Is this the most risqué advert ever shown on UK TV?

Provocative new ad aimed at promoting safe sex tells people to 'Come Together' to fight Aids

The advert has already caught the attention of industry experts including Jo Hodges, who is Head of the Advertising Faculty at London College of Communication: "...the Come Together ad shows couples of every sexual orientation enjoying sex from every angle and in turn produces what I think is one of the most provocative ads I have ever seen."

The Lego Movie rebuilds ITV ad break

Warner Bros jumps on trend of remaking famous scenes with bricks by recreating ads for Premier Inn, BT and Confused.com

"The Lego ad break is an inspired and truly innovative media first, one the that captures the very essence of The Lego Movie and does a brilliant job of amplifying this eagerly-awaited title," said Alex Lewis, vice-president and director of marketing at Warner Bros.

Eddie Izzard - Death Star Canteen
The Lego Ad Break

Daily chart - Hot. Cool. Huh?

The evolution of the winter Olympics


THE winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, has as its motto “Hot. Cool. Yours.” Odd, yes. But explainable. The organisers want to attract younger viewers and to broaden the games’ appeal to more countries. (The gold-medal rankings teem with places like tiny Norway that excel at numerous, esoteric events). This year's 12 new events were chosen partly because they attract lots of YouTube views and Twitter followers.

Cable television - News you can lose

CNN’s transformation says a lot about what is working today in television

Cable-news channels are also experiencing what print newspapers started to see over a decade ago: people are abandoning them for the web, where advertising rates are much lower. In 2008 Mr Zucker, known for speaking his mind, worried about “trading analogue dollars for digital pennies”. Since then online-advertising rates have improved. But internet economics are still less attractive, even for CNN.com, one of the most popular news websites in the world. As newspapers and online portals are making video content that they can sell advertising against, CNN also faces new competitors from the web.

Viral Video Chart: Sochi, Sherlock, Jerry Seinfeld and Jimmy Fallon

Watch a witty ad that says 'the Olympics have always been a little gay' and Benedict Cumberbatch get clued up on maths

1. The Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion: "Luge" Super Bowl XLVIII TV Commercial
Thrusting message

2. Benedict Cumberbatch and the Sign of Four (or is it Three?)
Elementary maths

3. Seinfeld Reunion Super Bowl Commercial 2014
Jerry in the can

4. Swedish Marines making parody of Grease lightning in Afghanistan
Step to it

5. Andrew Cotton at Nazaré Feb.2 - 2014 Ride of the Year Entry - Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards 
Riding high

6. Do You Want To Be My Boyfriend [FROZEN PARODY]
Courting trouble

7. "Full House" Guys Reunite On Jimmy Fallon
Late night departure

8. Top 10 Anticipated But Disappointing Movies
Top of the flops

9. The Fault In Our Stars | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX
Get the hankies out

10. Philip Seymour Hoffman Tribute RIP - 1967 - 2014
Genius actor remembered

Source: Viral Video Chart. Compiled from data gathered at 14:00 on 6 February 2014. The Viral Video Chart is currently based on a count of the embedded videos and links on approximately 2m blogs, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Big brands crashing the Olympics

Some marketers get Olympic gold without sponsorships

Some brands don’t have to be Olympic sponsors for consumers to get that idea. With days to go to the opening ceremonies of the winter games in Sochi, a poll of U.S. adults found more than one-fifth of them thought Pepsi is one of the Olympic sponsor brands, even though it has no connection to the games. (A larger number correctly tagged Coke as a worldwide Olympic sponsor). A similar amount thought Nike sponsors the winter games, when it’s only partnered with the U.S. Olympic team.

Red Bull, Adidas and Starbucks also got some Olympics gold without spending theirs in Sochi. Check out out the public perception of brands as Olympic sponsors in this graphic, from research company YouGov 

Ad break: William Shatner for Priceline, pro-gay Sochi advert

Watch the Star Trek actor as an over-protective dad and a campaign promoting diversity at the Winter Olympics

See William Shatner as an over-protective dad in a new US advert for Priceline ahead of a defiant Winter Olympics message from the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion in this week's round-up of new commercials. Also, the Sunday Times examines culture in a single take; McVitie's invites us to equate biscuits with puppies; Bell's whisky gives us a stirring tale of late learning and Pancreatic Cancer Action suggests other cancer sufferers should count their blessings

Eurovision Song Contest: vote rigging countries face three-year ban

Evidence found of an attempt by Azerbaijan to try to buy votes during last year's competition in Sweden

Azerbaijan was accused of trying to buy votes from jurors and members of the public taking part in the telephone poll during last year's event in Malmo, with Lithuanian students alleged to have been paid to dial in.

Azerbaijan finished runners up last year with its entrant, Farid Mammadov, scoring a surprise 234 points. The former Soviet republic finished second to Denmark's Emmelie de Forest, with 281 points.

Great Britain, which last won in 1997 with Katrina and the Waves' Love Shine A Light, finished 19th on 23 points for Believe in Me, sung byBonnie Tyler. It was marginally up on the 25th place (12 points) secured by Britain's entrant, Englebert Humperdinck in 2012.

Why Sochi is the perfect place for the winter Olympics

SOCHI, a subtropical resort on the Black Sea coast, seems an odd place to stage the winter Olympics. It is the warmest place in Russia, where people go to escape winter.

Since Soviet times Sochi has had a reputation as a brash and seedy resort, a hotspot for holiday sex and a place where black-marketers and underground entrepreneurs from across the Soviet Union spent their not-always-honestly-earned roubles. "If I knew a card trick, I'd live in Sochi," runs an old saying. This makes it arguably the perfect place to hold the Olympics, which have become a model of Russia's crony capitalism and a world championship of corruption. Those who won the construction contracts certainly know a trick or two.

What's the Matter With Twitter? Not What Twitter Thinks

It's the User Experience, Stupid

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has 99 problems, and revenue growth ain't one. The company announced income of nearly $243 million for the previous quarter Wednesday, beating analyst estimates by more than $20 million. It's on track to make a healthy billion dollars and change this year. Its advertising strategy is bearing fruit. If that were all, Twitter investors would be doing a victory lap right now.

Instead, they're heading for the exits, driving Twitter shares down a little over 20% in after-market trading. Why? It's not that people are leaving the service; the number of Twitter users grew in the fourth quarter. No, Twitter's own stats reveal the real trouble with a very fundamental kind of user engagement.

Graphic: 25 stats shaping mobile’s future

Apple vs. Android, apps vs. HTML5, and more mobile data that matter

Every year in this decade has been named “the year of mobile.” But with the explosion of smartphone use, it looks as if the 2010′s will be the decade of mobile marketing. Check out the stats on this infographic submitted by digital asset management companyWebDAM Solutions.