Sam’s outfit courtesy of The Love Bubble

Search Bar Bouncers

Are we about to be carded to search the internet?

Something genuinely unprecedented is happening in Australia, which we’ve only recently caught on to — and it’s not a rumour, a proposal or a future idea. It’s a real policy, and it’s already locked in to start on December 27.

So, what’s happening?

Search engines like Google and Microsoft will have to verify the ages of signed-in users or risk fines of up to $50 million per breach. Under 18s will see filtered results for porn, high-impact violence and other “age-inappropriate” content. Logged-out users get a blurred, “safer” default view.

That means millions of adults may soon be asked to confirm their age before they can search for things. And no, it isn’t (currently) happening anywhere else in the world.

So, how did we get here?

Australia’s Online Safety Act 2021 is the starting point for everything happening now.
It gave the eSafety Commissioner unusually broad powers and created a system where new rules can be added over time without going back to parliament. Powerful, flexible, and very easy to miss.

Using that Act, the commissioner worked with industry to draft a bunch of “codes” for different parts of the internet. One of those codes covers search engines.

Fast-forward a couple of years and concerns about kids on social media hit boiling point. The PM introduced the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) ACT 2024, which says, as of December 10, 2025, under-16s can’t have accounts on the following:

TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Meta, Threads, X, Reddit and streaming platforms Kick and Twitch.

Platforms must verify ages, delete underage accounts and cop heavy fines if they don’t.

Once Australia committed to age verification for social media, the logic flowed quickly:

If minors shouldn’t access harmful content on TikTok…
why should they find it on Google?

So the search engine code (already in development) was strengthened and quietly registered. That’s why it feels like the search rules appeared out of nowhere. They didn’t go through parliament, and they didn’t need a national debate. They arrive via code, signed off by the regulator. One minute you’re searching for pavlova recipes, the next Google wants to see your licence.

How will it work?

Search engines will have to age-check signed-in users using things like ID scans, face-age estimation, credit cards, digital ID or AI that guesses your age based on your data trail.

Why is this a big deal?

The goal makes sense, but the execution is currently a little messy:

• Age-estimation tools mis-age teens constantly (some 15-year-olds were rated as being in their 30s)
• Some providers tried collecting more data than anyone’s comfortable with
• Automated filters accidentally block sex ed and mental health resources
• People without ID or strong English may get left behind
• Search has always been private — tying it to verified identity is a big cultural shift
• And teenagers with VPNs will bypass half of this before lunch

This is why no comparable democracy has gone this far with search-engine age checks.

What other countries are doing

Other countries are definitely moving toward age-verification, but only in certain corners of the internet.

For example:

• UK: under the Online Safety Act, porn sites must use age checks from July 2025
• France, Italy and parts of the EU: similar rules for adult sites and explicit content. Denmark is also introducing a social media ban on kids under 15
• United States: Several states have passed laws requiring age checks for porn platforms

Our thoughts? Even with the tech hiccups and privacy debates, the goal is important. Keeping kids safer online is something we absolutely support.

Merry Glitchmas

Coca-Cola looked at their iconic 1995 Christmas ads of all time and said, “What if we remade it with AI?”

The result: a soulless, slightly cursed re-do of the classic Holidays Are Coming spot, with AI-generated trucks that seem to respawn and lose tyres, animals and scenery that feel more uncanny than magical. The comment sections are brutal, and artists are furious. Fans are asking why a brand built on “the real thing” has slapped an AI veneer over the most nostalgic asset in its archive.

The critique in the article lands hard: AI can be a brilliant production tool, but using it as a cheap shortcut on a campaign that relies entirely on emotion and heritage is a misread. It makes the work look cheaper, not smarter.

Our take: AI can be brilliant when it’s used for the right kind of work — conceptual ideas, rapid prototypes, tight budgets, or projects that are transparent about using it. But this campaign is a reminder that not every brief is an AI brief. Christmas nostalgia lives and dies on emotion, craft and warmth, and should feel deeply human, and that’s where this version fell short. If you want to see what not to do with a beloved brand asset, you can watch the video for yourself (if it’s still up) below:

Real World Ralph

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ralph Lauren has gone fully offline with The Ralph Lauren Holiday Experience in London’s Sloane Square. Think alpine barn, wreath-making workshops, cookie decorating, Ralph’s Coffee pop-up, Father Christmas, snow-dusted pines and a Giving Tree where donations support The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

It is the brand’s biggest installation in the square to date and it leans into everything people are craving after a few too many AI-generated everything: texture, smell, physical space, ritual, and actual humans.

We love this, and we reckon we’re going to start seeing a lot more of this. While some brands are outsourcing their Christmas spirit to silicon, Ralph is doubling down on the senses. The write-ups are worth a look for anyone trying to convince a client that “yes, IRL still matters” and “no, your only Christmas idea does not have to be a social competition”.

Retro Rewind

As Stranger Things gears up for its final season, Netflix didn’t drop a glossy video recap. Instead, they released a cassette tape (anyone got a tape player?)

Yes, an actual rewind-with-a-pencil cassette with the little plastic wheels.

It’s part of a whole global farewell tour: bike rides, city walks, themed pop-ups, and enough Hawkins references to make you check your Christmas lights twice.

But the real headline here is that nostalgia is having a massive moment, and it’s only getting bigger.

And it’s not hard to see why. The internet wants your ID, AI is melting Christmas ads, and everyone is exhausted (just for starters).

Everyone is burnt out and craving something that feels slower, softer, and built for humans instead of algorithms.

Netflix knows this. It’s a tactile throwback that actually fits the universe, rewards fans, and taps into the collective desire to hide from the chaos of 2025 by spiritually relocating to 1985.

Our opinion is that Nostalgia is one of the most powerful lanes for brands, and it’s only going to get bigger.

It’s intentional, it’s immersive, and it’s a warm break from the “connected but disconnected” world we live in now.

If Blockbuster or Tamagotchis make a comeback next, we would not be surprised!

I Am Your Sponsor

We’re officially entering the era where the ad break doesn’t disappear… it just moves into the show.

AI-powered product placement is about to explode. Not the old-school kind where a character awkwardly holds a can of Coke at chest height for 12 seconds. The new version is smarter, subtler, and feels very The Truman Show meets Black Mirror.

We’ve already seen some virtual product placement (those digital ads you see magically appear on the footy field during NRL games) but what’s coming is personalised, in-scene advertising: coffee cups, posters, billboards, even background objects changed by AI to match whoever’s watching.

You could be watching the same episode as your friends, but with slightly different visuals and brands depending on your age, location, hobbies, shopping habits — even your vibe.

The tech already exists (China’s been playing with it for years), and Western platforms are now warming up too.

Netflix’s new AI ad formats says it all — they’re building tools that let brands “step into” the visual worlds of shows like Stranger Things, Wednesday and Emily in Paris. Not cheesy cutaways or obvious placements, but subtle, stylised visuals that look like they’ve always belonged in the scene.

Our take: This is clever, but like everything else in the land of AI, also slightly terrifying. Done right, it funds the content we love without ripping us out of the story or forcing us to sit through boring, irrelevant ads. Done wrong, it’s product placement on steroids.

Either way, personalised in-story advertising isn’t sci-fi anymore; it’s the next ad frontier, and Netflix is already building the on-ramp.