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!

Do we have clearance, Clarence? Roger, roger. What's our vector, Victor?

Saw this last night while watching Tampa Bay win. Honestly, I was let down a bit once I realized what this was for. I really wanted it to be a new themed airline. And hell, it looked really damn efficient. It could have at least been for a current shitty airline that was now more efficient. But no, just amusing creative with an excellent demo to showcase a product. What a letdown.

"I don't want you to feel like I'm breaking up with you. I just can't be in a relationship with you anymore."

Don't know who's seen this before, but I saw it today and wanted to share. Wonderful way of bringing the current advertising model (as compared to how it used to be) to life.




for more great break up lines, check out:

http://www.soyouvebeendumped.com/breakup.html

Building a better bot

AI bots come in many different varieties – from regular IM Bots, to web bots, to those really awful customer services bots that never seem to answer any questions you have. I’ll admit it: when I was a kid, I enjoyed talking with everyone’s favorite AIM Bot, SmarterChild. If I wasn’t blasting insults in his face, I would enjoy seeing in what areas his AI would fail.

But what is the best AI bot out there, if there is even one? Is there such a program that can trick a human into thinking it is actually having a conversation with another human?

That is exactly what the Loebner Prize intends to find. The Loebner Prize is designed to seek out an AI bot which can fool its entire panel of judges into thinking that they are having an online chat with another human. As of this year, a winner for the grand prize of $5,000 (fooling all the panelists into thinking an AI bot is a human) has yet to be discovered. Instead, there is the Bronze Prize ($3,000) for the robot which performs the best out of all of the contenders.
This year’s winner was Elbot. Created with the goal to someday become an advanced enough system to replace the need for human customer service, the AI bot is actually quite sound. Having chatted with it for a while I was almost startled by how well it engages conversation. There were a lot of times where the responses would simply leave me scratching my hair. Yet many times it would do something as advanced as use it’s AI to create grammar patterns, or something as simple as telling me a joke.

Could one really program an AI bot sophisticated enough to carry on a conversation? If we are talking about a conversation on the internet, then it seems quite likely; after all it isn’t like conversations over AIM are exactly Pulitzer material, now…

Can we get more ads on this blog?

Like this one?

Wild YouTube video

http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

What's going on in NYC

Always curious if shooting, suspicious packages and the link are nearby?

Then this site is for you: http://gothamist.com/labs/map

I really recommending check the site out- it's a news blog for NYC that updates you on the latest happenings like:

The infamous Banksy is in-town!

And he has opened a pet store...



"Lest the hours on the store's business cards fool you, it's actually open from 10am - midnight (not the printed time of 12pm) through October 31st at 89 7th Ave. South (btwn Jekyll and Hyde and Sushi Samba)."


They say the rewind button is a little worn...

Check out the rest of the gallery here

Just to polish this post off...

Wall street really needs some relief...

I'm not going to lie...I LOL'ed my self a little

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Now that we've almost hit rock bottom... perhaps something will change.



AIG retreat(440k)after asking for Government bailout:



And the National Debt Clock is now too small...



Solution?

Mail Goggles

I don't mind being an adamant Google fan, simply because they are one of the few organizations that not only does great work, but does fun work. Mail Goggles is one such example of Google implementing a functional, and fun, idea into their existing product.

The concept of Mail Goggles is mind-numblying simplistic: you can set your GMail account to give you a small test to see if you are 'awake enough' (as Google puts it) to send out an e-mail. After answering a few simple math questions, your letter will be sent. If, however, you have pounded back one too many, you'll be rather out of luck.
Don't worry if you hate the idea of always having to prove your sobriety when you send an e-mail: you can set Mail Goggle to activate on certain days at a specific time period.

Off the top of my head I can think of a few people who should this installed. Not me, of course. I never send drunken e-mails. (Except for two weeks ago -- however the bar had a computer in it! What am I supposed to do?)

VP Debates Rickrolled

These guys are Mavericks!

My Little Ponies...revisited

I found these awesome pieces of artistic genius while blog-surfing. Just goes to further my opinion that deviantART is one of the greatest sites on the internet and restores my faith in humanity...ok, maybe just a little.

My little ponies...apocalypse ponies...

Youtube will give you up and let you down

A sad, sad day.

http://www.mamapop.com/mamapop/2008/10/youtube-removes.html

Be sure to check out YouTube's statement on the whole thing.


Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi

Duh most fun, random apps eva, Sheeit!

Check out this guy's site. It's pretty cool. Steven DeGraeve just built all these random, little apps that prove to be most amusing. Like his page translator, where you can translate a page to ebonics, valleygirl, simple hax0r, and others (even Smurf. Oh my god!). He's also got other fun little things, such as Invent-a-Word, IMG2TXT, and a cool little biorhythm calculator thing (I'm gonna have a rough day in about a week and a half...just warning all of you).

How are you gentlemen!

(did an image search for random and found this so i put it up)

Enjoy Commercials!

The Japanese Advertising and Mass Media Council has decided to start a campaign to recognize commercials and the role they play in our day to day lives.

While the content of the site is entirely in Japanese, the main page allows you to see two of the current TV spots in the campaign called 'Enjoy Commercials!'. No point in worrying about the language barrier -- they are rather straight forward (or as straight forward as Japanese commercials can be).

So far the campaign has been comprised of these two commercials and the creation of 'Advertising Day' (August 28th) with more promised to follow. Already the site has a rather extensive history of advertising within each decade.

The fact that the commercial managed to get some rather big names is a bit of a surprise. I'm sure that something along the lines of this campaign in the States would be met with, at the very least, some angry letters.


Koma-saru: The campaign's obligatory cute mascot. His name is a bit of a pun (saru means monkey. The name sounds rather like 'commercial'.)