Funny man finds his feet
In just over a decade, Hawera-born comedian Alan Brough has established himself as one of Australia’s most popular talents. Since moving to Melbourne in 1995, Brough has appeared in films The Nugget and Bad…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Not Your Average Winery
Americans can finally appreciate the work of artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser on home soil, with the opening of the Quixote Winery in California’s Napa Valley. Owner Carl Doumani commissioned the eccentric Viennese-born artist to design…
Loving the lovemarks
An Australian is looking to NZ for inspiration in re-branding itself at home and abroad; hoping to shed its “where the bloody hell are you” ocker image by emphasising its sporting culture, vibrant food…
Free at Last
Kiwi Fox News cameraman, Olaf Wiig, has walked free after being held hostage for two weeks in Gaza. Wiig and Fox correspondent Steve Centanni were captured by a previously unknown militant group, the Holy…
Guardian handles the jandal
The Guardian pays tribute to the jandal/thong/flip flop – a welcome arrival in Britain given the recent heatwave. A brief history of the humble rubber shoe attributes its commercial origins to the NZ Jandal,…
Another Webby for Edge
Exponents Tourism NZ’s consumer website newzealand.com, designed by Shift, has won the Webby award for best tourism website in the world for a second time. Known as the Oscars of the internet,…
Clarke on Clarke
Australian news magazine, The Bulletin, featured a lengthy interview with John Clarke in its May 23 edition. The NZ-born wry humourist, who has lived across the Tasman for the last 30 years, is described…
NZ has the Edge Online
NewZealand.com, Tourism NZ’s award-winning website, earned further raves in a feature article by Brand Channel. “A ninth annual Webby Award winner, the homepage of NewZealand.com is a vibrant blend of heritage and enterprise, with both tourism and…
Kiwi bunny and the Princess has E! Hit
Former Playboy Bunny, New Zealander Sandra Costa continues to turn vision into reality. Today, an international business woman and entrepreneur, Costa’s clients are amongst the “Rich and Famous”. President of Sandra Costa Development, interior…
Modesty Blaize
Magazine editor, Auckland native and former Craccum muse, Louise Chunn, interviewed in the Guardian. Since leaving NZ in the early 1980s, Chunn has worked on such esteemed titles as Fashion Weekly, Just 17, Elle,…
Powerhouse collaboration
Miracle: A Celebration of New Life, the multi-media collaboration between photographer Anne Geddes and Canadian singer Celine Dion, has reached Bestseller status in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly since…
One-stop provocation shop
Denis Dutton’s Arts & Letters Daily website received a generous write-up in the Voice of America. A&L Daily is a collection of links to interesting (and often incendiary) articles available online, sourced…
Lovin’ Lovemarks
CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, Kevin Roberts, launches Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands, in the USA, UK and Australia. “Roberts new book is not just another one of a multitude of works about…
A Sporting Life
NZ-born BBC sports producer and director, Malcolm Kemp, has died aged 57 of cancer. Kemp’s illustrious career saw him executive produce seven Grand Nationals, the 1994 football World Cup and 1996 European Cup, and…
Working 9 ’til… 9
UK-based digital media company – Mere Mortals – wants to establish a NZ office in two years time, enabling a 24-hour working day for its trans-hemisphere employees. Managing director, David Jeffries, cites NZ’s LotR-enhanced…
Brian Bows Out
BBC stalwart, Brian Perkins, has resigned from his post at Radio 4, ending a news-reading career spanning 4 decades. The Guardian describes the resignation of NZ-born broadcaster as a loss: “Perkins’ voice has come…
“Kiwi Babe-magnet” Gets Top Billing
New Zealander Zane Lowe is to host one of Britain’s highest rating shows – the evening slot on BBC‘s Radio One. Radio One controller Andy Parfitt: “Zane is one of the most exciting presenters…
Scoop: the hard news
