Advertising & PR
Where the money goes, who moves it, and what happens when a brand’s story gets away from it.
Advertising and PR follows the spend and the reputation it buys. Ad budgets and media buying, agency news, programmatic, and crisis and reputation are the beats, and the Funny lane keeps the campaigns that earned a laugh. Three stories each weekday at 11, summarised in our own words with a link to the publisher who broke them. We choose for the reader who plans, buys or defends: the head of media watching a platform change its rules, the agency lead deciding which team owns a new channel, the communications director reading someone else’s crisis for the lesson. Under the day’s lead the editor’s note explains the choice and names the thing to watch. Sponsors and advertisers on The First Click are disclosed on every story they touch and have no say in this page.
Every story we have kept in Advertising & PR, newest first. Headlines link to the publisher; the tags below narrow the list.
Language Fluidity in India: The New Rules of Multilingual PR
Indian brands including Zepto, Blinkit, and Swiggy Instamart are abandoning literal translation for blended Hinglish-style messaging that mirrors everyday bilingual speech patterns. PR and communications teams face new challenges, since automated translation tools erase the code-mixing nuance that makes such regional campaigns feel authentic to local audiences.
The Scoop: Influencers draw the ire of tennis’ most prestigious competition
The US Open’s expanded use of social media influencers sparked backlash after content creation activities disrupted matches, prompting debate over balancing audience growth, brand exposure, and traditional tennis etiquette.
Editor's noteWe selected this as the lead story because it captures a growing tension at the heart of modern marketing: the pursuit of attention versus the quality of the audience experience. The US Open controversy highlights how brands, rights holders, and creators are redefining engagement, while raising important questions about authenticity, access, and the limits of influencer-driven promotion.
KFC Fans Trade Gold For Sauce in Pawnshop-Inspired Pop Up
A pawnshop-styled pop-up in New Zealand invited fans to trade gold for sauce, handled end to end by one agency across experiential, media relations, creative and content.
Editor's noteThe stunt cost little beyond staffing two days in Ponsonby, yet it borrows scarcity and novelty from Liquid Gold's earlier Australian frenzy to manufacture local buzz. The open question for the category: whether a pawnshop gimmick with no purchase requirement converts curiosity into repeat sauce sales once the store closes.
Mark Molloy Directs Yacht Heist in 3 Minute Blockbuster For MLC
An Emmy-nominated director has made a three-minute heist film for an Australian superannuation brand, the centrepiece of a campaign running one hundred and seventy-one assets over eighteen months.
Snickers Says Even Your AI Chatbot Isn’t Itself When It’s Hungry
Snickers has extended its iconic “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign to AI chatbots, launching a digital candy bar called Hungr.AI that users can “feed” to chatbots when they give poor or bizarre responses.
Editor's noteA fifteen-year-old campaign line applied to chatbots, and it works because the joke was always about behaviour, not hunger. We ran it as the day’s creative lead because it shows how a durable platform absorbs a new medium without changing its idea. Watch whether the AI gag ages as well as the original.
