Cook By Pictures, The Death Of Channel Planning and The 100 Best TV Episodes Of The Century

👋🏼 Hola!

🔔 Most of you moved to B2B after spending some time in B2C or spending some time in a creative/media role that wasn’t marketing, according to the results of last week’s poll.

💻 This week, I wanted to know a bit more about your revelations about B2B in the last decade or so. Have you seen or felt evidence of any of the below?

📢 Friend of Storythings Victoria Mapplebeck is having a screening of her film ‘Motherboard’ in London on December 17th, as a fundraiser for the charity Breast Cancer Now. The film was shot over 20 years and is ‘the antidote to the unrealistic expectations we have about motherhood, and a film for anyone who wants to see family life in all its unfiltered glory.’ There’s also another screening at BAFTA for anyone who can make that one, details in the poster below. Highly recommend.

We’d love suggestions from you for next week’s B2B poll - if you want to suggest a topic, drop me an email!

📕 The Short Story

No Phones In The Ten-don Shop (7-min read)

A Comparative Analysis Of Two Drafts Of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (Useful writing analysis)

Ikea’s Cook By Pictures Poster (1-min Instagram reel)

The Death of Channel Planning (7-min read)

Tom Whitwell’s ‘52 Things I Learned in 2025’ (9-min read)

The 100 Best Episodes Of The Century (Amazing list)

Peter J Walsh’s Original Ravers Takes Us Back To The Last Night of The Haçienda Club (Photo essay)

Matthew Stasoff’s Social Signals 2025 (Huge trends deck)

Apple’s A Critter Carol (2-min watch)

📣 Payroll in South Africa (40-min listen) 📣

📚 The Long Story

No Phones In The Ten-don Shop (7-min read)
A nostalgic read from Craig Mod on what he learnt from being a regular visitor to a noodle shop in Japan that did not allow anyone to use any devices, or indeed even chat to anyone else, when they came to eat there. Might sound eccentric, but for me, at least, it sounds like a lovely thing to do.

A Comparative Analysis Of Two Drafts Of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (Website)
Darren first shared this story from a while ago where scriptwriter Tom Stoppard breaks down the changes he made to the original script of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, and the decisions he took while doing that. Matt then shared the link above as a resource that is an even bigger lesson in the art of film writing as you compare both script versions. One for the writing and film fans.

Ikea’s Cook By Pictures Poster (1-min Instagram reel)
Lovely idea by Ikea, which as some of the commenters on the reel point out is not 100% original - but it’s still neat. Here’s more from Leo Design in Toronto, who designed this poster.

The Death of Channel Planning (7-min read)
As someone who spent some time in media agency land, I’d love to know how many media planners out there recognise this truth: that anyone still doing media ‘channel planning’ means they are planning ‘for a world that no longer exists’. Thanks, Graeme Douglas - we agree: “The question is not whether to pursue reach. It is which cognitive environments deliver reach that actually builds mental availability.”

Tom Whitwell’s ‘52 Things I Learned in 2025’ (9-min read)
I think we’ve shared Tom Whitwell’s annual end-of-year list almost since the inception of it, so here’s to keeping with tradition. An excellent format that has stood the test of time.

The 100 Best Episodes Of The Century (Amazing List)
Matt shared this list, and I initially thought it must be a good one, as a TV fan who definitely does not watch enough TV (why are there only 24 hours in a day?!). Then I opened the link, and realised that not only is it completely agnostic on genre (reality shows, drama, comedy, thrillers - all included), it also has a toggle that allows you to switch between 2018, when the list was last compiled, to 2025! And they are super specific in only allowing one episode per series to make the cut. Joy!

Peter J Walsh’s Original Ravers Takes Us Back To The Last Night of The Haçienda Club (Photo essay)
I didn’t grow up in the UK, but I have heard what a legendary club the Haçienda was. In this photo essay, photographer Peter J Walsh shares pictures of people who were a part of rave history, going to the club one last time before it shut: “Using a normal film developer wasn’t giving me the images I wanted, so I decided to try paper developer to give me the grainy texture I was looking for in the negatives,” says Peter. Shot in a basement that was accessible through the club’s downstairs cocktail bar called The Gay Traitor, this is where Peter captured subjects that look like they’re from the original Trainspotting posters; authentic ravers complete with lager cans, cigarettes and grungy streetwear.”

Matthew Stasoff’s Social Signals 2025 (Huge trends deck)
Matt Stasoff, Group Director of Social and Creative at Anomaly in Toronto, published his ‘social signals’ deck for the year. Warning: it is MASSIVE. By which I mean 400+ slides. But it is super interesting, for a reason: “And as much as this is called SOCIAL signals, to me this isn’t just for people in social. This is ideally for everyone interested in what’s happening online and offline.” Something for everyone. Also, for those of you looking, the annual 2026 Trends Deck bonanza curated by Amy Daroukakis, Iolanda Carvalho, Ci En Lee and Gonzalo Gregori is in Google Drive here, and Ian Crocombe has an index of the same compiled by Gemini here. Knock yourselves out!

Apple’s A Critter Carol (2-min watch)
As we get to the end of the year, there are multiple lists coming out, and curating them is no mean feat. (Yes, I recognise I sort of cheated in adding a couple of extra links above). So I’ll be honest and say I knocked another of those out to give space to this lovely little festive video from Apple.

📣 Payroll in South Africa (40-min listen) 📣 The latest episode of our podcast for ADP takes you to South Africa, where ADP South Africa experts Tracey Wiehman, Head of Services, and Oswald Bailey, Business Compliance Manager, share insights on navigating South Africa’s evolving payroll landscape. If you’re in the field of finance or pay, you’ll want to listen in. I’m always amazed at the diversity of rules and regulations each country has - find out which countries we’ve covered so far in our episode hub here.

💌 Humans of LinkedIn

This week, we learnt about a new podcast from Julie Doleman, interim COO of Patient.com, with whom we’ve worked with back in the day on Experian. In this episode of the Slow The F*ck Down podcast, Julie and Lianre Robinson talk to Emma Harris about the much-needed shift towards prioritising work-life balance and how younger generations are refusing to accept the ‘always on’ status of yore.

READ THE FULL POST AND GET A LINK TO THE PODCAST HERE →

Drop us a line if you have anything you’d like us to share in a future edition of this newsletter, or of course if you have any comments or suggestions for us!

Have a great weekend!

Matt, Anjali, Hugh, and the team