Wellington independent new-media news agency Scoop again makes international headlines for its principled media coverage. The Guardian applauds the “fiercely independent news agency’s” boldness during the recent Iraq war: “For several months, Scoop…
Edge Polish
Saatchi & Saatchi global CEO Kevin Roberts interviewed in Poland on the future of advertising and how Saatchis has triumphed through the recession (Advertising Age named it Global Agency Network in 2002). Roberts is…
Kiwi ads bug Cannes
Kiwi ad agencies excelled at last month’s International Advertising Festival in Cannes. Grey Worldwide Auckland won the Outdoor Grand Prix for its innovative insect-eye-view Kiwicare bug spray campaign and Clemenger BBDO NZ and Colenso…
Hey big spender
Australia’s John Fairfax Holdings Ltd has bought NZ’s top media group – Independent News Limited (INL) – for NZ$1.19 billion. The package includes more than 80 major newspapers and magazines, and means that over…
Shooting from the lip
Legendary NZ-born war correspondent, Peter Arnett, has again found himself in the midst of political controversy. NBC and National Geographic fired Arnett after he stated on Iraqi state television that the initial US war…
Auckland Loves Lucy
American broadcaster CBS is the latest offshore company to take advantage of New Zealand as a production location. Currently shooting in Auckland is Redhead: The Lucille Ball Story, a 3-hour television movie.
Animating America
Auckland-based Flux Animation Studio has made impressive inroads to the US market via a reciprocal partnership with New York’s Hornet Inc. The companies first teamed up on Saatchi’s acclaimed Anchorville series, creating a…
Intellectual melting pot
Denis Dutton-led website Art & Letters Daily hailed as “a one-stop shopping catalogue of intellectual ideas” in Washington Times. The popular site is unique in its ideological range and lack of personal bias. Dutton:…
Arnett phones home
“So Broadcast News meets Armageddon. It’s a rilly big show!” Telefilm Live From Baghdad – based on Robert Wiener’s memoir of CNN’s involvement in the Gulf War – aired on US HBO December 7….
Virtually he tanagata
Wellington interactive media company, Clicksuite, has been nominated for the creative technology industry’s Oscar equivalent: an International EMMA (Electronic Multimedia Technology) award. Clicksuite has been entered in the Public Institutions / Services Information…
“Amo, ergo compro”
NZ’s leading ad-man, Kevin Roberts, interviewed in Italy’s L’espresso. “He dresses completely in black and looks like a bar room bouncer just back from Armani. But Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, is…
Last action hero
“In the age of digitized battle, is there still such thing as a war correspondent?” According to New York Metro, NZ-born Peter Arnett is the last, and greatest, of a dying breed: “He is…
Scene-stealing scenery
“New Zealanders watching the latest batch of car advertisements on Australian television could be excused for thinking they were back at home.” Rugged and diverse, NZ terrain is the showcase of choice for the…
“That’s the way it is:” broadcast legend bows out
Brian “Hendo” Henderson, Channel 9 Australia’s “stalwart newsreader” for the last 46 years, has announced his retirement. Born and bred in Southland, NZ, Henderson started out on Dunedin radio. Moving to Sydney in the…
The Resurrection
“If the internet could express emotions, a collective groan of despair would have filtered through a quarter of a million modems with the sudden closure of a site called Arts & Letters Daily.”…
Fine print
Kiwi publications took out several top spots at the 2002 Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association awards in Adelaide, with The Gisborne Herald named “Newspaper of the Year.” Other high achievers were the Christchurch Star,…
Creative Edge Export
A sharp demonstration of the New Zealand Edge: Financial Time’s article ‘Time is on their side’ trumpets the on-island advantage and new world export success of Christchurch creative agency TimeZoneOne. Boosted by the value…
First to Drive Everest
The latest US advertising campaign for the Toyota 4Runner sport utility centres on scaling the rugged heights of Mt Everest. The Saatchi & Saatchi production uses NZ icon Sir Ed Hillary in its bid…
