Every year, brands tend to jump on special occasions with the enthusiasm of a cat attacking a red dot on a kitchen floor. And without fail this sees consumers inundated with promotional material related to Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day and pretty much any other day that has even slight significance to someone. So, in what has come to be an annual tradition, here’s a rundown of how various brands—including Google, Campbell Live, GrabOne and BMW—attempted to trick gullible consumers this year.

Sixty-seven years is a long time to watch from the sidelines. So we’ve decided to step up. In a joint venture, NZ Marketing magazine, NZRetail, StopPress and The Register will enter the business market by installing our Gravy Train™ pie-warmers in every Uber cab.

Every year, brands engage in a bit of April Fools’ banter by devising ridiculous new offers. And in keeping with its quirky promotional tone, Pak ‘n Save has this year sent out a release claiming to have have launched Pak ‘n Save, an on-site beauty service called Pak ‘n Shave.

A new PSA launched by the California Department of Public Health aims to to take on the E-cigarette industry and the harm that it is causing to the younger generation. Often marketed as the healthier alternative to standard cigarettes, E-cigarettes are in fact also addictive and can cause a high number of health risks to users.

David Beckham and James Corden have created a hilarious juxtaposition in an underwear ad parody on the Late Late Show.

Auckland brand and packaging agency Brother Design maintained its good form at the Vertex Awards by picking up gold, silver and bronze awards at the latest edition of the annual show.

Hirepool has brought mediaR onboard as its new full service partner following a “rigorous” creative pitch that is understood to have involved five agencies.

Although Brendon McCullum and his squad will return to New Zealand without the coveted Cricket World Cup trophy tow, the team has certainly won the hearts of the nation and, as a corollary, the continued support of the companies that sponsored the team as the action unfolded over the last few weeks. And this has seen several brands take out print ads dedicated to the efforts of the Black Caps in the Herald.

For decades, pink has been for girls and blue has been for boys. This arbitrary assignation of colour to gender has for generations dictated the colour of children’s rooms, clothes, stationery and toys. And these constraints that omnipotently decide ‘this is for boys’ and ‘this is for girls’ have also extended into other areas of children’s lives, often limiting what they feel they are permitted to participate in. However, these notions that have until now been cast in plasticine GI Joes action figures and Barbie dolls are starting to melt together, blurring gender lines and giving children the ability to determine how they want to represent their personal identities.

UK-based creative DLKW Lowe has shown the power of home-cooked flavours in a heart-wrenching spot for Knorr that features a mother bringing a meal to her daughter all the way in the Arctic. The ad is based on the premise of a Knorr study in which 82 percent of respondents said that some foods remind them of childhood, while 77 percent said that food is always part of life’s most meaningful moments.

The fervour around the Black Caps and their amazing performance in the Cricket World Cup is manifesting itself in a number of ways. Here are a few of them.

Quitline is rolling out phase two of its ‘crayons’ campaign, joining up with Screentime creative Toni Urlich, and has released the first of two TVCs, which provide a strong reminder of the impressionable nature of children and their desire to emulate the actions of family members they look up to.

While attention to the rampant growth of the ‘interactive category’ grabs headlines, there’s an extra piece of the expenditure puzzle which largely goes unaccounted for. And that’s the value and confidence New Zealand marketers are showing by increasing their investment in data-driven marketing and advertising (DDMA), argues Marketing Association chief executive Michael Pryor.