Human charging station by FedEx

Clever advertising at SXSW - - a human charging station by FedEx. Via.

Illustration roundup

The Nightmare by Simon Wilches Castro. See it come to life here.




John Carter concept art by Michael Kutsche.





Apocalypse, Wolverine, and the Hulk in the style of Winnie the Pooh commissions by Charles Paul Wilson III.




Chocolate Samurai by Eric Vedder for a chocolate shop.

Link roundup

1. Forbes:

What’s the market value of a Robert Rauschenberg that can’t be sold without risking a year in the federal pen? According to the art mavens at the Internal Revenue Service, it’s $65 million, because a theoretical Chinese billionaire might pay that much on the black market. Really.

2. Having trouble selling yachts? How about branding them as unsinkable and suggesting people will need them to survive the coming 2012 apocalypse.

3. Nightmare fuel.

4. Beat Hazard Ultra is free at iTunes right now (fun space shooter).

5. Tenacious Toys is experimenting with funding a designer toy via Kickstarter.

Humiliating hair loss advertisment

Hair loss ad by Rethink.

Soccer links

Dutch national team uniform by Nike. (Previously: Dutch World Cup Merchandise.)





Advertisements by Dimension for Club Athlétic De Bilbao.

Link roundup

1. The mock Ted Talk for Prometheus was a clever marketing stunt, but the video itself is incredibly tedious and the flying cameras look stupid. I'm also surprised that the Weyland Industries url doesn't include a sign up option.

On the other hand, I just finished and greatly enjoyed Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk, which was written by Damon Lindelof. It's $13 at Amazon (athough I picked it up when it was $6 at Comixology). I mean, this is the second page in the story, and the story keeps the throttle down after that.

2. Work hard in school. Or else.

3. Freakonomics tries to explain why every team missed on Jeremy Lin:

The last team to overlook Lin was the Houston Rockets — they cut Lin back in December. At that time, the point guard the Rockets decided to keep was Jonny Flynn. Back in 2009, Flynn – after posting a 4.7 WS40 at Syracuse in 2008-09 (that is a below average mark) — was the 6th player taken in the NBA draft. As of last December, Flynn had played more than 3,300 minutes in the NBA and again posted below average numbers. Despite all this evidence that Flynn is not an above average basketball player, the Rockets kept Flynn over Lin.

What explain this “Flynnsanity”? Not only do NBA decision-makers focus on the wrong issues on the NBA draft, they also are slow to let these decisions go. A player’s draft position impacts minutes played – even after we control for performance – several years into a player’s career. So it’s not surprising that Flynn – who did not play well in college or in the NBA – was chosen by the Rockets over Lin. Flynn was supposed to be a star in college. He was supposed to be a star when he was drafted. And I am sure, people still believe Flynn may someday be a star in the NBA.

*Buy Prometheus posters at eBay.

Madcap commercials by Wes Anderson for the Hyundai Azera

Flying cars and kids dressed as super heroes star in these charming commercials by Wes Anderson for the Hyundai Azera. Via.

*Buy The Life Aquatic posters at eBay.

New Spam mascot by Laika

Sir Can-A-Lot by BBDO and Laika for Spam. The official site is worth a visit - - I can't remember visiting a site that scrolled up.

Video of Sacha Baron Cohen at the Oscars

Ryan Seacrest interviews Admiral General Aladeen on the red carpet. Aladeen certainly left his mark on Seacrest.

Link roundup

Admiral General Aladeen's video demand to be allowed at the Oscars worked. (I hope Hillary Swank is his date.)

And a few more links:

1. Deadspin on the new Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor:

Available only at their Harvard Square location, Ben & Jerry's is selling a limited edition "Taste The Linsanity" flavor, which includes delicious little crumbles of fortune cookie. This, despite the Asian American Journalists Association's clear warning that there's no "compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery."

Also, "Taste The Lin-Sanity" features lychee, which is a fruit native to Southeast Asia, which is not the part of Asia that Jeremy Lin comes from. (The part of Asia that Jeremy Lin comes from is Northern California.)

Update: They've removed the fortune cookie bits.

2. Rick Santorum shook Ron Paul's hand like a madman after this week's debate.

3. The new SSX demo (PS3) is a wonderful return to the series, and I've liked every song I've heard so far. My 6 year old instantly fell in love too. Here's the SSX soundtrack lineup and individual downloads at Amazon, and if you preorder the game you'll get a $10 Amazon credit and bonus snowboard.

