Get paid to go vegan… alongside your dog

Plant-based dog food company, Omni, is offering to pay one “lucky” UK dog owner for going vegan alongside their dog.  Excerpts from the campaign website:

Do you and your dog fancy earning some money and free food? Well, look no further as we may have a dream job for you.

As we hope to introduce plant-based food to more pups across the UK this year, we are looking to pay one lucky dog owner and their dog to become vegan for three months.

In a society with a lack of education around diets for dogs we understand there is a pre-existing and negative misconception about feeding your dog a plant-based diet. We hope that by hiring someone to change both their dog’s and their own diet, we can communicate the benefits it can have on both dogs and humans.

For the role to be successful we will ask the owner to record their experience of introducing a plant-based diet for them and their dog, monitoring their health, energy levels, behaviour, bowel movements, sleep pattern and physical attributes, such as weight, skin, and hair/fur condition.

In return for the diet change and their work, we will pay the successful candidate a pro rata salary of £30,000, for an initial three-month role (£2,500 per month) and will cover all food expenses for the person plus a supply of dog food to cover the job duration.

No qualifications or vegan experience is required for the job role, just a pre-existing non-vegan diet and a dog you are happy to experience the new diet with.

Squinty Cowboys

It doesn’t carry its famous tagline (at least not visibly) but this delightful new spot for Specsavers is very much in the same mould.

Link to video

West Virginia Governor: ‘Kiss my dog’s backside’

Okay, so that was a bit of paraphrasing but that was, in effect, what Governor Jim Justice had to say to detractors of his state in general, and Bette Midler in particular.  His remarks came at the end of his State of the State speech in the House chambers.  What’s more, he actually had his dog brought over, and he then lifted her and showed everyone what exactly he meant. 

Link to AP video with added context

Like I Said

A superbly visualised 6 minute short, with a couple of splendid performances and a darkly funny twist.

Link to video

PR as Defence for Visiting a Cabaret

Excerpts from  a Reuters report of the opening day of the trial of Pierin Vincenz, former CEO of Raiffeisen Switzerland:

While most cabaret visits had followed business dinners or events, some were made spontaneously on his own in the interest of meeting entrepreneurs and business managers, Vincenz said, adding that he had been tasked by Raiffeisen with developing the bank's presence and public profile.

"Do I understand your claim correctly that, when you went alone to a cabaret, there were invariably business people present and every invitation was made in Raifeissen's business interest?" one judge asked him.

For those who need more context (along with a dash of wit), I’d suggest reading this piece.

Paris Police 1900 (2021)

SERIES REVIEW

This is a gritty crime drama set against the racial tensions that marked the socio-political landscape of France at the turn of the 20th century.  It is a murder mystery meshed with political intrigue, blackmail, backstabbing, and brutal violence. 

It is striking in the way it fashions a fictional narrative around real-life events and characters.  More than that, though, it stands out for its portrayal of that time and place, and the way it immerses you into that.  Through the dark streets of Paris and the murky corridors of power, it transports you into a squalid world in which moral considerations are frequently trampled by the need to survive at any cost. 

A few things to bear in mind.  One, it would help to be familiar with the historical context (or look it up, if required).  Two, it features a lot many characters and getting a hang of them and their motivations may take some time or require some pausing and rewinding.  Three, it pulls no punches in its depiction of filth, gore, and depravity.

Link to trailer

An ‘Adorable’ Piglet named Bacon

From an AP report out of California:

Pleasanton police want to know if anyone is missing an “adorable” piglet.

The little porker was found wandering the East Bay suburb on Thursday, the department said in social media posts.

The owner couldn’t be immediately located so the piglet they’ve named Bacon was turned over to Alameda County’s East County Animal Shelter.

Police hope someone will bring Bacon home.

For Sale- House with Communal Bathroom

Excerpts from a news report out of Wisconsin:

One South Milwaukee home is popping up all over social media due to the uniqueness of one of its 3 bathrooms.

