Hi friend,

We’re taking a new approach to the intro section this week, and thought we’d take the opportunity to figure out the type of content you’d love to see more of.

We want to make nineteen eighty four the best it can be, and hearing your preference makes it a lot easier for us to hit the mark.

You only have to tap your choice once and BOOM, preference logged!

How Barbie took over the world

Been seeing Barbie anywhere? We know we already mentioned the Barbie movie a few issues ago, but this time it’s actually about the marketing. From a real rentable Barbie Dream House in Malibu, to Barbican station being renamed ‘Barbiecan’; the marketing campaign has been an insane success and shows just how movie campaigns can get it right.

If you’re a daily user of the platform, you’ll already be accustomed to LinkedIn’s annoyingly good ability at switching up what content it wants to promote at the turn of a hat. Well guess what? It’s decided to switch it up once again. To get to grips with the new algorithm that favours ‘knowledge and advice’ focused posts, you might find this write-up useful.

Writing copy can be tough if you haven’t already found your own formula. Whether you’re a marketer trying to bag a sale or a copywriter looking for new ways to buff your silver tongue, why not take a look at these 17 little-known persuasive copywriting techniques when you’re working on your next project.

Something we don’t think anyone predicted was Yorkshire Tea putting out a music video campaign in a bid to reach 2023 ‘summer banger' status. The new ‘Pack Yer Bags’ tune taps into the mindset that a Brit will go to any lengths to get a decent cuppa (even if they’re in Ibiza), but we’re not 100% sure we’ll be seeing this one at Glasto next year.

The unlikely new crib for crustaceans

We had the great news earlier this year that wind power had overtaken gas as the main source of electricity, but did you know that offshore wind farms could also be a new home for lobsters?

In a process known as the ‘artificial reef’ effect, European lobsters have been found using scour protection at the base of turbines as shelter, nestling into the deposits of rock and boulder. Though it’s not yet known if this is going to have a positive or negative effect on marine life as a whole.

90 million (yes, million) Americans are facing heat alerts this week, all the while US Republicans try to block any spend on tackling the climate crisis. In particular, Senator Ted Cruz has been rallying fellow GOP members against Biden’s proposed 2024 budget, even though Texas just saw a heat dome that’s 5 times more likely to happen because of the climate crisis.

Sticking with the Americas, there’s a small lake over in Ontario, Canada that can tell us a massive amount about the Earth’s relationship with humans and the impact we have on ecosystems. The finely layered sediment at the bottom of Crawford Lake has captured a thousand years of environmental history, recording a range of human activities from deforestation to nuclear weapons tests.

In case there were any doubts surrounding the Anthropocene Epoch, we can now see all the evidence in the form of a big muddy lollipop. Plutonium flavour, OK for you sir?

Why so many businesses are rebranding

Rebranding is always a big undertaking for any business, and it’s never as simple as taking on a new face and name for the hell of it. Businesses have been rapidly showing more willingness to rebrand as part of their strategy, and we’ve seen some big ones recently with Facebook’s corporate rebrand to Meta, and even Nickelodeon having its first big rebrand in 14 years. Whether it’s to fulfil a need or to make the most of an opportunity, here’s why so many businesses are rebranding.

The winners of the World Illustration Awards 2023 get announced at the end of the summer, and over 5,000 entries have already been cut down to a shortlist of 200. Here’s a selection of entries by Creative Boom showing the top levels of innovation displayed by these incredible artists.

This is a question for any of our designer readers out there. What social platform works best for you? In light of Meta’s recent launch of Threads, Design Week ran the question by design studios to find out what platforms provide them the best value and how they utilise them in their day to day work.

The team gets its own brand strategy day

Sometimes it’s good to put yourself in the shoes of the client, and that’s exactly what we did at the beginning of the week by running our own Avery & Brown strategy day. We focused on our company values, our vision for the next few years, and our content marketing strategy.

Even if it’s once a year, every business should take the time to stand back and reflect on their own brand strategy now and again. You never know, you might find out some new ways you could be doing things even better. We’ve got a lot of exciting ideas and plans for the next 6 months - so watch this space! 🖤

Each issue of nineteen eighty four, we feature a different Certified B Corporation, to celebrate the brands which are working hard to create a better business world. To learn more about B Corps, click here.

Our featured B Corp this week is…

Chilly’s

Yeah, this might be slightly biased because everyone in the Avery & Brown office has one of their bottles, but Chilly’s is one of the newest B Corps of 2023 and provides reusable bottles, food containers, and cutlery to help end people’s reliance on single-use plastics.

Chilly’s has been around since 2010 and is helping to establish reusables as a vital part of everyday life.