Twelve days, three countries, several stomach bugs, one sand-burned foot, sweaty pits and an encounter with Indian riot police aren’t events you’d usually associate with a TVC about New Zealand’s dairy industry. But the new spot for Dairy NZ, which chronicles the epic journey of an agrarian Kiwi warrior riding his trusty steed around the world, included all these things. And plenty more by the sounds of it.

It’s all about the people. Hey, look, here are a few who have just got fancy new jobs.

Of course, the main reason for holidays is to inspire jealousy, so family, friends and, if you’re feeling so inclined, your arch enemies, can now be sent a personalised greeting card at the push of a few buttons thanks to the launch of Send a Card for iPhone by New Zealand Post.

The wide-rimmed black glasses are being buffed, the new trainers that actually look old are being purchased and the designy/markety/techy fanboy tingles are increasing rapidly in the lead up to next week’s design wet dream they call Semi-Permanent. And the generous folk behind it (check out the interview with main brain Anna Cameron on Design Daily here) have handed us one of their precious golden tickets to give away. God we’re good to you.

Subjects were canvassed, numbers were crunched and insights that have guided strategy and communications were delivered. And the research companies that have followed this path and impacted on the fortunes of their clients have been recognised with the announcement of the finalists for the Market Research Effectiveness Awards.

Hey, look, it’s almost Fathers’ Day, which means a host of companies will soon start guilting consumers into buying socks, booze and other trinkets in order to show their patriarchal love. And nothing says fatherly love like Chivas Regal, some of which you can win if you’re cool and entertaining enough.

Pizza and horror movies have always gone pretty well together. And while there have been plenty of classic zombie flicks over the years, not one of them has featured pizza in the movie itself. Hell Pizza and Christchurch-based filmmakers Little Sister Films decided to change that by creating Deliver Me to Hell, supposedly the world’s first ‘pick a path’ interactive Zombie movie and now a mid-level YouTube sensation.

That inconsequential stuff the ads are placed around on the telly (aka programming) has been acknowledged once again, with finalists for 41 sections across three categories—news and current affairs, general television and documentary—announced in this year’s Qantas Film and Television Awards.

On this edition of Ads@6, ANZ receives plaudits for the gratuitous use of a meercat; Women’s Weekly puts its ladies on display; State’s ‘My 3 Things’ puts a few favourite things in boxes; the Audi spot makes design/tech nerds (and possibly even captains of industry) go weak at the knees; Orcon opens up multiple windows; Telecom attempts to lure the punters to its Backing Black scheme; and Fantastic noodles embraces Engrish.

After snatching the Westpac account from Saatchi and releasing a couple of rather well-received campaigns recently, Colenso is on a bit of a roll at the moment. And, as is often the way when the going is good, the hires have followed, with Daniel Wright set to join as digital creative director at the end of the month and Margot Chandler appointed as Clemenger Group’s ‘people development director’ in a newly developed human resources role.

After losing the Flight Centre business recently, Total Media, which is part of the Omnicom Group, has decided a restructure is in order, so there’s no room for the Auckland general manager position, a position which was held by Jason Rutherford for the last eight months.

Group chief executive …

Barnes, Catmur & Friends has just released a new Benjamin Button-esque billboard campaign for Okuma (it’s Kiwi for fishing, don’t you know). And it involves some pretty classic, quintessentially swarthy young/old seadogs. Ah, don’t they grow up and get tattoos and have facial hair and start smoking pipes and reeling in those big ones so fast these days.

This country’s diminutive stature has, according to legend, made us the perfect testing ground for technology firsts. And while it seems we always have to wait before we get our delivery of the newest gadgets, there have been a host of cool techie developments of late, from sandwich ordering to iPad apps, and crowdsourced language studies to dancing digital cows.

The first phase of the search for Christchurch’s top retailers has just drawn to a close, with entries for the Top Shop awards up 11 percent on the 2008 edition.