyrn Wilson named as an ambassador and NZ Fashion Week added to its sponsorship portfolio last year, which saw a fleet of X1s getting a wrapping. BMW-owned Mini has been on that track for a while, having been officially linked with local fashion house Stolen Girlfriends Club for three years. And to celebrate both the launch of the new Mini Paceman and the label’s new range, the “muscular coupe” has become a model itself after being wrapped in the Death Moth print.

JC Penney was recently named as one of ten US brands that might not be with us by next year. It’s certainly had a rough time of late and, to its credit, it came out an apologised in a new ad. But sometimes you just can’t win, and now it’s getting a pasting for a billboard featuring a kettle designed by Michael Graves that looks a little bit like Hitler.

Sustainability is an increasingly important issue for the business community. But how do you best show it? Getty Images’ research into visual trends aims to find out.

There’s been plenty of action in the produce section recently, with All Good taking a pot shot at the corporate banana with a recent campaign and Oxfam—and the Commerce Commission—questioning Dole’s use of the ‘Ethical Choice’ label. And it all came to a head yesterday after Oxfam released a report showing Dole’s apparently dubious labour and environmental practices in the Philippines.

As they always say, those in typo-ridden online glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones, but we couldn’t help but point out a little faux pas by our national carrier, which is using the 60th anniversary of the ascent of Mt Everest to promote $5 domestic fares on Grabaseat. Pity it—and nzherald.co.nz—spelled Sir Ed’s name wrong.

The cynics say that Coca-Cola has harvested happiness as a marketing concept over the years in an effort to avoid dealing with the unhappiness sugary drinks can bring through obesity (this was brilliantly skewered by ‘The Real Beers’ video). But ever since the famous multi-cultural ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’ ad, Coca-Cola has claimed that it uses its global reach to try and bring people together. And it’s tried to do just that on the sub-continent with a three-minute clip by Leo Burnett that links up Pakistanis and Indians through a pair of connected vending machines.

The last time Cadbury made major changes to its blocks in 2009, it decreased the weight from 250g to 200g, added palm oil and reduced the amount of cocoa butter. And we all know what happened there. But general manager of marketing Iaan Buchanan says the company has learned from its mistakes and its latest changes mean consumers now get ten percent more chocolate for the same price on specially marked ‘Extra Joy’ family block packs.

How do you promote the launch of ‘Europe’s first fully-digital mobile bank’? You connect 227 mobile devices together and get a 60-strong orchestra to play a digital version of Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen.

As evidenced by campaigns like Push to Add Drama, Carlsberg’s entertaining trickery and, more locally, Pedigree’s Donation Glasses and the Metservice see-through billboard, campaigns that exist in the real world can be seen by many more as a result of online magnification. And Auckland Transport, Val Morgan, Work Communications and Zoomslide are hoping to do just that with a stunt in a movie theatre that aimed to illustrate how deadly distractions can be when driving.

Bay of Plenty gets a new attitude (and along with it a new slogan) as the region attempts to squeeze into the top four tourist destinations in New Zealand.

The community of tech aficionados who participate on the Geekzone forums are some of the harshest critics of Telecom. It’s interesting to see then the country’s largest telco tap into this pool of switched on geeks to help design a new consumer modem it plans to sell to the wider New Zealand.

We’ve seen Samsung take the fight to Apple. Now Microsoft is squaring up against the dominant tech force with an ad for its new Surface that uses a Siri-like voice to point out what the more expensive iPad doesn’t do.

The Manukau Institute of Technology and bcg2 took the animated approach in its last campaign. And it’s gone to the other end of the ad spectrum this time with a campaign starring Samoan media personalities Sela Alo and Pua Magasiva that confronts the misunderstandings many prospective students can have about studying in an effort to boost mid-year enrolments​.

Ahhh, the Falcon, that most graceful of winged creatures, and that most boganic of wheeled machines. Following news that Ford was ceasing manufacture in Australia, the 56-year-old model—one of the longest running nameplates in automotive history—will be no more come 2016. So in honour of the beast, here’s a collection of classic Falcon ads from the region that have run over the years, including the classic 1989 campaign that reportedly saw requests to drive the new ‘Ford Lately’ go through the roof.