AMEX Urges People to Become Creepy Avatars, Sing Karaoke

Trying to capitalize on the success OfficeMax has had with ElfYourself, American Express' new Holiday Rockstar campaign invites users to turn themselves into one of Oddcast's "virtual characters."

If you're not familiar, Oddcast creates those creepy characters whose eyes follow your cursor and start blabbing away without first asking permission.

Though songs from Mariah Carey's holiday album are strangely missing, the service also allows you to sing one of three holiday songs by calling a number. You can then send your holiday greeting to a loved one, most likely resulting in uncomfortable laughter.

However, when we tried uploading two different headshots, it ended in the window crashing, immediately evoking the disastrous SimpsonizeMe tool. Good thing there are back-up characters.