brand

Here’s an interesting, perhaps fun ad on a cup! You position the cup, drink from it, and whala, you have a new nose and lip. The ads for plastic surgery and I’m sure it’ll capture a few customers, though, I think kids will have more fun swapping cups..perhaps a collectible .

via frederiksamuel
ddb Canada (the ad firm)
update: seems these cups (ripoff) are available for purchase now.

ugoff commercial

One of my favorite commercials was the “Ugoff” series for BurgerKing in 2004. Recently some really great VW commercials came out which reminded me of them, and whala…it’s the same freakin firm! If you have not seen either series, your missing out! If your a designer, you’ll have a great appreciation for the “Ugoff” series. Anyhow, they rock!Crispin Porter+Bogusky
Ugoff commercials one, two, web (look into “ugoffliments”)
VW commercials one, two, three

Frozen Food Bistro!

“In Paris, bistros are synonymous with cheap and cheerful food. In Hamburg, FRoSTA Bistro serves cheap and cheerful frozen food…. FRoSTA, a mid-sized, forward thinking company with an active blog, manufactures premium frozen foods that are completely free of artificial additives.The bistro, which opened in November 2005, is a well-design restaurant with chefs working in an open kitchen. For all to see, they prepare frozen foods from FRoSTA’s range. Packaging is on display, reinforcing the message that the meals prepared in the bistro are identical to what consumers can buy in a supermarket. “

Pretty freakin cool. Hopefully it taste just as good as it sounds!

via springwise

IDIOM jacket Here’s a slick jacket by IDIOM. Then again, I’m a sucker for products with an “apple affect”. In the design world, the “apple affect” is where the outside is one color, but the insides a burst of another. There are tons of great products with this design element. I’ll list a few:

Billion dollar networksGeocities was bought for 3.6 billion dollars in 1999 by Yahoo. Facebook, one of the newer trendy social networks, is apparently trying to sell themselves for 2 billion now. The founders of Facebook are Harvard undergrad dropouts. The number of American millionaires is at a record high of about 9 million Millionaires. Are all of these social networks worth this much? Myspace, Orkut, Friendster, Hi5, LinkedIn, etc?

Sure makes me wonder when I’m going to make my million. Check out those links, figure out a better network, and go make a billion.

BrandVerbs

I’ve always been facinated how certain brands replace product names, such as Coke=soda, Kleenex=tissue paper, sharpie=permanent marker, ipod=mp3 player, etc. I’ve noticed in todays tech world that powerful brands also replace our everyday verbs. When a brand replaces a noun or verb in our mindsets, then it becomes a brand Sneezer(a brand that spreads fast and becomes ridiculously powerful!)
Here’s my short list of brands that have replaced a few of my everyday verbs!
Google= search/find
Tivo= record
Xerox= copy
Ebay= sell(maybe buy or advertise)
Fedex= mail (with quality)
Kazaa= download

?= shop (maybe amazon someday)
?= email (maybe gmail soon)

The MS ipod video

“Microsoft spokesman Tom Pilla on Tuesday confirmed with iPod Observer that his company initiated the creation of the iPod packaging parody video that was first reported last month. “It was an internal-only video clip commissioned by our packaging [team] to humorously highlight the challenges we have faced RE: packaging and to educate marketers here about the pitfalls of packaging/branding,” he said via e-mail.”
This is a great video with a bit of humor to it. I’m glad the big giant has finally poked fun at itself about their ugly and distracting packaging.Google Video of it (a must watch!)
via ipod observer
via Seth Godin

Peanut Butter by the Slice

Who says peanut butter has to be spread! PBslices creates the easy to spread peanut butter slice, much like cheese slices. It was introduced in 2002, but hasn’t really spread out in the market..hehe. I love the idea, but then again, it seems odd. I eat slices of meat, cheese, and bread…but jam, peanut butter, perhaps a vitamin slice one day? This again is an example of perceptial familiarities. If peanut butter was first introduced by the slice, would we find the spreadable version odd?PBslices