Another VIDEO GAME??

One of the joys of being in Tallahassee for the holidays is the chance to see ads I would never otherwise see in New York. The local ads are still terrible, but this spot caught my attention (I wonder why...see my previous post on video game ads lol):



Interesting way to deliver the message. Don't know if it's effective or not.

Post #200

Merry Christmas to all! (Even you Nicole!)

And BTW- (click the image!)

WTF

Ok TIME- What the hell kind of US Map is this?

Tennessee is not an asymmetrical parallelogram. The states were all drawn with rulers, except those up in the north east bordering the great lakes. Who approved this art direction?

Video Game Advertising: Evolution or Devolution?

You make the call.

HBO flight of the concords fo' free

Launching the season premiere of this awesomingly awesome show. HBO has distributed the first episode through funny or die! fo' free.

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only) - watch more funny videos

Enjoy

Hooray for taxes!

I'm only affected by taxi's. Sucks for everyone else. Hopefully the C train will start running on time.

AKQA wishes you happy holidays

In the coolest way...

OLPC

This is a really smart video by One Laptop Per Child. I'd urge everyone to pass it on.

Skills: the right to education
by olpcfoundation

DO NOT FORGET

So over a year ago, Lauren discovered this site: isitchristmas.com

Last year, on December 26th we remembered to check it, to no avail, and have been living in despair and regret ever since.

We have no idea what happens on Christmas. So if you get a chance, PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO CHECK.

Because christmas never had enough explosions...

For your aspiring terrorist child:




Build this toy... then blow it up. Wonderful.

Find it here: Boing Boing Gadgets

Year in Review

Just like America has the Word of the Year so does Japan have the Kanji of the Year.
Previously, I was asked by a student which kanji (Chinese character) I would pick to explain my year. As such, I chose the character 変 (hen), which means change (also, strange).

Apparently, my thoughts were also upon by the head priest of Kyoumizu Temple, where the kanji of the year is chosen.
This year's kanji is indeed change, based upon the "large amount of changes seen in both this world's economics and politics".

Surveys indicated that 変 was predicted by a large amount of the population to be the symbol of he year, followed by 金 (kin, which means 'gold') and 落 (ochi, which means 'to fall').

Beware the Doghouse

Found this on Ad Age today, talk about putting a metaphor to work.

This idea is phenomenal. They built a site too, which plays hand in had with the video above. Why no one thought of this before, is beyond me.

Give the Gift of Cash

Help out a friend and a creative viral video!!

Euro RSCG Chicago is trying to make this video most viewed today. It's a clever video for Western Union... watch it and pass it along!

http://www.youtube.com/givethegiftofcash

Thanks :)

Oh the Bailout!

Shoes. Shoes. Shoes. Oh my god! Let's get some shoes!

So the last bit of my life has been completely consumed working on some New Balance stuff, on top of the rest of my busy life. I've gotten to know the shoe industry pretty well. I want to now share with you some fun/cool/crazy tv spots that I've come across while working on it. WARNING: Some spots have really catchy music that will be stuck in your head for days. Also, hot fudge lakes and Pete Carroll asking for batteries. WTF?

New Balance


New Balance


Reebok


Nike SPARQ


Nike+


Puma


Brooks


And of course...

The Zeotrope in action

Beating Florida State... my anti-drug

In Tallahassee for the UF/FSU game, we were walking in the pouring rain looking for a tailgate that we never found... We did, however, find this interesting piece of guerilla advertising from our good friends at Zimmerman (which I've been told is a much better agency then their sister in Fort Lauderdale. My best friend Krissy - girl in the poncho - interns there and loves it). It's for the Tobacco Free Florida campaign (I care. I don't smoke.).

It was really cool... right down to the last detail. (You can't see the sign behind her, but it says something along the lines of "don't smoke").

Sony builds giant zeotrope for new Bravia ad

What is a zeotrope? From out factual friend wikipedia.org: A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures.
It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides.

