Maybe Kids Should Rule the World.

Or just this one.



And I like her little insight at the end on the cops.

Brandfirst + SoftKinetic's 3D Gesture Control Installation for Yahoo

A dude on Twitter said this is like Kinect on a screen 20 times bigger than yours. I wonder if all the walls in public spaces will be like this someday. It'll be like walking through a dream, unique to you, all the time.

What if You Settled for the First Thing that Came Along?

Hyundai gives you Anachronistic City, land of the (decidedly) brave folk who settled for first-generation technology. This is its sly approach for promoting the Sonata, its first-ever hybrid vehicle (late to the game, and probably not even your first-ever hybrid vehicle).

I also like the tagline: "Think about it." Nice and clean while lending plenty of creative flexibility.

Good solid work by Innocean; print spreads below (click to enlarge). I still don't think I'd ever get a Hyundai but that's just prejudice. Maybe if they keep at it.

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It's a Chanel Bot ... that Smokes!

Brought to life by makeup magician Peter Philips with Nowness for Chanel. An entertaining way to demo all elements of the typically overwhelming makeup superkit while tying fashion's fast-paced catwalk feel to the cutesy tech personifications of today. (Consider. And also.)

RFID in Yo' Kicks*

For ye futurists in training, WESC gives us Karmatech, a line of tennis shoes outfitted with RFID that users opt to activate once they get home.

The video illustrates the possibilities and setbacks: an RFID-outfitted "social shoe" can automatically update your socnets and flash personalised (if otherwise unimaginative) hello's to you from the brand while you're out in the world, struttin' your shit. (Mini Cooper did something similar using billboards and RFID-equipped keyfobs in 2007.)

Park your foot against the side of a participating bar to get a free drink on WESC, have a photo of you instantly sent to your Flickr, or even access VIP toilets.** o_O

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It's Not Monopoly, + You're Gonna Learn to Hate Moms with Babies.

Karol Madaj of Poland's state National Remembrance Institute demonstrate's Kolejka (The Queue), which he created to remind Polish youth how hard communism sucked.

On February 5, Poland's National Remembrance Institute will be punting some 3,000 copies of a new game called Kolejka (The Queue). Developed by Karol Madaj, the object is to buy basic living supplies while lack of deliveries, shortages, and other players cutting the line with "connections" cards try stealing your thunder.

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Mary Meeker's State of the Web: Lessons + Exercise

I really think that, if you're running a company of significant size, you should whip out a pencil and pad and start working on each and every one of these questions.

Sometimes It Doesn't Pay to Be Cute.

It isn't immediately clear why Duval Guillaume thought this was a good idea. If you've ever felt the inclination to kick a pigeon, you're most definitely going to wanna toe-punt the shit out of one of these Alfa Romeo robots, which ride your heels like it's their job (and lo - it is!).

The ad bots can be found underfoot in yonder Belgium.

This is My Career Tree. (...And Also My Network Web!)

This charming little time-waster is brought to you by Newsweek, with data piped in from my LinkedIn profile. I suppose it isn't super useful, but it lends the impression that I haven't spent the last few years just writing piles of blogs and spewing social media platitudes; I've been constructing something tangible. A tree.

Data visualisation is still a niche in its pulpy, experimental stages: we're just discovering what we can do with data and how we can play with it, make it tell a story - illustrate a manifesto, even - without forcing us to slouch forward and squint.

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AdVerve Episode 62: Snookapocalypse

Play the show now.

We whip out an old standard: Five for Five, which takes us from life with two suns to Starbucks' fun-packed new iced drink size, Trenta (a whopping 16 ml bigger than the average capacity of the adult human stomach! Although nowhere near maximum capacity as this handy illustration shows).

Somewhere in there we manage to make (too much) time for bestselling author Snookie and her homies on The Jersey Shore. Is there hope for mankind? Ask again in 2012. If we're slathering on the sunblock at 10:30 PM, then the answer is no.

