Facebook Is Showing Its Users Love With Special Valentine’s Day Features

Facebook revealed its features for this year’s Valentine’s Day while pointing out that the holiday isn’t just for those who are coupled up, as 58 percent of people celebrate with friends, family and co-workers. Users will begin to see prompts atop their News Feed this week, pointing them to the social network’s Valentine’s Day features…

What If John Oliver Didn't Have That Accent? Watch Colbert's Overly Intimate 'Personal Space' Interview


ICYMI from Friday night’s “Late Show” on CBS: John Oliver, host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” poked his head into Stephen Colbert’s “Personal Space” boxa literal cardboard box that puts interviewer and interviewee in hilariously close proximity for supposedly discreet conversation, though of course a camera is recording everything that’s said. (Oliver had been a standard sit-down guest last Wednesday, but the show saved the “Personal Space” segment for Friday’s episode.)

Among the highlightsother than the general pleasure of watching two comedians repeatedly cracking themselves up as they endure the deeply uncomfortable set-upis Oliver’s answer to Colbert’s question about the appeal of his British accent. “I think you take away this accent,” Oliver confesses, “and you realize I’m not actually left with much. Again, this is a private box, right?” Watch the full segment for Oliver’s attempt at a Queens (as in New York) accent.

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Etisalat: The Network featuring Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson is Agent one, in the Paul WS Anderson directed “The Network” by Caviar Creative.

Uncommon bags Ovo Energy for first major client win

Uncommon has won its first major client account since the startup agency collective launched last year, with a new campaign already in the works.

Top 30 Life Trends in February – From Sleep-Coaching Apps to Wearable Memo Bands (TOPLIST)

(TrendHunter.com) One might think it unbelievable that the February 2018 life trends have come to the fore, but in the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, “life, uh, finds a way.” Whether in the form of…

Monday Morning Stir

-Toyota’s “As I Really Am” by The&Partnership stars Paralympic fencer and world champion Beatrice “Bebe” Vio.

-WPP’s GroupM acquired Indian creative agency The Glitch.

-Will an agency step and rescue the “tainted” Wynn brand?

-The big spenders are spending a little less bigly on the 2018 Winter Olympics.

-Snapchat offers free “try it, you’ll like it” ad credits to brands currently on Instagram. What are they, drug dealers in a 90s PSA?

Unilever threatens to pull ads from platforms like YouTube and Facebook unless they clean up their acts. Good luck with that?

-Call us cynical, but we don’t quite buy the assertion that Israel’s ad industry is “strictly no bullshit.”

-New Balance debuted a new global brand platform, touting the brand as “Fearlessly Independent Since 1906.”

-Even Quartz is covering the agency #MeToo moment.

-On that note, one agency executive tells Digiday that he worries about female executive hires leading “to tokenism.” Uh, dude…

Snapchat Is Trying to Lure Brands That Already Run Vertical Video Ads on Instagram Stories

Snapchat has begun dangling free ad credits to non-Snapchat advertisers that have run vertical video ads on Instagram Stories, as well as on other platforms including Pinterest and mobile publishers AdColony, ChartBoost and Vungle. Snap Inc.’s sales department and Snapchat Partners have been reaching out to brands to gauge their interest. Snap is directing those…

GE Humanizes Its Technology in ‘What Matters’ Campaign From BBDO

General Electric will help you do homework, get you to your grandson’s school play on time, and even ensure your preemie baby girl arrives home safely. Such intimate applications of the company’s products and services are on display in BBDO’s “What Matters” campaign, which explores GE’s innovations across aviation, healthcare and power generation. Asserting that…

Accepting Facebook’s F-Bomb to Publishers

Facebook dropped a virtual bomb on the digital publishing ecosystem with its announcement last month that the platform’s News Feed will focus mostly on users’ personal posts rather than content published by publishers or businesses. The social network’s justification–that it will be making updates to the “ranking so that people have more opportunities to interact…

What Happened in This Wrecked Paris Apartment? The Chilling Secret That Eluded 7,000 Sleuths

From shattered mirrors and cryptic notes to religious texts and ominous stains, the scene in this Paris apartment contained plenty of clues for amateur detectives to piece together. And yet 7,000 of them tried, without one uncovering the real story. Aspiring sleuths–who assumed they were taking part in an escape-room-style mystery game–guessed that “Laurence,” the…

Pharma Giant Purdue to Stop Promoting Its Opioid Drugs, Including OxyContin, to Doctors


Pain-pill giant Purdue Pharma will stop promoting its opioid drugs to doctors, a retreat after years of criticism that the company’s aggressive sales efforts helped lay the foundation of the U.S. addiction crisis.