A Believer in the Green Light
“Without a doubt one of the most brilliant journalists and columnists of his generation.” Neal Travis, the “brash, swashbuckling New Zealand import”, legendary editor of The New York Post’s in/famous Page Six gossip column, as well as…
A toast to Elvis
Not content with gracing the billboards of Wellington, NZ toast artist Maurice Bennet is going global. Bennet’s Elvis tribute was noted in Ananova’s quest for the world’s weirdest news: “on his website…
Club Edge
Saatchi & Saatchi’s London office went on a Euro junket to win Agency of the Year at the industry’s top awards at Cannes. Their infamous inuendo-laden and intricately art-directed campaign for Club 18-30 won…
Substance Wins
And this web award actually means something: the Webby’s are the internet Oscars. All the more glory to Christchurch-based Arts and Letters Daily which was awarded the People’s Voice award for best…
Kiwi Sites in Webby Race
Two Christchurch based websites are in the running for Webbies – the internet version of the Oscars. They are University of Canterbury Philosophy of Art Professor Denis Dutton’s brain-tickling Arts and Letters Daily…
Bugger. New Zealand creatives doing it better
Australian advertising, left in the mud by a Cannes Gold Lion winning Toyata Hilux ute, barks enviously about creative NZ: “many an advertising executive here would give a black BMW to get approval from…
The most feared woman on the internet?
NZer Rebecca Wilson (“director of leaves and petals” at the experimental Dutch Arts’ Foundation Studio for Electro-instrumental Music) postulated as as a real identity behind Net legend Netochka Nezvanova. Nezyanova has a…
Internet Oscars
Wellington web firm Click Suite scoops the internet equivalent of an Oscar at the European Multimedia Awards. The company won the business training award for its ‘Find the Lady’ CD-Rom, designed to inspire…
Wgtn Saatchis in world top-10
In a volume compiled by editors of graphic design bible Graphis Saatchi & Saatchi’s Wellington office, originator of the award winning Toyota bugger and Adidas All Black haka campaigns (left), makes the world top-10…
Cyberreads
Denis Dutton’s “admirable venture,” Cybereditions, allows publications to be constantly updated, exploiting the interactivity and flexibility of the net to deliver superior content.
Birth blocked
New Zealand website Calendargirls’ planned broadcast of a live birth on Christmas day was stymied by a high court ruling.
AL&D ‘indispensable’
“Arts and Letters Daily triumphantly confirms its founder’s original hypothesis – that there is a cornucopia of wonderful writing out there on the web…but its success is mainly due to the way it met…
Go Native?
A beer ad showing beach babes “going native”, (doing a haka), has been withdrawn from British TV after being branded insensitive and racist.
Chiat/Day Edge
New Zealand “tough guy” David Fong gets Toronto ad agency into shape: “We have to be world class.”
PM Groucho re TV
“I find television very educating. Every time someone turns on the set I go and read a book.” Helen Clark is in perfect agreement with Groucho Marx’s thoughts on the box.
£40m free mag
TNT and Southern Cross, Britain’s free mags for antipodean expats, have been sold for £40m. The buyer, Trader Media Group, plans to launch a complementary website.
A&LD rave
“Ever find yourself overwhelmed by the mass of information the net makes available?” Make like those in the know and head to New Zealand (and the web’s) hottest site, Arts and Letters Daily.
Connection made
New Zealand is on one end of the Southern Cross cable, the longest and largest fibre optic cable ever. The cable provides 120X the capacity of the 1992 vintage PacRim, but is expected to…
Dr. Johnson of the Web
Arts and Letters Daily and Cybereditions, the Guardian‘s top two brain sites on the web are the work of Canterbury NZ academic Denis Dutton. “Over dinner with him, trying to keep…
Godless Digest
“The Digest, however, has been less than honest. In a December 1999 story by Raffaele about the Chatham Islands in New Zealand, a fisherman picked up a lobster trap and exclaimed, “Gifts from Maru…