Clarification: On the show, I'm uncertain whether it's melanin or melatonin that controls human sleeping and waking cycles. It is melatonin. Melanin is for skin and hair colour. (Albinos, for example, generally have none.)

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If Your Platinum Grill Isn't Blinding Enough...

...I guess you could always put LED lights in your mouth.

It's not like we have anything better to do than report about it. And think how frightened Großmutter will be!

Developed by Japanese designers Motoi Ishibashi and Daito Manabe, the idea hatched when Ishibashi saw a video of LED throwies, little lights that can be fixed to a magnet and thrown onto metal surfaces, basically the gadget bastard of confetti and graffiti.

The LED smile devices affix easily to teeth and glow different colours when you smile. The colours can be changed wirelessly with a computer interface (as appears above).

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I Guess Now We Know What *I'm* All About.

Full results here. Get your own thread examined on TweetPsych.

It's Just Like in 'Bones'!

We get closer to HoloSuites every day. Objectives for next year: holograms capable of physical stimulus and holograms that are self-aware.

La Nouvelle Tenue de L'Equipe de France de Football

Ce texte est un effort d’amélioration de mon écriture en langue française. Désolée si je vous blesse les yeux...

Cette vidéo des nouveaux maillots de l’équipe de France de football est assez ancienne, mais je suis très impressionnée par l’élégance de sa production:



Je ne sais même pas si j'aime cette nouvelle tenue, mais le fait de traiter chacun de ses composants de manière si délicate est très séduisant. Etre sportif ne veut pas forcement dire qu'on manque de finesse.

Et ensuite, la nouvelle publicité pour Nike "Vive le football libre" dans laquelle on peut voir les maillots dans un contexte plus urbain et réel.

Everything's for Sale. Including the Secret of Banksy.

Quick background on Banksy (via SocialBeat):

Banksy is the pseudonym for a British street artist known for painting traditionally satirical and black humor paintings on the walls of buildings across the world. The artwork relies on a stencil-like style and has become a bit of a cult phenomenon, even spurring the creators of the Simpsons to commission an opening couch gag from the eccentric artist.

Banksy's not a fan of auctioneers of his art, but one particularly clever eBay user, Jaybuysthings, claims he learned Banksy’s identity by matching the prices of his artwork with tax records. He's selling the knowledge to the highest bidder.

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Naomi Klein: Addicted to Risk

I like how Naomi Klein put the BP crisis in perspective here. She's not the first to observe how crazy it is that we watched the earth bleed on a livecam in real-time for months, or to note that what's scarier than that is the carelessness and lack of remorse that precipitated this event in the first place.

But she raises important questions scientists often pose with regard to the way we approach what should be long-term industrial development. Instead of taking those questions into serious consideration, decision-makers usually ask, "What's the latest we can wait?"

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AdVerve Episode 61: A Grand Communications Condom

But will it protect them from pop-ups? Via.

Play the show now.

Theoretical artist Ben Kunz (@benkunz) of Thought Gadgets and Media Associates kicks off the year with us in a conversation about what the cool kids are after: Quora, curation, and a bigger TV in the basement.....?

We also squeeze in some ruminations on the future of the postal service, Netflix and Ben's suspect affinity to the youngest son of the 12 sons of Abraham. Trust us though, it all comes 360° and wraps nice-and-tidy into the title which drew you hither: users manifesting a profound subconscious need for a communications condom.

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'They have a well-balanced diet of sandwiches ... and pens.'

I love Whirled and would marry it if I could, then divorce it three times just so I could marry it four times.

Here's its latest for Law & Order: UK. Bonus: it uses the voiceover actor from our version. You'll learn how the justice system differs on that side of the Atlantic, as well as new words like "copper" ("policeman!") and "mum" ("mom").

It's a little long but you can just feel the glee that went into the scene-mashing. It's infectious and slightly crazed. Also...

Wait for the double rainbow reference!