Apparently it's getting certified by Guinness as the largest zeotrope in the world.

I'm not sure what they're planning but I'm excited to see it.

Find more pictures at Gizmodo

Another reason I love Chipotle

I was looking at Chipotle's website, and there's this floating burrito with rain coming out of it.


When you mouse-over it, it has lightning.


When you click:




Two of my favorite things: Chipotle and the Chocolate Rain meme, combined!

Oldest LOL cat found

Mario Kart Love song

If you ever played Mario Kart (64) this song will bring back some great memories.

Humble Kayne

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Operation Humble Kanye

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Propel Colbert's Christmas Album to the number 1 spot on iTunes, Dec. 3rd at 5pm.

Harness your inner nerd

Awesome things that will be there:

• Ancient Apple Phone Prototypes From Frog Design
• The Red One Camera
• Weird Japanese USB Gadgets!
• The Lego Death Star
• Free Laser Etching of Your Gadgets for a day, from Make's Phil Torrone
• At Gizmodo Gallery: Draganflyer X6 UAV
• At Giz Gallery: 103-Inch Plasma
• A Back To the Future Delorean

And supposedly a visit from the will it blend guy! Hot damn.

Past truths in advertising?

Sometimes those chain emails aren't that bad. My mom sent me these today and I got a kick out of 'em.

Sure why not!?


Mmmmm Oreos!

Um... what?

And what's a blast from the past with out cigarette ads?

4 out of 5 Doctors think it's O.K.!



Not true Dr. Spock.

Best Rickroll Ever

I love Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim. They planned this and that's why they rock.



And YouTube FINALLY put in a widescreen player. It's about damn time!

Update: CLEARLY YouTube hasn't gotten the widescreen player in the embed code. Get with the program for real.

Rick Roll While Strolling the Streets

via [NerdyShirts]

I can't resist

Courtesy of FailBlog.org:

Free super-advanced technology from the past-future

This for Sean... a paper craft HAL 9000:



Body
Legs

Math is undeniable.

Bruce Lee = Kung fu = Awesome

Nokia = Phone

Bruce Lee + Nokia = Awesome Phone

Right? Nokia's latest viral spots:

Oh Apple, remember when you were the dumb kid?

Give Microsoft a break.

[Gizmodo]

The Hartfield Hot Dog Launcher

If I enjoyed hot dogs, besides when they're free, I'd vote Hartfield Hot Dogs for awesomest. Check out their YouTube documentary:



Destroying the spirits and t-shirts of Phillies fans everywhere (I think the last crowning achievement from the Phillies was most home-runs allowed in 2004, you know, when steroids were cool.)

Intelligent design - Paper Water Bottles

A design/brand consultant [Brand Image] came up with the above. This is a great example of where the future of this industry (advertising) is headed. Anyone that has been close enough to hear my rants about changing the world has heard me exclaim that instead of constantly worrying about creating a better advertisement, advertising agencies should help companies create a better product. Then we could spare our heads from the incessant slamming against the wall.

[Core 77]

Chicken men are all the rage

The following was one of the first commercials I saw in Japan, and I use it as an example to show how advertising here in Japan makes absolutely no sense.

The project is for a new processor by Intel.


Lyrics
Centrino, Centrino, Centrino.
The next century has come.
Centrino, Centrino, Centrino.
Now I can live freely.

...what chicken men have to do with computer processors is beyond me.

The Joy of Tech

My new favorite online comic, courtesy of All Things Digital.


What a tool.

The endless campaign

The "Priceless" campaign MasterCard has been pushing since we were kids, will NEVER end. I'll admit there have been times where I wanted it to die, but then they show one like this, and I begin to appreciate the campaign all over again...



How could you REALLY hate Peyton Manning?

lolcats

This one's for Ruff :)

Also, it's 4:40 on Friday and I've pretty much clocked out for the weekend.

Another humorous cartoon from Where's My Jetpack?

Listen up sports fans...

ESPN will get exclusive rights to the Bowl Championship Series starting in the 2011 season!! This includes the Fiesta, Orange, and Sugar Bowl as well as the Title game (the Rose Bowl is under a separate contract with ABC). This mean FULL integration of the BCS through ESPN's multiple networks and programming (including Deportes and ESPN International), radio, and digital (rights to the BCS website and simulcasting games on ESPN360.com and through Mobile TV). They are also going to have a show on Sundays to unveil each weeks rankings (yay!).

ESPN president George Bodenheimer:
"The BCS will thrive on ESPN. Our slogan is 'College Football Lives Here' and the BCS will now top college football's best regular-season and studio coverage, the sport's top awards shows, Bowl Week and other national championships all carried on our family of networks. This is a proud day for ESPN and an exceptional day for this great sport and its passionate fans."

And, for those skeptics who say "what about those of us who don't have cable?" A) go to a bar or friend's house and B) "ESPN is available in just over 98 million U.S. homes, which is 86 percent of all households with televisions, according to Nielsen. Swofford expects that number to grow by 2011. Of the people who watched the BCS title game on Fox last season, 95 percent had cable or satellite, ESPN said."

Read more - full article from ESPN.com

Because it's almost that time of year again...

Back, and better than ever!

Country

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Disco

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Charleston

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Obama understandz teh intern3ts

Obama (our president elect) has promised to deliver weekly addresses via YouTube. Above is the first of what will be a long series of updates. Awesome.

Smart Design...

Okay so I've fallen in love with prefab homes, I've been constantly redesigning my future home. Some of you may be thinking... prefab?? Double wide trailers? You got it! But instead think shipping containers mixed with concrete.









The home is 4200 sq ft, cost 500k, and is located just outside LA (Avg home price = 900k). Even better, it took just 3 weeks to build. Read more here

If you're not familiar with Inhabitat , check it out. It has definitely become a favorite next to Gizmodo and Gothamist. The reality is that clients are cutting budgets everyday and demanding maximum efficiency. We've got to think different (right apple fanboys?). I'm excited to see what happens.

Look a cool ad!

Filmed with 200 Samsung camera's they successfully created a Matrix/John Woo ballet. Doesn't quite hold a candle the old school Bravia ads but I like ingenuity behind it.



The Making of (the really cool video):




Here's the big surprise.. They did it in Europe(Grey London)! Dear American clients... wake up. kthxbye

WORST AD EVER

HATE HATE HATE IT. So much.

Why do they have to use girls to sell shave gel? This is just as bad as when they have the party in the guys nose. WTF?



Someone should be FIRED for this. Oh it's Draft FCB (thanks Sean! +1 internets for you). We all know how terrible they are at keeping clients (ie lost Wal-Mart). So yes Draft, you fail at everything but Oreo- Milks favorite cookie.

Sleeveface

This one's for you Sarah. Let's break out the records for a photoshoot.

I was reading EW and came across this small feature about Sleeveface.com. They describe themselves as such- "one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion."

I instantly fell in love with these below, but as always feel free to peruse the site on your own.

Comic Relief

Jacked from Where's My Jetpack?

Guitar Hero

I was on the fence about this campaign but I think they may have won me over.



One thing is for sure... this tops the Phelps-Kobe routine.

Google oh how i <3 thee

Very cool Google gadget...

Dope wars but better...

Alright I'm excited.



Dope wars is back and on the iPhone! That's right, no need to dust off the ti-83 you can sell drugs on your iPhone. Even better, the app has GPS awareness to adjust drug prices to real market value! I bet the out-of-work Wall Street guys are going to make for some "killer" competition.

Read here: Gizmodo

Only the issues

Created by creative director - Tor Myhren from Grey NYC, the posters slice through the race issue between candidates - acknowledging that much of this campaign has predictably but stupidly been re-cast as a battle between black and white. Myhren's powerful imagery rightly implies that this is all just distraction, seeking to refocus our attention onto what really matters - the issues.

