Swearing, nudity, blasphemy and Clarke Gayford – these are just some of the things New Zealanders have been vehemently complaining about to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) over the past year. Blasphemy Using the Lord’s name in vain is always a big no-no for many God-fearing New Zealanders. The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) gets plenty … Read more
“We rule the book-reading world”: Catherine Robertson reports from the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference. “Charlotte Stein writes the best cunnilingus scenes. And I’m a gay guy. Think about what I’m saying.” Damon Suede cannot shock his audience. This is the Romance Writers of New Zealand annual conference, held recently at the Novotel … Read more
It’s time we viewed the restrictive philosophy peddled by ‘influencers’ and corporates as what it is: dangerous, manipulative crap. My firmly held belief that wellness culture is a fucking scam is met by scepticism and bemused looks at every turn. Everyone I know and their mother is trapped in a chase for the panacea of … Read more
Livestreams posted on Facebook by our major news organisations have been overrun by an army of anti-1080 activists. Hayden Donnell goes in search of the source of the spam campaign. Yesterday the government announced new wheel clamping regulations. As it often does, the Herald posted live video of the press conference on Facebook. It was … Read more
A just-released cache of Nielsen data shows the impact a series of Facebook algorithm changes has had on New Zealand’s online media (spoiler: it’s not great). “How’s your traffic been?” a friend who works at one of the big media companies asked me recently, and even in asking we both knew the answer. It was … Read more
The brilliant, barnstorming founding editor of Metro, Warwick Roger, has died aged 72. In this essay first published on the Spinoff in 2017, a memoir by American writer Richard Ford prompts Sir Bob Harvey to look back on his friendship with Roger and their shared love of Ford’s books. How does friendship happen? What glue does … Read more
Kraft is introducing a new peanut butter to compete with Bega peanut butter, which due to some business stuff is now producing the original-recipe Kraft peanut butter. Peanut butter nutter Hayden Donnell smuggled some of the new spread into the country to test it ahead of its release here. Kraft peanut butter was once the … Read more
Whitebait season is here, and Forest and Bird is steaming mad about it. Why are we serving endangered fish in home kitchens and cafes alike? And where are the catch limits? What’s all this then? Set the nets and get out your gummies – it’s whitebait season, and nothing tastes better than an endangered fish. … Read more
Celine Dion just finished her world tour with three concerts at Auckland’s Spark Arena. Huge fan Madeleine Chapman was there to experience the magic. In 2015, I flew to Las Vegas, the last place I’d choose to holiday, and spent a lot of money so that I could see Celine Dion’s show at Caesar’s Palace. … Read more
Councillors and council officers are forever going to public meetings to receive bad advice from angry people who mostly don’t know what they’re talking about. Hayden Donnell asks why. In Takapuna last week, Mayor Phil Goff, councillors and council officers stood in front of a packed meeting and got yelled at. They’d committed the crime … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of objects that surround us in everyday life. In the second piece in the series, Danyl Mclauchlan visits the Reserve Bank to inspect Bill Phillip’s MONIAC. It looks like an artifact from an alternate timeline. MONIAC is about two metres … Read more
You’ve seen the terrible ads, now it’s time you see the terrible complaints. With crimes ranging from blasphemy and bad timelines to ‘the homosexual agenda’, we present a small selection of the most entertaining complaints that have been dismissed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) so far this year. People love to complain, and sometimes … Read more
Quinovic property management have embraced their stereotype of crusty rich people by sharing terrible memes as ads. Madeleine Chapman discovers they’ve been doing it for years. First published 13 August 2018 Mark Richardson explained memes to the eight contestants on The Block NZ last night. “The meme has become very on-trend in the world of … Read more
For a select few women, this could be the difference between a baby, and not. I’ll say it again: C-sections can cause infertility. Catherine Woulfe writes. This feature was made possible thanks to reader contributions via the Spinoff Longform Fund. Click here to support our investigative journalism. In October 2014 I had the kind of … Read more
The function and frailty of liberalism has been thrust to the fore as New Zealand debates the meaning of free speech. Yet the biggest threat to liberalism may be the failure of elites to make the systems and institutions of modern liberalism work for the rest of us, writes Danyl Mclauchlan If, like me – … Read more