Scowling in the Dark: The Other Side of Blogging

"“I wanted to bring their intimate worlds to the outside public.”

-Photographer Gabriela Herman to Wired in interview, "Bloggers"

I put this on my scoop.it out of laziness, but afterward I felt that itchy and irritating blogger's "responsibility" to write it up because the topic is so close to me.

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Lipton Does an Incredibly Brisk Machete

In 65 seconds, a Claymation Danny Trejo recaps Machete, complete with lovemaking, a survey of deaths and a suspicious amount of hand-washing. Somehow, amidst all that, it also manages to plug the Machete DVD and tease the upcoming sequel, Machete Kills.

That's brisk, baby! And ripe for lots of other high-on-action films looking for some collabolove.*

Good clean fanboy-fanning work by Mekanism for Lipton Brisk. Share your own Brisk stories at this Facebook page for a chance to win your own Claymation reincarnation.

Hat-tip to AdFreak.

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*I made that one up all on my own!

Heineken Can Make an Entrance.

Now, if only it could make a beer!

This watchable piece with the just-plain-fun factor was orchestrated with masterful ease by Wieden + Kennedy (of course), even if "Open Your World" is, by contrast, clumsy.

Because We're Living a Digital Chase, Too.

"The Chase," Intel's latest for the Core i5 processor, illustrates the speed of its processor with the story of a spy running from gangsters by leaping from application to application - Microsoft Office, YouTube, Facebook, iTunes, Adobe Creative - without a whisper of lag.

It's clever work. But beyond solid execution and a logical relation to the product, it also tells our daily monitor-facing story: we move restlessly from window to window, pivoting to avoid the spectres of lag, while advertisers leap in our heels, alternately chasing us and divining where next we'll go, more often fumbling horribly like those shitty (yet so malevolent!) bandits in Home Alone.

Work by Venables Bell & Partners.

Infographic: Freelancers in the US

In 2006, the Freelancer's Union found that freelancers compose about 1/3 of the American workforce. (The figure remains more or less the same today.)

Image via + reference via.

When Did Mr. Peanut Get So Fit ... and Cocky?

"Tree-athlon" for Planters is the work of directors Ringan Ledwidge (Smuggler) and Mark Gustafson (Laika) for the "Naturally Remarkable" campaign by Being NY (a TBWA baby).

Feels heavily inspired by Old Spice's "Man Your Man Could Smell Like" and Dos Equis' The Most Interesting Man in the World, which both took the stuffy silhouette of a worldly man and turned him into an icon of satire and exaggeration - gracefully preserving the impression of worldliness.

The icons side by side. Doesn't this photo reek of legend ... and the high seas?

Appeal-wise, it gets very close to, but doesn't quite hit, Fantastic Mr. Fox. More importantly, will there really be a Planter's triathlon, or was this just a weak opportunity to pounce on a pun?

Aaand Just for Kicks: 'Braids!' for Pepsico's H2oh!

I love me some oddvertising but this oddity gets extra points for illustrating a universal situation in a sly and witty way. Connection to product is poor (or at least too subtle) but H2oh! will likely build on this with similar creative. Think Skittles but for bevs! Can't wait to see it. Also, hey, throw in some faceless cardboard bodies with braids for photo opps in the drink aisle? A little bit of GET YO' SIMPER FACE OOOOON...?

Just sayin'.

Work by BBDO Argentina.

Sky TV's 3D Outdoor for 3D Programme 'Flying Monsters'

Via Paper Plane.

AdVerve Episode 60: The Cold Eggnog Holiday Edition

Play the show now.

We actually recorded this show early last week but time didn't permit us to post it. Consider this a retreat back to winter break.

(For a proper year-end wrapup, GET YOU SOME BEANCAST! Bob's two-hour special features John Wall, Ken Wheaton and us truly.)

We do a quick run-through of holiday likes and gripes, including agency cards, holiday traditions, films, ads and music. There's also a brief but beefy manifesto on why we hate flashmobs more than anything else made by man.