Even before the results are in, the posters have become collectors items, with New Yorkers unable to help themselves from swiping them off the streets.

- Lisa Evans
Courtesy of thecoolhunter.net

Ad Society

hey HEY hey...

I've decided to update all you lovelies on what's going on in AdSoc this year. I know most of you have probably checked out our new website:

http://grove.ufl.edu/~adsoc/index.html (Check the blog, I just posted about Wizards!)

Definitely check out the director bios and the calendar and you'll get a good idea about how this semester is going. It's been really fun so far! Minus you-know-who being an even bigger pain in the ass, everything's been running smoothly.

Ad Council is this week (and Corwin's coming to recruit for Ogilvy-yay!) We just had a huge Halloween Party at 101 downtown and made $500 off of the cover. We opened it to everyone and had over 75 non-Ad Soc members. We have a bonfire party and CFF kickoff and banquet coming up... Annnnd we're coming to NYC very soon! YAY!!!!

Miss you all and wish you woulda been here to see some of the stuff that's done down this semester that I shouldn't necessarily publicly blog post about. Check the pictures on FB. =) See some of you very soon!

In a Perfect World

Just read about this on AdAge (and I'm a little behind, so this may already be old news to some of you... But it was too good not to post)... It's some guerilla marketing for a New Zealand Web site, flossie.com, that caters to women through targeted online content. To promote the new Web site, they made a "Man Vending Machine" and put it on a real street. The kicker is that a real live man comes out of the machine when money is inserted. You have a choice of the type of man you would like (classic, romantics, foreign, etc) and even the option of "perfect" in which the company provided what we all know to be the perfect man (hint... he is not made of flesh, but does require batteries... wink wink). And, by the actual photos taken of these women with their vending machine man, it was a good purchase.

I checked the site out, and it's pretty cool... sort of a Cosmo or Elle Magazine Web site, but better. My only complaint: terrible tag line "Whatever you need, it's on us". It just doesn't flow for me...

The video, however is great, as well as the idea and execution. Watch:



Now, if only they would put one of these on the streets of NYC......

The best OoO message ever...

This is a great story...

"What happens when you ask a guy to translate something for you into a language you don't understand? This. The top part of the sign is in English, but when they emailed someone to translate that English into Welsh, the response actually said "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated." That's right, it's an out of office message, which subsequently made it onto the road sign undetected. We hope those residents are getting used to Welsh truck drivers carrying heavy goods."

So when you ask for a translation service, make sure you run it through Google translator just to be safe.

From the Giz

Guitar Hero is my hero.

Saw this ad for Guitar Hero World Tour the other day and it sent shivers down my spine... A perfect way to introduce the new game and it's new additions (microphone and drums). Brilliant use of four big time athletes doing a rendition of that famous scene from Risky Business. And, in case you didn't know, "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll" was my favorite song when I was little. Oh, and I'm in love with A-Rod. And, now I might just be in love with Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps, and Tony Hawk.

And, one final 'and', I love that Kobe is wearing white basketball shorts instead of boxers :)

What women want...

Terry Tate is back!

I'm sure all, if not most of you have seen this video of Katie Couric interviewing Sarah Palin:



So in turn, I looked into www.ReturnofTerryTate.com and found this video:



Who doesn't want his job?

Free Chipotle

Don't forget...



Fo Free. Happy Halloween.

Budweiser Ad Reprise

I can't decide if I like this or not, but I do know that it is not hurricaning outside.

MTV FINALLY GETS IT!

At least for now... they have loaded every music video on to http://www.mtvmusic.com/!

Now you can watch Rick Astley over and over again!

Rick Astley |MTV Music

or

1970's David Bowie

David Bowie |MTV Music

All it needs now is a playlist feature. Better yet, combine this with Pandora... oh the possibilities.

This has potential...

or...



