Opinion

DAVID thought his PlayStation 5 would have melted by now, but it's held its own against the heat so far. That's allowed him to complete 'Mafia: The Old Country' and 'Wax Heads' over the last few weeks—if you need a break from the football, tennis, and/or the latest political clusterfuck, these two games might do the trick.

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So much of the World Cup preamble was about the price of rooms and whether hotel owners would make a mint or not. At least one place has done well out of the tournament, and that’s the Skechers Motel. For the brand’s World Cup spot, viewers get a tour of the resort favoured by Harry Kane, Anthony Elanga, Baris Alper Yilmaz, et al.

Promo

Some of the best 'pursuer' characters in pop culture include the T-800 from 'The Terminator', Nemesis from 'Resident Evil 3', and the curse from 'It Follows'. Thanks to Jake Erland's promo for 'Sun Has Set', we can now add Beabadoobee to the list. Shot from a first-person point of view, the audience cannot escape Bea Kristi if it tried.

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Pressé meets the press in this Belvoir Farm commercial, as the brand goes on the record about its commitment to taste. Before we get down to brass tacks, however, Belvoir is pronounced "beaver" (the script slips it in nice and early so the boss character can move on to the all-important elderflower harvest).

New Signing

Stink has only gone and signed the talented Molly Burdett to its global roster of directors. Burdett, whose reel includes work for Adidas, NatWest, Arlo Parks, the Mayor of London, and more, says: "For me, it's always been about creating work that feels true and has real meaning. I'm drawn to brave thinkers, and from the very beginning it was clear that Stink shared that same ambition."

New Signing

Born to "an overly passionate, outspoken Brazilian mother and a more subdued but still outspoken British father", Outsider newbie Duncan Lewis calls himself a "culture-concussed city kid".

New Signing

If you ask for a Slim Jim in the United States, you get a processed meat stick. If you ask for a Slim Jim in the UK, you get James Worsley—director, editor, and camcorder lover (so much so that he collects and rents out camcorders on the side). First and foremost, he's a talented commercials director now on the books at STARLING.

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We’re late to the party with this (the ad came out earlier this year), but this commercial by Omoda is too good to miss altogether. Uncommon take a refreshing approach to selling cars. Gone are the bendy roads set in a scenic but unspecific location, with whatever car’s being advertised driven by a man of a certain age, gripping the wheel with a look of contentment pasted across his face.

Event

Ciclope has established itself as the favourite event for industry folk who like to mix a little business in with their pleasure. A carefully curated line-up of presentations and conversations will take place over the three days of the festival and they will climax with a set of awards handed to the companies judged by their peers to have made slightly better work than everyone else.

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Everyone has regrets, many of them the result of unforced errors. Take the man in this Uber commercial, for example—he's bought a bunch of balloons for someone's sixtieth birthday and, would you believe it, the wind's started to pick up. When the woman he's with suggests they hitch a ride, he insists they can weather the storm. Oh dear, as people like to say, dear.

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When Rockstar Games announced that 'Grand Theft Auto VI' would cost between $80 and $100, some called it the heist of the century. Keen not to let anyone steal its thunder, McDonald's presents a sequel to last year's World Menu Heist spot. To the sound of ‘Hangover (BaBaBa)' by Buraka Som Sistema, we see what happens when the brand goes full Hamburglar.

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In 2004's 'Spider-Man 2', Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) worked as a delivery boy for Joe's Pizza. The game based on the film then let players deliver pizzas for themselves, accompanied by one of the most demented pieces of video game music ever composed. Thanks to these pop-culture hits, Spider-Man and pizza have been inseparable ever since.

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DAVID has expressed admiration in the past for the distinctive approach of director Frances O'Sullivan and it's a pleasure to see it deployed in a mainstream TVC. Jacob's Creek is not a brand that springs to mind when it comes to adventurousness but they have plainly bought into O'Sullivan's aesthetic as this is a fine display of what she does best.

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At an event earlier this year hosted by Sony music, there was a fascinating discussion about the sophisticated relationship between music stars and brands.

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Old Spice's latest commercials make big promises - but not the kind we're typically used to. The first, and stronger, of the two 20-second spots is set on a football pitch, where a player’s penalty kick spectacularly misses the goal. Old Spice Antiperspirant won’t help the ball go in… but it will make you smell like it did.

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According to press reports last month, Dougal Wilson may be about to embark on Paddington 4 and, if that's the case, this ad for Twix serves as a reminder of what we lose when Wilson is gallivanting around the world with the world's most beloved animatronic bear. There is a unique sensibility to Dougal Wilson's work and it's very much in evidence here even if it can't quite be defined.