When Chris Lucas was 10, he visited a hotel kitchen for the first time. It changed his life. “I remember seeing amazing desserts, towers of cakes, croquembouches, ice sculptures,” he recalls. “It was like a fancy show ... That’s where my first inklings about restaurants started.” Lucas now runs one of Australia’s largest hospitality empires, Lucas Collective, which includes Melbourne venues such as Society and Lillian, Sydney’s Chin Chin and Carlotta in Canberra. This month, he will open his mos

This ad hit people hard, and honestly, I get why. When so many people are cutting back, it comes across as tone-deaf. What most people don’t realize is that holiday campaigns like this are planned months in advance. By spring, brands are already pitching Christmas because the last two months of the year can make up 30-40% of annual sales. Teams get so focused on numbers that they lose sight of the consumer sentiment when the ad finally drops. It doesn’t excuse the message, but it does explain ho