A weekly roundup of media news and talking points, sans effort

  

Thought for the Week 

“The world’s always been messy, we’re just noticing it more now because of social media.” U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at a fundraiser one week before the NATO summit began in Newport, Wales, during which plans to tackle the ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis, Syria, Gaza and Iraq are being hatched.

Weekly High

In a fantastic example of a ‘print’ campaign mixed with experiential, on Thursday sweet toothed food brand Mr. Kipling erected a poster outside Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush, made from 13,360 cakes. The public was then invited to take a bite out of the billboard before the spongy loveliness went stale. We’re not sure if there’s any left today.

 

Weekly Low

This week saw marketers responsible for promoting the first season of Sleepy Hollow on DVD begin a campaign called ‘Headless Day’ as news hit that American journalist Steven Sotloff had been beheaded by ISIS. Bad timing, but clearly a mistake. In contrast, it’s much more difficult to excuse troubled Malaysian Airlines- which has seen share values plummet following the collective loss of 537 passengers on Flight 370 (which disappeared) and Flight 17 (shot down over Ukraine)- after it launched a new initiative asking for people’s ‘bucket list’ destinations. That’s the places they would like to visit before they die. What were the PRs thinking?

 

Stories to keep an eye on

One of Britain’s biggest magazine publishers, IPC Media, is being rebranded by its US owners as Time Inc. UK. The IPC name dates back to 1968.
In the latest bid to stop online fraud, Barclays Bank customers are to be issued with finger vein scanners which will be used to log into accounts, and will initially only be available to corporate customers for a fee.
In an unprecedented U-turn, Coca Cola has decided to join in the UK government’s ‘traffic light’ scheme for highlighting the sugar, fat, salt and saturate content of its products.
 

Just in case you missed it…

Media empire Vice has secured $500million of investment, bringing the company value up to $2.5billion. Read our thoughts on the news here.