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Here's a New Take on the Online Job Search Scene.

This soul trauma brought to you by Fallon. And brought to me by the Minneapolis Egotist.

'...The Freedom + Flexibility to Think Beyond Coffee.'

That's the money line in this dull but inoffensive video of Howard Schultz explaining Starbucks' logo redesign.

And here's how I'll explain it.

Starbucks isn't about coffee.* It's a spirit and a vibe. (The "third place" philosophy comes to mind - I still find that special in a time when most anywhere can be your third place.) Today it hocks branded merch, boasts a respectable musical catalogue, and even punts books, gum and coffee liqueur.

And however much it contrives to artsy, we know the truth: Starbucks is candy. It's bubblegum pop masquerading as indie rock. And it's good at it. This logo revamp is the perfect example: that aesthetic is clearly the fruit of a time marr marked by digital badge-hoarding - but it's still unassuming enough that it'll slide by in our periphery, recognisable and accessible as-needed.

Starbucks is wise enough to know that the hive mind is volatile. Transparency's become our religion, and it pays us just enough lip service to accommodate the mildly suspicious. Look at this page a second time: it's the work of a corporation self-consciously aligned to a communications sphere dominated by blogs and YouTube. Everybody's on a first-name basis, graphics appear in a neat little side column, the CEO sits for an unpretentious video...

...and it passes. It's not hurting anybody, it's just wearing fresh makeup. The company experiments just enough to maintain the evolutionary equivalent of a brisk walk (it was among the first to collabo with Foursquare, for example).

Nothing about this strategy is sex, drugs and rock n' roll, but it keeps Starbucks palatable to all but die-hard café purists (and that's cool, they have Grumpy and the Grove). It's not heedlessly stumbling into new channels without watching its step and considering the perception of its brand in the context of the given medium. And that may be boring, but it's smart.

A logo design that lends the "flexibility to think beyond coffee" is a euphemism for something that seems small (the removal of "Starbucks Coffee") but is significant: it liberates Starbucks from the shackles of defining itself as a coffee company in words (a flagrant lie with no feasible future).

The market will always have room for that kind of Starbucks: recognisable, innocuous, just modern enough to speak our language without raising eyebrows, bearing wares that please and support the company culture.

That's a thousand-year survival strategy that outlives the ephemeral idea of definition by product.

UPDATE, 7 January: I have to revise my opinion because of a convo with my homie Robert Gorell. Basically I concluded that Starbucks is synonymous with coffee for a lot of people, which makes the removal of the words all the more powerful: it need not be said. But as I mentioned above, it still liberates Starbucks from an uneasy and restricting marriage exclusively to coffee on the balance sheet.

Hit tip, Adfreak.

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*It did play a leading role in presenting café culture to the American market, but even then it was no caffetteria italiana. It played dress-up, and, captivated, we did too until we got too old. I speculate that this was one factor in the great backlash.

Debtris: The Game of US/UK Debts (Among Other Things)

This data visualisation illustrates expenditures that have contributed to US debt, Tetris-style. It's a fun watch if you like stress.



Note there's a lot of other info in there that's not strictly tied to US debt: Wall St. bonuses in '09 ($115 billion), WalMart's revenue ($405 billion), what it would cost to save the Amazon ($21 billion), and annual donations to charity made by Americans ($308 billion).

Enough randomness to make the name of the video deceptive (if catchy).

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Head-to-Head Holiday Spirit Quantifier.

In all the festivities I damn-near missed this Hot or Not-style holiday spirit quantifier. Burn a couple of minutes easily deciding which is more holiday spirit-y, between options like "sleigh" and "partridge in pear tree." (I admit my head overheated when it asked me to choose between Jersey Shore and David Bowie.*)

Work for and by Heat/SF with grateful nod to Brandtags.net's "Battle mode."

Just one wee way of extending the holiday happy a little bit longer, if only with a moment's procrastination.

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