Sir Elton John's face to appear as QR code on OOH sites during Pride fundraiser: The Elton John AIDS Foundation has teamed up with  Clear Channel UK for a QR code-powered fundraising campaign, as part of which the star's visage will be transformed into pixellated code. An image of Sir Elton has been turned into an "LGBT-QR code" appearing on out-of-home sites in cities across the UK and mainland Europe at key points along Pride march routes. When scanned using a smartphone, the code will take users to a donation page for the charity. While QR codes are typically black-and-white, for this campaign an image of Sir Elton’s face has been rendered in pixellated colour code. (Source: CampaignLive 2022)

McDonald's Is Loving Workplace From Meta: Workplace From Meta is officially on the menu at McDonald's. The fast-food restaurant colossus will use the enterprise platform as a communication and shift management tool for the next year-and-a-half, with frontline workers included in the mix. McDonald’s said deploying Workplace From Meta in company-owned restaurants helped foster employee recognition, information sharing and more meaningful engagement and support. Workplace From Meta’s knowledge Library, for example, enables employees to quickly access information and training to help them be successful in their roles, including local marketing and promotional materials, business updates and learning opportunities. (Source: AdWeek 2022)

Pret refreshes palette with new-look global brand identity: Pret A Manger has revealed a new global brand identity and purpose, while introducing a new slogan: "Pret. Makes every day." The slogan's double meaning emphasises how Pret's food is made fresh every day, while also implying how it "makes" its customers' days thanks to its role in their routines.The change comes as Pret plans to grow the business via expanding into new markets and increasing its store numbers, such as with new shops in Essex, Twickenham and Harrogate. It is also investing in digital, as part of which it has recently launched initiatives including The Pret Coffee Subscription and Pret app.The new look will be rolled out across Pret's global markets over the coming months, across digital assets, packaging, products, staff uniforms and within its shops. (Source: CampaignLive 2022)

Transforming logos for Pride has lost brand impact and become 'rainbow washing': M&S is in a bit of hot water. Its customers are telling them things on social media like “show some respect” and to “get real” and “show a bit of patriotism”. The source of all this ire? The M&S logo. Not the usual boring green one. The new, special, LGBTQ+ version that the British retailer is adopting throughout June to celebrate Pride. It’s not that M&S customers are homophobic – well, I hope it’s not that­ – it’s that June is also playing host to another major milestone (cue the marching band): the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Most of the outraged M&S customers on social media last week weren’t upset by the rainbow colours of the adjusted logo. They were outraged that M&S had not recognised what they felt was a more important cultural moment with a Queenified version of the logo instead. “Your profile picture should be about the Jubilee,” Carole Clegg commented online. “What’s that supposed to be??? M&S, just fly our Queens flag. She’s earnt it.” But there was just as much support for the Pride alternative logo on the other side of the high street this week. “Oof calm down people,” tweeted Katy Parry, “your homophobia is showing… and that doesn’t look good on anyone, regardless of how many pretty M&S pieces you have.” Many pointed out that it was impossible to avoid the Jubilee paraphernalia being sold by M&S this week.(Source: MarketingWeek 2022)