Fairtrade schemes typically aim to help end child labour, address child poverty and give producers in developing nations a fair shot at a good life. All Good Bananas has been doing just that by helping kids in the El Guabo cooperative in Ecuador, but it decided it was time to try and help out some of the local young’uns in need by giving away 5,000 bunches (25,000) bananas this year. 

Local ad network Adhub is claiming first place in a couple of eyeball races, with new sites Gloss, Beauty Bible, GardenNZ, FashionNZ, My Netball, The A List and View New Zealand soon to be added to its existing list of online properties like FLICKS.co.nz, Realestate.co.nz, allblacks.com, BBC.com, Lonely Planet and E!Online. The new sites come online on April 1 and, according to Adhub’s managing director Josh Borthwick, create the largest household shopper (1,486,335 monthly UBs) and entertainment/lifestyle (618,570 monthly UB’s) channels in New Zealand.

NZ Post certainly doesn’t like the trend towards receiving bills electronically, but it makes a lot of sense in these digital, environmentally conscious times. And RAPP Tribal and Telecom tried to bump up their numbers by dangling a philanthropic carrot with the Bills to Storybooks campaign, what they’re calling ‘the country’s first ever storybook written by New Zealanders for New Zealanders’. 

If the Mr Vintage t-shirts are anything to go by, Jermaine Kerehi of Masterton unwittingly became something of a New Zealand cult hero last week when he uploaded a video of some “motherfucking eels” slithering around in the gutter outside his home in Jones Place. And, as a result of his enthralling YouTube clip, he has been handed the latest Alcohol Sponsorship Press Award (ASPs), beating out a virtual who’s who of the New Zealand media scene.

This year, digital advertising turns 18, and it’s come a long way since the blinking banner ads of the early web. Google is a huge part of that today, of course, so it’s not surprising that the company has taken it upon itself to remix four iconic ad campaigns from the 1960s and 70s from Alka-Seltzer, Avis, Coca-Cola and Volvo.

It’s a novel way to do business. The National Business Review is launching a new performance-related freelance contributors system for its online news service. Last month we reported the authority had some positions vacant. Today it has announced a new freelance scheme, which is ‘as well as’ not ‘instead of’ replacing those staff. The service will link the value of each story to its popularity on the site.

The power of good public relations, not to mention the perils of bad, cannot be underestimated, just ask Qantas, adidas, or Telecom. To help marcomms folk avoid such epic PR fails, CAANZ Marcomms Leadership Group (MLG) is hosting a special event, Re-Imagining PR. It’s PR, ‘but not as you imagine, or know it’–because with social media constantly evolving, PR business models are also having to. Matt Bruhn, one of the speakers at the forum, answers a quick Q & A for those of you who can’t wait for the 21 March gig.

Otis Frizzell recently put his hand to the wall to brighten up Ponsonby’s Sohole and promote the new Samsung Galaxy Note, a very cool piece of kit that sits somewhere between a phone and a tablet and harks back to the golden age of cellular technology by being massive and rocking a stylus. And now some other talented Kiwi artists are using their skills to help launch another fancy gadget, with Cut Collective transforming a couple of billboards in Auckland and Wellington for Nokia’s new Lumia.

Now in its third season, MasterChef has moved from Sundays at 8.30pm to Tuesdays at 7.30pm, so is it still pulling in the punters? According to Nielsen figures the show is more popular then ever, with over 200,000 viewers watching this season’s first episode. That’s up 40,000 from last season, and in its target demographic (25-54) it won a 29 percent audience share–up six percent on last year.

Since it entered the New Zealand mobile market, 2degrees has been running regular cinema advertising and offering deals like two tickets for $22 on 2degrees Day every month. And it’s continuing that trend with a new exclusive sponsorship that was brokered by Carat, features a fairly strange ad by TBWA\ about a well-moisturised, hibernating blue bear and aims to get moviegoers to turn off their phones before the flick starts.  

Every year young girls lug boxes of biscuits around suburban neighbourhoods, knocking on doors and smiling sweetly as they try to raise some much-needed money by feeding what could be seen as a longterm national addiction. This year Assignment enlisted the help of Yukfoo for the fundraising campaign and, with the voice talent of three Guides and netball star Maria Tuta’ia, as well as a dose of Yukfoo’s typically impressive animation, it’s hoping the charm offensive will help boost the number of Griffin’s biccies being dunked around the country (if you want to avoid the grey sludge at the bottom of your cup, you’ll be pleased to know that mechanical engineers in the UK have devised a mathematical formula to ensure the perfect technique).