Real—or real lame?

I've been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks. And in light of the previous post (that I think is a fabulous example of this technique being done the right way), I tender this counter example.



It's faker than the "Hey, I'm looking for something sweet that doesn't mess with my workout" faux-mercials in The Biggest Loser.

The snowboarder? Don't ya think he's miked a little too well.
But he said "@#$%," it must be real. Yeah right.
But he tripped. Poorly performed in IMNSHO.

How do I know for sure? My sister is the chick in the scarf about 3/4 way through. She's an improv comedian in Denver hired to "create excitement" in the crowd. Her boyfriend froze his @$$ off for hours as one of the network drones.

Lame concept + thousands of dollars in production costs = lame with extra lame sauce and a side of lamey mclame.

'Ello From Liverpool

This little advert will make you get up and dance

Top 25 Reasons Why Ad Agencies Should Start a Blog

Someone I follow on Twitter posted this article, which I found semi-relevant to a conversation the boys were having about our Web site.

Read it.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Remember those old alternate ending stories of years ago?

Meet the YouTube version.



(Hat tip: The ubiquitous Andrew Sullivan)

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

And this, B****ES, is what magic looks like.

From Jane Kramer's email (edited for brevity and my emphasis):

"Recently we produced a brand new ad for club car that will be taking our Honor The Game concept to the next level.

The visual of this ad is a club car semi truck traveling down a highway with a beautiful landscape surrounding it. It is our flagship image for this new campaign and the theme of upcoming tradeshows. using the truck as an icon for strength, reliability and dependability we are illustrating how club car is "Up to the Challenge" during these tough times for the golf industry.

With little money and no time to go shoot we found an amazing solution (by accident!!) that I find unbelievable. Originally we were going to use a stock shot and retouch it because of time issues.... But most importantly time was THE issue as the PGA show begins tomorrow and we needed to do a huge banner for their trade show booth. It was due three days after we got the assignment.

A traditional retoucher vendor of mine led me to a man named jesse zamjahn. I believe he is from wisconsin but currently lives and works in france. He does retouching/3D imaging/CGI and digital illustration. He takes 360 degree 3D models and makes them look like photographs. He places them on backgrounds for which he also has 360 degrees of options to choose from. His work is amazing and the added bonus was that because of the time change in france he would work while we were sleeping and I would always have something first thing in the morning to look at. Distance was actually a plus! We did all our work back and forth through email, ftp and ichat.

It went incredibly smoothly. He found the exact model of truck that club car uses, I picked a background and angle of the background that I liked. I picked the sky I wanted. My club car candy store! The rest is what you will see. Can you tell I'm excited about it? Anyway...

Check it out. And check out his entire site: www.pixteur.com. All the car shots you see are fake! They are 3D models that he can make look real.
It blows my mind."

(Hat tip: Jane Kramer @ NS)

Interesting art in NYC

I think it's brilliant that someone thought to do art over the subway!
@

Get Faced? Or Tweeted?

Been trying to figure this out myself.

Stolen from the linked post:

"So Which Social Network is the Best?

While zealots will immediately point to either Twitter or Facebook as being superior, the truth is that each has its advantages and disadvantages and will tend to appeal more to different types of people and for different reasons. Each can have great or little value to anyone; it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish in a given situation. Consider some of the pros and cons of each network:

Twitter Pros

• Easy to navigate and update, link to and promote anything
• Reach far beyond your inner circle of friends
• One feed pools all users; anyone can follow anyone else unless blocked
• Pure communication tool, rapid responsiveness
• You don’t have to be logged in to get updates; you can just use an RSS reader
• Very interactive, extensible messaging platform with open APIs
• Many other applications being developed (Twitterific, Summize, Twhirl, etc.)
• Potential SMS text messaging revenue from wireless networks (although Twitter states they are not currently getting any cut)
• Potential future advertising and/or enterprise subscription-based revenue streams
• With its “thin” overhead, Twitter is probably more scalable than Facebook, giving it a cost advantage

Twitter Cons

• Limited functionality; find people, send brief messages, direct replies
• Limited to 140 characters per update
• Not all people find it immediately useful
• Over-emphasis on follower counts
• Easily abused for spam and increasing the noise level
• Relatively smaller installed user base
• As yet no readily apparent monetization strategy

Facebook Pros

• Application mashup; find people, make connections, email, instant messaging, image/video sharing, etc.
• Most people can quickly grasp the value of connecting with friends, family and established contacts; some people report they use Facebook instead of email and IM
• More emphasis on deep connections with others vs. who has the most connections
• “True Friends” feature increases your transparency to selected connections; almost like having private and public profiles
• Huge, rapidly growing installed user base
• Inherit stickiness, third party applications, “gift giving” and personal data collection make Facebook a powerful advertising platform

Facebook Cons

• More difficult to navigate and update
• Requires investment of time to realize sustained benefit
• Opt in model requires a user to allow others to connect
• Less immediate responses; unless you stay logged on continually
• Overhead of mashup and “thick” applications could limit scalability, bloat cost structure"

the the impotence of proofreading

Disclaimer: Some language may not be suitable for children

TRUE campaign video

FACE BUILDER!

Veer has an addictive mini app for faces... make your profile picture here.

Our new agency video...

...will be based on this.



(That third guy? Wayne's better looking brother).

iPerfect

High technology meets low comedy.
And the results speak for themselves.



(Hat tip: Darin "CheeseCutter" Tessier)

In praise of: Editing

Great editing can make anything happen.
Billboard's Top 25 of 2008.

Goodbye 2008...or 1985

I found this via Daring Fireball, another quote from Steve Jobs, about looking forward(from an article by Steven Levy on the Mac's 25th birthday). Hate to beat a dead horse, especially in the New Year, but this hammer ain't goin' away anytime soon. To quote Axel Rose's Chinese Democracy, "all I got is precious time."

Steven Levy:

It's the 25th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh, but Steve Jobs' eyes are dry. At the company headquarters in Silicon Valley, where he was presenting a set of new laptops to the press last October, I mentioned the birthday to him. Jobs recoiled at any suggestion of nostalgia. "I don't think about that," he said. "When I got back here in 1997, I was looking for more room, and I found an archive of old Macs and other stuff. I said, 'Get it away!' and I shipped all that shit off to Stanford. If you look backward in this business, you'll be crushed. You have to look forward."