A crazy mash of retro style game graphics and actual bobsled footage is the Jamaica Tourist Board’s attempt to get fans during the Sochi Olympics. We can’t help but point the finger at Cool Runnings.

If the TVC for this Chinese online dating service is anything to go by, the country seems to prefer luring lonely hearts with guilt than the prospect of a happy relationship. So why not throw in a grandmother desperate to see her granddaughter at the altar?

The creator of the Android app Caller Ads, currently being piloted, is targeting telcos and advertisers that have messages to push to prepay mobile users. The cloud-based service’s first iteration is like an audio pre-roll subscribers opt to take before a call.

BBDO New York tapped into the boundless imagination of a child to create a spot that oozes creativity while simultaneously applauding the awesomeness of mums (or moms) who work for GE. Every scene in the slick ad brings an absurd idea of a child to life, and thereby shows that the extent of possibility is directly proportional to how far the imagination can stretch.

The ad industry often seems like a young man’s game. But there’s no substitute for experience, as renowned copywriter Paul Burke wrote recently. And, if you’re wondering when you’ll come up with that brilliant product innovation, that revolutionary campaign idea or perhaps that long-awaited solution to the world’s energy needs, turns out you might have to wait a while.

Rather than falling into the regular sports advertising trope of the burly sports star making a great play, the team at &Some* has instead opted for a fan-centric approach that doesn’t hold the promise of victory. The idea behind the ‘game of hearts’ campaign comes to life most evidently in the print versions, which feature the faces and quotes of six different Voadfone Warriors fans—both male and female—of different ages.

Jim Beam’s integrated global campaign Make History hit New Zealand shores last week with TVCs shot and produced largely in our country. The clips were produced by Auckland company Ruskin and directed by Nathan Price.

For the past few years, the Iron Maidens—Sarah Walker, Sophie Pascoe and Lisa Carrington—have been promoting the culinary pleasures of the flesh. But NZ Beef and Lamb has taken a slightly different tack with its new ‘Tough Standards, Tender Results’ campaign, which shows how the butchery trade has changed throughout the years and aims to reinforce the attributes of the New Zealand Beef & Lamb Quality Mark.

In this series, we talk to Kiwi keyboard tappers that have managed to shift from the personal realm of blogging to create online media brands that are widely read (and in some cases profitable). In this segment, we chat to Jenene Crossan, the founder and current director of nzgirl.

Outdoor and camping clothing manufacturer The North Face recently followed free-climber Alex Honnold to Mexico, where he climbed up El Sendero Luminoso (the shining path). And the six-minute video that resulted from this endeavour offers a visceral glimpse at what it’s like to dangle from the tips of your fingers.

On 10 February, Getty Images announced that it would be going into a partnership with LeanIn.org, a women’s empowerment not-for-profit founded by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, which aims to create an online library of imagery that depicts powerful images of women and girls.

While chocolate hearts, cherubic angels with bows and Hallmark cards have nothing to do with the history of St Valentine, they are a bit more light-hearted than the imprisonment and torture of a man in Rome. So rather than condemning the unbridled commercialisation of love (and martyrdom), let’s celebrate some of the good ideas and be thankful that we don’t have to endure the annual retelling of the horror that befell a random historical figure.

This year, here’s what we’re going to do. When our clients say, “What’s the future of media, anyway?” we will bedazzle them. Show them new, more powerful ways to link magazines with digital media and other outlets. New ways to use social media and websites, with competitions, special events, display advertising, viral campaigns, sponsorships, customer incentives and a bunch of other stuff that’s so new and so amazing, we’re not even going to tell you about it yet.

There’s been a bit of coverage recently around mouthwash being ‘a disaster’ for health’, with those who swill increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Turns out ads for mouthwash can sometimes have the same effect, if Tom Paine and Carlos Savage’s Orca-winning campaign for Colgate Plax is any guide.

Just when it looked as though the hipster beard was starting to recede into the obscurity that swallows most fads, a group of Oslo-based designers has taken things to the next level by manufacturing a watch that doesn’t tell the time. And no, this isn’t a practical joke or satirical article from the annals of the Onion; it’s a legitimate project that’s based on the concept that time is subjective.

As Theresa Gattung famously confirmed, confusion is a well-established marketing tactic. And there are plenty of examples of duplicitous techniques used by the marketing and advertising fraternity to help ‘increase purchase intent’. Now the term ‘natural’—and the shysters who employ it—is coming in for some attention in a mock campaign funded by US industry body Only Organic.

Satellite Media leaders Nikki Streater and Nick Lowe erased the company line between digital and media before they could foresee the avalanche of devices and channels that would bring the two areas together. Now it’s clients that cover a raft of touchpoints — and support its forays into connected retail and events — that interest the company most.

With digital an established part of the marketing mix, 2014 is the year brands should be targeting niche audiences more than ever, says Hotwire and 33 Digital’s Trends Report. And social media is one area where the explosion of channels has prompted marketers to think ‘digital by design’.