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Keywords: Advertising

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Silent Night, from hymn to hype

    • Simon Smart
    • 19 December 2024

    Modern advertisements blend artistry and manipulation, tugging our heartstrings while selling us things we didn’t think we needed. Take the Austrian financial giant Erste’s annual Christmas ad, which this year chronicles the history of 'Silent Night.' It's breathtaking — until its message makes a baffling twist.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Celebrating Christmas, holy and hectic

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 16 December 2024

    At Christmas, the sacred and the secular seem locked together. Amid the tinsel and toasts, there’s a deeper narrative: one of radical generosity, shared humanity, and solidarity with the marginalised. This season invites not just celebration but reflection on who we are—and who we might become.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The spirituality of KFC

    • Michael McGirr
    • 22 November 2024
    3 Comments

    There’s this other place that is neither heaven nor earth but which you might find in the car park of the third busiest KFC in Melbourne, waiting for your son to finish his shift. A bin beside the car is overflowing with all the packaging that comes with fast food, not to mention the remains of poor dead chooks whose life it is hard to imagine. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Booker Prize and why it matters

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 12 November 2024
    5 Comments

    As the Booker Prize winner is announced, the perennial questions resurface: What does winning truly mean for writers — and for readers? As public values shift, literary prizes ignite fierce debate about artistic merit, cultural relevance, and the commercial impact of awards. Can a prize still shape the future of fiction?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Betting the nation: How Australia became the world's biggest loser

    • Claire Heaney
    • 11 October 2024

    Australia’s gambling culture, once seasonally grounded in the Spring Racing Carnival, has become a year-round obsession. From family sweeps to the rise of betting apps, gambling has become ingrained in the nation's identity, leaving in its wake a growing crisis of addiction, debt, and societal harm.

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  • RELIGION

    Religious media battles the tides

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 26 September 2024
    2 Comments

    There once might have been a distinction between ‘Christian journalism’ and ‘Christian PR’, however today those lines are far more muddied. The demise of the Australasian Religious Press Association might have been brought about by changing tides, but for those of us left it leaves one less lifebuoy to cling to.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Imagine what you could be legislating instead

    • John Falzon
    • 19 September 2024
    1 Comment

    We should not be surprised at the persistence of gambling advertising. We are confronted by a federal government that appears to be stubbornly protective of certain private interests while wanting to appear to also be concerned about the harm to the community that is caused by the promotion of those interests.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The dangers of a captured democracy

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 12 September 2024
    3 Comments

    Anxieties about democracy around the world today are well-founded. While we rightly celebrate our democratic institutions, it's crucial to acknowledge the vast wealth disparities and the growing influence of powerful corporations. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Sports gambling ninjas endangering kids

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 11 September 2024
    2 Comments

    Gambling ads are infiltrating children's sports content, raising concerns about the impact on the development of young minds. Is our current gambling culture something we want to hand on to the next generation?

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Google’s monopoly money

    • David Halliday
    • 19 August 2024
    1 Comment

    After a year in court, a U.S. Judge concluded that Google has a monopoly over search and had illegally maintained its monopoly by making massive payments to other companies to be their default search engine. Everyone in tech is quietly watching for what happens next, because how the U.S. Department of Justice treats Google will set the example for the other giants standing astride the world.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The Productivity Commission's magical thinking

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 25 July 2024
    2 Comments

    While proposing broader access to tax deductibility for some charities, the Productivity Commission's new report on charitable giving suggests removing benefits for religious entities. This raises serious questions about the role of religion in fostering charitable giving and the potential consequences of these reforms for Australia's charitable landscape.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    An American crisis

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 15 July 2024
    8 Comments

    Following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, politicians, including the US President were quick to condemn the shooting, all saying it had no place in American society or democracy. Tell that to children killed by gunfire. Every day, guns take young lives in the US. Gun violence was recently declared a national health crisis in the United States. 

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