Breaking up with advertising

The letter breaking up with advertising, how the Gray Lady's troubles come despite its purple patch, how to write that book inside you, another new agency model, and on being Ronald McDonald - more people have walked on the moon

One of the first recognisably modern websites, Snopes, is crowdfunding to stay afloat. Why is rather complicated but this piece unpicks it rather well.

In urban China, cash is quickly becoming history and Amazon is attempting to tap into this behaviour, which is at best latent in the west, allowing users to pay for TGI Fridays meals. Could this be its bridgehead into payments?

Nadya Powell and Bo Hellbergand - their letter breaking up with advertising.

Microsoft Paint RIP. And then the spectacular rise from the dead a day later - was this a case of 'fake news'?

Could Gett's deal with St Lukes be another 'new agency model'? In this case the agency has to persuade people to share their journeys in exchange for rock bottom fares but if they succeed then the agency will cash in.

Cadbury's re-ressurects the Tiffin bar.

Kenneth Anger on life and death and black magic in Hollywood. And on learning from another hellraiser, Hunter. S. Thompson, by his editor.

Quite simply, a great ad, for VW:

The Gray Lady (The New York Times) has led the news agenda since Trump came to power. So why is this most iconic of newspapers struggling despite huge digital boosts? It's now cutting its sub editors - those who find and correct errors of fact, style and grammar, and write the headlines.

The Guardian has cut its losses by one-third to £44.7 million, following 300 job cuts.

Everyone has a book inside them, so the saying goes. Here's Ryal Holiday's two-year ordeal to get his book finished, and his guide for you getting your book out.

Maybe the ASA's decision to ban sexist stereotypes isn't such a great idea, says Dominic Mills, as brands are (usually) already ahead here.

A 10-point guide to a great brand.

Emily Bell on the BBC's 'talent' troubles. Is Auntie simply paying too much for people it doesn't need?

Rocket Fuel's spectacular fall in value, down from a high of $2 billion post-floatation, has meant Sizmek has picked it up for small change, $125.5 million.

The sideways dictionary, describing technology using metaphor https://www.superhi.com/blog/nick-asbury-on-how-to-make-technology-understandable

An engineering marvel – the aluminium can.

Making online ads usable – five criteria:

• User control
• Instant gratification
• Placement
• Predictability
• Relevance

Brainstorm or groupwank, asks Lucky Generals’ Andy Nairn. He hates brainstorming. Hates it.

Needy brands will fail, says BBH.

Jeremy Deller’s ‘We’re here because we’re here’ project, the artist interviewed by Jon Snow.

Imagine a self-driving cab. If someone is sick in the cab, who cleans up the vomit? The car won't even 'know'. Not the most stylish illustration of the problems of autonomous cars, but an important one.

Ten UX examples of getting GDPR consent.

In online food delivery, are there too many cooks?

Nike's founder Phil Knight on how he founded the business after a course on entrepreneurship at Stanford, roping in coach Bill Bowerman and a waffe iron, which he realised could give shoes better grip.

Is content king? Andreessen Horowitz analyst Benedict Evans says not.

Edgar Wright's Baby Driver is for many the film of the summer. He had the idea, and the opening scene, years before and actually produced it before in this video for Mint Royale's Blue Song, released 15 years ago:

How Facebook uses 'dark' machines to give some brands or agencies access to its first party data.

One analyst has doubts about AI, and specifically IBM Watson. The criticism isn't of Watson's potential, "Our checks suggest that IBM’s Watson platform remains one of the most complete cognitive platforms available in the marketplace today," reads the analysis, but whether it can return value to shareholders.

Google has a new machine learning visualisation tool.

How to value a subscriber in the Amazon Prime world.

A profile of Snapchat's CEO Evan Spiegel, whose project began as piece of coursework at Stanford University and has grown to a $20 billion valuation, but still struggles for profit and is under constant attack from Facebook.

And an interview with the former Twitter executive, now working for Facebook's Instagram, who is systematically leading that attack on Snapchat.

But it's not just Facebook. Morgan Stanley, one of the underwriters for Snap's floatation, has downgraded its analysis and issued something close to an apology to investors. The four areas it cites are:

1. Low ad completion rates
2. Low ROI
3. Delays in its bidding platform, essential for automatic programmatic buys by media agencies
4. More competition, from Facebook et. al.

Finally, on being Ronald McDonald. More people have walked on the moon than have 'been' the terrifying burger-eating clown: