Jan 22
Advertisers love to associate their products with the future, even if there’s nothing terribly futuristic about them. Like in this 1984 ad from a British company that was selling… soap.
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Jan 21
Emojis look cute in your inbox and chat windows, but they reveal nothing about the true nature of the person on the other end. Of course, you can probably vouch for people you actually know.
But what about strangers who chat you up because they find your avatar pretty or because they find your username clever? You might know better than to fall for such lines and assume that you’re chatting with a nice person because of the plethora of smiling and winking emojis he’s sending your way – but kids don’t. That can easily make them susceptible to online predators who prey on the young and innocent.
With this in mind, international non-profit Innocence en Danger commissioned ad agency Rosapark to create a series of images using creepy, real-life emoticons to raise awareness on these dangers kid can encounter online.
The posters and gargantuan emoji-fied faces are beyond creepy. Hopefully, the campaign will encourage more parents to pay attention to what their kids are doing online.
[via Laughing Squid]
Dec 18
Nokia’s Strategy For Selling The Lumia 2520 Windows 8 Tablet Is To Make You Very Uncomfortable
Posted in: Today's Chili
I remember in the early 2000s a friend of mine through college had a mullet zine, which was an actual print photocopied irregular publication that featured candid photos he’d taken of mullets in the wild. That was the sort of thing that happened in the early 2000s, when mullets were a thing people loved ironically. Nokia thinks mullets are still a thing, and it built an entire ad around the concept of a haircut with business in front and party in the back and its new 2520 Windows 8-based tablet.
Please, by all means watch whatever the hell this is for yourself, but let me tell you right away: it’s weird, and it will make you feel uncomfortable, and it’s stupid. I’m all for a little eccentric fun once in a while, but when you line this fumbled Harry Potter-movie-soundtracked amateur comedy up against Apple’s recent holiday ad, it’s easy to see why the average human reaches for an iPad in the tablet aisle, not a Lumia 2520.
Nov 02
Oct 06
While the images below might look like some sort of horrible, but unlikely disaster, what you’re looking at is the result of an art project on the streets of Milan, Italy.
As part of an ad campaign for European insurance companies Europ Assistance IT and Genertel, ad agency M&C Saatchi Milano installed a full-size submarine in the ground in the center of Milan. Think of it like one of those Allstate Mayhem commercials on steroids.
There was even a live performance to go along with it to help convince bystanders that a submarine had actually crashed through the street, complete with emergency personnel, and a submarine crew:
You can check out more images of the chaos over on designboom.
Why does it seem like awesome ad campaigns like these always happen too far away from me to go see them in person?
[via designboom via It’s Nice That via Colossal]
Sep 17
Google’s AdID, an anonymous identifier for advertising, could replace the aging cookie
Posted in: Today's Chili
You know the drill: accept the cookie, delete the cookie, empty the cookie bin, and so on. Mostly, it’s an exercise used when attempting to get your mum’s PC to run a wee bit faster, but if you think about it, the cookie is one of the most archaic pieces of the world wide web that’s still in use today. Naturally, Google is swooping in in a bid to change the status quo, according to a new report from USA Today.
Essentially, the search giant is building an “anonymous identifier for advertising, or AdID, that would replace third-party cookies as the way advertisers track people’s internet browsing activity for marketing purposes.” Perhaps astoundingly, it sounds as if the project could benefit both consumers (by shielding true identities) and advertisers at the same time. Of course, pundits are concerned about the global leader in online advertising controlling the technology that tracks movements on the web, but to us, it sounds as if end users will get far more power over who sees what when compared to today’s cookies.
Via: Slashgear
Source: USA Today
Aug 12
Hold This Cat: HTC and Robert Downey Jr. kick off $1 billion ‘Change’ campaign (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
“Big things ahead?” Well, it looks like HTC’s earlier tweet wasn’t a cheeky hint at the upcoming 5.9-inch One Max; but rather, it was a tribute to the sheer scale of the new “Here’s To Change” global ad campaign. The company has just confirmed that it did indeed sign Robert Downey Jr. for a two-year deal, which includes starring him in the ads as well as getting his creative input in the process. Given CMO Ben Ho’s promise to make the company’s voice louder, it’s no surprise that he’s spending the same amount as last year’s worldwide sales and marketing budget — about $1 billion — on this campaign alone, according to an HTC spokesperson. Not bad for Ho’s first big act since he joined the company towards the end of last year.
