From Switzerland: a new spot starring sports icons Roger Federer and Marco Odermatt paints a picture of what we might be missing out on, by being glued to our mobile screens. Believe it or not, it’s a commercial for telecom leader Sunrise.
From Argentina: a series of spots from the streaming giant centered on the dilemma of how to interpret a ‘Netflix and chill’ invite.
Excerpts from a tongue-in-cheek report:
The state of West Virginia gathered to mourn the loss of their last Hooters last week, which is being demolished after closing in 2020 due to the pandemic.
The Kanawha City location, located in the Mountain State’s capital city of Charleston, was a staple for many who lived in the area, so it was only fitting that a candlelight vigil was organized to give the beloved Hooters a proper farewell.
Over 300 people RSVP’d to attend the vigil. So while it may have started out as a joke, after the event went viral and began getting attention all around the world, the community rallied to pay its final respects to the once-great establishment.
According to WCHS, hundreds showed up from as far away as South Carolina to attend, while several former employees reunited to share memories of their time slinging beer and chicken wings.
Excerpts from a news report out of Oregon:
The City of Madras is proposing a new restriction on shopping carts that would fine grocery stores for carts stolen off their property. Many of those carts are ending up near homeless camps.
The City contacted grocery stores late last year requesting action to keep carts on property.
“When we started to see the relationship between shopping carts not being kept on the retailer’s property and then being used in ways that weren’t intended, we thought we needed to start figuring out a way to solve this problem,” Madras Community Development Director Nicholas Snead said.
“If the shopping cart is not on the property, it’s a $100 offense,” Snead said.
Is the proposed solution fair to grocery stores?
“Well, I don’t know that it’s fair. I think it’s a complex problem,” Snead said.
It’s a global petition against sewage in the oceans, signed with sewage from the oceans. To quote from the campaign website:
When signing the petition, your name will get printed using Shit Ink – an ink made from sewage collected around drains pipes during spills.
Your printed signature will then get delivered to the responsible politician in your country once local petition requirements are reached.
Last month, the swearing parrots of Lincolnshire Wildlife Park were in the news again after the park announced a plan to integrate them with the other parrots. To quote from a BBC report:
Chief executive Steve Nichols said he was about to introduce them to the rest of the flock to “dilute” the swearing.
It is hoped they will also copy more appropriate vocabulary and noises from the remainder of the flock, he said.
Mr Nichols said: “Parrots are flock creatures. They need to be with other parrots. The bigger the flock, the happier they are.
“Even though they swear, the welfare of the birds has to come first.”
However, he admitted: “We could end up with 100 swearing parrots on our hands. Only time will tell.”
A new report this week said that the strategy was working.
Mr Nichols said: “It’s early days still but it’s been a good start. We haven’t heard any of the really crude language.
“Of course people are still walking up to the enclosure and swearing in front of the parrots, hoping they will copy the words.”
Notably, the report mentioned another development.
Mr Nichols said while the parrots may have dropped their swearing, a new problem appears to be brewing.
“One of them has taken to singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas over and over again,” he said. “Fine in December, not so fine in February.”
UK retailer Currys promotes its trade-in offers with a series of amusing spots.
A Valentine’s Day message from IKEA… for couples who find assembling their furniture to be a pain:
If it can turn you mad, it can turn you on. Celebrate Valentine’s the right way.
Right after Duolingo’s 5 second butt-exploding Super Bowl spot went viral, the brand posted an explanation of how the commercial came about. One of the revelations was about the fart sound that was used. To quote one of the creative minds behind the spot:
There’s music to farts. They have an emotional range – from happy to defeated. We knew we had found the right sound when we hit on a fart with a smile.
It turns out that the said creative had a more direct role in the sound of that fart. A piece on the Figma blog quoted him saying this:
One of my talents is making fart sounds with my armpits, with great emotional range. So we did a recording session and recorded maybe 200 variations.
From Canada: men’s healthcare startup Phoenix finds quite the way to promote its erectile dysfunction treatment.
A new spot for Pot Noodle that is pretty much 20 seconds of shameless slurping. To quote the brand:
Pot Noodle is no longer eaten. It is slurped. Make yours in 4mins and deliver satisfaction to your ears and mouth now.
The complete (“uncut”) version of Cardi B’s Super Bowl spot for NYX Cosmetics is simply hilarious.
I’ll let this report explain:
An Idaho lawmaker wants to expand a law that bans cannibalism over fears about a rise in human composting.
Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, introduced a bill Thursday to expand the state’s cannibalism ban and told a legislative committee that she’s worried about the possibility that people are eating other people.
“This is going to be normalized at some point, the way our society’s going and the direction we’re going,” Scott said.
Idaho is the only state to outlaw cannibalism, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Other states have laws targeting abuse or desecration of a corpse, according to Cornell Law School.
Scott’s bill would add to Idaho’s prohibition of cannibalism a ban on giving someone else “the flesh or blood of a human being” without that person’s “knowledge or consent.”
And this is part of what she said, explaining the background for her proposal:
I know this seems like it’s a heavy topic, actually. It might seem kind of gruesome. And it kind of is. I'm going to give you a little background of what got me into this position to run this bill.
So keeping in mind Ecclesiastes 1.9, ‘What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again. There's nothing new under the sun.’ So cannibalism has existed and it's been a widespread custom in humanity for pretty much all of history. And examples have been found on every continent of cannibalism.
So a few years ago, back in 2019, I heard that Washington State was starting to do human composting. And that disturbed me. I envisioned something with commercial composting, and I didn’t want to see that in my Home Depot stores.
It isn't often that a legal ruling includes a stylised, ungrammatical line of dialogue from a piece of popular culture. To quote:
As the world turns, it makes no sense for contemporary society to pledge allegiance to the founding era’s culture, realities, laws, and understanding of the Constitution. “The thing about the old days, they the old days.” The Wire: Home Rooms (HBO television broadcast Sept. 24, 2006) (Season Four, Episode Three).
And this is how David Simon, creator of The Wire, responded, referring to the character who uttered that memorable line:
Slim Charles was a sagacious motherfucker.