The home, which was built in 1851 by the Fowle family, features a bathroom that has not one toilet, but 4. That's right, the home has a communal bathroom.

What makes the bathroom even more strange is the lack of partitions. The toilets are simply sitting there next to each other, with nothing separating them. So, while multiple people can use the bathroom at once, they all have to look at each other while they do it.

It is a farmhouse that was built in 1851 and eventually was donated to the Girl Scouts of America, who made additions including the unique bathroom.

The previous owner owned the home for 40 years, and the current owner purchased it two years ago with plans of making it into an Airbnb. All that time, there were never partitions between the toilets.

‘Escape’ of a Vacuum Cleaner

As reported by the BBC:

A robot vacuum cleaner made a break for freedom after giving staff the slip at a Travelodge hotel.

As reported by The Independent:

A robot vacuum cleaner made an escape from a Travelodge hotel after it wandered off the premises.

As also reported by The Independent:

A robot vacuum cleaner managed to avoid its regular duties at Travelodge hotel after dashing for the exit door and going on loose in Cambridge.

As reported by The Mirror:

An autonomous robot vacuum cleaner has become an internet hero after running away from work in a Travelodge hotel.

As reported on Reddit, by an employee of the hotel where the vacuum cleaner was in service:

Hey. So I work at Travelodge and today we had one of our new robot vacuums run for it's life! They normally sense the lip at the entrance and turn around, but this one decided to make a run for it. It was 15 minutes before I noticed and by that time it could have made it anywhere. If you happen to see it, there is a drink at the bar for you upon it's return. They aren't compatible with any other charger or docking station so they are useless once drained. I'm thinking someone probably took it at this point but here is hoping. I miss my lil buddy. Thanks.

RIP Meat Loaf

Alongside the music, some other stuff to remember the man for:

Ad for St1

Ad for Frankie and Benny’s

Explaining “that” on a blackboard

No Djoking

Meat and Livestock Australia unveiled its summer campaign and its billboards are especially striking.

^Source

^Source

Loud Toilet Flushing Ruled as Human Rights Violation

From Italy: the country’s supreme court has ruled in favour of a couple who sought action against one of their neighbours on the grounds that the loud flushing noise made by their toilet was “intolerable”.  Excerpts from coverage of the news by The Washington Post:

Italy’s top court has added a new human rights violation to a list commonly thought to include enslavement, torture and forced starvation: the sound of a toilet flushing at night.

That country’s supreme court cited rulings by the European Court of Human Rights in deciding a 19-year legal battle that began when a couple living in an apartment near La Spezia complained that their neighbors’ new toilet was keeping them awake with “intolerable noises,” according to the Milan-based newspaper Il Giornale.

The court was sympathetic to the couple’s struggle to sleep. The sound of flushing — “aggravated by frequent night use” — compromised their quality of life and violated the right to the free exercise of daily habits established by the European Convention on Human Rights, the appellate judge said, according to Il Giornale.

When Dance Becomes a Dialogue

That’s how Dutch designer clothing company, G-Star RAW is describing its new spot, dubbed ‘Rhythm of the Denim’, which features an exquisitely choreographed performance of tap dancing.

Link to video

What’s in a Campaign Name?

From Australia: the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has launched a road safety campaign to teach youngsters how to drive safely when trucks are around.  The campaign name:  ‘Don’t #uck With A Truck’.

RIP Marilyn Bergman

Of the many notable songs that she co-wrote with her husband, there are a couple that I especially admire: The Way We Were and The Windmills of Your Mind.  Besides the sheer appeal of the lyrics, what has stood out for me is the way that the former embodies the soul of the movie it was written for, and the way that the latter nails the turbulence in the mind of the character it was written for.

From The Way We Were:

Memories
May be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply choose to forget

From The Windmills of Your Mind:

Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly
Was it something that you said

When you knew that it was over
You were you suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of her hair

Handbutts

How do you show the effectiveness of a butt shower without actually showing any butts?  That was the challenge before the creative team leading this campaign.  Well, they have certainly managed to ace that, coming up with a pretty creative and cheeky visual solution (pardon the pun). 

