HBF- Holding Out For a Zero
From Australia: HBF Health Insurance has come out with an inspired reimagination of an 80s classic to highlight the fact that unlike other insurers, its premiums won’t be going up this year.
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Burger King- Love Conquers All
Burger King’s latest campaign, to coincide with Helsinki Pride Week.
A part of me wonders if a rejoinder might be in order: “I’m lovin’ it”.
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Social Distancing Teapot
As Britons return to offices, this witty new commercial from Yorkshire Tea reimagines the workplace ritual of “making a brew” for your colleagues.
The Good Bits
From the description on the website:
Impassioned words for passionate sex.
The Good Bits is run by women, for women… and anyone else who cares to join.
We are diverse, sex-positive, and anti-shame. We curate female-friendly erotic stories and sex positive writings, as well as supporting you to inspire your desire through courses and professional advice. And our new erotic podcast brings sexy to your ears. Because we believe in inspiration beyond porn—and we know your imagination is key to sensual, passionate sex.
And we believe that good sex stories make a better sex life.
Jack Taylor (Seasons 1-3)
If witty crime drama is your sort of thing, then this Irish series is worth checking out. It centres around a hard drinking, wisecracking, middle-aged policeman-turned-private investigator, brilliantly essayed by Iain Glen. He has an unfailing knack of being in conflict with the law, and attracting trouble and beautiful women.
A note of caution: don’t keep your overall expectations too high. Glen’s presence and performance is easily the best thing across the series. The supporting cast and characters, especially in the first few episodes, are very good: they greatly add to the entertainment value. However, as the series progresses, their impact diminishes. While the plotting, in general, is not worth writing about, some episodes have a rather convoluted narrative.
I’d recommend watching the first episode (which I thought was pretty entertaining), and then deciding if you’d like to watch more. Each of the 9 episodes (so far) features a self-contained 90 minute story.
Here’s a link to an extended trailer.
upGrad- Kick Ass, Don’t Lick Ass
From India: this ad for an online upskilling platform is one of the most crass and bizarre commercials that I have seen in recent memory. It makes me seriously question the sensibilities of the person(s) who conceived this ad. It makes me want to stay away from hiring any person who decided to do a course from this platform based on this ad.
The Polite Type
This is a unique initiative to keep online hate speech and cyberbullying in check. It’s a font that automatically replaces offensive/ hurtful words with more polite alternatives. If it can’t find one, it simply blurs out the word. There’s no better way to see it in action than to try it out yourself.
The Big Apple- COVID-19 Wit
The Big Apple is probably one of the best websites to check the origins of phrases, quotes, sayings, and a lot more. It now also features a massive compilation of COVID-19 puns and wisecracks. Here’s a short selection:
All countries got Coronavirus eventually, but China got it right off the bat.
And in the end mankind used so much toilet paper, they wiped themselves out.
Have you been traumatized by the toilet paper shortage? You may be entitled to constipation.
I never thought in my entire life that my hands would consume more alcohol than my mouth.
I ran out of toilet paper, so have begun using old newspapers… The Times are rough.
I’m deeply disturbed by how many people seem to see washing their hands as a new thing.
I’m excited that the phrase ‘get the f*** away from me’ is no longer rude but a PSA.
I’m just a girl, standing 6 feet away from a boy. Asking him to maybe move back another foot.
It takes a village to raise a child…and a distillery to home school one.
Maybe they should call it the Squirrel Flu because everyone is nuts and hoarding everything.
The buttons on my jeans have started social distancing from each other.
In Defence of Tony Abbott
Amid reports that the controversial former Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, may be potentially a trade ambassador for the U.K., the U.K. government has found itself on the defensive. This clip from Sky News features a cringeworthy rebuttal by the U.K. Health Secretary, the low point of which was probably this:
Anchor: He’s a homophobe and he’s a misogynist.
Health Secretary: Well, he’s also an expert in trade.
