We're back with a new website after a right royal hiatus! ➜

Did you know, Hiatus comes from hiare, a Latin verb meaning ‘to gape’ or ‘to yawn’, and first appeared in English in the middle of the 16th century. Well, after a sizeable silence, where we took a dose of our own medicine and paused to make ourselves more presentable – we have launched our new website. We're also most pleased to report, the Drop is back! Much to Her Maj's delight. Royal waves all round. 👋

The Elizabeth Line – what's behind the design? ➜

Continuing the royal thread (and if HRH's continued presenteeism gifts us all an extra day off this month – it's the least we can do) this is a insightful article on the role of different design disciplines in the creation of London's newest rail line. 100km of digitally connected lines, traversing the city and assembled with the collaboration of artists, architects, design engineers, sculptors, interior and UI designers.

Adidas bra goes tits up ➜

Lots of contenders for the headline here... Adidas marketing team makes a boob. Adidas campaign goes for bust etc. Upshot is, that to advertise the diversity of their new sports bra range Adidas created a campaign featuring dozens of breasts of all shapes and sizes. The campaign has however now been banned by the UK advertising watchdog for the use of explicit nudity and appearing where children could see the ads. Seems strange that we need to protect our children from the natural female form.

Samsung – read the room! ➜

Another global brand making a massive marketing misstep this month: step forward Samsung's ‘Night Owls’ ad, which seems to be tone deaf in its assessment of how safe women deem our streets to be currently. Nobody says advertising needs to mirror the real world, but to overlook serious, sensitive and socially prevalent issues so overtly, you can rightfully expect a passionately angered backlash.

Old brand masters! ➜

OK, enough negativity and big brand bashing, let's switch it back and shine a light on some exceptional examples of old school advertising craft. From a bygone (or at least bygoing) era, where advertising was way more reliant on ink on paper, here's some terrific examples of some Mad Men brands at their creative best.

The Drumbeat Drop is our candid take on the weird, wired, wonderful world we work in.


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