Written by Emily Becker

Forgot your shopping bag? Aldi has a wearable fix

Aldi United Kingdom has announced the “Swag for Life” jacket – an innovative, new clothing garment that transforms into a reusable shopping bag.

The goal of this launch is to allow shoppers to carry their groceries without needing to remember a separate tote. It is limited edition and distributed through a giveaway, positioning it not only as a practical solution, but a trendy brand collectible.

The campaign was inspired by new Aldi findings that 46 per cent of Brits regularly forget their shopping bags, and that 85 per cent keep a “bag of bags” at home.

The jacket features practical details such as a funnel neck, large pockets and ALDI’s signature blue and orange branding. It then transforms into a reusable grocery carrier that can be used at checkout.

The activation turns a common everyday frustration into a useful piece of branded merchandise, reinforcing ALDI’s reputation for playful, disruptive, consumer-focused campaigns.

The campaign taking aim at products built to fail

What initially began as a critique of declining digital services has evolved into a broader conversation about product quality and sustainability.

Earlier this year, the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) developed an ‘Enshittifactor’ campaign, using satire to highlight often overlooked consumer issues.

While the NCC uses humour to critique “enshittification”, the underlying issue echoes themes explored in a recent IMPACT article on the trade-off between efficiency and human-centered customer experiences.

However, Norway’s ‘Enshittifactor’ is a fictional professional whose job is to make digital products and platforms progressively worse through ads, subscriptions and paywalls. It was released alongside a consumer report, both exploring how users are often locked into services that deteriorate over time.

The character has now returned in a sequel campaign, ‘The Life of Death and the Enshittificator’. However, this time it tackles planned obsolescence and the growing issue of products becoming unusable due to unavailable spare parts or discontinued software support.

The humour behind pairing the character with Death highlights the systems that encourage consumers to replace products rather than repair them.

Together, the campaigns demonstrate how a strong creative idea can evolve beyond a single issue, making complex policy and consumer rights discussions more engaging, memorable and shareable.

Turns out AI can’t hold its liquor

We all have friends who tend to spill a few secrets after a couple of drinks. Now AI is doing the same.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales found AI models were more likely to break rules, share confidential information, and respond to harmful requests when prompted to act drunk.

The team tested older OpenAI, Meta and Mistral models using a dataset of nearly 60,000 “drunk texts”, noting that newer systems may be less vulnerable to this behaviour.

Ultimately, researchers found that “drunk” AI models were more likely to approve unethical behaviours, leak information and provide answers related to fraud or disinformation. These were requests that the same models had previously rejected when operating in their standard, or “sober” state.

The findings highlight a broader AI security risk, as seemingly harmless changes to a model’s personality or tone can weaken safety and privacy safeguards. They also suggest developers should test AI under a range of personas and conditions, rather than relying solely on its default state.

Creator economy faces scrutiny as disclosure concerns persist

As influencer marketing continues to grow, fresh questions are being raised about disclosure, transparency and accountability in brand partnerships.

Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) managing director, Patrick Whitnall recently, sat down with Influencing, and said that disclosure issues in influencer marketing are largely an education problem.

He stated that some influencers are still posting about brand-funded trips, gifted products and events without clearly disclosing their relationship with those brands, despite existing guidance and regulations.

This is important as Ad Standards state that, gifts, event invitations and sponsored travel can still constitute a commercial relationship, thereby requiring disclosure. This is inclusive of situations where no formal contract is in place.

According to these rulings, simply tagging a brand is no longer enough to disclose a commercial relationship, and brands can share responsibility.

With Australian brands now spending $830 million on influencer marketing annually, the issue is becoming harder for both regulators and the industry to ignore.