Adidas Plantvertising

Adidas has kicked off the latest Grün advertising’s campaign with “Guerilla Gardening”. It is graffiti with plants so the idea is to find a neglected urban area turn into a beautiful garden. One of my favourite is the plantvertising that is used to support this campaign. It is different, eye-catching, and helps to turn the city into a greener place.

Gizmodo's Cool Desktop Competition

Gizmodo is currently running a reader’s participation contest for the coolest looking desktop. So far, they have received 14 entries and I must say that they are pretty good. The competition is still open if any of you are interested.

How to make an outdoor ad that no one can ignore...

High Speed Camera: 2000 frames per second

Dove's Body & Soul

As part of its Real Beauty Campaign, Dove has commissioned a play entitled Body & Soul to help change the way society thinks about beauty and aging. The production cast is 12 women over 45 with no previous acting experiences and they have agreed to bare their souls on stage. Although the final cast has been decided, another Canadian women are encouraged to participate in the forum, share their stories as well as to hold a pro-age party.

Nokia N-series: Storytelling Rediscovered

IKEA Sofhotelv

Inspired by Japanese capsule hotel, recently IKEA offered an opportunity for tired Stockholm shoppers to rest in a Sovhotell. The sleep hotels are available in one of the downtown shopping centres and each guest is given 15 minutes to minutes to snooze, complete with eye masks as well as headphones with relaxing music to help their power naps. When they checked in, guests were asked whether they prefer to sleep on their stomach, side, or back so they can receive recommendations which IKEA's pillows that suit them best.

AEG Noise Awareness Campaign

If you live in London, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, or Milan, keep an eye on the AEG-Electrolux latest billboard. What is so special about it? Well, it has a built-in decibel meter that will display the measured noise level to passersby 24/7. Interestingly in some cities, local school kids are deliberately screaming and making noise to make the number changes. In another case, there is the nightclub underneath who is taking photos of the sign in the early hours of the morning to show the local council that they are not making too much noise! This is part of AEG-Electrolux’s campaign to promote their “silent” washing machine.

Young Me, Now Me

For all narcissists, there is a new fun photo sharing site that you have to check. Founded by Ze Frank, “Young Me, Now Me” features photographs of people re-creating their favourite childhood pictures. It is open to everyone and fun to browse!

Videos and videos

This is Friday, so lets make it light and entertaining :-)
Drinking milk helps with PMS, so women will not turn into witches.



Deforestation is just like having your hair chest plucked out


Google Video Outdoor Campaign

Google Earth and humanitarian effort

I think that Google Earth is one of the most fascinating software I have ever come across; it has the versatility to go to different directions but retains its core strength. Google Earth in collaboration with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has just launched one of its latest features that allow users to follow the plight of refugees in Darfur, Iraq, and Colombia by downloading a supplemental layer. The idea came after Google’s successful use in Hurricane Katrina, and the objective is to help humanitarian operations and to inform public the genocides that many remained unaware of. When users scan over the region, they can delve deeper by clicking the icons that will indicate the information of the area as well as the extent of the destruction. The online map also includes links with photo, video, historical background, and testimony on the atrocities.

Audi RS6 Gymnastic commercial

They are just beautiful.

SONY foam city

SONY's much anticipated latest installment for Bravia ad is out now. With so much buzz surrounding this ad, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. I was hoping that it is going to be more vibrant and fun just like its predecessors. This ad is not blatantly touching SONY's HD technology but instead more engaging in the emotional level. Please watch and tell me what you think about it.

Shoes on vending machine

Yesterday, as I was forced to walk from my office to the station on my high heels, I couldn’t help but wish that there were someone selling flat ballerina shoes or sneakers along the way. It would have been heavenly to swap my stylish but torturous heels with nice sensible shoes; alas it was just my desperate wish. Don’t you think that it is more convenient if you can get a pair of shoes just like a candy bar? “Ping-ping”, I can smell a new business opportunity! Unfortunately, other has used this idea. This morning, I found out that Onitsuka is selling their sneakers via vending machine in UK, and Reebok has done it too. So much for me turning into a business pioneer, but then I wonder, what if the size doesn’t fit? Can you return the shoes? However, I do think that it is a great way to promote your brand.

No matter what you throw in your stomach, Pink’s got you covered

This latest guerilla campaign promotes medicine from Pepto-Bismol with the slogan: “No matter what you throw in your stomach, Pink’s got you covered.” The campaign cleverly uses washing machines at laundromats to illustrate various people’s tummy suffering from heartburn pain.

Squeeze Me

Trying to find good video among the big pile of junks in youtube is difficult, but once you find one, it can be very inspiring and satisfying. This one is quite a gem on the term of creativity. Who knows that flipbooks can be used in that way?
PS: FlickR has enabled video uploading platform for their Pro account. The videos are currently limited to 90 seconds and 150 MB, although there is chance it is going to change in the future. I think that it is a great idea because you can upload your video next to your picture so you can get the sense of the story.

