Auckland billboard teases Lorde on Charli XCX’s upcoming Brat remix album

A mock-up of the digital ad run in Ponsonby Rd last week teasing Lorde's feature on Charli XCX's upcoming Brat remix album. Photo / LUMO Digital Outdoor

Another Brat-themed billboard appeared in Auckland last week, displaying New Zealand singer Lorde’s name in the album’s distinctive sans serif font, with Charli XCX sharing a picture of the Ponsonby Rd ad on Instagram.

During a visit to the Ponsonby Rd site on Monday, the billboard was no longer displaying the ad, signalling a quick end to the campaign. A representative from LUMO Digital Outdoor, the company that owns the digital billboard, confirmed to the Herald the ad had run for only a day, on October 4.

The Ponsonby billboard is part of an ad campaign promoting Charli XCX’s new remix album Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat, which is set to be released on October 11 and is poised to feature at least 19 artists on the original tracks.

A remix of the original Brat track Girl, So Confusing featuring Lorde was released on June 21. Charli XCX has previously spoken about Lorde inspiring the song, saying she was “super-jealous” of the New Zealander’s success when she was younger.

The two pop stars have been publicly friendly since releasing the single, with Lorde attending Charli’s highly publicised 32nd birthday party in Los Angeles and performing at her Madison Square Garden show in September.

Lorde’s version of Girl, So Confusing is expected to be on the album.

A digital billboard in Ponsonby Rd ran a short campaign on October 4 promoting Lorde's feature on Charli XCX's Brat remix album. Photo / Charli XCX

The distinctive ads are being screened on billboards in the home towns the feature artists are from. Artists’ names are spelt backwards to signal their inclusion on the remix album, which also has its name spelt backwards on the cover.

Lorde (born Ella Yelich-O’Conner) grew up in Auckland’s North Shore, rising to fame in 2013 with the success of her single Royals. She bought a house in Ponsonby in 2016 for $2.84 million when she was 18.

Justin Vernon’s band Bon Iver were spotted on a lime-green billboard near Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where the group first began and where Vernon was born. In Ariana Grande’s home town of Boca Raton, Florida, the singer’s name lined two billboards in the Brat album font, sparking great fanfare online.

The latest billboard comes a week after another Brat-green hoarding caused speculation.

The campaign was run soon after lime-green billboards with the word “laneway” began to pop up in New Zealand and Australia. ZM posted a picture to its Facebook page of one of the signs spotted in Auckland, fuelling rumours the Brat singer could be headlining the festival in 2025.

Australian radio station Triple J also shared a video of a similar billboard seen in an unnamed city across the ditch.

When the Herald’s Emma Gleason asked Laneway representatives whether the billboards confirmed the English singer’s appearance at next year’s event, they replied: “We’ll just say that Laneway Festival’s line-up drops on Wednesday, October 9.”

Tomorrow marks the announcement of the festival’s highly anticipated line-up release, with the Auckland event set to return to Western Springs on February 6 for its second year at the venue.

Laneway was previously held at Albert Park for several years, before organisers chose to move the festival to a bigger venue last year. However, the 2023 event was forced to cancel in light of the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods.

The festival returned in February this year to settle into its new home, with artists such as Stormzy, Steve Lacy, Raye, Dominic Fike, AJ Tracey and Home Brew performing to festivalgoers on a sweltering summer day.

Charli XCX is now on tour playing in cities in North America and Europe.

The remix album Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat will be released on Friday, October 11.

The line-up for Laneway Festival 2025 will be announced on Wednesday, October 9.

Tom Rose is an Auckland-based digital producer and editorial assistant for the Herald who covers lifestyle, entertainment and travel.