There are plenty of examples of brands being integrated into TV shows these days. And plenty of examples of fun being poked at the ad industry. But Wellington-based video strategy and production company Stem Creative is aiming to combine those two things in a new satirical web series called Agency that follows three “hapless but genuine and enthusiastic” employees at a small creative marketing agency in Wellington and, as Stem founder and director Ben Forman says, “pulls the veil off the ad industry”.

Nintendo released the Power Glove in 1989. The wearable video game controller was a huge flop but has found a new purpose in a slightly different field.

Late last year, puppy lovers everywhere shed unnecessary tears on account of the supposed death of Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan. This tragic news story was widely circulated via Facebook, until Millan stepped in and released an official statement via his Facebook page that he was still alive and well. This faux news story was by no means an exception, with countless similar celebrity deaths and other outrageous stories being shared through the channel. However, it seems that Facebook wants to bring an end to the falsehood. A report on Wired says that the social media juggernaut will soon release a new feature that enables users to flag hoax articles.

Witnessing a grown man with an impressive girth pouring what is hopefully chilled coffee all over his topless body isn’t necessarily an aesthetically pleasing experience, but this hasn’t stopped Bigpipe from featuring this bizarre scene in a new spot that promotes its unlimited broadband packages.

Late last year, when the aroma of summer barbecues was starting to coax workers away from their desks, subscription video on-demand service Lightbox and Coliseum Sports Media (CSM) announced a joint partnership, which will see the pair of companies bring their programming portfolios together. And now, following on from this, Spark has announced that all of its approximately 600,000 home broadband subscribers (and those who sign up before 30 April) will be given 12 months’ access to Lightbox free of charge. So do these moves make business sense for a telco in a very competitive market?

Brands hoping to reach a generation that’s turning away from traditional media and getting their entertainment in different ways are increasingly joining forces with influencers who can spread their messages to existing social networks. And for the past year communications company Spark PHD and hair care company TREsemme have been doing just that with a campaign that claims to seek remediation for our country’s (supposed) lack of innovation in the hair styling department.

Tourism Australia has announced that it wishes to procure the services of suitably qualified companies to provide public relations services to support Tourism Australia’s marketing activities in a range of countries.

Vehicle servicing company Midas New Zealand has used a little-known production company to create its latest set of TV advertisements. The clips were made by 26-year-old Ben Journee from Side Project based in Auckland’s North Shore, a company which he says is made up of “… pretty much just me”.

While Volvo is owned by a Chinese automaker, its marketing slogan is Made of Sweden. And its latest ad campaign celebrates the photogenic misery of the northern winter.

Look at the cover of any fitness magazine—or the imagery used by gyms like Les Mills—and you’re likely to see beautiful, fit people with flat stomachs, toned limbs, great tans and big smiles. But This Girl Can, a national campaign by Sport England and other organisations that aims to get “women to do their thing, no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets”, has taken a more realistic approach by showing everyday women being active. PLUS: The Sun calls time on page 3 girls after 44 years.

Netflix recently launched a pair of new spots that show how much a Netflix subscription is capable of changing a viewer’s life. And while binge-watching shows until your eyes go red might not seem all that beneficial, the pair of new spots credit Netflix with the potential to increase compatibility between couples, make people more adventurous and remedy the frowns on sullen teenage faces. One thing it cannot, however, do is make you the leader of an alien race.

As evidenced by the likes of Women Laughing Alone with Salad and Completely Unusable Stock Photos, stock imagery​ is a fairly easy target. Enter The Stock Photobomber, who inserts himself into shots for comedic effect.

Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement have taken to crowd-funding website Kickstarter in a bid to raise $400,000 to take the mockumentary ‘What we do in the Shadows’ to cinemas in 70 cities across the United States. But this move hasn’t been met with a positive response from all ranks, with some Kiwi Reddit commenters pointing out that Waititi’s last campaign on the platform left many backers rather dissatisfied.

Content marketing is by no means a new marketing innovation to slide off the ceaseless production line dedicated to marketing jargon. Since Procter & Gamble’s early dabbling in sponsored content on a radio-based soap opera, content marketing has chugged along, evolving along the way and has now become a formidable beast that is present in countless marketing plans. But as the beast has grown, so too has the trepidation that brands often feel when finding the best way to approach it. So, in an effort to demystify content marketing slightly and make it seem a little more approachable, Getty Images has released a new infographic that gives marketers a quick breakdown on strategies that could help to effectively integrate content marketing into campaigns.

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

In a decade which has seen a rapid increase of reality television, it comes as no surprise that New Zealanders will have a new one to watch this year in the form of The Bachelor. And Michael Hill Jeweller has jumped on the romantic bandwagon and will act as broadcast sponsor in the first series of the New Zealand version.

Skewering the earnestness and, at times, outright ridiculousness, of the fashion industry is fairly common. But it’s less common coming from the naming rights sponsor of a major fashion event. And that’s what Mercedes Benz has done with its entertaining, cliche-slapping film Fistful of Wolves.

To say 2014 was an unfortunate year for Malaysia Airlines would be a massive understatement. Like a twisted game of snakes and ladders, the airline made steps to recover from the loss of 239 passengers on flight MH370, only to be knocked by a second tragedy in July in the Ukraine, resulting in a further loss of 298 passengers. And, after a misguided bucket list campaign last year, it’s employed the services of Malaysian-born, Australian-raised Poh Ling Yeow to take viewers on a video tour of Kuala Lumpur.

Aussie e-commerce site ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com, as the name implies, started offering glitter bombs as a service to those hoping to annoy the hell out of people they hate. It’s trolling in the real world. And it’s been too popular for its own good.