Take three! Welcome to 7 Wonders, the seven most interesting links you’ll click this week. We’ve compiled the things that have made us smile, the things that have made us nod thoughtfully and the things that have made us tilt our head to one side and go “Blimey”. It’s a fun list this week – we hope you enjoy it. As ever, if you come across anything you think could make it into 7 Wonders, send us a message.
1. New York Times journalist Rachel Abrams has recently been on a mission to convince Google that she isn’t dead.
2. In perhaps the brashest print ad of 2017, Burger King decided to highlight various BK restaurants on fire to promote their “Flame Grilled” USP.
3. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four comes into the public domain in 2021. How will people use the text in a world that is beginning to resemble his vision?
4. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha recently avoided media questions by placing a cardboard cutout of himself in front of a microphone, and saying “Ask this guy.”
5. Japanese marketers struggled to sell depression medication until a campaign which “rebranded” depression as “A Cold for the Soul”. The campaign improved sales on medication by ¥72.5 billion over 8 years.
6. In 2014, delivery service DHL got rivals UPS, TNT and DPD to advertise for them – by delivering large, cumbersome packages emblazoned with the strapline “DHL is Faster”.
7. Confectionery giant Mars turned down the chance of product placement in Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. No one knows the exact reason, but one possibility is that Mars thought ET was too ugly to sell chocolate. Hershey’s took the deal instead and made millions with Reeses Pieces.
And that’s your lot! Keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground for the next instalment of 7 Wonders.
