Morning Update: Blu launches first global campaign; fake baby food tests stereotypes; Saatchi Singapore CEO out; Buzzfeed gets Nifty
Campaign Live: Blu unveils ‘independent spirits’ in global campaign
Blu, the e-cigarette maker, has launched its first global brand campaign since appointing The Corner to its ad account earlier this year. The Corner has created a range of ads featuring five characters – a motorcyclist, a comedian, a drag queen, a model and a pilot – who represent independent spirits carving their own path in life.
The first of the ads features a helicopter pilot herding cattle. After the pilot lands, she exits and begins vaping on an e-cigarette. The spot was written by Tom Prendergast and art directed by Joe Stamp at The Corner. It was directed by Romain Gavras through Iconoclast.
Ad Week: Line of Fake Baby Food Urges Parents to Stop Feeding Their Kids Gender Stereotypes
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has a lot of opinions about gender roles in childhood … and it’s channeled them into Gender Baby Food, a parody product based on the design of the Gerber brand.
Created by Jiayi Wang and Jennifer Garcia, Gender Baby Food comes in a number of different flavors, including Anti-Gay Grape, Submissive Spinach, Rough and Tough Rhubarb, and—our favorite—Perverted Peas. We aren’t sure why that one’s in there, really; sexual innuendo is hardly a gendered concept.
Chief operations director Esther Yue and CEO Shannon Cullum
The chief executive and head of operations at Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore have left the agency as major changes at the newly formed Publicis Communications continue to unfold at a local level.
CEO Shannon Cullum and chief operations director Esther Yue, who have worked for the famous agency brand for 41 years combined, both left the agency at the same time. Their roles will not be replaced. Cullum joined Saatchi in 2003 as regional director, while Yue has worked for the agency in two different stints, first from 1984 until 2009, and then from 2013.
Digiday: BuzzFeed targets DIY with Nifty, a platform-focused video brand
On the heels of a successful cooking vertical, BuzzFeed has launched another social-centric brand, Nifty, for DIYers. Nifty launched with a Facebook page on March 10, and in three weeks, already has nearly 4 million likes. Its Facebook page describes it as “Money-saving hacks and DIYs for upgrading your home and life”.
With Nifty, BuzzFeed seems to be trying to replicate the growth of its Facebook-only cooking channel Tasty, which has blown up thanks to its made-for-social videos. Since it launched in July, Tasty’s Facebook page has amassed nearly 48 million Facebook likes and was the No. 1 video creator on the platform in December with 1 billion views on its instructional videos for comfort food like pizza bread boat and mini chicken pot pies, according to Tubular Labs.
Poynter: How ICIJ got hundreds of journalists to collaborate on the Panama Papers
The latest collaborative investigation from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists includes a lot of ingredients. Among them:
- 11.5 million records
- 2.6 terabytes of data
- More than 370 journalists in more than 80 countries at more than 100 media organisations
The Panama Papers, which started publishing Sunday, is the biggest collaboration so far from the consortium, a nonprofit network of based in Washington, D.C. So how do you corral that many journalists from that many organisations for an investigation of this size?
The Verge: France thinks plain cigarette packs will help kick its smoking habit
Few countries are as synonymous with smoking as France, where cigarettes like Gauloises and Gitanes are as much a part of the cultural fabric as croissants and labor strikes. But cigarettes sold in the country will have a different face very soon, thanks to a new law that will strip them of all their branding.
Last week, the French Health Ministry announced that all tobacco shops will have to sell cigarettes in plain, logo-free packaging by the end of this year, under a law that was passed at the end of 2015.
