The New Zealand Herald has just hit its 150th birthday milestone. So what better time to look back on happier, simpler and more profitable times for the newspaper. StopPress takes a look at some vintage Herald ads.

GE is celebrating staging a concert in New York’s Union Square with the latest instalment in its Brilliant Machines campaign. The star act is literally heavy metal: it’s a group of robots named Fingers, Bones and Stickboy.

Don’t you hate it when you miss your bus, a meeting, or are forced to sleep rough in a cafe because they turned out the lights a and left without you realising? That’s what happens to the unfortunate schmucks in AT&T’s promo for a zero down offer on the latest iPhones.

The jandals are out in force, many have had the first sunburn of the season and the beaches are filling up. Summer is almost upon us once again, so to celebrate the closeness of the great yellow orb, here’s Getty’s top-selling beach-moment images in New Zealand.

You know you’ve made it when you’ve featured on the likes of Mashable, TechCrunch, The Verge, The Next Web and Daily Mail, without spending anything on marketing except your own time. That’s what three Kiwis and a Londoner have achieved with their 3D photo app Seene.

Imagistory, an app that encourages kids to use their imaginations to create stories from picture books, is among to first to use Kickstarter as the site gets set to launch downunder today. Founder Nick Barrett won the top award in AUT’s Venture Fund for the app concept in 2011, which provided a $7300 boost. He’s now seeking $15,000 on Kickstarter.

The Warehouse Group has brought its own version of the 24-hour online buy-up Cyber Monday to New Zealand, ahead of another Kiwi event based on the concept. The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Noel Leeming, Red Alert, Torpedo7, 1-Day, ilovebeauty, pet.co.nz, No.1 Fitness and shotgunsupplements.co.nz were among the participants in the group’s 12 November event.

Ogilvy and Mather’s compares hazardous substances to weaponry in its new campaign for the EPA. The provacative campaign has been placed in industrial areas in the hope it will catch the attention of those who use dangerous products every day.

Following the successful brand projects for Jazz and Envy apples, Turners & Growers approached BRR with a unique brief to take the Bonita brand and export label and create an engaging brand for generations of kiwi banana lovers. Inspired by the flair for life in South American culture, BRR saw the opportunity to introduce a sense of personality, energy and positivity into the Bonita brand and the wider category.

David Kester, director at Thames & Hudson, and the ex-chief executive of the UK Design Council and D&AD, recently ventured back to New Zealand as part of NZTE’s Better by Design CEO Summit and talked about design’s relationship with innovation, how successful companies explore and experiment and how smart companies use design within their business to remain flexible as markets rapidly change. We sat down for a chat.

The Condescending Corporate Brand is a very entertaining Facebook page that takes aim at ridiculous attempts by brands to ‘engage’ with ‘fans’ on ‘social media’. And Countdown has made it onto that list by asking its fans to take part in a “fruity showdown”.

Jono and Ben recently referred to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) by its old acronym LTSA. In reponse to this verbal misstep, Anthony Frith, the media manager at NZTA, sent the pair a sensational email.

The future is near! AJ Park patent specialists Anton Blijlevens and Jillian Lim touch on some interesting patents to look out for on the shelves.

You know what the world needs more of? Shoes, that’s what. There simply aren’t enough options. So thankfully, in the spirit in past comebacks like Griffin’s Choco-ade, Twinkies, Temuera Morrison and Dunlop Volleys, Bata Bullets will soon be back by popular demand and adorning the feet of hipsters and nostalgic types everywhere.

DraftFCB has had a stellar year in 2013 and a few of its award-winning campaigns seem to be the kind that inspire the ‘I wish we’d thought of that’ phenomenon among competing agencies. That marks a change from previous years when it wasn’t quite as highly regarded for its creative output. But it’s tough to imagine its new Paper Plus campaign featuring anthropomorphic rapping presents will sit in that category.

Toronto-based John St. has moved on from case studies and catvertising to the treacherous world of prankvertising.

Ah, November. A time of joy, facial hair, commercial oneupmanship and retailers and marketers already trying to grease the wheels of consumerism with their Christmas campaigns. New Zealand doesn’t seem to have been too badly affected by early Christmas fever yet, but the UK is already running a very high temperature, with John Lewis, Cadbury and a few others launching their efforts, many of them long-form.

Telecom has demo-ed a slew of ways customers can make the most of its 4G network in the real world of work and home. The showcase of what’s designed to be faster or easier using 4G, 3G, fibre and wifi comes on the eve of the telco’s 4G launch in parts of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch tonight.

Willie Jackson and John Tamihere announced during their show that they will not return to RadioLive for the remainder of 2013. This comes shortly after all advertisers refused to run their ads during the pair’s show.

Foursquare, Memphis Meltdown and Freedom Farms all got some decent brand exposure in front of 80,000 people at this year’s instalment of the Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix. PLUS: Red Bull wins friends and influences companies with its cool factor.