August: supermarkets in the spotlight

We've waved goodbye to bank holidays until Christmas and school holidays are drawing to a close. But before we bid adieu to summer for another year, we have August to reflect back on. The Lionesses brought us some much-needed cheer and we saw some great campaigns from the nation's supermarkets. Read on for more.

???The month in review

Rebecca Barton takes a look at the top stories from August

? England reach the final: In a highly anticipated match, and after a month of hard work, England lost 1-0 to Spain in the final of the Women’s World Cup. While the Lionesses narrowly missed out on bringing football home, their success this year is no mean feat.

The takeaway: Prince William, who frequently attends England's rugby and football matches, was roundly criticised after a poorly-judged social media apology for not making the game (on the other hand, Queen Letizia cheered on Spain in person).

?? The NHS joins forces with Morrisons: Extra labels are being put in underwear at Morrisons to remind people to spot swellings, lumps, and any unusual changes in a bid to tackle cancer symptoms early on. These items will be rolled out across 240 stores nationwide.

The takeaway: This is the first time that the NHS has worked with a national supermarket to put messaging on clothing urging people to visit their GP if they have any concerns relating to cancer. Encouragement in innovative ways like this will hopefully go far in helping to detect cancer early.

?? Iceland fights back on formula: Iceland risked facing an unlimited fine by announcing it was slashing the price of baby formula. The retailer also said it would be illegally accepting food bank vouchers, loyalty points and gift cards for purchases of formula, to help struggling parents.

The takeaway: A powerful statement by the CEO; (distressing) data and insights from customers; a ballsy business decision and a strong call to action for the government to change the regulations around the sale of infant formula - this story had all the components of a winning campaign. Bravo, Iceland.

?? The stress effect

Neil Young delves into a complex web of system signals.

Our experience running a recent live stream highlighting the effects of climate change on the world’s oceans got me thinking about system signals and the unexpected links between them.

During the broadcast, CCAG guest Brad Ack, CEO of Ocean Visions, highlighted how greenhouse gas emissions “wildly outside historic boundaries” are causing thermal and chemical stress in our seas – with dire consequences ranging from increased extreme weather events to impacts on aquatic life.

But even as Brad presented this information, we were confronting another type of stress – an intense spike in toxic climate denial across our social platforms. While X's struggles with hate speech are well-documented, this tsunami-like surge in denialism now seems to be spilling across channels and platforms. Could it be that this expression of emotional stress is another important systems signal, just like the chemical and thermal stress, of the compounding effects of climate change?

As we seek solutions to restore and protect the world’s oceans, it's equally vital to find ways to stabilize our increasingly volatile social ecosystems.

?? Comms does cakes

Last week we swapped keyboards for cakes as the firstlight team went head-to-head at The Big Bakes London. Tasked with making rainbow cakes in teams, we set to work to see who would be crowned firstlight baking champions.

The award for most creative creation went to the 'Barbenheimer' themed cake, with Sam Rowe & Bex fighting off stiff competition for first place. Thanks to the firstlight social team for pulling off some brilliant summer fun.

?? In Brief

????Visualising AI: Google DeepMind has released a suite of visual assets about AI, with the aim of making diverse and accessible representations of the new technology more readily available. The artist-created images and animations are free to use.

???Threats Neutralised? Meta's latest Adversarial Threat Report provides a revealing look at the platform's efforts to counter cyber espionage and 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' campaigns, showcasing the scale and complexity of this nefarious activity.

????New high for NVIDIA: The company has posted a record $13.5 billion quarterly revenue, fueled by the world's insatiable demand for its AI chips.

?? Beware of multi-tasking - AI can hear what you're typing over Zoom with 93% accuracy.