Through the magic of YouTube, Choose a Different Ending walks you almost seamlessly through a tense scenario between street kids. As it progresses, you get to decide what happens next and how you -- as a character -- will react.
The choose-your-own-adventure model's been used before, notably by Twix, but not this well or for this provocative a cause. We were surprised by how the experience captured our curiosity -- and also by a lot of the endings. (When you elect to talk things out, it's rare that you expect to be gutted like a fish.)
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Those shit-quality YouTube clips, where something extraordinary happens and you're supposed to wonder whether the footage is real, probably feel like the video advertising equivalent of cavepainting to you by now. Sure there've been classics, but by and large we've all evolved, right?
No.
Behold "Dairy Chicken," a piece so square you're left thinking these people knew exactly how lame they were being and just surrendered to their destinies. In it, some guys at a park catch a chicken sipping from somebody's milk glass. (Who brings glasses of milk to the park?) And suddenly the chicken flashes the camera a big toothy smile.
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Instead of imposing changes that everyone inevitably just complains about later, the Chicago Transportation Authority decided to poll city inhabitants to find out how they'd improve the public transport service.
With help from Chicago Now, the entity created a huge street chalkboard where users could kneel down and write their views. Oh yeah, you could also leave opinions on a Chicago Now blog. But given the option between keyboard and chalk, we'd rather be clutching the latter.
Variant photo here.
Ho there. Know what we never get tired of? That retail-superhero crap that Best Buy did with Geek Squad and Dell tried doing with Nerd Buddy.
But that's cool, because this is Sears, and you know they're hurtin' for imagination.
In defense of the Sears Blue Electronics Crew, we will say real-time price-checking is neat if it works the way it does in the ad, and we dig how research-intensive purchases, like a new TV, are made to look like a rest-easy impulse-buy process.
The slogan is equally brief: "Sears: Life. Well Spent."
These are the parts we like. The parts we don't: it's derivative, as usual; the piece is too long; and we feel like they tossed in Brett Farve because a celebrity face will ensure at least some campaign love. Also, did they even do the price comparison before Farve OK'ed the buy?
Nice tie-in with the "waffle" joke though. High-five for that, Y&R/Chicago.
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...I guess that makes sense, although the five spots featured for Discover's new "Get Back" campaign do occasionally, if feebly, try suggesting you can also "get back" buddy time and family time and youth.
But this really all just comes down to buy more shit.
By the nonetheless well-meaning folks at The Martin Agency. The brand isn't strong in the first place; it's only natural that the message be blurry in equal measure.
The Toronto Zoo has completed a brand-new habitat to accommodate the return of its polar bears. No, not sure where they're returning from, but it must've been some awesome digs because their just-finished gilded cage is 10 acres across and outfitted like the Tundra.
To promote the exhibit, Lowe Roche is disseminating this spot in which a square but well-meaning dude mistakes the habitat for the real thing, then penetrates it and goes off in search of adventure and meaning.
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- Twitter's new It Guy: "Tennessee is nice. The first time I vomited was in tennessee, I think." The author -- allegedly a 28-year-old loafer just writing down whatever his 73-year-old dad says -- won over 40,000 followers since yesterday. We smell a deeper story.
- ABSOLUT toasts Boston.
- Fan tribute to Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear. It's like falling down a magic CG-woven rabbit hole. See official music video.
- Outcast changes gears.
- Ouch. We will never text-and-steer again.
- WPP revenue numbers, accompanied by potshots of William Shatner, because that's the way real men read charts.
- Microsoft bleaches for the Polish...?
American Apparel is using YouTube to push a series of tutorials that teach all the different ways you can wear Le Sac, a versatile little sheath with string.
The vids are short, clean and to-the-point. Certainly helps that the demonstrator is easy to look at and listen to. (Can't help going there, but we speculate whether the Infamous Dov ever tried copping a feel. It's an unpleasant thought.)
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If you've ever played a massive multiplayer online game -- or at least watched that one episode of South Park -- then you're well-versed in the frustrations of laggage.
Lag is when you're in a crucial scenario in the game, but a crappy connection speed leaves your character in a vulnerable position just long enough to compromise you and your team.
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Danica deserted for the watch hustle. Just weeks later, GoDaddy's taken to deluging press boxes with potshots of its new It Girl: Erin Kalin.
Unless the company's planning a cruel media deflowering, don't expect many shower videos in the near future. Her premiere video is labeled, "She's Hot, She Sings, She's a Mom!" -- and we wouldn't advise you watch it unless you want to hear honey harp on about her idyllic church upbringing and how it's so neat that she's a singer now, because, gosh, she's just always wanted to be one. And look at the kids! The adorable kids!
In the event that you're deaf, can't see children and have X-ray eyes, GoDaddy takes great care to label the home-grown country shlock under "Warning: GoDaddy-esque content!"
Stalk Erin on Twitter. (Given her follower count of a whoppin' 47, you'd probably make Bob's day.) Prerequisite: high tolerance for emoticons.
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