4. Just added as preorders at the BBTS, DC Universe All Stars Series 02-03 (Flash, Red Robin, Supergirl, Superman, Hawkman, Steel, Batman, Batgirl).

Chopsticks used to advertise a karate school

Grey turned chopsticks into an advertisement for a karate school.

Link roundup

1. "Dog in Ellen DeGeneres costume gets booted from L.A. billboard." (I miss the days of Angelyne.)

2. "How I Found the Human Being Behind Horse_ebooks, The Internet's Favorite Spambot."

3. New army reading list.

4. A new free mission involving Harley Quinn has been added to the Arkham City Lockdown iOS game (which I've previously recommended). I'm downloading it now. Via.

Posters you can listen to

FOAM:

To launch their debut album 'Shallow Bed' (released 5th March), Dry the River created a unique series of string art posters to allow fans to hear the album in full for the first time.

Twelve string art posters are placed around London, each one representing a track from the album and depicting an animal. At the end of the string, the band used old fashioned Tin Can telephones to allow passers-by to listen to a song.

The band created the posters in collaboration with FOAM in-house craft-technologist Sophie Yeoman. This film shows the posters being put together and hung around London's streets.

Sophie hand built each poster and fitted them with an Arduino / Wave Shield combo wired through the string to a speaker concealed in the bottom of a tin-can.

Each poster took around 20 hours to complete.

Via.

Video of Tie Fighters over Copenhagen

It's the Death Star over Copenhagen in this advertisement by Advance for Toys R Us. It's nice to see an advertising company find some inspiration, and instead of ripping off the artist, ask him to work with them. Via.

New advertisement for Nike's Fuelband

Hope Solo, Paul Rodriguez, and Ndamukong Suh show off the Nike+ Fuelband. (How does it tell when Paul's skateboarding, as opposed to riding in a car?) Via.

*Buy Nike sportbands at Amazon.

When Death offers you a light

The grim reaper stars in this anti-smoking campaign by Cafeina. Via.

Link roundup

1. The Oakland A's were the talk of the sports world on Monday after signing Cuban slugger/outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, who put out a truly outlandish promotional video. If you're not convinced it's worth your time to watch, read this detailed description.

2. A lengthy analysis of why the Death Star's trash compactor makes little sense.

3. Bonsai tree houses.

4. Gyroscopically stabilized pool table for cruise ships.

5. Neverwhere, maybe my favorite Neil Gaiman novel, is currently a $3 download at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. 5 secret drinks at Starbucks including the Snickers Frappuccino (Java Chip Frappuccino with caramel and toffee nut).

2. Online ads:

Who’s buying the lions’ share of advertising on news websites? Nobody. For most of the 22 news organizations PEJ studied, the top category of advertising was in-house — ie. self-promotional ads for the publishers’ own products or services. Those accounted for 21% of the ads on in the sample of websites the study tracked, a group that includes newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, web-only outlets like Yahoo and the Huffington Post, magazines like Time and The Atlantic and TV networks’ web companion sites like cbsnews.com and cnn.com

3. Looks like Kickstarter will make close to $100,000 by the time Double Fine's Kickstarter ends.

4. If you don't mind spamming your friends on Twitter, MTV is giving away a big McFarlane toys prize pack.

5. Here's another art idea, create a poster for Angelina Jolie as Maleficent.

Cabinet of Dreams: A Virtual Charity Shop

WomensAidGifts by Grey:

This Valentine's Day, advertising agency Grey London has teamed up with national charity Women's Aid to offer shoppers something a little more interesting than the usual chocolates or flowers with some truly magical, once-in-a-lifetime gifts. The Women's Aid Cabinet of Dreams features nine extraordinary Valentine's gifts that, literally, money can't buy! Designed by Grey and displayed majestically in bell-jars in a Soho shopfront 3D installation, each gift has its own unique interpretation and illustration from one of London's top artists or collectives, including Rob Ryan, Kyle Bean, Fred Butler, The Last Tuesday Society, Nicole Mueller, Suck & Chew, Francesca Mair, Marie-Louise Jones and Charlotte Brown. Shoppers can "purchase" the gifts by texting the number next to each item, and donate an amount between £2 and £20 to Women's Aid. The purchase will then be sent via text to the recipient who will be informed of the donation and their unique present. While £10 can buy a simple bouquet, for Women's Aid it would be a valuable contribution towards providing lifesaving services, with the added extra of being a truly romantic and unique gift.

You can buy the virtual items here, and read about the designers of the objects here.





Via.

Advertisements for a karate school

Karate school advertisements by Grey. Via.

*Previously: Clever karate school sign.