Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Have you ever looked up in the sky and thought “Hey! That cloud looks just like the McDonald’s arches”. If you have, there’s a good chance that cloud may have actually been engineered to look that way by a special effects company called SnowMasters. They’ve developed something they call Flogos, which are basically flying custom logos. Made from a proprietary soap based foam, the Flogos are filled with gases such as helium rather than air. As we all know, helium is lighter than air, so once the Flogo comes out of the machine, they just float away.

Depending on the soap mixture, the Flogos can last for just a few minutes or up to an hour. They can also travel 20-30 miles and fly as high as 20,000 feet, though the weather conditions (particularly wind speed) play an important factor in how far they go. The standard Flogos range in size from 24 inches to 48 inches, though the company is working on an even more impressive 6 foot generator. The Flogo machines can produce a flying logo every 15 seconds, and the soap based material is 100% environmentally safe.

[ Flogos ] VIA [ Cool Hunting ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s no secret that many Hollywood celebrities are happy to appear in ads and commercials in Japan, while absolutely refusing to back home. George Lucas on the other hand seems happy for him and his characters to appear in ads all over the world. StarWars.com recently published a collection of ‘10 Cool Star Wars Posters from Japan’ and among them are these ads from a Panasonic Star Wars campaign from the late ’80s and early ’90s. Seeing most celebrities riding a satellite dish with an Ewok and a Wookie would probably seem odd, but not so much when it’s George Lucas who’s awkwardly sandwiched between them. (And that’s awkward with a capital ‘A’ by the way.)

And here’s an ad with Yoda listening to a Panasonic personal stereo while he uses the force to float the earbuds next to his head. (He’s probably listening to Weird Al’s take on Lola.) Maybe if he’d done a better job of investing his money in the early ’80s he wouldn’t have had to shill stereos for Panasonic during his retirement.

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare you can head on over to StarWars.com and check out the other 8.

[ StarWars.com - 10 Cool Star Wars Posters from Japan ] VIA [ I Watch Stuff ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While walking home last night I happened to notice this bizarre truck stopped at a red light. It was your standard cube van, except for the fact that the cube portion featured windows on all sides. And while it’s kind of hard to tell in this photo, inside the truck was someone dressed like an alien on vacation. The rest of the aliens were actually similarly dressed mannequins, but I guess they felt they needed at least one actual person to make it more realistic.

I can’t deny the fact that the truck served its purpose of grabbing people’s attention (I did stop and take a photo after all) but it was really a lame advertising stunt. And I can’t help but feel that other people might decide to arbitrarily boycott this company like I have, because of it. (It doesn’t take much.) If you work in advertising and are reading this post here’s my suggestion on how to improve this idea. You should replace the aliens with a machine that shoots out money, and instead of driving around the city you should just park in front of my apartment building. Then I’ll buy whatever you’re selling.

By Andrew Liszewski

For advertisers there’s nothing like a captive audience, and that’s probably the biggest reason this MediaCart might actually catch on. It’s a high-tech take on the shopping cart that incorporates a large LCD display on the front of the cart, with a set of controls on the handle. While the cart attempts to sell the consumer on the idea with promises of store searches, instant price checks and lists of what’s on sale, we all know it will be the advertisers that will make this thing a real success. Because who doesn’t want to spend their time at the grocery store watching commercials while they battle other shoppers for the last box of Stove Top Stuffing?

The MediaCart is powered by WindowsCE (insert tired joke about bluescreens and/or crashes) and as a result it looks like Microsoft itself is getting behind the idea, which can’t hurt its chances. And besides helping consumers and advertisers, the MediaCart can actually be beneficial to the store itself, since the system can track the motion of all the carts, providing insight into where shoppers spend the most time. (Or even what areas of the store shoppers are avoiding.)

[ MediaCart ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Looking at these old computer ads I don’t feel depressed in a “I can’t believe how old I am” kind of way. Not at all. The depressed feeling actually comes from the fact that we used to pay ‘under $20k’ for 300MB of storage. Well to be honest I never paid that much, since when that ad ran I wasn’t technically born yet, but I can remember paying $300 for a 128MB SD card not that long ago.

However, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Isaac Asimov could sell anything, and that Radio Shack ad with him and his favorite color computer only emphasizes that fact.

[ 2Spare - 10 Incredible Old Computer Ads ] VIA [ Optical Poptitude ]

By Evan Ackerman

Apparently, this billboard in San Francisco isn’t just hype: it is, in fact, a power plant, using 20 solar panels to generate more electricity during the day than it consumes lighting itself at night. On a sunny day, the billboard generates 3.4 kilowatts of energy, which is just about enough juice for a family of four during the day. If it’s cloudy, the output drops to 2.5 kilowatts. PG&E does not, of course, say how much the solar panels cost to buy, install, and maintain. My guess is that it’s in the “you’ll recoup the cost in a decade or so” range. Still, since we’ve got ugly billboards set up all over the place anyway, wouldn’t it be great if they could be put to some practical use besides annoying consumers out of purchasing whatever they happen to be advertising?

[ LiveScience ] VIA [ TreeHugger ]

By Andrew Liszewski

In addition to cameras, binoculars and other consumer level electronics Olympus is also well known for their line of high-end medical equipment like microscopes. Recently though the company found themselves losing market share to cheaper competitors and in an attempt to reconnect with their high end users they created a unique survey that was actually printed on a specimen slide and could only be read with an actual microscope.

The questionnaire slides were sent to a select handful of clients in a special package that mimicked how a real specimen slide would be sent through the mail. While I doubt they received many completed surveys back the company’s website did see a 24% surge in traffic over the period when the slides were sent out.

The slides are also currently under a review process to be included in the Guinness Book Of World Records as the world’s smallest questionnaire. I can’t imagine there’d be a lot of competition in that field.

[ Olympus World’s Smallest Ad @ 2WENTY 4OUR ]

By Andrew Liszewski

So you think just because you’ve chosen to sit in the back seat of a car you don’t need to wear a seat belt? Well unless you’re some kind of indestructible superhero there’s really no place or time when you shouldn’t be buckled up while inside a moving vehicle.

And this billboard posted in Manukau City, Auckland, New Zealand pretty much sums up what’s going to happen if you’re sitting in the back seat of a car without a seatbelt and the vehicle is involved in an accident. Well it’s not entirely accurate. There are quite a few additional obstacles you’ll be hitting as you leave the vehicle including the front seats and windshield but you should be traveling at a similar velocity.

[ Nifty Billboard: Buckle up even if you’re in the back seat ] VIA [ Autoblog ]