At Podium, we like to scour the internet for the week’s best and most interesting stories, so you won’t have to. Given that the average person spends 37 hours per month on the internet, we’ve basically given you the gift of time.

Spend it wisely; thank us later.

Anyway, you know the drill by now: good stuff gets #OnthePodium, and one duffer per week is left off it.

This week’s #OnthePodium entries are a mixed bag of marketing brilliance, generosity of spirit and Star Wars stuff. Because we like Star Wars stuff.

Third place: Star Wars stamps

StarWars_Millenium-Falcon-Bundle

Stamp collecting: geeky. Star Wars: geeky. So why are these so cool? Because I lied. Star Wars isn’t geeky at all, it’s awesome.

Star Wars stamps, then. Bit pricey, but yet more evidence of the might of Disney’s marketing power. There’s no point resisting, just enjoy the ride.

How does Yoda make his stamps stick? Force.

Second place: Gary Neville

Gary_Neville_University_of_Salford

I never thought I’d be saying anything good about former Manchester United footballer Gary Neville. He was a talented but largely dislikeable player. However, he has grown in stature and credibility since he retired. As a Sky Sports pundit, he has been a revelation, offering detailed and fascinating insight that, frankly, nobody expected from him. He’s also doing a decent job with the England team as assistant manager.

So why’s he on the Podium? Gary Neville owns the historical former Stock Exchange building in Manchester, with planning permission to turn it into a boutique hotel. It’s currently empty, and when a group of homeless rights activists started squatting there at the weekend, everyone expected them to be turfed out.

Not Neville, though: he has given them permission to use the building for the winter, to make sure they can offer somewhere warm for homeless people in Manchester through the winter. What’s more, he has paid for showers, toilets and lighting to be installed, so that it is habitable, warm and safe.

Here is the news story in full: what a good bloke.

First place: @VisitDublin

Brands that manage not to take themselves too seriously, without coming across as desperate, are ok by us. It’s therefore with great pleasure that we award top spot on this week’s Podium to the @VisitDublin twitter feed, for this tweet:

visit-dublin

A textbook example of a humblebrag in action, @VisitDublin tells readers that it’s only the second friendliest city in the world – but the friendliest, Sydney, is miles away.

Dublin might not be the world’s friendliest city, but it has earned number one #OnthePodium, which is surely the real prize here.

 

#OffthePodium

Angry internet meathead Ronny Pickering (who?) might be so three weeks ago, but he still grabbed a couple of headlines this week when he was forced to cancel a public appearance in Coventry after an angry social media backlash.

So he is quite literally off the Podium. Can you see what we did there?

Back