I’ve seen this commercial a few times in the past few days, and I’m really not sure what to think of it. It just seems odd… As far as I’m concerned, Sublime was an amazing band with some incredible songs, and Santeria was no different. But at the same time, the majority of their songs dealt heavily with drugs and drug culture… the lead singer Brad Nowell died of an overdose (tragic for the music world). So why have a bunch of kids sitting around with Nintendo DSs, singing Santeria?
Seems like an odd choice for Nintendo, and an unfortunate use of one of Sublime’s songs. Not sure how much it really promotes the game, Jam Sessions. Then again, I’ve been questioning a lot of music usage in commercials, like the whole Wendy’s/Violent Femmes pairings I wrote about a while back. Just seems odd… and does it really hit the target? In searching for the spot, I found a ton of people who wanted to know what song was in the spot (presumably young Nintendo fans unfamiliar with Sublime), which could be good, bad, or just indifferent. but it still seems a bit odd to me.
I was watching a bit of TV this morning and saw a particularly memorable car commercial, complete with a heavily shadowed-green screened-costumed host. It made me somewhat sad, however, to think back to the wonderful and surprisingly bizarre local TV spots that Eugene, OR had to offer. To my delight, several of my favorites are available on youtube (above and below) so I can still get my Eugene local TV commercial fix.
If you have a similar fascination with local TV, I highly suggest you take a look at the 50 Greatest Local TV Commercials. I’ve watched every one… there’s just something special about local TV. And remembe: There’s no appliance like Mr. Appliance, and if you don’t go see Robert Saks, his hair can’t save you any money.
So I was at the store and picked up a pack of NEW! Jolly Rancher Double Blasts (pictured above). And incase you can’t quite read the two flavors at the top, they’re “Chorange” an”Raspilime”. Despite names vaguely reminiscent of cleaning products, the colors, blasts, bizarre starbursts of light, and general blast-in-the-face look of the packaging really drew me in. And then I tried one of the “flavor-infused, poweder filled candies” and was somewhat confused. maybe i’m just old fashioned, but I was happy when my candy was solid and not filled with powder. I was happy when I had one flavor at a time, but apparently the more the better. And “Chorange”? what kind of flavor is that? Cherry-orange seems okay in mind. that makese sense. but Chorange? maybe times are changing and for once, I’m not ready for it. And that’s not even taking the whole blue raspberry thing into account.
So I was looking at the bottom of a six-pack of Widmer Hefeweizen for some reason that I can’t quite remember, when I noticed the UPC. I’ve always been a fan of UPCs, probably because I always hope I can tilt them at an extreme angle and there’ll be a hidden message that will suddenly appear. What I found this time was probably cooler in the long run. The barcode (pictured above) has wheat growing out of it (hefeweizen being an unfiltered wheat beer), which is pretty awesome. It practically made my day.
I then remembered the whole Cannes Titanium “controversy” thing from this past year where Design Barcode Inc. won the Titanium (click here for the AdFreak article & eminent discussion). It got me thinking about other barcodes I love (Puma’s shoe box barcodes, for example). Why can’t cool barcodes be everywhere? I’d really love to see more - it’s those little things like that which really make my day. For a few more, check out Barcode Revolution and Berlin-based design house Pfadfinderei. Seriously. I want barcodes like the one above to be on everything.
I was chatting with a friend of mine, when he asked if I’d seen the Cadbury Gorilla spot. He then asked if I thought the gorilla was real, or just an awesome suit. Now it took me a bit by surprise. I love the spot, as I am a die-hard Phil Collins fan, and my girlfriend (who lived in Australia for a time) is a die-hard Cadbury fan (if there ever was one). On top of it, I used to be a professional gorilla mascot, so I have a deep-seeded emotional tie to gorillas in general, and specifically to those who play the drums. So the thought of how the gorilla was created had never really crossed my mind. But then I had to find out.
Easy enough. A bit of research on the tubes of the internet gave me the answer. A suit with some amazing animatronics. And who’s in the suit? None other than one of my idols, the dreamy hunky actor who somehow ended up typecast as a gorilla: Garon Michael. You might remember him from The Congo, where he played the gorilla. Or maybe from Instinct, where he played… yup… a gorilla. Incredible. If you want a bit more information, check out the post on Creative Review. I’m going to go back and watch that commercial over and over until I can’t control the urge to go don my gorilla suit, sit at the drumset, and eat some Cadbury.
Sitting in traffic in my non-air-conditioned car, in the middle of the afternoon, amidst sweltering heat and diesel exhaust from the bus in front me, I glanced over and saw the bus bench pictured above. Not only is the interior of my car swelteringly hot, but so is transit advertising, apparently. And I don’t really have anything against Lamar Advertising… I just found the juxtaposition of my discomfort with flames of transit advertising amusing… in that dehydrating, heat-stroke-ish, kind of way.
Every now and again (although significantly less often today), I see something on-line that makes me happy. Makes me smile. And sort of restores my faith in humanity (not too sound too over the top corny or anything… but I think that there’s a part of me that actually believes in “humanity” as they say it on TV and such.)
Anyway, this animated short by Julia Pott is beautiful - each individual aspect of it is truly superb - from the characters and animation style, to the music and sound, to the overall concept. Cool stuff, that makes me smile, and makes me glad I took a gander at what the tubes of the interweb had to offer me today.
So I have a hard time getting rid of stuff. No question about it. As much as I’d like to do something as monumental and brillaint as John D. Freyer with All My Life For Sale, Lately, I’ve just been putting a few things up on Craigslist, along with seemingly everyone else in the world. And what do most Craigslist ads need? Pictures!
I’m a photographer at heart (and by profession when things go well) so I sometimes feel like it’s my duty to edit every single photo I ever take. whether it’s merely reducing size for better web communication, or drastically altering composition and visual dynamic of photographs. I also feel obligated for some reason to use Photoshop, and I’ve been playing around with CS3 a great deal lately. but in preparing photos for Craiglist, (and most other things, really) I find myself turning more and more to Picnik.
Picnik is an on-line flash-based photo editor with a beautiful interface and a bounty of utility. From cropping, resizing, and rotating, to color correction and special effects, Picnik is versatile and powerful in ways that put it in the realm close to… dare I say it?… Photoshop itself. The other key feature in my application is the ability to upload edited photos to flickr, to save to the desktop, to upload to other sharing sites like Facebook and Picasa (meh…), and to e-mail to websites like Photobucket. My desktop is feeling lonely now that I can edit, save, upload, and post photos via a stellar and powerful web app. If you haven’t tried playing with Picnik yet, give it a shot.
Easy enough. A bit of research on the tubes of the internet gave me the answer. A suit with some amazing animatronics. And who’s in the suit? None other than one of my idols, the dreamy hunky actor who somehow ended up typecast as a gorilla: 