Where on Earth is Waldo?

First, there is the thriller “22 Steps” novel narrated via Google Earth. Today, I found a game “Where’s Waldo?” designed for Google Earth too. Done as part of Melanie Cole’s graduation project, with help from volunteers, she managed to create a gigantic Waldo painting to be place on rooftops through Vancouver, Canada. This allows everyone with Internet access to join in the fun of finding Waldo. Clever indeed!

Virtual vault for your valuables information

I am not good with keeping my papers in place. I simply shove them all in one box and then spend hours rummaging through them whenever the need rises. I hate those documents, there is always a worry that I’m going to unintentionally throw them away or just lose them. Recently, I started to scan my important papers so I can keep the digital versions in my personal email. However, I’m still anxious that someone is going to gain access to my email and my personal records. I have read so many identity-theft stories on the media and I needed something more. I find the solution with digital vault service, which is offered by several online storage firms and banks. My local bank, ABN AMRO has Digitale Kluis service where I can upload and store my precious documents to a secure place for 14 Euros a month. In the States, there is also a same service provided Wells Fargo, charging 4.95 US$ for 1 gigabyte or 14.95US$ for 6 gigabyte per month. This makes me wonder if this is one of the service that will become common in our digital fuelled era. What do you all think? Comments are welcome ;-)

Compiling online treasure

Websites are getting cooler and cooler these days so I find myself getting harder to be impressed. However there are several websites that pique my curiosity. They are visually pleasing and cool design-wise so do come and visit them. If you have more web links, I will definitely welcome the extra info!
All State Garage
I’m not a motorcycle enthusiast but the video of the team building a bike from scratch to finish is rather amazing.
Whippet Grey
I love the pop-out card idea for each ambiance: Curious Object, Secret Garden, The Den, and Scrummy Treats.
Dodge Quest
A promotional game for Dodge Quest Project Committee, you will help Koronet to attain his goal to propose and woo Lucy. The 2D display brings me back to my Mario Bross day.
Help the Honey Bees.com
Cute honey bees!
Starbucks Coffee at Home
Starbucks Coffe at Home demonstrates that there is a range of coffee to fulfill everyone’s taste. They even help you to decide on your perfect coffee.

Online magazine publisher

Previously I have talked about iPaper, a document reader format built for the Internet. Now there is new website called Issuu, which enables you to convert your documents into magazine-style online publications that can be viewed directly in a web browser. Like youtube and iPaper, the users can publish their documents, then browse through other members’ works and add their favourites to the ‘living libraries’. Furthermore, users can upload the Issu document as part of their blogs or websites. I think that at least on the surface, Issuu is offering the same service with blogs and iPaper but they are aimed to those that still prefer the magazine format. However it is a great tool for small publisher to reach global readership or for those looking for rare zines.

Try it from another side

Competing with giant companies like Nike and Adidas is never easy, smaller company has to be more clever. This is what Nomis is doing with their anti-hype TV commercial: Damn Boots.

We Tell Stories

We Tell Stories Project are one of Penguin’s latest bids to explore ways of telling stories online. In this project, 6 contemporary authors will publish 6 different stories based on classic books within 6 weeks. All stories are then presented in different platforms. So far there are 3 installments available to be followed in the website but my favourite so far is The 21 Steps are thriller by Charles Cumming. The thriller is inspired by The 39 Steps by John Buchan and we can follow the intrigues via Google Map. The second installment, Slice brings The Haunted Doll’s House (MR James) back to modern era using weblog and Twitter. The third one is Fairy Tales whose ending is shaped and decided by you. The next story is going to be presented on the 7th April and I will definitely bookmark it ☺

Mike Stimpson: recreating classic photography with lego

Lego is one of the classic toys that will never get out of time. I still remember the hours that I spent building my dream castle. Unfortunately my love affair with Lego was cut short when my younger sister chocked on one of Lego bits and my mom went bonkers. Ever since that accident, Lego was banned from my house to my chagrin. My love for Lego has been rekindled after I saw Mike Stimpson reconstructs classic photography moment with Lego. Can you recognize any of the famous picture?

Amazon music and GTA

If you have played GTA (Grand Theft Auto) series before, I think you will agree that one of the best parts of the game is that you whenever you are driving, you can tune into your favourite radio. Personally, the soundtracks from GTA have always rock me so I am very excited when I found out that in the fourth installment of GTA (Grand Theft Auto), Rockstar Games has installed an in-game system for GTA IV called ZiT that allows gamers to purchase the track that they are listening to via Amazon. As your character driving around the city, you can bookmark a song by dialing ZIT-555-0100 then you will receive a text with the artist and track details. And if you are a member Rockstar Games Social Club, they will send an email with link to your favourite tracks on Amazon.com where you can buy for less than a dollar per track. This is a clever move from Amazon.com to get a chunk out of Apple Store’s market share but I wonder how they are going to implement it in Europe.