We were also told that the entire “Change” campaign should cover the span of 24 to 36 months, during which it’ll be split into three phases. As part of the first phase, come Thursday a whacky two-minute TV ad will begin to air in key markets, featuring Downey and his fellow actors blurting out what “HTC” could stand for — “Humongous Tinfoil Catamaran,” “Hipster Troll Carwash,” “Hold This Cat” and more — in order “to invoke interest and talkability amongst consumers.” Interestingly, you won’t find many mentions of any HTC phone in the first full ad, but the subsequent phases of the campaign will eventually focus on the mobile features. There’s no word on the timeframe for each phase just yet due to all sorts of variables.
It remains to be seen whether Downey’s contribution will help drive sales numbers, something that HTC desperately needs to just about survive these days. Perhaps an Iron Man special edition One could be considered? Yes please. Anyhow, press release after the break.
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, HTC
Source: YouTube
Jul 13
Chair Hugs You Every Time Someone Writes Birthday Wishes on Your Facebook Wall
Posted in: Today's ChiliThis isn’t the first time someone hooked something up to Facebook, so that it performed a specific action every time a ‘Like’ or post is recorded on the linked social network account. For example, there’s the Like-a-Hug jacket that gave its wearer a hug every time someone ‘Liked’ his or her post on Facebook.
The B-Day Chair, which is the product of a collaboration between Outback Steakhouse and Brazilian ad agency Lew’Lara\TBWA, functions in a similar manner.
Instead of giving away hugs for every ‘like’ received, the chair hugs (or fondles?) the person seated in it every time someone scrawls a birthday greeting on his or her wall. The birthday celebrant is supposed to sit on the chair and sign in to his or her Facebook account with the attached tablet.
From that point on, you can expect the hugs to come as the birthday greetings roll in.
The tablet takes a picture of the celebrant every time he or she receives a hug, which can be posted on their Facebook timeline to bring about more greetings and hence, more hugs.
[via Walyou via Incredible Things via Geekologie]
Jun 04
Adobe XD’s Project Mighty and Napoleon: the future of cloud-connected design tools for tablets (hands-on)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Adobe’s best known for its creative software, but lately it’s been toying with the hardware side of design. Over the past few weeks, the company’s XD division’s been teasing Projects Mighty and Napoleon for tablets: the former is a pressure-sensitive stylus, while the latter is a ruler for drafting. Both hardware experiments feature Bluetooth but, more importantly, they tap in Adobe’s Creative Cloud. The units are essentially a serious side project for Adobe, but we have a feeling designers will be seriously excited once they get to see these prototypes in action. Geoff Dowd, XD’s Design Lead, was kind enough to delve a bit deeper into the projects for us in a video walkthrough you can catch after the break.
Filed under: Tablets
May 31
People know that smoking is bad for their health. Most of them are also aware of the fact that doing drugs might make them loopy. Yet people still smoke and use all the same.
Text warnings can only do so much, so for cigarettes, some institutions pushed for manufacturers to print graphic pictures of the negative effects on the actual boxes. One study found that cigarettes packages with these pictures on the package reduced cigarette demand by 17%.
Perhaps following this lead, Brazilian ad agency Talent put up a bunch of posters showing what would happen to you if you smoke crack.
It’s not an outright graphic image, but in time, it shows you what’ll happen to you if you continue doing drugs.
The posters aren’t printed on paper, but are actually made of thin sheets of dough. In time, flour beetle larvae (also known as mealworms) slowly eat through the dough, poking holes into the face of the person on the poster and literally eating away at his face.
The ads were run in São Paulo, Brazil, but maybe they should be run all over the world for good measure.
[via Taxi via Gizmodo via Geekologie]
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