Anyone can build a pulsejet or turbojet engine
May 17, 2007
November 01, 2005
Bravia
"In an age when CGI is commonplace, this makes the commercial all the more extraordinary. Every single frame was shot over two days - with the main sequence involving a 23-man camera crew and only one chance to get it right.
An entire block was closed off and special compressed-air cannons shot the balls into the air, while earth moving equipment poured thousands down the street. Not that you'd know it from the finished product, but these balls can do some damage, so all the cars were props and crew members went so far as to having protective shields and crash helmets.
But when you get it right, you get it right. The goal at the beginning was to deliver a "really simple, visual celebration of colour". We think you'll agree the results speak for themselves."
October 28, 2005
Tag Camp
Tag Camp is an open, welcoming event for geeks to camp out overnight, get wired on Halloween candy and think really fast about tagging, its applications, and implications. It’s like Tag Tuesday but instead it's at Commercenet's beautiful Palo Alto office (490 S. Calif. Ave), featuring luxurious showers. Yes, that's right, with little fishies on the shower curtains too!
September 22, 2005
Noodles
Starting next month, Nissin Food Products will shoot a promotional spot on the International Space Station for Cup Noodle, featuring a sales pitch by a hungry Russian cosmonaut. The commercial will air in Japan in November as part of Nissin's "Cup Noodle No Border" campaign,.
Space Films will send a high-def camera to the space station aboard a Russian rocket launch Oct. 1 and direct the filming from Russia's Mission Control Center outside Moscow.
If you're looking for extraterrestrial publicity, the agency will be leaving the camera at the space station in the hope of shooting more advertisements.
September 20, 2005
Bumvertising
Advertising using the homeless-- the site claims they are giving these people jobs and incomes, which is true, but why the degrading term "Bumvertising?" An interesting idea, but obviously the brains behind the site aren't the brightest...
June 29, 2005
The Advertised Mind: Groundbreaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising
A new book by Erik Du Plessis. 
"Backstory Du Plessis got his start as a 30-year-old media director of BBDO South Africa. After four years of hard-knocks tutelage, he graduated to his own research company, Impact Information. It was there that du Plessis had the epiphany that led to The Advertised Mind. "I realized that neurologists weren't reading what we'd done," he says, "and we weren't reading what they'd done."
What we liked Measurement of advertising effectiveness is in demand, and this book helps both creatives and accountants deal with it. Du Plessis ably guides readers through rougher spots with unabashed frankness ("At this stage, I want you to start thinking about brands.")
What to say to sound like you've read it The best way to predict an ad's success is to test its likability. "Ad-liking" -- more than relentless repetition or slickness -- is the most direct means of getting people to remember and take action. "--Fast Company
June 28, 2005
The Nike Major Threat Saga
Here's the story: Nike SB (skateboarding) has an East Coast tour event. To promote it, they "appropriated" the classic 1984 Minor Threat album cover and the straight edge "XXX" symbol but remade it to say "Major Threat" and discreetly peppered it with swooshes. Aside from the irony that many see Nike as a "Major Threat" to the independent roots of skateboarding, Nike never asked permission from Dischord records or any members of Minor Threat to use the image. A small uproar ensued among hardcore fans, straight edgers, leftists, and many others who were very concerned about a global corporate supergiant using an image from a band that would never ever support anything Nike is doing.
Pitchfork Media broke with an article here.
Dischord Records issued a statement on the news section of their site: "To longtime fans and supporters of Minor Threat and Dischord this must seem like just another familiar example of mainstream corporations attempting to to assimilate underground culture to turn a buck. However it is more disheartening to us to think that Nike may be successful in using this imagery to fool kids, just beginning to becoming familiar with skate culture, underground music and DIY ideals, into thinking that the general ethos of this label, and Minor Threat in particular, can somehow be linked to Nike's mission. In any regard, we would like to thank the many people who have written to us in the last several days to express their outrage, support and encouragement."
Nike replies with this letter, assuring that the poster was designed for skaters by Nike SB employees who are both skaters and fans of Minor Threat. Was it appropriate for Nike to appropriate this iconic album cover, even if actual hardcore fans/skateboarders did design it? Is this a case where the employees of Nike SB, who realistically are skateboarders and Minor Threat fans, have actually felt heat because they decided to go corporate? It is obvious there would have been little controversy if it was any other skate company but Nike that did this. Nevertheless, the saga will continue, and apologies and retractments have been made. This is a good example of a corporation stepping too deep into an underground culture- and being rejected.
The original cover is below:
Thanks to Superfuture boards for the reporting.
June 27, 2005
Cops go Viral
Canadian police are taking a new approach to deterring car theives, and this one looks very effective. "Bait cars" are GPS-tracked vehicles that are meant to be stolen- the engine can be disabled by officers with the click of a mouse button. To our delight, they are also equipped with audio and visual surveillance devices, capturing the entire incident on video to be posted on their website- Baitcar.com. Now anyone can take a firsthand glimpse into a criminal's ill fated vehicular excursion and revel in the thrill of wreckless joyriding and nail-biting police chases. The slow server attests to the unplanned traffic that the site is experiencing after the link has spread like wildfire-- but these police officers unknowingly creating a new viral classic and a formula that out-entertains "Cops." I expect a BaitCar TV show within the next year.
March 30, 2005
What's Next for Apple??
Those are the future iPod product images which is designed by Robert Brunner, "who was Apple's chief designer from 1989 to 1996 and who oversaw the design of PowerBook line, among many other hit products."
It's fun to imagine that those products will be produced in the near future.
http://www.business2.com/b2/web/photoessay/0,21937,1039453-1,00.html
March 11, 2005
Top Corporate Hate Web Sites
Forbes.com lists the best corporate hate websites created by angry consumers. Many obviously cross the line into self-indulgent, attention-whoring drivel, but regardless these sites are wildly popular and causing a little stir among the companies targeted- unless they are just too big to ever care. In that case, at least the administrators of the hate site can bask in their pseudo-webfame and do stupid things like make videos of them blowing up a Wal-Mart compilation CD with home-made explosives...
