Botched is the best word to describe the roll-out of the new Australia Unlimited logo, which ignited handwringing and rancour across media, government and design circles when it was released this week. News organisations pounced and paraded it alongside the Australia Made logo as if one was replacing the other. It wasn’t,...
‘Repulsion’ is an unusual goal for an advertising campaign. Usually, ‘attraction’ is what advertising agencies strive for. But not with the latest Burger King campaign. Beyond a business-as-usual ‘buy our burgers’ campaign, this one has higher stakes. Why? Because Burger King has promised to remove all artificial preservatives from its ‘Whoppers’ across...
Along with people across Australia and the world, I’m watching, horrified, while fires raze large chunks of wilderness and towns. In the wake of disasters of this magnitude, people want to do something, and in our helplessness, one of the first places we turn is raising money and donating. And how we...
While driving to an appointment recently, a radio ad broke past my thoughts about the week ahead and what I was going to make for dinner. At first, it was annoying. Over and over it repeated: “A faulty airbag can kill you. A faulty airbag can kill you. A faulty airbag...
Photos of people in North Face apparel posing in remote locations were uploaded to Wikipedia pages. If you visited the Wikipedia page for Guarita State Park in South America a few weeks ago, you would have seen a lovely photo of the location featuring North Face clothing. No, Wikipedia didn’t sell...
A friend advises a business which keeps getting distracted by new opportunities before the old ones have a chance to take root. He calls it “shiny object syndrome”.And while each business area will have their version of shiny objects, it’s a term I have used to describe the way organisations...
A request lands in Tom’s inbox: ‘Hi, I’d like to connect with you.’ He gets a few every week, and after a quick look at the person’s profile he clicks accept and doesn’t think much more about it. A few days later emails start appearing from a company he’s never heard...
When organisations go through sustained tough times, as night follows day, a new logo will often follow. And with a splashy launch Uber is the latest member of the cult of shiny objects. Although with their last rework just three years ago, this is their second trip. Generally speaking, people don’t think organisations...
In 2016 Colin Kaepernick, a football player with the NFL, used his profile as a quarterback to take a stand and protest police brutality against African-Americans and other minorities. Instead of standing during the National Anthem, he ‘took a knee‘. The gesture reverberated throughout the league with others joining his action...
How many times have you looked at an issue or problem solely from a single perspective? I was flipping through the July edition of Wallpaper magazine recently as I waited for the person I was meeting to arrive and discovered a series by photographer Barbara Probst that showed the same subject...