To advertise its 100 percent whole-wheat pizzas, Papa John's flattened about six acres' worth. The delectable crop circle at left was created in a wheat field in Commerce City, so in- and outbound Denver International passengers can get a nice big eyeful of pie in the sky.
For those that may find this particularly inspirational, a company called Circlemakers specializes in producing crop circles for brand names. Clients have included Microsoft, Nike, Greenpeace (nothin' like a single serving of in-flight guilt), Hello Kitty, BP, and The History Channel. Oh yeah, and there's also Ad-Air, a gigantorama billboard maker that's infinitely less creative than a crop circle, but it could probably cover up a bad wheat-shaving nick with ease.
Many thanks to Keith at HR Bartender for the Papa John's tip.
When you were little, did you ever make a time capsule with your friends and promise to come back to look at it in five years? Ten years? 15 years? No? Neither did I but millionaire, founder of NCSoft and creator of the game Tabula Rasa Richard Garriott is spending $30 million to be the sixth private citizen to fly into space and leave a digital time capsule behind. On his trip to the Space Station, he will take a flash drive full of information submitted by anyone who chooses to enter the Operation Immortality contest.
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Who knew? She was old when I was a kid but apparently, she's still alive and well and hangin' with the chimps. Or at least helping Green Mountain Coffee Roasters preserve chimpanzee habitats in Tanzania's Gombe National Park. The effort aims to lessen area farmer's economic difficulties and to end the clear cutting or forests. Oh, and to make sure the region can continue to make coffee so Green Mountain can continue to make money.
Adrants reader Atif sent us Delta's new airline safety video. It's all slick production and jammed with in-flight classics:
o A hot pilot
o A distractingly hot spokes-stewardess (Dubbed "Deltalina" by the Flyertalk forum geeks, for her similarity to Angelina Jolie)
o The requisite forced enthusiasm for the 5 minutes of life-saving schlock we've heard 30382943908453908 times
o The "No Smoking" finger wave
o An Orbit tooth glisten, complete with sound effects (wait for it!)
The spot felt gimmicky because it was gimmicky. But maybe there's genius in thinking a formulaic safety video can win back some groove with a commercial tribute feel.
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Think a :60 ad is pushing the limit? That's a speck on Dubai's extra-large ad landscape.
To promote its new non-stop route from Dubai to Sao Paolo, Fly Emirates has launched the world's longest ad to match the 14 hour 40 minute flight time.
Called Non-Stop Fernando, the web push features Sao Paolo native Fernando Ferreira, raving about all things Brazil in a single 14 hour and 40 minute take.
Fernando was kind enough to load a trailer on YouTube. He also provided a log of topics -- ranging from dancing Bossanova to Brazilian cooking -- so ADD-impaired flyers can cut right to the "good" stuff.
Think billboards are intrusive now? Wait until they blemish your picturesque descent of the SF peninsula or the eastern coastline. Our homie Chad just told us about Ad-Air, whose purpose in life is to give us "bird's-eye billboards" along the flight paths of the world's busiest airports.
And because you'll be way above ground when you happen to be scanning it for something pretty to look at, the ads will be about five acres each - about four football fields across.
The billboards will be hoisted onto temporary framing and are virtually "invisible" from the ground. Expect to see the first few this October in Dubai - of course. Any country that can afford to bring snow to the desert will probably leap at the chance to swallow all the advertising it can get.
Bird's-eye billboards. God damn. Do you imagine this is what crop circles are for?
We can't always choose our in-flight seatmates and in a crowded airport it's only wishful thinking to imagine we can control our surroundings. Sony reminds us of this ongoing state of quiet angst with the new print series for their cheaper-than-Bose, noise-mumming headphones. Here's a male variant.
We think the campaign is fair considering they only recently decided to wake their marketing department up from a long slumber. They were on shaky footing for awhile as demonstrated here and here. We're sure we'll see more interesting work from Sony as time marches on. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
There really is no end to the places advertising hasn't, but in the future, could appear. Writing on Ironic Sans, David, while admitting it's not a good idea but acknowledging the financial benefits it could bring to a struggling industry, advocates the inevitable consideration of airplane storage bins as an advertising medium. Noting the inside of a plane is one of the last remaining ad-free zones, David claims the ad revenue might lead to the return of good food on airplanes, reduced ticket fares and something to stare at rather than the passenger across the aisle. It's going to happen. There's already tray table ads.
Just short of being force fed advertising while doing a stint in prison, Alaska Airlines has decided it's OK to require passengers to endure promotions read over the intercom by flight attendant. This time, passengers were encouraged to sign up for a Bank of America Visa card. With cell phone usage and Internet access soon to be the norm inflight, it's enough to make pulling the emergency door handle and jumping out a better travel option.
Just as soon as we think advertising has reached the final frontier of saturation, America West now offers tray table advertising. Now with you uncomfortable seat on the flight, you can now be exposed to yet another ad from yet another company you will probably never buy anything from.
America West has sold advertising, which will begin to appear December 15, on its entire fleet of 142 planes to advertisers such as Visa, Mercedes-Benz, The History Channel and Bank of America. Executives say selling ads will help keep fares low. I say take it further. Plaster the entire interior and exterior of the plane and make marketers pay for airfare as they do for television programming. For free airfare, most people would put up with it. Sadly, that will never happen. Airlines will simply keep fares the same and still allow advertising to creep onto other areas of the plane. As an advertiser, I love it. As a consumer, I hate it.
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