In the past month no less than three gender-related stories have hit the national headlines. Jodie Whittaker was announced as the first ever female Dr Who, the BBC revealed its huge gender pay gap and it was refreshing to see the Advertising Standards Association (ASA) announce that it is working on tougher standards for what it called harmful gender stereotypes in advertisements.

The ASA’s stance hasn’t come a moment too soon. The issue has been bubbling under the surface since Procter & Gamble’s #unstereotyping speech at last year’s Cannes Lions festival, where the brand pledged to end gender stereotyping across its brand advertising. While this was welcomed wholeheartedly, it’s a touch ironic since P&G has done so much to promote stereotypes in its Fairy Liquid commercials, which still featured a woman washing up as late as the Noughties! Only in the 2015 version did it first show a man doing the dishes. But let’s give credit where it’s due.

"I may not look like I suck, but I do" is one of the opening lines to a new PSA ad created by Possible for the Lonely Whale Foundation. Not words you'd expect to come out of a group of celebrities' mouths, the intentionally humourous spot brings attention to the fact that 500 million plastic straws are used every day in the US and often end up in the ocean, polluting the water and causing harm to sealife.  

There’s a great David Hockney quote that says “art has always been shaped by technology” and that’s increasingly the case in the digital advertising space, but it’s time for creativity to push back.

Being “shaped” is one thing, being dominated is completely another. And unfortunately it’s the latter that we’re currently facing in advertising with the rapid growth of ad tech and big data.

There’s an ever increasing focus on technology and data in terms of how to target ads to the nth degree and deliver them as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s like cranking the handle on a sausage machine, spitting out masses of generic ads and hunting down consumers who simply aren’t treated like humans anymore.

To really engage with people online we need to look beyond the classic demographic labels. Rather than simply directing ads at ABC1 Females because they are supposedly the target audience, we should be thinking in more real terms, such as how can we help mums solve a key problem they are facing.

The statistics are quite staggering. Every year one in four people suffers from some form of mental health problem (Mind). Mental health is also the leading cause of sick leave in the UK, costing the average employer £1,035 per employee per year. Yet the stigma attached to mental health issues mean 95% of employees who call in sick with stress citing a different reason (Time to Change).

Fortunately, attitudes are changing and mental health is increasingly in the public eye. The NHS has pledged to transform mental health services by 2020, with an ambition of putting mental health on an equal footing to physical health. Coupled with celebrities and royals alike speaking out about personal experience, mental health is becoming less and less of a taboo subject.

This is particularly important for younger generations who aren’t growing up in the ‘stiff upper lip’ mind set of eras gone by. Celebrities and Royals, from Lady Gaga to Ryan Reynolds to Stephen Fry to Prince Harry, have all spoken out about their personal struggles (whether depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or one of the many associated illnesses), making themselves role models and helping to normalise the subject. This, in conjunction with increased government spend and campaigning, means we are now, finally, living in the real world with respect to mental health, with its full impact starting to be recognised and taken seriously.

We all know the power of influencer marketing but why has it become such a popular marketing tactic?  

According to a new infographic by Influencer Marketing Hub, there's a bunch of reasons why – so much so that 67% of marketers are planning to increase their influencer marketing budget over the next 12 months, 84% of marketers judge it to be effective and 55% believe they get better customers as a result.   

For more insights, check out the full infographic below:

To celebrate the cinematic release of The Emoji Movie, Sony teamed up with Lamar Advertising for a quirky and fun digital out of home campaign that automatically displays a contextually relevant ad triggered by the current traffic and weather conditions. 

The ad creative features a range of different characters from the movie whose emotions reflect the present situation and has been running across Lamar's digital billboards in Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston and Orlando.  

Check out a selection of the ads below:

Anyone working in our industry knows the power of video marketing for getting your brand message out to the masses but we stumbled across an interesting infographic put together by websitebuilder.org.uk that uncovers some fascinating insights about video that you might not already know. 

Check it out below for 127 facts about video marketing that might just give you a couple of nuggets of information that you need before planning your next online video campaign.