David Paine, a leading figure in the PR industry, passed peacefully at home on Wednesday 15 March 2017.

A recent submission made by the Dunedin Social Services Council and Community Law Centre said that as many as nine out of ten teenage girls in counselling had been encouraged to end their lives via social media. Add to this the fact that New Zealand still grapples with a disproportionately high suicide rate among young people, and it becomes evident why the Mad Butcher has decided to back a new anti-bullying campaign that was launched by Pead PR. From now until 23 May, high schools around the country nominated by the Mad Butcher will produce two-minute anti-bullying videos, which will then be posted the company’s Facebook page. PLUS: see which celebrites have gotten involved. Updated with additional comments from Mad Butcher chief executive Michael Morton.

While things have certainly calmed down a bit since the ’80s, this industry still has an undoubted penchant for lunching—and especially so over the silly season. It also has the skills required to draw attention to things and DineAid, a charity that helps feed the homeless and hungry, is joining forces with Pead PR and StopPress to combine these two elements into one competition, with creative Kiwi types being asked to produce a short video that tells the DineAid story.

To promote the global release of the new Xbox One console, the folk at Microsoft and Pead PR dropped one into the shark tank at Kelly Tarlton’s Aquarium. Until the official release date at midnight on 21 November, the highly coveted device will be protected by the ocean’s apex predator. And this publicity stunt continues a long tradition of using sharks in marketing.

Social Media Club Auckland kicked off its first event of the year last week, discussing the use of social media for PR. Following hot on the tracks of the My Food Bag ad vs #ad hubbub, panelists Hazel Phillips (editor at Idealog), Deborah Pead of Pead PR, and David Fisher from the New Zealand Herald deftly argued the merits of using media (particularly journalists) to promote products on Twitter.

My Food Bag delivers bags of ingredients to the door for customers to create meals designed by Master Chef-winner Nadia Lim. However, if you went by the buzz it created on Twitter alone you’d be forgiven for thinking Lim would show up and cook the meal too. Updated with comments from Pead Pr’s Deborah Pead.

Stolen Rum is a New Zealand-based start-up rum company that wants to bring back the romanticism and history of rum to a contemporary audience. The rum itself has been judged world class, and it’s got the requisite feel good back-story, but an in-house cheeky guerrilla marketing campaign hopes to put Stolen Rum on everyone’s lips—including the spirit-making behemoth it’s competing with, Bacardi.