Over the past few years, we have seen a series of memes that have had the potential to cause injury, such as planking, owling, batting and, of course, extreme ironing/hammocking. The Harlem Shake, however, never really seemed too dangerous. Ridiculous, yes, but not particularly life threatening. Fonterra disagreed, however, after it sacked two of its staff for shaking it on the Takanini factory floor.

New Zealand-based photography and illustration house International Rescue is setting up shop in Australia, with a new office in Sydney.

One of the joys of this business is that companies are often willing to spend untold sums in an effort to bring often-ridiculous ideas to life. Red Bull has made an art form of it over the years and, with its increased focus on media, it’s creating some remarkable things, likes its recent project filming the fastest bird in the world, the peregrine falcon, hunting down one of the best downhill mountain bikers in the world, Gee Atherton.

There’s a Tumblr for everything these days, heck – there’s probably a Tumblr curating all the times the phrase “there’s a Tumblr for everything these days” is used in an article. So it’s not surprising that the biggest news story of the week, the NSA and PRISM cyber spying scandal, gets the full Tumblr treatment.

When life gives you lemons, go back in time and punch it in the face. That’s the message behind BJ Golnick’s entry into Saatchi and Saatchi’s global Music Video Challenge, which saw hundreds of entrants remix their original video onto OKGO’s latest track ‘I’m Not Through’.

A new challenger for New Zealand’s TV shopping market is set to launch in the country later this year. Korean-based KD Media has announced the new (and yet to be named) channel, led by Auckland-based investor and chief executive Paul Ding.

Nielsen’s latest figures on online shopping show more Kiwis are clicking to buy. And from holographic retail assistants to interactive zombie gaming to mobile apps that allow users to purchase items via QR codes, retailers and marketers are donning their digital thinking caps to find the most creative ways to lure and retain customer attention in the colliding world of bricks, mortar and online retailing. Deirdre Robert shops on.

At the start of this month Charlie’s announced its new name: The Better Drinks Company. But that’s not the only change taking place behind the scenes for the drinks manufacturer. A new office space was commissioned to physically represent the company’s new philosophy.

The Crown, Pack & Co’s latest venue on Auckland’s Customs St in Britomart and the first of its Little Empire Brewery and Eating Houses, had its official opening last week. It plans on tapping into the craft boom and brewing its own beer in the near future. So no doubt it will need some help to name its different varieties. We’ve got two $50 bar tabs and two tickets to Beervana in Wellington on 9-10 August to give away. So add your best craft beer name to the comment wall and the top efforts (from those over 18, of course) will get the loot.

APN NZ’s group advertising director Andrew McNally died suddenly of a heart attack this morning at the age of 44. Updated with details of services in Melbourne and Auckland.

A weekly wrap of funny things, good things, weird things and other things seen on the intertubes.

Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia has teamed up with upcoming Super Man movie Man of Steel (out here in New Zealand 27 June) to coat tail on its coolness – and boy is it cool.

From elevator frights, to dropping friends right in it, to dramatic surprises in town squares, to fake attacks, marketers and agencies seem to love nothing more than scaring the bejesus out of innocent bystanders with their social experiments. But UK road safety organisation Think and its agency Leo Burnett have taken it to a new level with their #PubLooShocker.

The Shopping Channel has had a pretty rough ride since it launched with great, Eva Longoria-inspired fanfare last year. But it’s still alive—albeit much leaner, in a different location and with a modified focus.

TradeMe Jobs recently launched a campaign showing that nominative determinism was a thing of the past. Try telling that to the BBC.

German beer brand Beck’s chose Semi-Permanent in Auckland to unveil its latest toy: a beer bottle where instead of a label there’s music.

‘Can you make it go viral?’ is a phrase that strikes fear into the hearts of all agency folk. But Swedish PR consultant Simon Strand, who has spent an inordinate amount of time philosophising on last year’s big YouTube hits and coming up with his own viral formula, is here to help.

Kim Dotcom’s cloud locker service Mega came under sustained cyber attack yesterday, which affected the New Zealand-based cloud company’s services for about 2.5 hours.

When it comes to ad spend, there are a few measures available, from the ratecard-based Nielsen AIS, to the industry-supplied figures released annually by the Advertising Standards Authority, or other quarterly releases sent out by various industry bodies. But a new player is about to take the field, with Standard Media Index (SMI) launching in the New Zealand market this month.