It's with relief that we can say successful online videos have evolved from the astroturf amateur days.
But Samsung must've been sick when that memo went out -- it's still stuck on that low-budget "Is it real? Can't be!" crap.
In its latest online effort, "Awesome computer comes to life," a woman at a trade show stops by the booth for Samsung's new mini-Notebook, the N310. Two Notebooks, side by side, boast the two lamest faux features imaginable: some kind of hologram effect, and the ability to give life to mischievous putty people.
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Okay, not really genetic modification.
The other day we came across this supersized contact lens ad on MySpace. The banner lets users swap the eye colours of the featured model, and even change the model herself. Choose from ethnically unambiguous options like Gabriela (at left), Jada and Kate.
You can also upload a picture of yourself, the better to gauge how to improve on nature with pupil shades in Sterling Gray, Brilliant Blue and Gemstone Green.
We were all, "Ooh! Engagement features!" -- a trite enough inclusion, but certainly worth a few minutes' distraction. Hopefully one day we'll be able to customize our children this way.
And that's all Intel has to say about that. Oh, and as an addendum: "Our rock stars aren't like your rock stars" -- which is also the name of this campaign, which we so far think is fantastic, because we're members of the Revenge of the Nerds! techieverse.
Big thankee to Adrants reader David for this bad-boy.
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- Chanel and Audrey Tautou's adlicious love affair brings the sin of envy out in rivals. Christian Dior fights back with Lady Dior, featuring the darkly glamorous Marion Cotillard, who played Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.
- This makes us want pest control.
- THE HARVEY MILK MEMORIAL GAYEST CELEBRITY TWITTER AWARDS.
- Kindle 9 XXXD har har. This spoof tries a little hard in our opinion.
- Starbucks courts social media scene with print ad effort.
- Daft Punk leaps upon the piracy parade -- offering a remix album, Human After All, as a free download at participating blogs. (Each blog hosts one track.)
- Something about oh, what the fuck.
ArnoldNYC partnered with Stardust Studios to develop "A State of Mouth," a bizarre :15 spot in which a friendly-enough-looking guy pops an icebreaker into his mouth and turns into some psychedelic spaghetti-headed Picasso thing.
The last frame is especially WTFtastic -- dude appears to be crying icicles.
We do not understand. It was neat watching the animation eat his face though. That's some seriously magic clown makeup.
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Samsung enlists the head of the Osbourne household yet again to debut its Jack personal assistant handset.
In the spot, Ozzy makes almost-funny jokes about how the phone is more attuned to his needs than previous human assistants, which respectively had hearing problems (for obvious reasons) and kept odd hours (the daytime ones).
It is surprisingly not horrible. But in the event that brands race out right now with a mad hankering to book a seat on the Ozzy train, we're at pains to remind you he's got a full docket: World of Warcraft's already aboard, plus Samsung's planning still more spots.
The one-time dauphin-of-Darkness must be a helluva prince to work with.
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After 20 years of riding its existing array of brands, Mars introduces a new candy bar: the Fling, a skinny, "shimmering" (wait, what?) 85-calorie chocolate "finger" whose packaging is hot pink and whose creative invites you to "pleasure yourself."
Just not beyond a PG-13 rating. We just watched the first-ever ad, the first 15 seconds of which gave us that embarrassed schoolgirl flush: two pairs of legs in a dressing room, making motions and noises as if they're doing The Do.
The camera pans over the tops of the rooms, revealing the frisky couple is not a couple at all. The man is in a separate room, grunting as he struggles with clothing that's two sizes too small; and the woman, who's finished shimmying into a tiny dress, moans with quiet glee as she collapses into a seat and pleasures herself with one of Fling's, uh, fingers.
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US Cellular launched a really neat program called Battery Swap. If you're on the road without a charger and your phone's dying, or your battery is just really crappy in general, visit a US Cellular store to exchange your old or uncharged battery for a new one -- at no charge.
To promote the program, Publicis & Hal Riney went diving in the generic mascot bargain bin. The result of that pursuit is a poindexterish robot character who dances and slaughters multi-generational slang
(*shakes head sadly*) How far some robots fall while others penetrate untold heights of stardom.
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Brunton promotes its futuristic camping gear (grills, solar panels and the like) by riffing off imagery that looks suspiciously like the covers of paperback science fiction novels -- particularly those of the Asimov persuasion.
The hope is to tie all those chromey, multi-use bells and whistles back to nature, which is what camping's all about, really. (Why pack the oil lanterns when you have JETPACKS?!!!) Work by Cultivator Advertising & Design/Denver; variants here and here.
- Strobey Audi D7 ads.
- Middle-agers inflate Hulu 490%.
- More BeanCast shenanigans: "Johnny Wall!"
- Contemplating Wolfram|Alpha.
- Something about pumping iron. And also furniture.
- Leonard Nimoy talks origins of the Vulcan salute. (*swoon*). Via @ChristopherY.
- Mob mentality invades social media. (Wait a sec ... aren't they kinda the same thing?)
- Doner CEO Barry Levine retires.
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