Hollywood-based Image Metrics which has done special effects and animation for several Harry Potter Films and Grand Theft Auto released a demo illustrating the realistic quality of their animation technology. The person in this video from the company is not a real person. Her face is an animation.
It's very lifelike. And who needs a whining, demanding actor when you can just program one instead? Everyone says geeks will inherit the earth. With this technology, it seems they just might. Right from their keyboards.
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Photographer: Jessica, can you unsnap one more button for me?
Jessica: Like this?
P: Yea. Now put your left hand on the bale of hay...
J: What's a bale of hay?
P: Uh...it's that rectangular, straw-like thing...
J: Rectang...oh...like that square thing?
P: No, the rec...never mind. Yea, the square thing.
J: Like this?
P: Yea. Now lean left, sit up straight and stick your chest out.
J: You want to see my boobs?
P: Well, yes....uh...sorry...I mean no. I mean I...yea...no...just some cleavage.
J: Is this good?
P: Just a little bit more?
J: But the next button might pop open..wouldn't that be too much boob?
P: Girl, there's no such thing as too much boob...except this is an ad...not a Playboy shoot.
J: They're 34D, you know
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"Everyone has something to reveal. They just need to be unbuttoned," Levi's croons, crowning its "Unbuttoned" campaign for the classic 501 jeans with "spoonfuls of soul and swagger" (I just love that line). On personal subsites, three artists -- Estelle, Nikka Costa and Wale -- describe why they became musicians and pass on a free track for users to download.
Each MP3 has a different sound, but they all feel big and breezy. (Slightly off-topic, isn't it nice to see so many companies share downloadable ear candy? It's like trick-or-treating, except with iTunes instead of a pillowcase.)
Music isn't all Levi's is baring. Other celebs with something to share include the adorable Jamie Bestwick, who's giving away a free BMX video, and there's a Perez Hilton giveaway coming in September. (They gave us the link, but it's still doorknob-dead.) What Perez is giving away I'm sure I don't know, considering his two cents always come free.
This Zappos spot, where a smiling courier hand-delivers a little bit of happy to customers in a small neighborhood, is infectiously charming.
I like how it brings the brand offline and makes it feel down-home and local: it's your friendly online shoe conglomerate! This approach would ring disingenuous for most internet giants, but Zappos has a coupla things going for it:
1) Getting a package in the mail gives people warm tinglies.
2) Its service really is just that good. The first time I placed an order with Zappos, the shoes didn't fit, and they sent a replacement pair even before I returned the old ones. "Just drop them in the mailbox whenever you can," the rep said (I could hear him smiling!), and boy did that feel nice. Cartwheel-nice, even.
Read more about Zappos' ad efforts riiiiiiiight here.
Ooh, ooh, new time-wasting website. The makers of I Can Has Cheezburger?, home to many LOLcats, have launched Engrish Funny. And yeah, it's exactly what you think it is: random pictures of really crappy Asian-English translations. Diggin' the Domo favicon and rating system.
Channel 4 enlisted London-based doctor Farrah Jarral and filmmaker Masood Khan to discover what it calls "the sunnier side of Islam." (Not to be confused for the Sunnier Side of Truth, which is slightly more musical.) The pair went out to meet 500 men named Osama over the course of 50 days. Each was asked the question, "What do you love?"
This Osama loves freedom and that Osama loves life, family, photography, friends, snow, skate, surf, music, art, "being me" and flashing gangsta-gangsta peace signs.
See more at the Osama Loves website. This one is probably my favorite. He ought to be bearing a sign that screams "Osama loves CUTE OVERLOAD!"
Or not.
To harvest new users, Canadian wireless firm Fido deployed white male and female figures -- refugees of rebel bathroom signs? -- across Toronto. They've appeared as chalk art, or hanging from trees, and recently as big-ass balloon dolls, quietly coaxing viewers to text 411 to 10987.
The effort's been toted as the first Canadian use of "flogos" -- flying logos.
Rubberneckers that text 411 to 10987 get invitations to upcoming "Fido Sessions." Some, like the Art Sessions, seem infinitely cooler than the guerrilla campaign itself. See artist The Dark put up some wheatpaste art from an Art sesh. (Why Fido wants to teach art, I don't know, but if it keeps those crazy kids with knives off the streets...)
Organized by Bos, Toronto, which previously did a really neat thing for Fido where billboards threw snowballs at each other.
Planned Parenthood Ohio is using a stodgy, responsible-looking older woman to rationalize its newest campaign, "The A-Word," which from what I can tell is made up of one video and an "Abstinence" graphic in smudgy Courier. Two of the tabs, "Affordability" and "Advocacy," are still "Coming Soon..."
The site was put together by Eisen Management Group, who argues "Planned Parenthood has been characterized in a largely false and negative light for far too long" -- that is, as champions for sex, however safe, but not abstinence.
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In partnership with modeling firm IMG, Bebo's launching yet another web series called Model.Live, whose tagline, "Reality TV just got real," rings a little, well, hollow. (In its defense, episode 1 -- which consisted mainly of serious, sleepy conversation between the people representing these models -- was just dull enough to convince me it's real shit.)
The show aims to reveal the truth about how professional models live. And it's not all coke and parties. These girls field degrading commentary and make dramatic, career-altering decisions every day. Sadly, no Mama Tyra can stand over their shoulders and guide them gently to a Victoria's Secret contract.
The 12-episode series follows three wannabe-supermodels from NYC's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week to Milan, Paris and Elsewhere. It went live yesterday on Bebo and Vogue.tv. Clothing company EXPRESS -- a brand that's long affiliated itself with the runway by sole merit of its Muzak -- is sponsoring. Every week, it will air the models' responses to featured questions from fans.
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