KFC’s tribute to its cravers
To quote the director of this spot, it’s “a celebration of chicken lovers”.
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Endangered species: Twitter blue bird
A new campaign from parrot conservation charity World Parrot Trust centres on the now-defunct Twitter blue bird logo. To quote from the press release:
WORLD PARROT TRUST ADDS NEW ENDANGERED SPECIES TO THEIR LIST: THE TWITTER BLUE BIRD
In a move that aims to rescue both an endangered species and an iconic brand symbol, the World Parrot Trust (WPT), a leading wildlife conservation organization, is rallying support for the preservation of the endangered Lear's Macaw and the legendary Twitter blue bird logo. The plea comes in response to the recent rebranding decision by Elon Musk, resulting in the potential disappearance of the beloved Twitter blue bird from public consciousness.
WPT has launched a campaign, named "#LetTheBlueBirdFly," urging Mr. Musk to grant the Twitter blue bird logo a new lease on life by donating it to WPT in support of critical conservation, education and habitat preservation efforts.
At the heart of the campaign is a video featuring an animated Lear’s Macaw making this appeal to Elon Musk:
Hey, Elon,
Everyone chirped about the blue bird logo facing extinction. So we did some birdstorming and here’s an idea: Why don’t you donate the logo to us? The real blue macaws in danger.
We’re only 2000 left protected by organizations like the World Parrot Trust, but we need more help. If you let us use the logo, we’ll grab attention, gather donations, and rebuild our ecosystem to fly free again. And maybe we’ll be around to go to Mars with you. It’s a wing-wing!
TV crew robbed while reporting on a robbery
To quote from a news report out of Chicago:
The armed robbery problem has become so bad in Chicago that armed robbers this morning robbed a TV news crew doing a story about an armed robbery in West Town.
That unbelievable development came as at least 30 people were robbed or carjacked during sprees between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
A reporter and photojournalist were preparing to do a live shot about the latest robbery spree when a holdup crew rolled up to them in the 1200 block of North Milwaukee shortly before 5 a.m.
Designerwear for Dog Walking
A collaboration between clothing brand Only NY and dog biscuit brand Milk-Bone.
Butt Showoffs and Backside Lessons
A couple of amusing spots for DUDE Wipes.
Spot 1: Drop Your Drawers
Spot 2: Relearning to Wipe
‘Bird Bandit Strikes’
From a news report put out on Wednesday by a local police department in Virginia:
Bird Bandit Strikes: Suspect With Feathered Companions Robs Innocent Victim
Mason Police District – Detectives are seeking the community’s help with identifying one suspect with three parrots, who is wanted for a strong-armed robbery.
Yesterday, around 8 a.m., officers responded to the McDonald’s at 6165 Arlington Boulevard in the Seven Corners area for a strong-armed robbery. The victim, an adult man, reported one unknown man displayed a knife and robbed him of an undisclosed amount of money. The suspect was described as a Hispanic man between 28-32 years old with tattoos. Detectives discovered surveillance footage from a nearby business of the suspect. The suspect can be seen below wearing a black cowboy hat with two parrots, a patterned shirt, and a third parrot on his shoulder. The suspect left the area in a blue Ford SUV.
Left-field Laptop Advice
Sunflower Nudity
From a post on the Facebook page of Sam’s Sunflowers at Stoke Fruit Farm on Hayling island, off the south coast of England:
Reminder to all we are a family area and please keep your clothes on in the sunflowers! We are having a increase of reports of naked photography taking place and this must not happen during our public sessions please!
One visitor commented: "Yes, we stumbled on a 'session' - I'm not a prude but I don't expect to see almost naked bodies while searching for the best blooms."
Another reported a woman wearing "just a thong", adding: "Our son got a right eyeful last night, should have seen his face!!"
In the mood for being a sociopath
From Australia: in an audacious pro bono campaign, social enterprise Mood Tea opts for an antisocial character to be its spokesperson.
Spot 1: Shower (Alternative link)
Spot 2: Splash
Funding your F.U.nd
The idea of defining financial freedom (or financial independence) as your ability to say “eff you” isn’t new. It was probably most eloquently expressed by John Goodman’s loan shark in the 2014 movie The Gambler. Fintech startup Communion has now placed the same idea at the heart of its pitch to millennials in a campaign that is, literally, in-your-face.