The company told employees that it would cut its sales force by more than half, to 200 workers. It plans to send a letter Monday to doctors saying that its salespeople will no longer come to their clinics to talk about the company’s pain products.

“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers,” the company said in a statement. Instead, any questions doctors have will be directed to the Stamford, Connecticut-based company’s medical affairs department.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Heineken: Generations Apart

Video of Generations Apart

Audi: The Quattro Coaster

Audi releases quattro coaster, the world’s first AR experience to interact with a TV commercial.

Audi Norway has released the Audi quattro coaster AR app, making it possible for anyone to have an Audi quattro model in their driveway at any time. The app provides an interactive experience triggered by its latest television commercial. In a move to show that Audi’s technological edge is not just in its cars but in the brand’s DNA, it’s the first time a campaign has seen a moving image activate an AR experience.

On watching the TV commercial, viewers’ chosen device recognize the film, at which point the car bursts out of the TV and into the user’s environment. Users can then explore the four Audi quattro models scaled between miniature or actual size, by freely moving their device without having to keep the marker in view. And finally, in life imitating screen, the AR experience allows people to create and test-drive a personalized test-track imitating all four seasons in their own living room or anywhere else they choose.

Video of The making of Audi’s quattro coaster

Video of Audi quattro coaster AR

Sky Vegas: King of the Unexpected

Video of Sky Vegas: King of the Unexpected

The Trojan Beer

The Trojan Beer

Great developers and creatives can be very hard to reach with job ads, as most of them are perfectly happy where they are.

So to get to them, we needed to get under the radar.

A few days before Christmas we delivered the «trojan beer» to our main competitors: A crate of specially designed beers camouflaged as a friendly christmas gift.

But after a day in the fridge, temperature sensitive ink made the label turn into a job ad.

Video of The Trojan beer

Atelca: Exam Alert

The Specific Language Impairment is a great unknown even among the professionals who must diagnose it. ATELCA’s request was to get to an idea that changed this situation.

We spread an Internet virus to university faculties of medicine, teaching, speech therapy and psychology that made students feel as kids with SLI. The virus changed their keyboard’s behavior. A way to make sure they remembered SLI. Once they had already experienced, the virus uninstalled itself automatically.

Universities spread our virus through our Trojan horse ‘ExamAlert’. When the students downloaded it, the virus self-installed and changed their keyboard to make them experience how a kid with SLI feels.

Video of Atelca: Exam Alert

Brexit must guard against top talent booking one-way tickets to Amsterdam

To keep London creative and competitive, we need policies that make it easier, not harder, to hire people from around the world, writes Grey London’s chief executive.

Old Spice Keeps Up the Fragrance Ad Parodies With Two Spots for Valentine’s Day

Fans of Old Spice’s irresistibly weird “Red Sweater” spot, which aired completely in French during the Grammys last month (and is available to view, with subtitles, online), will be pleased to know the P&G brand is back with two more fragrance-ad parodies for Valentine’s Day. The first, “Marco Love-O,” advertising the brand’s Ambassador body wash…

Shameless Self-Promoters Are Taking Over Your Industry: Here’s How to Compete

We’ve likely all cringed at the same self-proclaimed industry “gurus,” “ninjas,” “masters” or “mavens.” They seem to be everywhere, constantly posting selfies at industry events, clogging up our Facebook feeds or trying to teach us lessons through their preachy LinkedIn posts that all seem to read the same way. They spend so much time promoting…

Mulberry takes over Spencer House for London Fashion Week 2018

Mulberry is hosting a series of events for London Fashion Week to mark the launch of its latest collection.