Posts filed under “Photo and Video”

When it comes to pop art, the following video is nothing short of astounding. It's the animated intro for the new video game The Beatles Rockband.

Pop artist extraordinaire, Banksy once said:

The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

Hate it or not the central statement there is, and for the most part always has been, true. Art has always had patrons, whether it be The Vatican, a video game studio or Hollywood may or may not diminish the art your mind, but you can hardly argue with the pedigree of commercial artistry in the video above. Personally it's why I like advertising. Gorgeous art with a purpose becomes design in my eyes. It's communication backed by reason, which I love. Art with no purpose is lost on me.

Make sure you watch the high-quality version here at the official site. (Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with The Beatles Rockband in any way. Although I am now lusting after an Xbox 360.)

Word of mouth advertising is powerful. So is a good parking spot...

Range Rover Lemon

From Daily Mail via Jalopnik

GM Pontiac Ad Loose Mispelling

There are 12 words in this ad and one of them is misspelled... Maybe they laid-off their proofreader? Not only that, but General Motors really piles it on as the car shown is a Pontiac, which is one of the divisions they're axing. Who's in charge over there? This sort of marketing is not winning hearts and minds of the (literate) American public.

Bad Signage - Erection In Progress

The translation itself actually works, soliciting only mild snickering from my repressed teen-era sensibilities. The accompanying graphic, however, puts it over the top. [via wikimaniacs.com]

Photoshop Interface on an Ad in a Berlin Subway

Captured by flickr user epoxy_: massive stickers of the Adobe Photoshop user interface are being splashed across posters in Berlin's subways. The original ad's intended appeal is to associate these images of beautiful women with a product, in this case their respective music albums. This is almost always a false assumption when seen in the advertising world. (Yes they helped create the albums, but these images have little to do with the reality of the album or the artist.) The slapped on stickers remind the viewer that they should actually associate images like this with digital manipulation technology- not whatever widget they're hawking.

US Airways Flight 1549 - Tracked by The New York Times

Yesterday afternoon, US Airways Flight 1549 crash landed in the Hudson River after bird strikes on both engines shortly following takeoff. The New York Times has a slick infographic/animation of the time line of events. If you want to get complete understanding of what happened, check it out:

Tracking US Airways Flight 1549 - New York Times

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a 3d animation worth? At least an order of magnitude more, I'd wager. I spent about 1 minute reviewing this excellent piece of information design. I now have a far better understanding of the sequence of events, especially the time and space they occured in, than reading any thousand word story or viewing any photograph could have given me.

Vince Offer - Shamwow Guy

Vince Offer's name doesn't disappoint and neither does his act. Despite what is assuredly a soon to be fleshed out Wikipedia entry that I can only describe as mostly-dubious, he seems blessed with the ability to deliver a truly hypnotizing pitch. Vince Offer first greeted us as "Vince with Shamwow." A low budget infomercial that's gained a cult following online:

And the cult is picking up steam. That Shamwow infomercial is well on it's way to a half-million views and has 2000+ comments. Comments like, "You following me camera guy?" (a quote from the commercial itself) and "Vince rules!" In fact, several lines from the Shamwow pitch are achieving web-meme status. Lines like, "You know the Germans make good stuff."  And, "You know we can't do this all day."

Not even to mention what's sure to be an instant classic, "You're gonna love my nuts" (don't worry, he really sells it) from Vince Offer's next assault on our collective pocket books. The Slap Chop:

Yeah, it's the same junk Billy Mays has been hawking since '99 and Ron Popeil since 20 years before that, but it's never been about the stuff. It's about the salesman. How can they draw you in? How can they sympathize with your plight? How can they solve it? How can they go the extra mile after that?

Vince plays the game well. All the hallmarks of a classic infomercial formula are here. Fantastically realized demonstrations, trade show booth-side testimonials, freebies and offers that double in the last second- only if you call in the next twenty minutes, naturally. But there's something about this headset-sporting Velociraptor with spiky hair and a Brooklyn accent that's mesmerizing in a way the bearded-guy never was...

Watching Vince do his Pitch reminds me of watching Scream. It's a self-lampoon that brilliantly walks the line between camp and the real thing. He knows we know all the tricks. So he plays them up, winking and laughing at them alongside us while methodically rolling out every single one in the book. I think part of his charm is that all the special-offer, made in European nation x (does it even matter which one?) and this-will-change-your-life statements arrive right on cue. We (along with Vince) can see them coming and when they finally arrive we're all glad they're here.

Vince and his backers are onto something. Shamwow (Full Length) was uploaded in June of 2008 and has 350,000+ views as of this writing. Vince with Slapchop (Long Version) was uploaded December 19th, 2008 and already has 190,000+ views as of this writing. The Slapchop pitch is gaining viewers and comments around 500% faster than the first one. Jim Rome just spent 30 minutes talking about Vince on The Jim Rome Show. A three hour syndicated sports radio show with 2.5 million listeners daily.

The SlapChop pitch was even more entertaining than the Shamwow and the set budget has clearly gone up. Why wouldn't it though? Maybe Vince is pitching the producers for more budget. Love him or hate him, Mr. Offer is gaining momentum.

I cast an unusalluy critical eye on marketing I come across in the wild, and I know for a fact that I can get all manner of chamois and kitchen clutter from my local Target. Even though, I'll bet I'm not alone reaching for my wallet just because I want to see more of this guy.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has cooked up a delicious double entendre for your viewing pleasure and they didn't skimp on the photos. The secret ingredient? A 45 watt carbon-dioxide laser they used to cut a perfect Apple lattice in the top crust. (And love, of course.)

A new video we've been working on for The PKD Foundation.

One of the oldest institutions of amazing photography, National Geographic is going web 2.0 in a great way by hosting Your Shot, a user driven photography collection. There are daily winners with the Daily Dozen, as well as a killer hanging carrot for any photographer: publication in the storied publication itself.

Take your best shot and send it to us. Submit a favorite photo of your own for possible publication in National Geographic.

National Geographic - Your Shot

(Photo: Aditya Sikaria)