gross microsoft zune ad
(via buzzfeed)
(thanks, Aaron)
You will most certainly be forgiven
if you happen to think, during the first couple of seconds of the TV ad for Crayola’s Magic Light Brush (did I remember that name correctly?), that a slightly off-kilter version of Tyrannosaurus Rex’s “Debora” is cranking up. (Unfortunately you, like me, will be wrong.)
“a little sashay through the past”
. . . my friend titled the message bearing this photo from 1973.
I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now.
His name is “Chet.”
Wassup 2008
Pop Down Project
The Pop Down Project has templates for stickers to create your own meatspace pop-up windows. (via Quips)
Regular Folk
Okay, so, I watched the Obamamerical in its entirety last night, and I thought it was generally very well done (though, unlike the punditry, I thought the hand off to the live broadcast was clumsily handled and that establishing shot of the arena in Florida showed way more empty space than we should’ve seen and don’t even get me started about the fact that it was in standard definition…), and I really like Senator Obama quite a bit, but here’s my question:
Are you like me? Do you just not even give half a shit about all the real-life stories of real-life people that are always profiled in political ads and speeches and what not? I mean, I really just tune it out. Who. Cares.
Is that just me?
(Watch the Obamamercial in its entirety, after the jump…)
accompanying screenshot
automotive pareidolia
People like cars that look angry and aggressive.
Consumers prefer cars to be angry-looking and dominant. That’s the official word from a team at the University of Vienna after studying a group of male and female volunteers. Each were asked to rate the design features on 38 passenger cars introduced between 2004 and 2006. After rating the vehicle’s physical traits, the researchers asked if the subjects saw “faces” (it’s a phenomenon called “pareidolia”) in the vehicles’ appearances. Lastly, they asked participants which cars in the group they preferred.
Interestingly enough, the more a vehicle bore characteristics appearing mature, dominant, masculine, arrogant, and angry-looking, the better the research subjects liked the cars. While the study didn’t correlate actual sales figures with implied vehicle attitudes, it does add credence to the fact that emotion sways consumers towards certain models and adds yet another meaning to the familiar mid-cycle “facelift.”
Adjacent strip mall signs
“Lily’s Bridal Wear”
“Elite Fighting Academy”
Diesel Viral XXX SFW Porn Video
(thanks, Aaron. via the very chronicles)
Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male
Sasha Baron Cohen was escorted from a fashion show in Milan on Friday.
After a few minutes of darkness while Baron Cohen, or Bruno, was escorted off the catwalk, the show started again. Models had kept their cool but the designer was visibly upset when she appeared at the end of the show.
spoiler alert
The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza notes that an ad proclaiming “McCain wins debate!” was already running on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site Friday morning. (A screen shot of the page can be seen here.) The reader who tipped Cillizza also saw a second ad that contained a quote from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis: “McCain won the debate — hands down.”
via Salon
Women At The Grocery Store…
…who annoyed me yesterday.
(camera phone snaps)
endorphin branding
A marketer proposes a new approach to campaigning.
Endorphin branding is the use of scent as a means of imprinting a highly emotional, positive experience in tandem with a targeted signature scent, which can be reintroduced at a later time to trigger and recreate the desired response. This strategy should be implemented at political events, which are positively charged environments ripe for this type of scent branding.
This presidential election has already seen historic, innovative campaign efforts, particularly Senator Obama’s use of the Internet to raise funds and communicate his messages. A multi-faceted, scented campaign could provide the edge one of these candidates needs to help gain victory in November.
What does the current administration smell like?
I’m a Mac & a PC
SIgma902 combined the new I’m a PC commercials with an old I’m a Mac commercial.
Poll: McCain Old and White, Obama Young and Black
“We accumulate plenty of raw data,” said thirty-year veteran statistician Nelson Temple of Scranton, PA, “even when we don’t embroider reality with made up bullshit. The tough part is making sense of it.”
“This week,” he continued, “49% of those surveyed indicate Governor Sarah Palin is not as hot as they first thought, yet 47% are convinced she is hotter than ever. With a 3% margin of error, what am I supposed to do with that?”
the end of Honda’s musical highway
Honda grooved a section of California highway to play the William Tell Overture when cars drove over it.
If distracting drivers on a two-lane highway isn’t bad enough, pissing off the neighbors puts this marketing ploy in the Hall of Shame. Some area residents said the music sounded like a high pitched drone, while others said it kept them up at night. City officials acknowledge that the misguided marketing campaign has to end, and the melodious stretch of highway is being paved over ASAP.
Evidence below.
maybe they aren’t exactly the same
Alex Koppelman says something I’ve been thinking:
At least Bush sticks stubbornly to his guns and talking points, refusing to say the easy or convenient thing when it suits him. I’m starting to think McCain will say anything, promise anything, associate with anyone (whether as running mate or endorser) to win this election.
Purveyors of fine automobiles
Via Photoshop Disasters–but it ain’t.
see below
(thanks, Arnold)
Schtock.com might be an Elaborate Viral Campaign
The Denver Egotist is arguing that Schotck was a viral campaign, turns out the number on the Schotck site isn’t a phone number since 42 isn’t an international country code (something they missed, however, is that 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything). So, they used that number to search for stock photos on a number of stock photo sites with no results until they found Corbis:
Candidates Waging Battle of Quotes, Sources Say
New York, NY — It’s never been more difficult to separate whining from substance. America’s 2008 presidential race is fully engaged, but truth and credibility are not.
The road to the White House is littered with the corpses of shattered reality and common decency — casualties of one of the ugliest, nastiest major U.S. elections since 2004.
Talkies
The vocal track on a third of the commercials is off for some reason. We are hearing music, but no words. It’s kind of awesome.
Coming Out the Nose
I just saw a TV ad for Flomax that noted possible side effects of “runny nose and a decrease in semen.”