The British press protest

Unity is something we seldom see in the UK, but it seems the British press have found one thing to agree on; the government's current stance on AI.

On Tuesday (25 February), every major national newspaper — bar the FT, but they don’t do cover wraps, of course — brandished the wrap with the slogan ‘Make It FAIr’, opposing the protection we have against AI.

The current proposal means that AI and LLM’s (Large Language Models) can scrape everything from creators, websites and user created content, unless creators explicitly opt out. The wraps were accompanied by ad takeovers on several leading publishers’ websites and numerous editorials and opinion articles.

The consensus is that opting out would be impractical, and places the burden of contacting each AI company on the wrong party.

Whilst we see newspapers using the same pictures everyday for major news, this is one of the first times we’ve seen a whole sector banding together against the new shiny toy taking over every conversation in almost every industry. But, it’s not just the press doing it. The music industry has come together to protest AI copyright issues through the release of a ‘silent album’ co-written by over 1,000 leading musicians. There’s rumors that big broadcasters are planning a joint anti-AI stance, too. Is this the beginning of the revolution?

Aldi trashes London Fashion Week

London Fashion Week (LFW) is a marketing and stunt team's idea of heaven, An annual event that generates a lot of natural coverage, like weirdos doing strange things to get noticed (on and off the catwalk) and photographers falling over themselves to capture this season's latest craze. Enter Aldi with its couture range dubbed ‘Trash-Chic’, strangely reminiscent of laborious team building activities, its an entire line made of bin bags.

London Fashion Week (LFW) is a marketing and stunt team's idea of heaven, An annual event that generates a lot of natural coverage, like weirdos doing strange things to get noticed (on and off the catwalk) and photographers falling over themselves to capture this season's latest craze. Enter Aldi with its couture range dubbed ‘Trash-Chic’, strangely reminiscent of laborious team building activities, its an entire line made of bing bags.

The collection designed by Ethan Leyland, utilises Aldi's Everyday Essentials Refuse Sacks, demonstrating that high-end style doesn't have to break the bank. The story is all in the great images which bring to life the absurd nature of LFW, where the weird and wonderful meet the everyday public. Models paraded through Soho in the eye-catching black designs, turning heads and tricking fashion enthusiasts into believing they were witnessing creations from a luxury fashion house. Whilst this isn’t Aldi’s first appearance at the event, it captures the essence of LWF perfectly.

Ikea asks ‘U up?’

We’re flying over the Atlantic to our friends in Canada for Ikea’s latest stunt, where it asked customers: “U up?” This is the infamous text that appears on people’s phones late at night, often before a bad decision. Instead, it was to promote its new mattresses.

Ikea worked out that if you had an uncomfortable mattress, you’re more than likely to be up scrolling late at night, so it targeted late night scrollers with a cheeky DM. Sent between 10pm - 5am, those who replied were rewarded with a brand new mattress, courtesy of IKEA. A very relevant, fun and playful way to market mattresses. It brought the campaign to life with the digital activation, OOH billboards to promote it and a series of influencer activations exposing the DM’s from the brand.

Camden Brewery takes on the black stuff

I saw and enjoyed this fun little social stunt by the team at Camden Town Brewery (CTB).

Quite rightly, it’s tough to be a stout in the UK, especially when there’s one brand that demands unwavering loyalty from its, at times, almost cult-like following. CTB set out not to topple the number one from its perch, but to get someone to just give an alternative a go

It turned to everyday punters for a taste test and turned their honest reactions into headlines, which ranged between everything from, “not bad” to “a good try”, it even got a “yeah, it’s alright”. Real, honest reviews.

Not only did it make me want to try it but it also brought out the brand personality whilst doing so. Against the other stout titan which seems to be effortlessly cool, with a sponsorship portfolio to eclipse anyone, you can always count on the challenger brands to bring it to life with some fun.