We asked former All Black great Bob Burgess to review a new book on his team-mate Keith Murdoch. But then we changed our mind, and asked his wife Linda Burgess to write whatever she wanted about rugby. A rugby game lasts a whole day. Your father wears a gaberdine raincoat and takes the family to … Read more
Judith Collins called on Jacinda Ardern to condemn France over a story she sourced from yournewswire.com. Hayden Donnell scans the site for more shocking stories about people the prime minister should condemn. Judith Collins was trawling the internet this morning when she came across a shocking story. Her news source, Yournewswire.com, accused France of becoming … Read more
Alex Casey counts down the most intriguing Instagrammed breakfasts of Sir The Mad Butcher. I don’t know about your social media diet, but I am sick of scrolling through endless pictures of smoothie bowls, protein oats and mermaid toast wondering when a foodie influencer will finally post something a) actually relatable or b) actually yum. … Read more
To grasp why the push to change has caused such a fuss, and to appreciate why it’s so muddle-minded, we need to consider how the university got its name, and what names mean to the university community, writes André Brett Universities are funny things. They have evolved from rarefied campuses of privileged elites into mass educators, … Read more
Finally, the definitive ranking of Aotearoa’s favourite snack – featuring notes of burnt marshmallow, wet undies and duplicitous giraffes. This post was first published in August 2018 Pastry-bound parcels of deliciousness have been in the news a bit recently. Earlier in the week, the nation’s best pies were lauded at a (presumably) glittering awards ceremony, which … Read more
Detachment is a luxury only some enjoy. For women, non-whites or any of the subjects of Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern’s rants, looking the other way is rarely possible, writes Morgan Godfery White nationalism is, for the basement dwelling 4chaners, mouth breathing Redditors, and Youtube philosopher kings, nothing more than a desperate search for an … Read more
If Pauline Kingi has really resigned for poking someone 23 times on professional Facebook, then that’s a real bloody shame, writes social media aficionado Anna Connell Every now and again there are moments in time which make you wonder just what kind of hell-scape episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror we’re now living in. The … Read more
We’ve been waiting for the tipping point, where online really surges against broadcast media. It just arrived, says Duncan Greive, who has read NZ on Air’s epic new audience behaviour survey so you don’t have to. The release of NZ on Air’s audience survey is on its way to becoming the most important event in … Read more
The Spinoff’s not at all embittered or deranged reporter Hayden Donnell talks to David Farrier about his Dark Tourist series for Netflix the time David failed to show up to his wedding. The career of New Zealand journalist David Farrier has skyrocketed since the release of his acclaimed documentary Tickled. Last week his new series for Netflix, Dark … Read more
Imagine all the wealth in NZ as a ten-storey apartment building. Imagine half of NZ crammed in a tiny corner of the bottom floor. Read the Inequality Tower 2015 on the Wireless here. Fill your boots with Side Eyes here. The Bulletin is The Spinoff’s acclaimed, free daily curated digest of all the most … Read more
The world’s greatest spread underwent some frightening changes recently. Hayden Donnell delves into the animosity and legal wrangling behind the death and rebirth of Kraft Peanut Butter. The world of marketing is riven with betrayal. Taste the rainbow. The best a man can get. Don’t be evil. All broken promises. There’s only one tagline that’s … Read more
The Single Object is a series exploring our material culture, examining the meaning and influence of the objects that surround us in everyday life. In the first of the series, Madeleine Chapman inspects a pen, and learns about the power of privilege. In 1978, young brown men were being arrested. With unemployment rising and the … Read more
What’s the best way for under-privileged kids to get the nutritious school lunches they need? This post was originally published on 26 July 2018 Yesterday, Eat My Lunch, the social enterprise which provides a lunch for a hungry school kid for every lunch it sells to the public, came under fire for claiming that 290,000 … Read more
If you participate in a certain dark corner of the internet, you’ll know that a lot of people are talking about video game breasts – and the fight to keep them unrealistic. Sam Brooks investigates. Last week in an interview with Gamespot, Yohei Shimbura, the director of Dead or Alive 6 said about the latest entry in … Read more