Link to video

Link to DIY video (Apparently, this was triggered by overwhelming interest among viewers to replicate what is shown in the ad)

Discount from the Sky

A British real-estate firm has come up with, what I am tempted to describe as, an unearthly idea to entice first-time home buyers, and enhance its own visibility.  On 19 January, it will parachute a couple of house keys, somewhere over the UK.  Whoever snares the package, stands to get £10,000 towards a house deposit.

Link to campaign website

Above and Beyond Land

The new spot for Land Rover Defender is as epic and visually stunning as one might expect- and then some.

Link to video

Locked down with a Blind Date

As reported by the BBC:

A woman, only identified as Ms Wang, posted on Chinese social media platform WeChat last week that she had got locked down with her date after visiting his house for a meal.

In the post, she said that she had recently returned to the city of Zhengzhou from Guangzhou ahead of the Lunar New Year.

“I'm getting quite old, so my parents arranged more than 10 blind dates for me,” she said in this post. She wrote that her fifth date had said “he was good at cooking, and invited me to his house so he could cook a meal”.

However, during the meal, she discovered that her date’s community had gone into swift lockdown due to cases of Covid-19, and ended up being unable to leave his house for several days.

Ms Wang told media on Sunday that she had been stuck for four days at her date’s house, and that the situation was “not ideal”.

The Guardian had this to add about her experience, quoting her from an interview to a Shanghai newspaper:

“Besides the fact he’s as mute as a wooden mannequin, everything else [about him] is pretty good. Despite his food being mediocre, he’s still willing to cook, which I think is great.”

File tax returns like a cowboy

In a new campaign, tax filing platform TaxSlayer is promoting its services as a way to get tax refunds with ease.  I don’t claim to know the mindset of American taxpayers but it strikes me as rather strange that TaxSlayer has chosen to compare the experience of filing returns on its website, with that of lassoing a cow- even if it is literally a cash cow.

Link to video

Medusa’s Makeover

This new addition to Amazon’s ‘Prime changes everything’ campaign is a wonderful mix of a great idea, splendid visuals, deft little touches, with a dash of wicked humour.

Link to video

Watch movies under hypnosis

Remember Göteborg Film Festival’s ‘isolated cinema’ offer, from last year?  This year, the organisers have another unusual and extreme offer- to  watch screenings under hypnosis. As explained on the website:

The Hypnotic Cinema is a unique experiment with three exclusive screenings at Stora Teatern in Gothenburg. Before the film starts, a hypnotist will perform a mass hypnosis that will transform the audience’s state of mind in accordance with the mood and theme of the specific film. After the screening, the hypnotist will break the hypnosis. The selected films are all suggestive and in different ways they bring the audience on an emotional journey where different states of consciousness are explored.

Link to promotional video

Norwegian conscripts asked to return underwear due to supply shortage

From a Euronews report:

Norwegian conscripts will now have to return their pants, bras, and socks at the end of their military service, as the Norwegian army is experiencing stock problems, public broadcaster NRK reported on Friday.

Until recently, it was customary for demobilised conscripts to leave their garrisons with the underwear they had been issued during their service in the army.

But the Covid-19 pandemic has seriously complicated the flow of supplies, leading the Norwegian army last year to invite conscripts to hand over the most intimate items in their kit to their successors.

“The decision to reuse this part of the kit, will help us have more volume in circulation and increase the delivery capacity of the equipment. We have too little in stock,” Army Logistics spokesman Hans Meisingset explained.

“The linen is washed, cleaned and checked. What we distribute is in good condition,” he said.

A conscripts’ representative, however, criticised recurrent shortcomings that could affect operational capabilities.

“Severe shortages of equipment and clothing can potentially affect operational readiness and, in the worst case, the safety of the soldier,” Eirik Sjøhelle Eiksund told the Norwegian trade publication Forsvarets Forum.