Breaking Bad News with Baby Animals

Awful? Yes but it's also awfully funny(Okay if slapstick didn't get a smile and neither did the inappropriate e-cards... please consult this vignette: 5 Secrets to Life)

New Sony Bravia Spot

Give me something!

It's an understood (although perhaps intensely loathed) concept of advertising that one major way to get someone to watch your commercial is to give then something in return. However, more often than not people are less inclined to try to get that 'something' as they, in some way, must remove their butts from their warm, soft couches and go into the harsh reality that is the world.

Thanks to the Japanese, this is no longer a problem!

A partnership between Ukiki Channel and the Commercials for Commercials Campaign has created 'Ukiki Campaign" (In Japanese, ukiki is the sound a monkey makes)*.
When you watch a commercial, a special logo will pop-up at the end which lets the viewer know that by watching this commercial, they are eligible for special points. By clicking a button on their remotes, the information is sent to a database which records who watched the commercial, when, on what channel, and a certain amount of points that are being awarded for that commercial.

Japanese consumers are used to the idea of collecting points to receive prizes. Every store here in Japan, from my local crepe shop to the supermarket, offers point cards. As you purchase things, your points accumulate. With these points you can, naturally, get prizes from the card's respective store. At this moment, I am only 103,486 points away from the Louis Vitton handbag that my grocery store offers.

While this campaign most likely wouldn't work in America (land of instant gratification), the Japanese are acclimated to this idea of a point system and the idea of saving up to get something.

The nice point of this campaign is that it isn't only the consumers who get a good deal out of this! Advertisers can now see the who, what, where and when of their viewing audience on a large scale.

The only downside to this brilliant plan? Your television must be equipped with playback. While many people have a notion that Japan is very technical advanced society filled withe early adapters, the truth is that this is very, very far from the truth.

...and because this post wouldn't be finished without a random bit of Japanese/English/American culture backwardness. The 'Halloween Flavored' (pudding flavored) Kit Kat bars have a nice little quote about Halloween on them:
"Halloween is a day to cheer for the dreams of children"

* - Ukiki is also the sound one makes when they're...err...you know..."busy". This lead to many awkward looks from my co-workers when they walked by my computer and noticed what I was looking up on Google...

Marketing Rep Rap

When football players go wrong...

Piggybacking on Sarah's post I suppose, I just caught this on ABC (sorry no embed code). And for the record- I don't like Warren Sapp, but MAN can he dance. But I guess that's what happens when you play football (or retire) you go dance! Because what else can you do with a college degree you never used and a sculped, lean body... you dance! Just like Jason Taylor, Jerry Rice and of course our own champ- Emmit Smith!

i have no words.

An SEC referee sacking Stephen Garcia, South Carolina quaterback v. LSU:
worked like only a cock can get worked.

I'm a little weirded out, to be honest...

A UFO has landed in Central Park!

Reports of strange characters riding big wheels have officials scratching their heads.



On the serious, Chanel has brought its mobile art space to Central Park. They've positioned women around akward displays of art. See pictures below.

"The exhibit is free and open seven days a week: Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. (last admission is 5:15 p.m.); Friday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m. (last admission is 8:15 p.m.); and Sunday, 8:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m. (last admission is 7:15 p.m.). Tickets are available at the box office, which opens 30 minutes before the opening (and closes at the time of last admission), in Rumsey Playfield. The exhibit will run through November 9."

Riddle me this... why do you need tickets to a free show?

In un-related news, the pillow fight, everything is okay, crazy event hosting group, Newmindspace held a big wheel contest in Central Park. I'm already training for next season...



Chanel:







All found via The Gothamist, a blog so good it should replace the local NYC news teams.

Health Tip: If you have a fever, the only prescription is more cowbell

You know, cuz it's flu season and all.

No, really, our CEO sent this to everyone in the company on Friday. He was so in love with it he had to share it. Now I feel compelled to do the same.

	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

If you don't know what this is in reference to, I'm sorry. But you get to add cowbell and some Christopher Walken to ANY song you upload!