You don’t have to look far to find a joke about Justin Bieber. Just about everyone has dropped a line about the tantrum-prone singer. And given the enjoyment people derive from laughing at the expense of the baby-faced one, Comedy Central has organised an official roast of the Biebs.

Typically, agency folk harness their creativity to help clients’ businesses. But occasionally that creativity is put towards their own projects. And that’s exactly what globally recognised young creative and burrito aficionado Ben Polkinghorne has done with the Bangerrito, a burrito-flavoured sausage that’s made its way onto a few high end supermarket shelves and, all going to plan, might soon be seen in other markets.

In an age of media plenty, traditional business news outlets have never had so much competition. Being deemed essential is a good plan to counter that. And the Wall St Journal is backing itself. So it’s got a few big, successful names—producer/entrepreneur will.i.am, SAP chief executive Bill McDermott and fashion designer Tory Burch—to show that no matter how busy they are, they make time to read it.

ASB and Saatchi & Saatchi NZ have previously shown their prowess for Facebook campaigns through the hugely successful ‘Like Loan’ iniative, and the pair have now returned to the platform. But rather than focusing on home loans, the latest campaign aims to convince Kiwis to take up life insurance. The new campaign takes the form of a survey in a series of questions that aim to determine if you’re replaceable.

For the first time since public relations company Edelman first ran its trust barometer survey, which gauges the levels of trust societies have in various organisations, search engines have overtaken traditional media as the most-trusted source for attaining general news and information.

Have you ever just loved a piece of technology so much that you want to eat it? Probably not, but now you have the option, because Dole Japan has created an edible, wearable, smart banana. Yes, you heard correctly.

Samsung has released an app called ‘Look At Me’ which aims to help children with autism maintain better eye contact with their parents and peers.

With innovations in digital payment methodologies, our society is becoming increasingly cashless. And, according to a new Mastercard survey, Kiwis are slowly becoming okay with that, with many starting to warm up to the idea of digital wallets. The survey of shopping habits showed 75 percent of New Zealanders regularly shop online and two thirds are open to the idea of using a digital wallet.

Digital is no longer the siloed side project that’s only tapped into if there’s enough budget left over. It’s now an integral part of the comms strategy of most major brands, and its prominence is only becoming stronger as the online audience grows. To investigate the changing face of digital, StopPress has launched ‘Rise of the machines’, a new series in which we chat to few brains in the industry about how the channel is evolving. First up is DDB’s digital creative director Haydn Kerr.

As revealed by the recent stats released by TubeMogul, programmatic ad-buying is growing very quickly. But, as with anything new, the willingness of advertisers to adopt this approach has been slower than it could’ve been due to the fact that it seems quite complicated. So, in an effort to demystify programmatic ad buying and thereby encourage more media agencies and marketers to adopt it, Chango has released a series of videos that address some of the questions that have been raised by those in the industry.

According to Spark Home, Mobile and Business chief executive Chris Quin, fewer than 40 percent of small businesses have a website. And of those that do, only a quarter have a website that’s mobile responsive. So, in an effort to remedy this problem, Spark has released new promotion that offers business customers 24 months’ access to a Putti mobile-responsive website.

Despite approaching his 80th birthday, contemporary pop artist Billy Apple (something of a human brand) hasn’t lost the desire to create. And now, in collaboration with Saatchi’s design director Derek Lockwood, he has released a Billy Apple-branded cider.

Sometimes unfortunate or unforseen circumstances arise, which means that brands, for better or for worse, need to change their names. We thought we’d look at a few examples closer to home and further afield.

The travel industry has been one of the sectors most affected by the rise of e-commerce, with customers increasingly doing their booking of flights, hotels, trips, rental cars and transfers online. Expedia, the world’s largest online travel site in terms of booking volumes, is at the forefront of that shift and, as part of its ‘Out There Starts Here’ campaign, it’s created a number of great ads for the New Zealand and Australian market. Now it’s launched another one that sees the travel dreams of several characters become a reality.

The long-anticipated release of Sky’s subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service has been accompanied by a TVC that positions the offering as a form of escapism.

Now, if we had seen an ad, say 10 years ago that said “don’t selfie and drive” no one would have had a clue what that was about. But with new technology (and front-facing cameras) comes new dangers, and now Volkswagen has released a campaign which aims to stop drivers taking selfies while on the road.