The power of styling and retouching

It's late, you're hungry, and your inner Jamie Oliver is void of any culinary inspiration. Your inner Homer Simpson, however, has a great idea… one that involves a juicy burger, a television, and a comfy couch. Tonight is fast food night. As you pull up to the drive-through window, glistening images of your takeaway options beckon you to pick one. That quarter pounder looks so piping hot, so yummy, so perfect. But as you prepare to launch into dinner, you can't help but notice that the burger isn't anything like the menu image you saw. Do the advertisements even show real burgers? It is a question many have asked… and McDonald's have stepped forward to explain. Yes, it's the same burger – it's just had a little help in the form of a painstakingly detailed process to maximize enticement.

Shocking cover up

Lauren Luke has become a bit of YouTube sensation for her make-up tutorials, but now she has really created a stir thanks to her latest video. Her new tutorial, simply titled 'How to look your best the morning after', shows a bruised and battered Lauren applying make-up to her injuries caused by domestic violence. The video shocked her 440,000 subscribers and is continuing to make waves, but thankfully the instructional vid is not real – it is part of a campaign for the anti-domestic-violence group, Refuge.

Mahana Red wins trans-Tasman marketing award!

We're thrilled that one of our clients has won the inaugural Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Marketer of the Year Award 2012. This is a pretty big deal in the fresh produce industry both here and across the ditch, so its especially rewarding  to see Sarah McRae of Freshmax unveiled as the winner of the PMA Marketer of the Year, chosen for her marketing work on the deliciously divine Mahana Red apple.

Lego comes to life

Although still at conceptual stage, check out this slick presentation for Brain Bricks from the team at Wonder Years. By installing tiny sensors into each brick, your Lego masterpiece can be recreated in a virtual environment, then integrated into games and activities via the Brain Bricks mobile app.

Stirring the motions with V

You don't need to be a fan of electronic music to get excited about the The V Motion Project.
V presented an ambitious challenge – to create a way of making music using only body movement as an instrument. A team including music producer Joel Little and motion artist Josh Cesan took up this challenge, resulting in a new track entitled 'Can't Help Myself' (see below) and plenty of attention.

Mobile medic

Many students these days are into the new generation of technology, including iPhones and iPads. No wonder the Australian Defence Force used this technology in recruiting medical students worthy of a defence university sponsorship. How? By creating medically diagnosable advertising. As the CEO of Grey Group Austria commented, this campaign is a total "gamechanger".

A bright idea with QR codes

Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, you've got to admit that this QR code implementation is pretty darn clever. What do you do when you're a Korean store chain (E-Mart) with a reoccurring midday shopper drought? Simple – just install a structure that creates a shadow QR code between 12pm–1pm, linking people to special 'Sunny Sale' deals only available at that time.