New Now Free

Not Quite Free Water

Mike — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:01:52 +0000

Activate is giving out free bottles of their vitamin water, but only if you earn it. The brand set up a vending machine in Los Angeles that has a stationary bike attached. If you pedal for 30 seconds, you’re rewarded with a bottle at no cost. Also, the cash value of every bottle given away is donated for a cause that supports proper nutrition for pregnant women. Seems like a pretty smart way to convince someone to exercise, if only for half a minute.

Source: Springwise

Free Money from McDonald’s

Mike — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:13:54 +0000

To promote their Dollar Drink Days in Alberta, McDonald’s created an ice sculpture filled with 4,000 one-dollar coins. People were encouraged to break off pieces of the sculpture in order to get at the prizes inside. The message “Cool off with a $1 drink” appeared below the ice, reminding everyone the best way to spend their newfound money. Or they could spend it literally anywhere else. But for the sake of the advertising world, let’s hope they all went to their nearest McDonald’s.

Source: Trend Hunter

The Taxi That Tells You Where to Go

Mike — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:01:08 +0000

Just as New Yorkers secretly hope every taxi they enter is the Cash Cab, Londoners can now hope they are stepping into the LivingSocial Taxi. When you get into this taxi, you are given the choice of continuing to your scheduled stop, or rolling a virtual die that randomly gives you an activity to enjoy. Whether it be fish pedicures, chess boxing, or speedboat riding, passengers can take part in these experiences with huge discounts. You don’t actually have the ride the cab to get the discounts, but it certainly makes it a lot more exciting.

Source: Adverblog

Australian Honesty

Mike — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:57:46 +0000

National Australia Bank, or NAB, believes that Australians are very honest people, and as such, they deserve an honest credit card. To support this notion, they held a series of experiments designed to test citizens’ integrity. These experiments involved lost wallets, dropped money, and too much change from a coffee cart. The results, which are posted on YouTube, were very surprising, as almost every person did the right thing without knowing they were on camera. NAB tried to make doing the right thing even harder by having the fake victims seem arrogant and rude, but the majority of people still displayed great character. Well done Australia.

Watch the other videos here and here.

Source: AdNews

Share Your Pizza Reviews with the World

Mike — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:32:56 +0000

How would you feel if you had an audience sit in on your performance review? What if the entire city of New York could see it? In the interest of being completely transparent, Domino’s has set up an electronic ticker in Times Square that shows recent customer reviews of their food. The reviews are shown whether they praise Domino’s wonderful work or question how they can sleep at night after serving this so-called food. So far, the responses have been pretty positive, with the average review being four out of five stars. Check out their site to see a live feed of the ticker.

Source: Adverblog

New Old Spice Guy vs. Old Old Spice Guy

Mike — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:40:11 +0000

Last year, Isiah Mustafa and Old Spice impressed the advertising world not only with their TV commercials, but also with their online presence. In just a few days, Isiah made over 180 YouTube videos that were direct responses to people on Twitter.

This year, Isiah is responding to tweets again, but he’s not the only one. Old Spice’s new spokesperson, Fabio, is also responding to the public. Head over to their channel to see whose videos you like more. It’s up to us to pick the winner and decide who is the true Old Spice Guy.

An Authentic NYC Tour

Mike — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:09:15 +0000

If you’ve never walked the streets of New York City, you probably have no idea what you’re missing out on. Thankfully, you can now live out this experience virtually. MyBlockNYC is a site that allows you to watch user submitted videos from streets all over the city. The site displays a large map of the city, and all you have to do is click on a street for which someone has made a video. That shouldn’t be too hard since close to 1,000 videos have already been submitted. There is also a useful search feature that lets you choose the age and gender of the user, as well as the category and location of the video. Whether you’re into Kid Rock concerts, grown men riding little girls’ bikes, or traffic cops getting yelled at, you’ll probably find something to enjoy here.

Source: The Huffington Post

The Positive Side of Lighting Someone on Fire

Mike — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:03:46 +0000

What do you think of when you see someone lighting himself on fire? If you said donating to charities, you are somehow correct.

Rocky Taylor is a professional stuntman who is now doing work for the group Remember a Charity. This group’s goal is to get people to leave money to charities in their will. Rocky will be lighting himself on fire as a reminder that life can end at any time, and it’s important to keep an updated will that donates to your favorite charities. Users can even vote on Facebook for what way Rocky goes up in flames.

Source: Rememberacharity

Animated Tattoos

Mike — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 17:15:01 +0000

Some of you may already be sick of seeing QR codes on ads and posters. What if they were tattooed on someone’s chest? Ballantine’s, a whiskey brand, decided to give this idea a try. A tattoo artist in Paris carefully crafted a QR code into the right pec of a willing participant. After scanning the code with a smartphone and placing the phone on the man’s chest, the tattoo becomes animated and begins to sing. The tattooing process was shown live through Facebook, and viewers were able to give suggestions on how the tattoo could be improved.

Source: Adweek

Watch Your Favorite Movies on Location

Mike — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:06:14 +0000

Film fanatics may soon have new way to watch their favorite movies. Augmented Reality Cinema is an app that would allow you to view movie scenes that were shot exactly where you are standing. Once you find a valid location, you simply hold up your smartphone and watch the scene that was filmed there take place. The app may still be in the production phase, but I’m already staking out my spot at the Art Institute to hang out with Ferris.

Source: Adverblog