Hasta La Gadget!

It isn’t exactly a spring chicken, nor is it particularly new to the advertising game — Best Buy utilized the stuff back in 2009 to push electronics — but a new ad campaign from manly body spray purveyor Lynx (Axe in the US) is making augmented reality nearly unavoidable. Created by BBH, a global ad agency, the video below shows travelers at London’s Victoria train station staring up at a giant screen to find themselves greeted by a skimpily attired fallen angel. The stunt, launched on March 6, drew a lot of attention from passersby, and in more than one instance elicited some pretty, well, bold behavior. Up until now, augmented reality has mostly been a play thing of the geek set — even previous advertisements enlisting such tactics required a decent amount of work from the audience — but if these fallen angels are any sign, we could all be traversing a more unreal world very soon.

[Thanks, Ben]

Continue reading Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video)

Lynx augmented reality stunt drops scantly clad angels on terrestrial travelers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s slowed the pace of Windows Phone 7 ads after saturating the airwaves at launch, but it looks like another campaign is about to begin — WinRumors has a leak of a new set of “Real Time Challenge” interactive web ads that challenge you to complete tasks using your phone against a WP7 device. Challenges include taking a photo and posting it to Facebook, checking Xbox achievements, getting directions, and telling meeting participants you’re running late. Not surprisingly, the WP7 device performs handily at everything — although we’re definitely wondering why you’d be checking Xbox achievements in a hurry while on the run. WinRumors also says that the “Your Phone” image is just a placeholder that will be filled in by other devices in the final ads, so we’ll see how MS decides to portray other platforms and their apps — there’s a lot of ways to do some of these things on Android and iOS devices. (And, sigh, we would note that “Update system software without fatal errors” is not a listed activity.) In any event, it’s a clever ad idea — check the video below.

[Thanks, Irv]

Continue reading Leaked Windows Phone 7 ads challenge your phone head-to-head

Leaked Windows Phone 7 ads challenge your phone head-to-head originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP told us to watch for a special new campaign during the Grammys, so watch we did — only to find this commercial and occasional on-stage pimping of the HP TouchPad. The latter is standard business practice, to be sure, but the former? Well, words (nearly) escape us. You really have to watch it for yourself, but just imagine a butchering of Lou Reed’s classic (though far, far overused) “Walk On The Wild Side,” where tales of doping and cross dressing have been replaced with tales of… Tweeting. And Digging. And other really trite stuff. The cinematography and general message of the commercial is actually spot on, but it all gets crushed under the weight of this bad musical decision. HP played this same video at the event on Wednesday, but little did we know it would be the kick-off of the company’s marketing onslaught.

We’re honestly taken aback by how off key (no pun intended) this ad is. You would think after all the bad press Palm got on its previous big ad campaign (and even after some not-so-gentle advice) the folks in charge would think twice about something this potentially polarizing. We won’t lie — we’re disappointed. Both by HP / Palm, and Lou Reed. All of you guys… back to the drawing board.

Look on the bright side, though — at least you’ve got about six months to wash this out of people’s brains.

HP’s ‘Everybody On’ ad goes to the Grammys, causes nationwide cringing originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The beer commercials were flat and most dot-com ads except Groupon kept intact their string of cluelessness. So Super Bowl 45 (XLV to traditionalists) was rescued by the slew of car ads. VW, Chrysler, and parts of GM got the most out of their investments. Among Germany’s Big Three luxury makers, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz ran 1-2-3 in a race to convince the public at large which unaffordable super-luxury brand you should most look up to. Chevrolet had one of the worst ads (Chevy Cruze) that was even less understandable (and thus less embarrassing) if you watched the big game in a noisy room. Here are the best and some other notable outliers.

We get it AT&T, your iPhone can do voice and data at the same time, and Verizon’s can’t. Big Red’s Test Man proved that calls aren’t always doomed to drop on the iPhone, but AT&T’s firing right back and saying how you could be doomed in certain social situations, like forgetting to make a dinner reservation on your anniversary. Props for creativity here, but now that both sides have fired a shot across the other’s bow, can’t we all just get along? Yeah, probably not.

AT&T fires back with latest iPhone ad: simultaneous voice and web more important than you think (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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