A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort

Thought for the week

Obtaining reliable information about drinking behaviour is difficult, and social surveys consistently record lower levels of consumption than would be expected from alcohol sales data. This is partly because people may consciously or unconsciously underestimate how much alcohol they consume.” The Office of National Statistics on Britain’s booze habit, which may be far better, or far worse, than experts believe (the jury appears to be out).
 

Weekly high

After coming up with the brand position ‘don’t cook, JUST EAT’, UK takeaway giant JUST EAT launched a week-long promotional campaign on Saturday with a 60 second TV clip showing the apparent kidnapping of celebrity chef Anthony Worrall Thompson. This was backed up by a microsite offering visitors the chance to get revenge on the culinary chap and ‘clean graffiti’ daubed on top London restaurants… The fate of the epicurean prisoner will be revealed during Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway tomorrow on ITV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6EjdqZvPts
 

Weekly low

Amazon finds itself in hot water this week after a line of more than mildly offensive t-shirts wound up being sold by the online retailer. The manufacturer, Australia’s Solid Gold Bomb, claims a computer programme randomly picked nouns to fit in with the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ message, and so had nothing to do with the decision to advocate domestic and sexual violence. Believe that or not, the firm is out of business, the despicable items have been taken off sale, but the world is still waiting for the online retail giant to apologise.
 

Things that might happen in the next week…

Nightmare hacks Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson may be convicted of bribery after appearing in court in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal, at least 24 heads of state are expected to attend the funeral of deceased Venezuelan president, and Osama Bin Laden’s son will face the U.S. legal system following accusations he was involved in 9/11.

Just in case you missed it…

Facebook has made more changes to its news feed, with bigger logos to reference story sources, and a more complete lead intro. In addition to this, users can dip into topic based feeds, with Mark Zuckerberg declaring this move will turn his network into “the best personalised newspaper we can”. Read the full story here.
 
If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!