RIP Len Deighton

In his own words:

When you make a book, it’s like making a hand grenade. It’s a dull process but when you throw it the person at the other end gets the effect.

When I wrote The Ipcress File I didn’t want to be a writer at all. I don’t like writers, they give me a pain in the butt. They’re always whining and whingeing and telling you their sales aren’t good enough. For goodness sake, it’s better than driving a truck, as Elvis Presley said about singing.

I’m still an art student really. I’m not a writer. Anything that is good in my books tends to be descriptions that an art student would provide.

To allow someone to give you a knighthood is to admit that there is someone who is allowed to appraise you on a scale which you are going to agree with. The audacity of it!

Employees taken in by corporate BS tend to be bad at their job

That’s one of the findings from a recent Cornell University study.  To quote from the study, “corporate bullshit receptivity” is a “robust negative predictor of work-related decision-making”.

In case that sounds a bit too jargon-filled, this is how a Gizmodo report summarised that finding:

Your Corporate Jargon–Loving Coworker Might Actually Be as Stupid as You Think, Study Shows

Losing Sound

From Australia: a project to make slot machines (aka poker machines or pokies) less addictive.  To quote the key person behind the project:

Aussies lose $12 billion a year on pokies. Why? Because machines are psychologically rigged to keep players in a trance - they deliberately don't have losing sounds.

After watching a relative lose $150k, I decided to expose this. I bought a black-market pokie machine - risking 12 months in prison - and hacked it. We engineered a psychological "losing sound" using 8-bit game-over cues and secretly tested it on real punters.

The result? Their urge to keep playing halved.

Link to video

Link to project website

The Night is Ours

Ashley Walters steers a montage of night-time visuals to showcase the low-light ‘Nightography’ features of Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Link to video

Too real for robots

A new spot for Zevia Soda.

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Coming Home

A new spot for IKEA  beautifully captures the longing on the way back home, and the joy upon reaching there.

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Expensive Sh*t

Huggies has announced a rather unusual test for its Little Snugglers diapers, that will be streamed live on March 12.  To quote:

We let 18 babies poop on almost $500,000 worth of goods. Can Huggies Little Snugglers stop a total disaster?

Watch it go down March 12 | 9AM PT / 12PM ET

What to expect:

Expensive items + poop-prone babies

Violinists + Chaos

The ultimate blowout showdown

Register now so you don’t miss the (potential) mess.

Link to announcement video

Prisoner sneaks away to have sex, charged with escape

Excerpts from a report out of Florida:

An inmate at the Indian River County Jail faces a new felony charge after authorities say he slipped away from a barbecue event for charity to have sex with a woman in a portable toilet.

The inmate, Hartley Elliot Sanchez, 35, was a trustee whose job was to help serve food at the event when he wandered off, an arrest report from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said.

Surveillance video showed Sanchez abandoning his post, walking behind a boat display near the portable toilets and conversing with two women, according to the report. Making sure no one was watching, a woman went into a toilet and Sanchez went in shortly after.

The duo re-emerged separately a little while later.

When deputies asked him about it, Sanchez acknowledged the encounter and offered that investigators should check out the video, according to investigators.

Sanchez, who was awaiting sentencing at the time, now faces one count of prisoner escape or attempted escape under Florida law. He is being held without bond.

Under state law 944.40, even briefly stepping out of an assigned work area while in custody can count as an escape attempt. The incident occurred on Wednesday.

Some moments deserve Gold

Yorkshire Tea makes the case for its premium brew with a couple of witty spots.

   -Jazzercise
   -Norman

Spoonfuls of serious testing

Olive oil brand Graza has launched its range of mayo products with a wacky spot.

Link to video

KitKat unveils F1 car… made of chocolate

To quote from the press release:

KitKat has unveiled a life-sized, hand-crafted chocolate car, inspired by Formula 1®. The masterpiece was revealed at the legendary Silverstone Circuit by racing ace and presenter Billy Monger, marking the high-speed start of KitKat’s partnership with Formula 1® and in celebration of its limited-edition miniature replica chocolate car.

