Pacsun has entered the uncanny valley with the new face of their brand, a virtual model. Not content with real women and their tendency to have thoughts and minor physical flaws, Miquela, a ‘virtual influencer’, is tiny, without imperfections and eternally nineteen. The decision to hire the robot was apparently because she aligns with their “core brand values and vision,” which is understandable, when a computer’s writing your thoughts.

The same cannot be said of another AI, as Meta’s new chatbot BlenderBot 3 took only one week to become racist. The chatbot is designed to evolve its language, based on the conversations it has with users, and was only up and running for a few days before it started repeating right-wing propaganda. This is not the future Star Trek promised us.

Coca-Cola has released a new flavour that’s supposed to taste like our dreams. Coke’s Dreamworld has the “technicolour tastes and surrealism of the subconscious”. There’s no information yet as to how Coca-Cola plans to harvest the taste of our collective dreams, but we assume it’s something along the lines of pretending to eat and drink during a toddler’s imaginary tea party.

For a flavour palette a bit closer to home, Street’s Ice Cream is teaming up with Dusk to make a line of candles inspired by some childhood favourites. The new candles come in Bubble O ‘Bill, Golden Gaytime, Paddle Pop and Splice. This is Calippo erasure and we won’t stand for it.

Beyonce’s most recent album was released with a collection of futuristic, disco-inspired album art; featuring a groovy monochrome bodysuit by Brisbane designer Bethany Cordwell. The materials come from an unusual source, however, as the designer has revealed the bodysuit’s black and white scales are made from cut-up Officeworks document folders. So head to your local stationary store to steal Queen Bey’s new look: confidence and groovy disco-ball horse not included.

To advertise their new series based on A League of Their Own, Amazon has spelled out an empowering letter to female athletes using 30,000 baseballs. A nice opportunity to hit a home run for equality, and other knock-it-out-of-the-park-style metaphors.

BBDO Canada and the Indigenous arts and culture magazine Muskrat, are raising awareness of calls for justice for missing Indigenous women by going after the biggest whitewash of Native American history; Disney’s Pocahontas. The actual story is far more horrific than the Disney version, and what happened to Pocahontas—whose real name was Matoaka – still happens to Indigenous women and children today, with homicide the third-leading cause of death. The Missing Matoaka project provides an alternative commentary track for the film, to clear up the facts and point out where Disney veers into fantasy. Stick it to the mouse.

Regarding lying to viewers, Russia’s latest tourism ad is optimistic, to put it nicely… or, some might say, straight up propaganda. The controversial new ad lists the country’s positives as “cheap gas, beautiful women, no cancel culture, traditional values and vodka!” While tourism ads tend to paint a rosy picture of their destinations, it’s hard to ignore the very real presence of a fascist dictator and an ongoing war. It’s also worth noting those same ‘traditional values’ being exalted in the video led to Russia decriminalising ‘domestic violence that does not cause serious injury’ in 2017.

You know what actually works when it comes to direct action? Irritating the hell out of people. Non-profit NYC Pride and Havas New York launched a campaign to spam conservative politician’s fax machines with excerpts from queer literature. No, we didn’t just slip on a time-warp banana peel: while state legislators can ignore emails, calls and text, they legally must keep their fax machines switched on in their offices at all times; even in 2022.

Independent creative agency GreenRubino went for the jugular with its guerrilla advertising campaign in support of ending the outdated regulation which prevents many LGBTQ+ people from donating blood. Although scientifically disproven, long lasting stigma by the FDA prevents gay and bisexual men and their partners from donating blood, even in times of crisis. This initiative features a number of tongue-in-cheek images denouncing the arbitrary nature of the ban.

Ikea’s catalogues have recently expanded to include baby names. Presumably because assembling one of their cupboards correctly is about as difficult as rearing a child. Lockdown has seen an increase in pregnancies in Scandinavia, so in a new campaign, the Swedish DIY chain has trawled through Ikea catalogues dating back to the 50s to come up with a selection of possible names for your prospective offspring, as well as offering their own unique explanation of each. Some people are named after flowers, others are named after chairs.

