The Good

The return of cold weather to the UK has brought with it a new Twitter-powered snow map from developer Ben Marsh. The last time Britain ended up in several feet of the cold stuff, he created a mash-up in which people tweeted their postcode and marked the snow level out of 10, which could then be used to track weather conditions across the country.

Vodafone subsequently asked him to create a similar map to show where people would be travelling on their holidays, and Kleenex used the idea to track pollen count for hay-fever sufferers. It’s often the simplest ideas that inspire innovation in others, particularly big brands. Now it’s back, we hope the same occurs a second time around.

The Bad

The climate talks in Copenhagen were always bound to be emotive, but leaked documents (broken online by 350.org yesterday) suggest that proposals now on the table will “yield temperature increases of at least three degrees celsius”.

This obviously reflects badly on various statements – from the likes of Gordon Brown in one instance – that say that the plans being discussed still fall in line with the reduction of global temperature by two degrees celsius (which scientists have predicted as the level needed to prevent irreversible damage from climate change). The reaction to this news is playing out online – as has been the case with much of the summit coverage – and protestors are not happy about the disconnect between what’s being said in press conferences and what’s going on behind the scenes.

The Ugly

Toyota Australia hasn’t had a good week either, as its Toyota Yaris ad called  ‘Clean Getaways’ had to be withdrawn from the brand’s website following fierce criticism. The short, which won the online ‘Clever Film Competition’ organised by Toyota in conjunction Saatchi & Saatchi (as part of a live pitch for the Toyota account, that saw four other agencies run campaigns at the same time), showed a father and his daughter’s boyfriend talking in strangely-placed and rather crude double entendres.

Somewhere along the line, a jury (made up mainly of Saatchi employees) decided that the ad in question was the ‘best of the bunch’, and posted it as the winner on the brand’s Facebook Group. Unfortunately, as Toyota endorsed the clip in question, this not only reflects poorly on Saatchi’s social media credentials, but also the car-maker itself.