‘Brunch-inspired’ Cream Liqueur
Waffles brand Eggo has collaborated with Sugarlands Distilling Company, Tennessee, to launch a liqueur “made to punch up brunch”. To quote from the press release:
Inspired by classic brunch flavors, this rich and delicious creamy liqueur seamlessly blends the flavors of toasted Eggo waffles, sweet maple syrup and rich butter, with a hint of smoky bacon thanks to the artistry of the experts at Sugarlands. Plus, this brunch-inspired alcoholic liqueur pairs perfectly with Eggo waffles to elevate any brunch occasion.
AI ranks food bank as tourist attraction
An AI-generated Microsoft Travel post (now pulled) on Microsoft Start is in the news for listing a local food bank as a tourist attraction in Ottawa. To quote:
In Ottawa you will find some beautiful attractions that you just cannot miss! Places like The Winterlude Festival, National War Memorial, and Ottawa Food Bank and many more.
What’s more, in making the case for the food bank, it suggests visiting it “on an empty stomach”.
The organization has been collecting, purchasing, producing, and delivering food to needy people and families in the Ottawa area since 1984. We observe how hunger impacts men, women, and children on a daily basis, and how it may be a barrier to achievement. People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay. Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach.
‘Drunken raccoons raiding homes and killing pets’
That’s from a report in The Telegraph, out of Germany.
How did they know that the raccoons were sozzled? This is the evidence put forth in the report:
Local media reports suggest that the animals, introduced during the Nazi rule, have been eating pet bunny rabbits and fish. Meanwhile, some claim that they have also been drinking beer during their rampages.
Berthold Langenhorst, of the nature organisation Nabu, says that “raccoons are funny and clever… and they like beer”. He describes how he recently watched them knocking beer bottles over at a lake side to get at the liquid inside.
The report also offers this bit of trivia:
The DJV [Germany’s National Hunting Association] advocates making raccoon meat a part of the national diet and using the fur for “high quality, eco-friendly clothes.”
Raccoons were first brought to Germany in the 1920s, but the first pair were released into the wild at the beginning of the Nazi era.
Urban legend long held that Hermann Göring personally ordered their release, but this version of events has recently been debunked by historians.
It now seems more likely that a local forester released them without explicit approval from the Nazis.
Early Bird Access… to a personal loan
Private sector banks in India are notorious for their in-your-face, call-to-action marketing, a lot of which is via emails and text messages. This text message from HDFC Bank is a contender for being one of the most ludicrous.
Notably, this screenshot was taken from the phone of a deceased customer of the bank whose death had been acknowledged by the bank two months earlier.
All that Fizz
A new spot for sparkling water brand Topo Chico is a sensuous treat for anyone who loves to watch bubbly stuff bubble, so to speak.
An education for dads
easyJet Holidays has announced the launch of what it calls “the world’s first in-hotel Dad’s Club” in the holiday hotspot of Costa del Sol in Spain. To quote:
Opening on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th August at Hotel World Polynesia, Costa del Sol, the unique club provide some cringe-free respite for teens, as well as a safe space for gaffe-prone dads to connect with their kind without being judged. Any Dads staying at the resort can enjoy complimentary dad dancing lessons, frisbee and air guitar tuition as well as a joke workshop, what’s not to love?
The idea was triggered by the findings of a study of 1,000 British teenagers. 54 percent of them said that their dads embarrassed them on holidays with cringeworthy choices that included wearing socks with sandals, wearing age-inappropriate clothes, telling bad jokes, attempting TikTok memes/dances, and trying to join in with teen slang and getting it wrong.
‘Peacock Vasectomies’ in the news
To quote from a report in Smithsonian magazine:
Loud and flashy peafowl have taken over a suburb of Miami. But with the birds’ population growing, residents have been looking for a way to humanely keep their numbers in check. Now, the town is pursuing a clever solution: It has hired a veterinarian to perform peacock vasectomies.
Sunbed Wars
Excerpts from a Euronews report:
It's day three of the sunbed wars at the Paradise Park Hotel in Spain’s Canary Islands.
At the large tropical lagoon-style swimming pool, a crowd of guests suddenly emerges, rushing to be the first to lay their towels on a sunbed.
It's the start of chaos.
The swarm of tourists sprints the 20 metres from the pool entrance to the sunbeds - and one man takes the lead, managing to put towels on five sunbeds.
It's game, set and match for the remaining customers who watch in astonishment.
You might think this is a rare incident at resorts along the Spanish coastline, but it's happening on a daily basis, sometimes menacingly.
To avoid these clashes, Spanish hotels are getting creative.