Europe is knocking us out of the park in the gender equality field, as Spain could be the first country to introduce menstrual leave for employees. The legislation says people with severe period pain could receive three days of leave per month, or up to five days in some circumstances. This seems like a perfectly reasonable request, since doctors have recently confirmed some menstrual cramps can actually be as painful as heart attacks.

Australian advertising equality movement shEqual has released a statistics report about sexism in the advertising industry, and the results are grim, but not hopeless. Dianne Hill, CEO of Women’s Health Victoria says “Our data shows a disconnect between the intentions and actions of the industry in depicting women. It’s encouraging that the motivation is there, but the missing piece is an open dialogue on what representation looks like in 2022.” In short, get your shit together Advertising.

Facebook has been collecting the personal information of users who sought out information regarding pregnancy termination, a recent investigation has shown. These actions, which even violate their own privacy policies, could be the difference between life and death for those seeking abortion in the real life Handmaid’s Tale of America, with the Supreme Court’s recent decision that women don’t get rights anymore. Unfortunately, states that have criminalised abortion could use this information to incarcerate innocent people.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, sisters.

Speaking of archaic institutions, Internet Explorer has officially kicked the bucket, roughly a decade after everyone stopped using it. Safe journey to the big loading screen in the sky, old buddy.

Vegemite, the salty spread only a mother-country could love, is turning 100 next year! For this special occasion, Bega has teamed up with Thinkerbell to request a letter from the Queen, as is the tradition once you reach a centenary. The brand deployed a fleet of mobile digital billboards to drive around London, conveying the request to Buckingham Palace.

On the topic of bringing back a classic, Qantas’ new ad was released this month… raise your hands if hearing ‘I still call Australia home’ again made you weirdly emotional. Filmed pre-covid, it was unable to be released until this month due to the whole ‘no one was allowed to go anywhere’ thing. Now they’re back in and on the air, it’s become less an ad for flights and more a symbol of life returning to normal.

Skittles has rereleased their lime flavoured skittle, with a new campaign showcasing all the complaints they received over the years, after changing the flavour of their green skittle from lime to apple. Ooh self-burn, those are rare.

Designer Vanessa La Delfa and copywriter Leah Morris recently released a digital anthology, Creative Sheroes, highlighting advertising women whose work focuses on social change. The anthology and exhibition profiled 26 women in ad-land, driving change in their work. Support your sisters and check it out.

In your mind, imagine a CEO. Now, did you picture a man or a woman? CPB London is tackling the gender bias in our thinking with their new ‘Imagine’ campaign. The striking poster campaign prompts us to imagine a certain role and then asks what gender you pictured. This campaign was prompted after a nationwide study found 39 per cent of primary school children still think women should look after babies and do all the housework, while men go to work.

Ogilvy has declared they will no longer work with influencers who retouch their faces or bodies for brand campaigns, to combat social media’s damage to body image. “We have a duty of care as marketers, as agencies and brands to the next generation of people so they don’t grow up with the same stuff we are seeing now,” says Ogilvy’s head of influence Rahul Titus. Right on.

Speaking of bodies, the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania has released a line of chocolates shaped like vulvas, because of course they have. Made by hand, presumably while The Divinyls was playing, by local Tasmanian chocolatiers, this serves as an expansion of their long standing exhibition by artist Greg Taylor. The chocolates have already sold out, because nobody ever lost money underestimating the tastes of the internet.

Florida recently signed a “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, which bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools. In a subtle ‘screw you’ tourism campaign, the City of New York is encouraging Floridians to do what every self-respecting queer kid does and move out of your backwater town into to a big city. The campaign will run in five Florida cities, letting people know all are welcome in the Big Apple.

Sesame Street has unveiled their newest puppet, Ameera, a wheelchair user designed to inspire disabled children. Ameera has a spinal cord injury (huh, muppets have spines) and likes basketball and science, also encouraging girls in STEM. Damn, those puppets do more than some people ever will. Sesame Street has a long and admirable history of providing representation in media – and Ameera will be a great new kid on the block for the almost 240 million children worldwide living with disability.