The pit stop is Formula 1's ultimate break, so KitKat wanted to pay tribute by creating a chocolate car that mirrors the size of a Formula 1® model. Measuring an impressive five metres in length, two metres in width, and weighing in at a whopping 350kg, the car is equal to the equivalent of over 16,900 two-finger KitKats. After 1,254 hours of skilful craftsmanship led by master chocolatier, Jen Lindsey-Clark, the car is a breathtaking tribute to speed. From the aerodynamic front wing to the iconic rear spoiler, every detail has been meticulously rendered with precision.

Link to video

 

General Raj

From South Africa: fast food chain Chicken Licken makes its point of offering “just enough extra” with a spot that would be perfectly marketable as a sample of the overblown action sequences that mark a particular kind of cinema in India. 

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Friends for each other

From Spain: a heart-warming spot for Santalucia Insurance.

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‘The word’s roughest golf tournament’

It’s an initiative from Australia’s Coopers Brewery that is set—believe it or not—in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy, where summers are so hot that people stay underground.  Why? I’ll let the press release do the explaining:

What does the red dirt of Coober Pedy have in common with the lush greens of Scotland? Not much. Except for one obscure fact: the Coober Pedy Opal Fields Golf Club holds reciprocal playing rights with the birthplace of golf, St Andrews.

From that unlikely connection, the inaugural Coopers Mild Ale Coober Pedy Classic was born. BYO turf. Busted buggies. Opal-mined bunkers. It’s one of the most unique and out-there tournaments players could ever experience.

Billed as a golf tournament for beer drinkers, not golfers – unless you’re a golfer who likes beer, it’s one every Aussie can have a crack at. No handicap or strict dress code required. Punters simply buy any Coopers Mild Ale for the chance to play the Classic. Win at Coober Pedy, arguably the world’s roughest course, and you and a mate earn the right to head to Scotland to tee off at one of the world’s finest.

Link to video

Beavers and Otters and Privacy

Productivity software firm Cake.com is taking an unconventional (read: bonkers) approach to touting its commitment to customer confidentiality.

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Feline Fashionista

A new spot for TK Maxx is centred on a cat that becomes a celebrity, thanks to an accidental ‘style’ choice.

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RIP Neil Sedaka

Oh! Carol: live at The Albert Hall in 2012

Cop arrested for skydiving… while on disability leave

To quote from a news report:

A Los Angeles police officer has been charged with felony insurance fraud after he was spotted skydiving while on disability leave.

Christopher Carnahan, of Norwalk, hurt his elbow while on duty in 2023, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors allege that he completed many skydives in Lake Elsinore and worked out at a fitness center while collecting disability benefits.

The 18-year veteran of the LAPD was arrested this week and charged with two counts of felony insurance fraud. He is being held on $100,000 bail.

If convicted as charged, he faces up to six years behind bars.

Foster’s puts swearwords on its cans

I’ll let this report explain:

To champion the ‘swearing is caring’ habit of British men and to give them a helping hand to reconnect with mates, Foster’s has launched ‘Love You Cans’.

The new campaign centers round new research from Foster’s that found that 59% of British males resort to calling one another names like ‘W*nker’, B*llend, D*ckhead, Toss*r and Kn*bhead’, as a way of expressing love towards their mates.

The limited-edition run of cans are emblazoned with the affectionate insults men already use with their closest mates.

Zach Jordan, senior brand manager at Foster’s said: “These aren’t just novelty cans. They’re designed as an olive branch. Mates who’ve drifted apart can head online and send a ‘Love You Can’ directly to a friend, complete with a personalised note to act as an easy, no-pressure way to break the ice and open the door to conversation again in a style that rings true with mates all over Britain.

An urn that streams music

To be precise, it’s called the ‘Eternal Playlist Urn’ and it’s a limited-edition offering from Liquid Death in collaboration with Spotify.

Link to video