Snickers launched their ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ campaign in the UK this week with a diva-filled locker room that’s already causing chuckles around Facebook/Twitter. Utilising the same concept as the hugely successful US campaign, the spot sees 80’s TV powerhouses Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham throw their shoulder-pads out of the pram after an arduous footy match.

We were curious about how the ad, directed with gusto by Crossroads’ Russell Bates (we don’t envy him), came to be, so grabbed a few words with AMV creative Prabhu Wignarajah:

The Red Bull Canimation competition offered non-professional and student animators the chance to create a piece of branded content for the energy drink, the reward being internships at top animation studios Aardman, The Mill and 12foot6, state of the art animation software and a chance to be featured on Channel Four as well as in cinemas nationwide.

We chatted to the ‘Drawn / Open Category’ winner (and former Reel ‘Featured Profile’) Chloe Rodham about the challenges and inspiration involved in entering such a competition.

Major Lazer’s latest music video for ‘Original Don’, released last week, featured a bizarre sword and knife dancing duo looked on by a granny and her dog.

This was following a pair of similar videos uploaded in August and September, “Balisong Dancing” and “Jian Sword Dancing”, featuring the same dancers, explained only by a single sentence in the description: “You probably can’t do it”. The off-kilter feel and the eccentricity of the characters and their abode intrigued the online public and the vids have now notched up over 900,000 views between them.

It’s easy to assume that these were teasers to Major Lazer’s pop promo but through a little investigation it turns out that the virals were in fact a couple of short films by Kyle Frere, a photography assistant in Chicago, and best of all the man himself who flips and fans a butterfly knife so artfully in the videos. We talked to the multitalented Kyle to get his side of the story.

After 14 years (and 2 BAFTA nominations, 1 Cannes Lion Grand Prix, 1 Gold Cannes Lion, 11 D&AD nominations/in book, 7 CADS wins/nominations, 7 Design Week wins/nominations, 2 Creative Review Best In Book and 3 HOW Awards) ultra-excellent design company Airside has decided to shut its doors in March 2012.

Set up in 1998, Airside’s work in digital, moving image, branding and tee/poster design has seen the distinctive vector/flat colour style spread globally, with companies and individuals including BBC, Coca Cola, D&AD, Greenpeace, Intel, Lemon Jelly, MTV, NHS, Nike, Nokia, Orange, Panasonic, Pet Shop Boys and The Beatles (!!) chomping at the bit to work with them.

We chatted to the company’s co-founder Alex Maclean about why the decision was made to shut up shop.

The D&AD Awards have been rewarding creative excellence for FIFTY YEARS next year, and they want to make sure that your best work isn’t left out of the festivities.

In their words, ‘Over the last 50 years, D&AD has celebrated the outstanding design and advertising that has influenced future generations of creative talent. In its 50th year, it is looking forward to nurture, support and champion the brilliant design and advertising of the future by aiming to make the 50th D&AD Awards and Annual the ultimate benchmark in commercial creativity, setting the standard for new generations of commercial creatives.’

Last Thursday night - 10th November - saw the folks at Virgin Media Shorts dish out their awards to a handful of up-and-coming filmmakers. Out of the twelve shortlisted films, compacted from the hundreds submitted, three won the big awards of the night - 2:20 by Jason Wingard (winner of the Grand Prize), InaniMate by Micheal O'Donoghue, Soulla Josephides and Ying Hui Tan (winner of the People’s Choice Award) and Coasting by Federico Forcolini (winner of the TiVo® Award).

Chosen by a judging panel including John Hurt CBE and directors Paul Greengrass and Mat Whitecross, the filmmakers joined the ranks of previous winners Luke Snellin and Oscar Sharp, both of whom are now on the books at major commercial production companies and are working on follow-up shorts/features.

Tuesday 8th November saw the 2011 UK Music Video Awards hand out their gongs at the Empire Leicester Square. The awards show, hosted by BUG compere and one half of Adam and Joe, Adam Buxton, saw the likes of Chase & Status, Depeche Mode, Wiley, Arcade Fire, Oh Land, and Manchester Orchestra scoop plaudits for their pop-promos.

Reel picks of the crop include relative newcomers, Us (repped by Academy Films), who won the Best New Director award and Best UK Urban Video for Wiley’s ‘Numbers in Action’, Megaforce (repped by RiffRaff in the UK) grabbing Best UK Indie/Rock Video and Best Animation in a Video for the awesome Is Tropical’s ‘The Greeks’ and Eric Epstein’s Memory Tapes ‘Yes I Know’ picking up the award for Best Indie/Rock Video – Budget.