In this week’s Our Take: KitKat gives us a sweet escape from the scroll, the Brooklyn Film Festival reframes screen time, a dominatrix gets a rebrand with brains and binding, and one Just Eat driver delivers the coolest moment of the London heatwave.
Scroll less, snack more
KitKat’s “Phone Break” campaign by VML Czechia is a masterpiece of unignorable understatement – spotlighting screen fatigue without preaching, and nodding to the iconic ‘Have a break’ line without ever actually using it. A culturally tuned, quietly brilliant bit of branding.
The OOH is entirely copy-free: just perfectly art-directed scenes of phone zombies – heads tilted down, but their hands cradling KitKats instead of screens – with that iconic red wrapper popping against the muted, cinematic photography.
And then there’s the final flourish: QR codes that don’t lead anywhere. Genius!
The whole campaign is smart, subtle and seriously shareable. VML Czechia – take a bow. Then take a break.
Scroll Less, Watch More
The Brooklyn Film Festival has long been a home for independent voices and fresh perspectives. But in today’s hyper-distracted digital world, even great cinema needs a loud mouthpiece. So BFF has teamed up with creative studio Otherway to launch ‘Screen Time’ – a campaign that invites people to spend more time with stories that matter, and reframe screen time not as a passive habit, but as something to savour. Remember that?
Otherway’s creative approach borrows from the social platforms we’re all glued to. It grabs the glitchy visuals, loud headlines, and notification pings – then redirects that energy toward something more rewarding. Cinema, obviously.
“Our ambition was simple: take the visual noise of the scroll and flip it into something intentional. The identity is built to feel as alive and reactive as the internet. It’s bold, human, and a bit subversive – just like the films BFF champions,” said Javi Passerieu, president of Otherway US.
So remember folks, in a world full of noise, choose nuance.
A spankingly good rebrand
UK agency WMH&I has created a new identity for London dominatrix Jane Grey, that’s all about the emotional and psychological layers of BDSM. And the binding. Lots of binding. But with ropes of beautifully crafted type. The work was apparently inspired by client testimonials (we assume these were recorded after the gags were removed) and tons of psychosexual research. Somebody has to do it, I suppose.
The custom typeface plays on the look of ropes and restraints, all while keeping things suggestive rather than in your face. Speaking about they typeface they say ‘the typeface itself carries an air of confidence with sharp edges and sleek line work’.
The end result? A sleek, luxury brand identity with brains and edge, that almost makes us want to submit.
COMMUtER CHAOS, COOL RESPONSE
When a crowded Thameslink train broke down on a bridge near Loughborough Junction in London, nearly 1,800 passengers found themselves stranded in 33°C heat with no air-con or power. The train doors were opened in a desperate attempt to provide some ventilation, but the packed-in travellers were still overheated and dehydrated.
That’s when a Just Eat delivery driver appeared, far below the bridge, and began launching bottled water to the passengers. It was a vertical throw of nearly 9 metres, the height of a three-storey building, but one after another, all-but-one of those bottles sailed through the open doors, to be caught by grateful passengers. Cheers erupted. TikToks were filmed. One passenger declared, “Give this man a medal!”
With rescue crews scrambling and delays dragging on, it was this spontaneous act of generosity that stole the spotlight. Social media crowned him a legend. Even England Cricket chimed in to salute the bottle-tossing superhero.
While Thameslink apologised and promised compensation, the viral water rescue became the feel-good moment of the meltdown, and a great ad for JustEat. Amid the chaos, one man in orange proved you don’t need a cape to be a hero… just good aim and cold water.