I have this cousin, Dave, who spends every Thanksgiving prancing around and telling everyone to get him gift cards from a strict selection of stores, otherwise "I'LL RETURN YOUR PRESENT AND CALL YOU CHEAP!" after Christmas.
Seriously. We're in our mid-twenties and he still does this.
One year, to curb expenses following a rabbit-like baby boom, the family held a Secret Santa and I was unfortunate enough to draw his name. After ferreting me out with admirable speed, he spent the next three weeks SMS-bombing me with potentially awesome gift options.
When the holidays roll around, there are few things I want to do less than shop for Dave.
The Ungiftables by Cafepress is a site for exactly these people. Who's the bane of your list? Critical Mother-in-Law? Emo Nephew? Flip-Flop Wearing Liberal Activist Uni Brat?
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To better equip users for that awkward mistletoe moment, makeup purveyor Sephora launched MistletoeMakeover. Upload your face and watch with glee while the internets hoochie you up.
At left is the perennially-demure Alex Bogusky in Santa's Little Temptress mode. (Steve Hall is arguably prettier though. Also, he winks, which gave me the most delicious chills.) Other potentially traumatic beautification options include O Tannen-Babe, Smokey Sugar Plum and Merry Berry.
If for some odd reason one of these looks puts you in impulse-buy-mode, hit "Get This Look" and snap up promo code KISSorWINK. Turn it in at Sephora.com for free lashes or a lipstick sample with a purchase.
Be quick! Like your youth, mistletoe wilts.
By EVB/San Francisco in conjunction with TAAZ.
As the holiday season draws near, marketers are rolling out holiday offerings and McDonald's is no exception. With its McCafe Make Your Own Coffee-Ring Snowflake site, visitors can get all festive and create their own floating masterpiece. All in the name of promoting McDonald's various holiday lattes and cappuccinos.
Get started early this season and make a flake.
- Massive inked a multi-year, in-game ad deal with THQ. So far, the only game that will for certain feature dynamic advertising is Saints Row 2.
- Queen Rania of Jordan has won the first-ever YouTube Visionary award for her daily videocast. I kind of love her.
- Six Apart has launched something called the TypePad Journalist Bailout Program. Under it, about 30 ex-bloggers or journalists will receive a free TypePad Pro account, tech support, representation on Blogs.com and auto-enrollment into Six Apart's ad network. 300 applications were received in less than two weeks.
- "Diddy is so Sarah Palin."
- Close-up on crotchvertising.
- New buzz word: sexting! Almost as fun as nuggnut. (Click on "Nuggnut pledge" for awesome brainwashing action.)
Victoria's Secret Pink Collegiate represents everything wrong (but sellable!) about college: bright-eyed, gum-popping sorority girls that coordinate dog leashes to their shoes, non-merit-based exclusivity (unless heart-shaped hickeys count), high-pitched voices, strawberry blondes, fruity body spray, polka dots, and pink.
Victoria's Secret recently gave unrepresented schools the chance to join the Pink Collegiate Collection -- a pupil-dilating clothing line sporting Pinkified uni logos and mascots. Probably for the above-mentioned reasons, a passel of hackers decided to have their way with the system.
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Somewhat kludgy and epilepsy-inducing, DraftFCB, with help from Grow Interactive, is out with a new website for the Motorola Krave ZN4, a flip phone with a clear top that's supposed to marry the benefits of a flip phone with a touch screen phone.
The site profiles six people from various walks of life. How this relates to the phone is unclear but you'll learn about camping, bee wrangling, nocturnal mixing, sole searching, jewelry design, tennis mentoring...and the importance of a second pair of underwear. All very important stuff.
One of my favourite things to do during down-time is take personality quizzes that aggrandize me in some show-offable way. What movie are you? Which Sex and the City Character are You Most Like? Rate Your Dating Style!
And given how many MySpace bulletins composed of Q & A's with self-excusing titles like "soooo b0red!" or "stolen from sheila" I get in a day, it's clear I'm not alone in this inclination.
Which is why this quiz on TakeTakeTake.ca was so exciting: "What's Toronto's Take on You?" It was like, oh snap, I never realized my city would have an opinion about where I belong in its gleaming array of subcultures and whatnot.
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- Tom Messner on web two-dot-oh: "TV was still social medium in 1965 as people gathered around it; nobody gathers around the Internet unless you think that everyone is gathering around it at any time." Read more up-close with Hustle Knockin'. (V-via.)
- Twitter waves $500 million in Facebook stock off the table.
- Montreal-based Sid Lee opens doors where we all wish we could: in Amsterdam!
- "Oh, haven't you heard of Glah-day?" Someone finally speaks out about those Godforsaken Glade Scented Candles ads.
- George Parker will host your Second Life wedding if you promise to pass him some dirt on Enfatico.
- Google lets you customize search results.
- Planning to die? Don't forget to switch on the webcam.
- Shepard Fairey discusses his work and his design agency, Studio Number One, in a video interview.
This past Saturday night, YouTube held its YouTube Live event sponsored by Virgin, Flip, Lionsgate and Guitar Hero. The event, broadcast live from Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, included performances from Tay Zonday, will.i.am, Katy Perry, Joe Satriani, Bo Burnham, Michael, Buckley, Lisa Nova, Beardyman and many more. It was a geek fest to end all geek fests. But where was LonelyGirl16? Gary Brolsma? Syncsta (Barbie Girl, What is Love, Numa Numa, Ballroom Blitz Celebrate)? Tron? And all those other YouTube geeks?
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