SUMMER OF SMUT: The hot weather has got advertisers’ sap predictably rising with 2 naughty new campaigns featured in this week’s Marketing. First up is Perrier, who are “overhauling their packaging” with a “risque design[…]

Big shout out to the St Louis Zoo, whose marketing manager saw our front page capybara and sent me details of theirs. Awww. However the capy’s days as our cover star are numbered – we need a new animal, suggestions are welcome, or it migh[…]

BRITNEY SPEARS – “I’ve Just Begun (Having My Fun)”
The intricacies of Britney marketing relegate this to an In The Zone bonus track in some countries; a non-release in others. Which is odd, because you could imagine it being a[…]

Songs About Science in MP3 format. I’d be amazed if we haven’t linked this sometime before, but who cares – it’s 1950S SCIENCE SONGS IN MP3 FORMAT!!??!![…]

“Purple is the international colour of equality”
Hein?? Clearly it’s been taken up by some groups as such, and this lot seem, well, harmless enough – but the choice of purple still seems odd. Until the 19th century and the dev[…]

Glad to see that deranged Narnia site getting wider linkage. Like a lot of crackpot Interweb sites it’s taken a small nugget of insight into the books and magnified and spun it in all sorts of crazed directions. In other words it’s mad bu[…]

SWAPSIES
There are few purer ways to waste money than Panini sticker albums. Devoid of free gum or trading-card game status or any kind of real-world use they represent the collector impulse at its simplest. According to the website there is not even[…]

BRITNEY SPEARS – “Autumn Goodbye”
Twinned quaintness: a B-Side, and a Britney tune carried mostly by its sung melody. It’s A-Side was “…Baby One More Time”, which may not be the best of her records but is sti[…]

BRITNEY SPEARS – “Anticipating (Alan Braxe Mix)”
The Britney/Daft Punk link-up never got beyond a delicious rumour but this 2002 remix gives you an idea of what might have been. Halfway between Madonna’s “Music” an[…]

FICTIONAL FOOD EATEN IN CHILDRENS BOOKS #2: Toffee Trees
In The Magician’s Nephew, Digory plants a toffee which in the enchanted soil of Narnia grows overnight into a toffee-tree. “The fruit was delicious; not exactly like toffee?softer f[…]