2nd June 2019
Clever but naughty? The North Face altered Wikipedia articles about iconic global destinations, swapping in photos that showed travellers using its outdoor gear (and ‘climbing’ up search engine results in theprocess). But after Ad Age wrote about the campaign, Wikipedia’s volunteer editors were quick to remove North Face’s photos, noting that the effort breached the site’s user terms for paid advocacy.
Originality, Artistry, Impact and Elaboration. From Creative Review – TheIsland of Creativity. Can the process of creativity be explained in map form? Perry Nightingale, Executive Creative Technologist at Grey London, believes so. (reg may be necessary to read full piece).
Are you a ‘dataphile’. If so, you’ll love this information and infographic website – Our World In Data.
A bit of a ‘submarine section’ this week…. ‘Submarines small enough to deliver medicine inside human body – in a paper published in Materials Today, engineers explain how they developed micrometer-sized submarines that exploit biological environments to tune their buoyancy, enabling them to carry drugs to specific locations in the body.’ Sounds a lot like Steven Spielberg’s Innerspace…? Meanwhile ScUBER (Uber for submarines) goes underwater in Australia; and finally, just because I love this song and it (sort of) fits in here, this is the haunting Submarine Bells, by The Chills. Enough submarine subjects for a while I think…
How ‘algorithm’ become a dirty word.
From MIT. Why Facebook is right not to take down the Nancy Pelosi video.’The video makes Pelosi look strange, but it’s not a “deepfake”—it doesn’t falsely show her saying anything she didn’t actually say.
The world’s most bicycle friendly cities. Spoiler alert, one of them isn’t London…
From WARC.com. ‘Internet will swallow the majority of global media spend by 2020. In eight major markets, including the three largest, internet advertising already takes the majority of media dollars. The$107.5 billion spent on internet ads in America made it the dominant medium for the first time last year, while the balance tipped in China and the UK during 2016.’
From 1843 Magazine. ‘The worrying future of Greece’s most Instagrammable island. Influencers love Santorini’s blue domes and dramatic landscapes. But the tourists who follow in their wake are proving hard to manage.’
This website turns Bitcoin blockchain activity into ASMR. Perfect for anxious cryptocurrency traders.
Over the past month, the art world’s attention has been focused on the Venice Biennale, one of the most notable international shows. Many artists who are not in the invitation-only exhibition come to Venice to share their work in unaffiliated gallery shows and take advantage of theBiennale-boosted foot traffic. Here, Banksy sets up amongst Venice street vendors to share a new multi-panel painting.
And finally, a couple of ads for the weekend. Volkswagen introduces the Irritating ‘Others’ of Driving in this nicely observed spot ; and Lucozade rewrites Three Lions to support the England Women’s football team.