Last year, when Act’s David Seymour released his sensational campaign video in the lead up to the election, Kiwi social media responded with glee, poking satirical barbs at the awkwardness on display. And while Seymour has since left the spotlight to tend to his followers in Epsom, another awkward YouTube star has emerged: a blonde protagonist Nelson Patchett, trading under an organisation called SI Empire which aims to help the Plebeian men of New Zealand become alpha males.

It’s easy to make fun of ad agencies, what with their creative offices and casual dress codes and intangible creations. If they don’t have the founders’ names in the title, often in acronym form, it’s important they exude coolness. But can you tell the difference between agency names and porn? A new website by Canadian agency 88 Creative puts it to the test.

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

There has been a fair amount of activity behind the scenes at the nation’s institutes of higher education over the last few months. Here’s a look at what’s been happening at Otago, AUT and Unitec.

The marketing industry has already dabbled in sharkvertising, madvertising, nudevertising and even sleepvertising. But there’s always room for more. And for the launch of its insurance offering, Trade Me has probed into the netherworlds of what could be described as analvertising (not to be confused with analyvertising, which refers to ads that provide insightful analyses on pressing social issues). This new sub-category of the ever-growing encyclopedia of marketing experimentation is introduced through a series of irreverent spots by Assignment Group, during which Trade Me makes the point that the paperwork and admin involved with insurance can (quite literally in this case) be a pain in the butt.

The Japanese are well known having produced some of the best scary movies in popular culture. But what they aren’t known for all that well is producing scary films for the purposes of promoting health products. As strange as this might sound, Japanese ad agency Tokyu has developed a new short horror film with the aim of maximising the number of calories the viewer burns through while watching.

Since Google was first launched, Larry Page has shown his inner prankster through quirky doodles, elaborate April Fools’ jokes and a slew of Easter Eggs. And, despite the seriousness of his latest message on the launch of Alphabet, it still came with a sneaky touch of Google’s humour.

Calculators are useful things. Or perhaps they were useful things before smartphones came along and made them somewhat redundant (unless you pursue a study/career in maths or science, are in highschool or want to write ‘80085’ or ‘55378008’ into the device). But 2degrees is proving other kinds of calculators can be useful, and it’s used its own one which it says reveals Kiwis are paying too much for their mobile, with millions more dollars in savings possible if they make the switch to a different provider aka 2degrees.

The Financial Times, which has recently been sold to Nikkei, is at the forefront of economic and business journalism. But, just like The Economist’s well-regarded wit, this level of professionalism and seriousness doesn’t detract from its sense of humour, as evidenced by a recent development project on its website that tried to add some character to its error page.

To own a smartphone is one thing, but as technology becomes more advanced, it also becomes more pervasive, edging itself further into the household. Soon it seems we’ll have a smart everything: smart beds (yes that’s a thing), smart watches, smart thermostats, smart bikes. The list goes on. Yesterday Spark released its Morepork smart home technology, but it’s not using the native owl of which it’s named after to market the product, but rather a family of emojis. We spoke to Spark’s Gemma Croombs to find out more on how the telco is pushing the product and her insights on smart technology. PLUS: a few examples of the latest in home smart tech.

There’s a battle for talent happening in the tech sector, as evidenced by the massive salaries and various sweeteners being offered by big tech companies like Facebook, Google and Apple. That battle is also being waged in New Zealand. And while it might not be on the same scale as Silicon Valley, Kiwi tech companies are also employing a range of different tactics to try and find good staff and keep them engaged. From charity schemes to creative offices to Friday kegs, here’s what TradeMe, Vend and Xero are doing.

Air New Zealand lodged itself firmly into the glow of the upcoming Rugby World Cup by launching a new safety video featuring the All Blacks depicted in a Men in Black setting. The five-minute clip shows chief protagonist Richie McCaw and his sidekick Dan Carter walking into the Men in Black building for a meeting with Agent Zed (played by actor Rip Torn), who instructs them to keep Air New Zealand passengers safe. What ensues is a safety rap performed by Stan Walker with some reasonably impressive supporting vocals by Israel Dagg.

The Auckland City Mission, which provides specialised health and social services to marginalised Aucklanders, is running a unique campaign through Rapp where it’s “cyber-squatting” on the .nz homepages of dozens of New Zealand organisations in an effort to raise awareness about homelessness in the city and increase donations.

Netflix has taken a rather innovative and interesting route for its latest ad which promotes its show Sense8 by creating an original piece of music using people’s brainwaves.

New Zealand has a horrible rate of boating deaths. And, in an effort to reduce those numbers and get people wearing lifejackets, the powers that be have tried campaigns involving everything from peer-pressuring clowns to ’80s-inspired gunfights. But French watersports company Tribord has gone down a different, more abstract path and created a rather unique drink.

A round of applause for Maggi, McDonald’s, Hallenstein Brothers, F. Whitlock & Sons and NZ Olympics.

Since 2009 when 2degrees first entered the local mobile market, the company has attracted over a million customers, which came largely at the expense of Vodafone and Spark. And now, with the launch of its broadband offering, 2degrees is again being pitted against these competitors as well as a few others. So, what are the chances of the telco replicating its mobile customer haul in the broadband space?