Telefoot- The Foot
This dedicated French soccer channel announced its launch with this unusual tribute video.
Lay’s Bestseller
In the words of the company, this is “a totally inconspicuous hollow book designed to hide your bag of Lay’s from the snack thieves in your life.”
Rebecka Martinsson (Season 2)
Dare I say that I liked Season 2 more than Season 1?
For me, the best thing about Season 1 was the performance of Ida Engvoll. I haven’t read the source novels but I thought her portrayal of the conflicted title character was superb. Hence, I wasn’t enthused by the decision to replace her with Sascha Zacharias in Season 2. Still, I must admit that her performance is good but it’s hard to shrug away the images of Season 1.
Where Season 2 scored for me over Season 1 was in the balance between the crimes and their investigation on one hand, and the storyline of the title character on the other. Secondly, the plots were more grounded. Like Season 1, the supporting cast is excellent and the beautiful, if bleak landscapes cast a spell of their own.
Here’s a link to a trailer.
Budget Direct- Bad Dog
This amusing commercial from Budget Direct is a good example of imagination gone wild.
Corona Awareness
This PSA film is part of a series that was described by the creative team behind it as “by far the grossest things” that they had ever produced. Personally, I think it makes its point pretty effectively.
St1- Only Low Prices
While the key pitch in promoting its unmanned fuel stations is the low prices, in its latest round of ads, Nordic energy firm St1 has taken the rather unusual step of highlighting the lack of amenities at these stations.
The firm has a history of promoting these unmanned stations in a manner that is humorous and unconventional. Some years ago, it had put out an ad featuring Meat Loaf that “dared” you to try an unmanned station. Last year, to promote its app for “a different kind of refuelling”, it came out with this series of commercials.
Renault Clio- The Next Chapter
A heart-warming 3 minute commercial that is embellished with excellent acting.
Ee-moo vs. Ee-mew
Last weekend, in a radio news report about a missing emu in the US, an American journalist referred to the bird as ‘ee-moo’ instead of the Australian pronunciation of ‘ee-mew’. When this was pointed out, at first the journalist defended the pronunciation. That led to a mix of outrage and passionate debate across the media.
In the words of one Australian reporter:
Even though you admit that the Oxford Dictionary states that the correct pronunciation is "ee-mew", you still think you're right? You can't just rule that a word is pronounced a certain way.
Do we go around changing how to pronounce American bald eagle? No. So, lay off our national bird.
Meanwhile, in a brilliant tit-for-tat move, Tourism Australia put out this website that offers an emu’s take on pronouncing American names, places, and things.
Finally, on a discussion on Australian breakfast news, that also featured the owner of the emu, the American journalist acknowledged the possibility of change:
I have a feeling that this week we may gather together, sit in a circle and hold hands and really look into our souls and try to figure out if ‘ee-mew’ should be the proper pronunciation from this point forward. I'm guessing, based on the reaction we have had and the fact that I don't want to cause an international rift, I think henceforth, from now on, it shall be ‘ee-mew’.
In contrast, the US embassy in Australia, which also had something to say on the matter, stated its intent for change a lot more clearly, when it tweeted this:
After much community consultation, the U.S. Mission Australia will be adopting the ee-mew pronunciation in all future emu-related alliance matters #USwithAUS
Last but not the least, the emu that went missing, and which goes by the name of Winston Charles Featherbill, has a Twitter account via which its own reaction to all of this was expressed.
BrewDog- Carbon Negative
According to this report:
Beer company BrewDog has gone carbon negative by switching to wind power for its breweries and bars, with plans to plant a forest's worth of trees.
The outdoor campaign of the company was a bit more direct.
Meatless Farm- M… F… Campaign
According to a company spokesperson:
We felt the nation needed a bit of a lift as it’s been a tough time for everyone, so more than ever we wanted to create something light-hearted and fun that consumers would remember when they are looking for alternatives to meat.