Last year, the Global Mode legal battle provided a feisty introduction to the competitive banter that would unfold as the SVOD market started to mature in New Zealand. And although, we are only a few weeks into January, there are already a few jabs being thrown in this space. Following on from news that Netflix was going to clamp down on backdoor users accessing its US version, Neon has been quick to play its first hand with a responsive media release titled “Never fear NEON is Here”.

The new year is a time where we all reevaluate our position in life. We think about our wishes, our resolutions and our fresh starts. But, it should also be a time where we think the lives of others, whose wants and needs are simpler than ours. French community service association Deuxième Marche aimed to remind us of the homeless and their needs this new year, by giving them more visibility to express themselves.

Scandinavian trends have worked their way into our homewares and design industry, but can they take on the car market? Swedish car brand Volvo’s latest campaign is pushing to get more Kiwis buying its cars through a deal that lets them travel to its motherland for free, so long as they buy a brand-new Volvo car.

Nielsen has released its figures for the top ten advertisers in the calendar year for 2015, and it’s again a lineup of the usual suspects, with the nation’s major retailers taking seven of the positions on the list. And while the figures are still high, there was a clear year-on-year drop in the overall contribution of nation’s biggest advertisers.

The Swedish Institute has released a promotional clip aiming to inform people about Sweden ‘as is’, bare bums and all.

Google has taken a stance and shown its thoughts on the problematic timing of Australia’s national day by using a painterly artwork of Aboriginal Australians on its homepage.

Experiential players Brand Spanking and Fluxx this week announced a merger, which will see the companies trade under the Brand Spanking banner at the Eden Terrace office from now on.

Nike has gone the content marketing route by creating an original web series to get more women into fitness (and buying its shoes).

Whittaker’s is showing its support for our national bird, and Kiwis (mostly of the human persuasion) across the nation are spreading the word by ‘beaking’ themselves for the cause and posting the images to social media.

Since the craft beer industry started booming over the past few years in New Zealand, we’ve seen some beautiful labels adorning supermarket shelves and bar taps. These labels are often less about trumpeting the brand and more about celebrating the distinctive personality of the beer, often expressed through creative illustrations and inventive names. We had a chat with The Wireless’s Toby Morris about his experience illustrating for beer brands, and look into why illustration has become a popular promotional tool.

A thunderous roar of applause goes to Lewis Road Creamery, Mount Franklin, Flick Electric and Air New Zealand.

Air New Zealand is on the hunt for Kiwis who like the idea of travelling for work with the launch of a new a recruitment video that gives potential candidates a glimpse of what it takes to be an Air New Zealand flight attendant.

French publication La Croix (translating to The Cross) struggles with the perception that its publication doesn’t cover serious issues and instead focuses only on religious topics. Admittedly, it is a Roman Catholic publication, and religious content certainly takes up some of the column inches, but the paper is on a mission to show that it might not be exactly what people think it is. Here’s a look at the ad campaign it’s using to spread this message.

We are all big kids when it comes to milk according to Lewis Road Creamery, whose latest campaign leaves no time for table manners when enjoying dairy products. Problem Child and Exposure have created two 30-second TVCs that share the stories of individuals caught in a moment of indulgence with the dairy products.

In celebration of Quentin Tarantino’s latest film The Hateful Eight, and coinciding with the launch of a beer dedicated to the film, a Ponsonby pub transformed itself into a rendition of the film’s set, a Wyoming log cabin in post-Civil War America.

Mark Weldon has been busily shaking MediaWorks’ tree since taking over the role of chief executive and some of that shaking—from the decision to can Campbell Live and 3D Investigates to the creation of Scout to the most recent decision to rebrand all of its news operations as Newshub—has earned the ire of viewers, commentators and, in some cases, his own staff. Despite the fact he’s doing what a whole bunch of other major media companies are doing and integrating like his life depends on it, he seems to have received an inordinate amount of negative press for his efforts so far and some competitors appear to be joyously dancing on the grave with their coverage. We aim to provide a mix of light and shade here at StopPress, so we’ve covered plenty of positive MediaWorks stories during his tenure, but we can’t resist a good lookalike and, while we don’t mean to link their ‘management styles’, we couldn’t help but notice the facial similarities between the charismatic wine-making media chief and the charismatic assassination-loving Russian dictator.

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