Guarding NATO’s northern borders from neighbouring Russia, Norway maintains a semi-mandatory military service, calling up around 8,000 boys and girls each year, selecting only the most motivated to serve in the age group.

RIP Sidney Poitier

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
  - ‘You don’t own me’

RIP Peter Bogdanovich

TCM tribute from a few years ago

Trailer of Saint Jack- a version that features Bogdanovich himself, introducing the movie

Sheep Enlisted for Vaccine Campaign

From a Reuters report:

A German campaigner is hoping the emotional appeal of 700 sheep forming the shape of a giant syringe will reach the hearts and minds of people hesitating to take a COVID-19 injection.

Germany has lower vaccination rates most other Western European nations, although some are simply unsure if they should get a jab rather than vehemently opposed to vaccination.

“Sheep are popular with people and carry positive emotional connotations. So perhaps they can reach many people emotionally when logic and scientific reasoning don't do the job,” the organiser of the campaign, Hanspeter Etzold, told Reuters.

Etzold works with shepherds, companies and animals to run team-building events in the northern German town of Schneverdingen.

“I have noticed how enthusiastically the sheep are received and that it simply reaches people deep inside, which is perhaps not possible rationally, with rational arguments,” he said.

The animals, which belong to shepherd Steffen Schmidt and his wife, followed pieces of bread spread on the ground to form the 100 metre long syringe shape as they were filmed by drone.

Link to video

Man puts up billboards to look for a wife

As explained in this report:

29-year-old Mohammed Malik has taken over a series of billboards across Birmingham in the hopes of finding his perfect match.

Malik, who’s originally from London, chose Birmingham to activate this hilarious campaign because of the “top quality food spots in the city centre, bustling Alum Rock (and) the incredible mosques.”

For those interested in responding, he has posted a form on his website along with other details about himself.

Spot the Abuse

A glitzy game show is the unlikely but effective setting for a message about coercive control in this domestic abuse PSA.

Link to video

Editorial Standards

As has been widely reported, the decision by the BBC to have Alan Dershowitz analyse the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict was dubious and dumb.  Among other things, Dershowitz had been Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer and has himself been accused of being in cahoots with him.  The subsequent statement by the BBC has added to the scorn and ridicule.

This is what journalist David Simon had to say in his brutally eloquent style:

Hate to be an old-timer who chirps about better days. But at my old paper, a disaster this raw and embarrassing required us to shoot a senior editor, burn the cadaver in a newsroom pyre, then mix the ashes with printer’s ink and sent out in the home final as a warning to others.

Arguably, the most striking riposte came from the Sunday Sport- a paper with a reputation for loose fact-checking and which was once described on the BBC as “a diligent exponent of tabloid journalism’s lower reaches.”

That’s putting it mildly. It didn’t even meet OUR editorial standards.

Focused Detectives

Apple’s campaign to promote the cinematic capabilities of its iPhone 13 pro takes a distinctly amusing turn with this new, tongue-in-cheek commercial.

Link to video

Squirrel on rampage put down

Excerpts from a report out of Wales:

A squirrel’s reign of terror has been brought to an end after it caused chaos in a North Wales town.

The grey squirrel was branded “psycho” and “nutty” after indiscriminately attacking pensioners, children and pets in Buckley, Flintshire. At least 18 people were injured over two days after the squirrel went rogue.

Like something out of a low-budget horror movie, it launched itself at people as they put out their bins – and even chased people down streets.  Some were left bitten, bruised and bleeding by the rascally rodent. A few even needed tetanus jabs. 

The squirrel was quickly dubbed “Stripe” by locals after the evil character from the Gremlins film.

Forty eight hours of tyranny was finally brought to an end on Monday, December 27, when it was caught in a humane trap by 65-year-old gran Corrine Reynolds. 

After she failed to contact animal rescue charities, Stripe was put on death row.  Corrine, who works as a home carer, asked vets to put him to sleep, as it is illegal to release grey squirrels back into the wild.