Month: December 2021

It’s become a holiday tradition in its own right, watching businesses battle it out for the most tear-jerking, heart-string-tugging ad of the Christmas season. In the green corner, we have John Lewis, the reigning heavyweight champion of Christmas videos, with an ET riff guaranteed to get the waterworks flowing. And in the red corner we have Coca Cola, literally the inventors of Father Christmas as we know him, with a touching tale of community coming together for the greater good. But a rogue underdog has jumped into the ring this year, launching a cinematic crane-kick at the unsuspecting champions. From Norway, we have ‘When Harry Met Santa’ a beautiful love story documenting a milestone for the country.Fast becoming its own annual tradition, Spotify Wrapped was released this month, with the usual tongue-in-cheek ads one can expect from a streaming service who knows how many times you listened to that breakup song and can judge you for it. When you’re getting too smug about smashing out your Christmas shopping early, they’re here to remind you no matter how many cult indie bands you tell people you listen to, you will inevitably have the Spice Girls at an embarrassingly high position on your playlist. In the words of The Waitresses: Merry Christmas, but I think I’ll skip this one this year.

Another kind of Christmas wrapping dropped this month, Bank of Montreal and FCB Canada have released a wrapping paper that can connect you to women owned businesses. As part of an initiative to help women business owners in these tough times, the paper has QR codes which allow you to shop for hundreds of gifts from small businesses. Shop small and support your sisters.

Speaking of shit women have to deal with, The Australian Government has decided to crack down on online trolls. The federal government will be introducing a new bill to target social media trolls, meaning we could soon see defamation lawsuits for the things posted in comments. Surely this will only be used for the good of everyday citizens and not to protect thin-skinned politicians. … Oh c’mon, It’s Christmas, at least one political argument is supposed to break out, right?

Amazon’s newest ad tackles the topic of anxiety in a reopening world. While most of us are so excited to get back out, to the point we suddenly really get the hedonism of the roaring 20’s, there is also a lot of justifiable fear about doing so. It’s hard to be told everyone is a threat for two years and then suddenly be expected to share air with a packed train. The ad focuses on a moment of kindness between two people from across a building, reminding everyone we’re all just here to help each other… and also to social distance, of course.

With events starting to get underway again, Street poster company Rock Posters is offering a greener alternative to those large tour posters covering the city by creating fully sustainable event posters. Instead of litter, the only thing those concerts will leave behind is a ringing in your eardrums and a mysterious crowd-surfing related bruise.

Anyone living in New York must be fully prepared for life with superheroes at this point. To promote the new Spiderman movie coming out, Sony pictures has provided New Yorkers with the ability to visit The Daily Bugle, the newspaper Peter Parker works at. You might also know this as “everyone’s little brother’s dream from 2002.” Newsstands for The Daily Bugle have turned up all over the city, where you can grab limited edition Spiderman newspapers with clues for the upcoming film.

On the subject of print media, Adidas just brought back the 80s sci-fi magazineOmni. First published in 1978, the cult classic had everything from fiction by Stephen King and George RR Martin, to in-depth articles about scientific studies. A limited run of 2,300 copies will be available at selected stores, and the full text will not be available online, in keeping with the retro revival. Streetwear and science fiction have been linked for a while, and Adidas is finally trying to give Marty Mcfly and his Nikes a run for their money.

This one is for those of us who always get to the cinema early. A list of the 50 most influential movie trailers was compiled by industry insiders, charting from the early days of Alfred Hitchcock taking you around his set, to the weird trend of slowed down pop-songs from a few years ago.

Extra, extra!

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