The BLT Episode 24:Wrapped

We cover a lot of stories on the BLT, and we’d lying if we didn’t have a few favourites. Sometimes it’s the story itself, sometimes it’s the creativity we’re able to cram in (we love a good reference!).

And sometimes the stories we cover take twists and turns that make us love them even more. These favourites are too good to share only once, so this episode is taking a look back at what we’ve been covering over the last few weeks.

Do you have some news that’s perfect for the BLT that we’ve missed? Tell us, and find out more about how we work by getting in contact today!

Dammit, Thanet!

We’re still thinking about Banksy and his latest work in Margate. The piece, and its powerful message, are now safely behind a Perspex screen. One unlikely star was the dumped freezer, which Banksy made into a key part of the piece.

It was removed quickly from the site to be made safe, returned, and has now been taken away again! This time, it’s in preparation for the whole artwork being removed from its alley home to be put on display. Like we said above, we can’t resist a reference, and we had to put a graffiti tag, ‘BoJo was ere’, after the infamous 2019 election moment. Watch the original BLT episode here!

Sugar and spice and all things … germy?

Lots of us love adding a little spice to our dinner, but one recent BLT story showed we might be adding a little more than we bargained for when we do.

Research by the US’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) found that spice racks have more germs than any other place in the kitchen, more even than bin lids! As soon as we heard ‘spice’, our minds jumped to Ainsley Harriott and his iconic catchphrase, ‘spicy’. How could we not include it?! Catch the story’s first outing here.

If AI detects a rat, does it make a sound?

It does if it’s in the BLT! This story from a weeks back about facial recognition software being used to track rats was the perfect excuse (as if we need one…) to use sound effects. We’re very fond of using sound effects to add to our visual storytelling.

In the original episode this story was the perfect for to link with an infestation of teenagers and one branch of McDonalds. Linking sometimes quite different stories in a way that flows well and feels natural is one of the reasons we love making the BLT each week.

‘Shall we see the cat or the castle?’

This may sound like an odd question but since Gacek the ‘portly’ black cat got rated as the top attraction in the Polish city of Szczecin, it’s a choice tourists have had to make.

Gacek has a five-star rating on Google Maps, half a star more than the city’s Pomeranian Duke’s Castle. The now famous feline gained renown in a 2020 YouTube documentary, and now tourists from across the world are flying in to visit him.

"I’ve Been Angry for Years” 

Also challenging traditional expectations this week are The Undertones, a band in the midlands who are part of the all-female punk and garage collective The Unglamorous Music Project. Now well into middle age, the group from Leicester write all their music.

We’ve reimagined the born-again punk on the left as a hell granny from Monty Python’s Flying Circus: The gang of pensioners who cause mayhem by attacking men, tripping up pedestrians, and vandalising property.

We’re always amazed at how many links form between the random selection of stories brought to the meeting each week! Which story is your favourite? We’ll see you next week for another delicious visual sandwich.

We love using visual thinking and visual storytelling to create connected and layered whiteboard animations like this. We’re always here to talk to you about how your message could look as a whiteboard animation, contact us today!