To cope with the demand, Sunset Beach Club Hotel has cut down palm trees and bought more sunbeds to extend the pool area, saying that while in the past tourists preferred to go to the beach, this trend has changed in recent years.
Protocols have also been put in place to avoid conflicts.
At nine o'clock José Carlos, the hotel's sunbed controller, opens the doors and the towel game begins.
“There is a war for the best spots, but for the rest of the day there is really no problem. Every summer there’s a war, however this year it's much quieter,” says José Carlos, who has worked as a sunbed controller for the last three years.
The sunbed controller’s job has been specially designed so that guests can enjoy the pool without any surprises.
Sunbed controllers walk around the pool to locate the hammocks that are falsely occupied and leave a warning. After an hour, they return and if there is still no one there, they take away the things left behind to release the sunbed for another customer to use.
There are clues that put them on alert. "If they leave a book on the hammock at 9.30 in the morning, we know they are saving it. Others leave a single towel to cover four sunbeds," says José Carlos.
Twisted AI
From New Zealand: an AI-powered recipe maker is in the news after someone posted the results from offering ammonia, bleach, and water as ingredients.
Unfollow a Greenwasher
The term ‘oil spill’ takes on a whole new meaning in this hard-hitting PSA to spotlight how Big Oil is using social influencers as part of greenwashing campaigns.
PS: The video was pulled down by LinkedIn which deemed it to be “offensive to good taste”. Since then, the creative team behind has posted a revised version that some would say is even more hard hitting.
Florida schools to cut down on Shakespeare
Why? Because of the sexual content in his works, it seems.
To quote from an AP report:
Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed, in part, to take into consideration the state’s new law that restricts classroom materials whose content can be deemed sexual.
The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new legislation limiting classroom materials that “contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct” in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
RIP William Friedkin
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
—The car chase
The French Connection (1971)
—Getaway on the subway
Love of football leads to arrest… after 11 years
One of Italy's most dangerous fugitives has been caught in Greece after a photo of him cheering on his football team gave away his whereabouts.
Vincenzo La Porta, 60, is thought to have close ties to the Camorra organised crime gang in Naples.
He has been on the run for 11 years - but earlier this year was spotted in a photo of fans celebrating in Greece.
The Naples Carabinieri police said: "What betrayed him was his passion for football and for the Napoli."
Officers said the photos were taken after Napoli won its first Italian championship in over three decades earlier this year.
"With the championship victory, La Porta couldn't resist celebrating," police said.
Saying it as it is
Sky News anchor Sarah-Jane Mee sums up a news report on Andrew Tate with a pitch-perfect closing line that is one for the ages.
‘Stabbed through the head with a flagpole’
That’s the headline of an arrest report posted on Facebook by the Tulsa Police Department in Oklahoma. For those who may find that hard to visualise, here are some details:
When Officers arrived, they found the male victim with a flagpole through his head. The pole entered the victim's head beneath his jaw and exited the other side of his head near his right temple area. The American Flag was still attached the pole at the time.
Also this:
Firefighters with the Tulsa Fire Department had to cut part of the flagpole in order to fit the victim into the ambulance. Miraculously, we're told the victim will survive his injuries, but will likely lose an eye.
For reasons that I know nothing about, the suspect in the case has been arrested for ‘maiming’ and not attempted murder.
Pooch to the rescue
On Yorkshire Day, Yorkshire Tea announces its “answer to the St Bernard” — its very own “Patron Saint of the Parched”.
Pig on the run
Excerpts from a news report out of New Zealand:
While slow-going traffic is nothing new to commuters on Auckland’s Northwestern motorway, a stray pig is not the usual culprit.
Waka Kotahi’s Auckland System Management has been working with police and Auckland Council Animal Control since 24 July to capture the pig that was hogging around SH16 near Te Atatu.
An Auckland Council spokesperson said the pig was sunbathing in a bush area next to the motorway but as soon as the handlers arrived it disappeared into the bush.
Traffic was temporarily blocked at the interchange in an attempt to catch the pig, but at no time was the animal on the motorway, said the spokesperson.
“The naughty piggy is very smart - he/she is still on the run and evading capture.
“And so the chase continues.”
WWF puts Twitter rebranding to good use
Protect our animal species before it's too late. That straightforward message from WWF Germany takes on more depth in this inspired bit of creativity that places it against a timeline of the evolution of the Twitter logo or the ‘Twitter Extinction Timeline’ as it is being called.