Women’s World Cup Update 

We celebrated the Matildas’ FIFA Women’s World Cup 4-0 win against, Olympic Champions, Canada, securing a place in the Round of 16. Hayley Raso scored twice before Mary Fowler and, Captain, Steph Catley made the remaining goals in an amazing victory for the Australians. The Matildas will face Denmark in Sydney on Monday, August 7.  

In other Women’s World Cup news, Moroccan defender Nouhaila Benzina made history twice in one night. Benzina not only helped her team secure their first-ever win at a Women’s World Cup defeating South Korea, but she also became the first player to wear a hijab at a senior FIFA World Cup, immediately becoming a role model to millions of hijab-wearing Muslim women and girls around the world.  

Leaked News Corp deck reveals ad pitch for Voice to Parliament referendum coverage

A leaked News Corp advertiser pitch deck has revealed the company’s plan to present its coverage of the Voice to Parliament referendum as an “educational series”, that will “empower our readers” and explain why indigenous communities face disadvantages. The “Your Voice” plan will be a multimedia editorial series separated into four phases of content.  

Despite some supporting columnists, it appears the majority of News Corp’s editorial coverage on the referendum has been against The Voice. News Corp has declined to comment on the leaked documents.  

New social media campaigns  

Elon Musk’s new Twitter rebrand has sparked a wave of discussion and reaction. Amidst the conversation, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has seized the opportunity to leverage the new ‘X’ rebrand to advocate for wildlife conservation. WWF Germany, in collaboration with the advertising agency, McCann Germany, has used the evolution of the Twitter blue bird logo from 2006 to 2023 to illustrate the hypothetical extinction of many animal species, and the urgent need to protect them.

In another interesting social media campaign, American fast-food restaurant, Chipotle, has experimented with Threads for its National Avocado Day campaign. Chipotle dropped text-to-win codes every hour for a 12-hour period on its Thread’s profile, with the 1,000th fan to text the code winning a pair of concert or festival tickets of their choice. This latest move not only speaks to the hype surrounding the new platform, but also offers an insight into how brands and marketers are responding to the changes in the social media landscape.  

Great Barrier Reef escapes ‘in danger’ label by UNESCO

United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has recommended delaying a decision to place Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on a list of ‘in danger’ World Heritage sites. The draft decision follows a UN mission in March 2022, which toured the reef and concluded that Australia’s efforts had not been enough to protect the reef from climate change, poor water quality, harmful fishing activities and other threats. 

With the reef “remain(ing) under serious threat” , the Australian Government will need to submit a progress report on the implementation of its conservation commitments by February 2024.  

The World Heritage Committee will take a final vote on UNESCO’s advice in September, as sites on the “in danger” list can be stripped of their World Heritage status.