Digital Distraction Pyramid

I am easily distracted, thus... take a look at this.



This would qualify as a second tier distraction. Saw it on FFFFound, which got it here.

Enjoy.

Hardee's - French Maids, French Dip

A big part of my absence for the past 20 days or so has been Hardee's, their newest Thickburger® and a handful of gorgeous french maids.

The French Dip Thickburger was launched at the 2009 MLB All-Star Game here in St. Louis and is available at most if not all Hardee's restaurants. Thats's right the French Dip Thickburger. That's a Thickburger, with the full amount of Roast Beef you would get at say Arby's on top of it, with Swiss cheese, and side of Au Jus for dipping. Voila!:
"Meat as a condiment," is Hardee's M/O. And I had one of these Thickburgers. It's good. Not good for me, but good tasting. This isn't the ideal sandwhich for someone who sits at a computer all day. But when I was working as a roofer in college, this would have been perfect.

We helped make Hardee's vision of four models/actresses dressed in french maid uniforms, riding around the streets of St. Louis on Segways, flirting their way into the hearts of Meat loving Americans a reality. And now they're on the move. Next week the girls (the French Me Femmes; Sophie, Antoinette,Gabrielle, Isabelle are touring the region in a SUV that I designed. This is it:







You can see if they are coming to your area anytime soon by checking this calendar. The girls will be distributing coupons for FREE French Dip Thickburgers, as well as taking photos while "Frenching" guys across the country. If you don't think you'll get a chance to see the girls in person, click here to download a coupon for $1.00 OFF a French Dip Thickburger Combo.

Let me know what you think of the sandwich, the promotion or the unapologetic female exploitation.

The Death and Life of the Kurca

So I live vicariously through Scott Lichtenauer lately, but I wanted to post his latest project for all, especially my Kansas City Slavic loving friends.

The Sugar Creek Slavic festival is a local event filled with slavic food, dance and garb. His current agency Salva O'renick in KC handles the promotion of the event every year, and has made Scott the point man for the past few years. He has dominated each time, especially given the nonexistent budget and zero time allocation.

This is this years installment.

Its a sort of who done it, Kurca (pronounced Kur-cha) murder mystery. Your three suspects are Borislava Jaje (the bakers wife, who fell in loving with the womanizing Kurca), Vlatko Ovaca (a peace loving shepard, enraged by the dissapearance of his flock) and of course Belbog Harmonika (plays "The Chicken Dance" on the squeeze-box like an angel, but has been silenced by the Kurca seemingly uncontrollable desire to destroy when hearing his rendition). Scott is Belbog by the way.

Check it out, as well as his normal blog The Surly Birds.

This Guy is CRAP!

Have we seen this?



This guy hates your business card, rolladexes and probably puppies.

But he can get a crowd, damn it!

Here's my business card. It's on a 110lb paper stock with an aqueous coating. It's terrible for the environment, but feels like silk. 1.5"x3.5" of raw business contact identification. Stolze Priniting here in St. Louis made these happen:



I like it, but I bet it gets lost in a rolladex. Damn.

Sony vs. Tango Juice

So the other day I posted a Sony Bravia commercial that is probably my favorite pointless commercial of all time.

Here it is again, along with the rest of the campaign:





(This is all stop motion, no CGI, by the way)



I know, I know. It's the brilliant color and beautiful images that the TV has. I'm already second guessing the initial intent of this post, which is that this Bravia spot is really just an amazing execution affixed to a product or brand. However, this was a related video to the original, that I saw yesterday:



Now... I think I'm prepared to propose that this commercial for Tango Juice is actually a better, more brand specific commercial. Plus, I like how they piggybacked on another successful spot to effectively push their product.

I am arguing with myself, so I know someone out there disagrees with me. Comment. Let me know your thoughts.

Also, really quick. I want to give a shout out to the song featured in the bouncy ball Bravia commercial. That's Jose Gonzales covering the song Heartbeats by The Knife. His awesome voice takes that song to an amazing level, but I really want to speak a bit about the The Knife version. Listen to this song.

Heartbeats - The Knife (mp3)

This song came out in 2003, and I know, in my "in denial" state of how old I am, 2003 doesn't feel like all that long ago. But when you think back to what was out at the time, this song is super progressive... in a throwback sort of way (It came out the same year as Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne, Loose Yourself by Eminem and pretty much witnessed the rise of Jack Johnson).

This song was on the front line of the current hipster scene, and and has lead the way for some questionably awesome repercussions including but not limited to really tight pants, funky design, re-synthing America and apparently scrunchies and everything else at American Apparel.


You don't believe this song is influential or relevant? Check out this track off the mixtape Sky High by Mr. Hipster himself Kanye West:

High Heartbeats - Kanye West (mp3)

Hope you like.

Short Film for Phillips... I guess?

Check out this short film, meant to promote the Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD TV.



I saw it today on Computerlove , a tech blog.

Spots like this make me jaded as to my own profession. They are sweet for sweetness sake, but have absolutely no function or tie to the brand. This could be an ad for Sony, Magnavox or Panasonic... or even Bose, Astound Sound, Best Buy or any number of companies and products.

But, I still think it's kind of cool.

Here are some other "commercials" that fall into the same pointless, but awesome category:

The Lonely Island is Back!

When I was in college I was witness to the birth of the online video site.

From the earliest existence of Collegehumor.com (where funniest videos were selected and added by the sites advisors) to the now global domination of Youtube.com (where anyone and everyone can post and watch), and everything in between.

During this time the viral video was also perfected and manifested itself in classics like The G.I. Joe spoofs, The Urban Ninja, The "I feel Great" Nutragrain Commercial, Don Hertzfeldt's "Rejected", and hundreds more.

It was at this part of my life that I discovered The Lonely Island, their Fox canceled sketch comedy show "Awesometown", and subsequent video website.

Here is a particularly stand out video featuring some Nintendo classics:



Well the guys may have been cancelled on Fox but life hasn't been so bad. They have all been picked up by SNL, but you may have only seen Andy Samberg. However, all three "Dudes", Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg, were hired as writers and have been a big part of the few skits of the past few years that were any good. They are funny all around, but have garnered most of their success by combing their uber-white boy demeanor with hardcore hip-hop music. Think "D**k in a Box" "The Bing Bong Bros." and "J**z in my pants".

Now they are back with an album of their own out, and the first single off it is maintaining their viral success story and combining it with their mainstream SNL hype. Here's one of the first singles:



I got the entire album called Incredibad and it's worth a listen or a download. Definitely a good one to send to your friends for a laugh.

I'll leave with a taste of classic "Awesometown", and "The Dudes" spoof of the show The O.C. Its called The 'Bu (short for Malibu), and this episode was brought to us in 3D!

Glasses On!!!



Ahhh... those were the days.

"Inauguration Fever" has been fed, but...

Here are some amazing photos of the inauguration that I came across today. Pretty amazing shots.

Pay attention to the contrast between American shots and those from around the world. They are interesting on face for the international interest in Barack Obama, but there are some amazing socio-economic points of interest for me in the details. Really interesting and quality photos.

Check them out.