Co.Create

Stockholm Pride Helps You Protest Russian Bigotry With Sneaky Twitter Campaign

Jennifer Miller — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:00:38 GMT

Support gay pride--send a Tweet in Russian.

Last August, citing fears of "public disorder," Russian courts banned gay pride parades in the Moscow for the next 100 years. With help from M&C Saatchi Stockholm, you can join Swedes in protesting this ridiculous ruling. Urge Russians to attend Stockholm Pride, where everybody is welcome. Visit the #GoWest website, where you can send a protest tweet in Russian. Your tweet will appear to be 'sent’ from inside Russia, in hopes of making the topic trend there. Go be a cyber spy for equality.

Promotional Photo For Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” Is a Big Tableau of Wrong

Joe Berkowitz — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:35:24 GMT

Everything about this promotional photo for Lars von Trier’s "Nymphomaniac" is so Lars von Trier.

A couple weeks ago, Lars van Trier revealed the cheeky poster for his forthcoming, highly anticipated/feared film, Nymphomaniac. Now, the director who doesn’t know how to be anything other than controversial has released a promotional photo for the film that fills in some of the gaps in viewers’ imaginations left by its minimalist predecessor.

In the new image, the entire cast is arranged around a movie set, looking like dolls splayed about a dollhouse. Shia LaBeouf is once again shirtless, and laying near an overtly phallic fruit plate. Uma Thurman appears to be showing off the contents of her dress to the ever-chilly Udo Kier, while Christian Slater and LVT-muse Charlotte Gainsbourg enact a similar exhibition, only with Slater creepily lathering up a soap bucket.

Most interestingly, the director is also in the image--standing in the background, with electric tape over his mouth--perhaps in an effort to keep him from saying some of the terrible things he’s been known to say over the years. Or maybe the tape is to prevent him from yelling "cut" before things get out of hand. If you didn’t know what you were in for with a Lars van Trier film called Nymphomaniac, this sets the tone.

iOS Ghost Story “Haunting Melissa” Plays Out Across Your Devices On Its Own Schedule

Joe Berkowitz — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:29 GMT

A new horror movie from David Lynch collaborator Neal Edelstein is designed just for phones and tablets, with some very 21st century tricks up its sleeve.

Ordinarily, it’s the characters in scary movies who are being haunted, but with the latest from The Ring producer, Neal Edelstein, it’s the audience’s turn. Pieces of his new film are set to emerge on viewers’ mobile devices at unpredictable times, like restless spirits returning from the grave.

Haunting Melissa is a scarily playful, thoroughly modern experiment with the media through which horror stories are delivered. The new film was made to be viewed over time, via an app on iPhone, iPad or iPod. What’s more intriguing than the distribution method, however, is the schedule. The first installment is available on May 16th, but viewers will never know when subsequent segments drop, or how long they’ll run. It’s a viewing experience designed specifically for the person who is pathologically glued to a smartphone, forever awaiting fresh intelligence to tumble forth.

"I wanted to tell a story, and I wanted to tell a ghost story, but what I didn’t want to do was take some script that I had lying around, collecting dust, or create something with a traditional three-act structure," says Edelstein. "I wanted to tell a ghost story in a completely different way."

Edelstein has experience with nontraditional storytelling from his frequent collaborations with pioneering mind-bender, David Lynch. Together, the pair first sought out a new digital-based way to tell stories in late 90s, when they launched DavidLynch.com, but the time (and technology) wasn’t right yet. Now, technology has caught up to the ideas Edelstein began devising years ago, and the result is Haunting Melissa.

It’s a scary movie that favors psychological horror over blood-and-guts splatter, and it’s intended for young, digital-savvy audiences. The characters in the film are addicted to their devices, just like the desired viewer. And just as these devices constantly hover around us, the titular Melissa (Kassia Warshawski) is haunted by her recently deceased mother.

Edelstein came up with the initial idea in the spring of 2011. After some initial fundraising, and the recruitment of screenwriter and former collaborator, , production started about 18 months ago.

"The story was the first spark, but it was really just holding the device and going 'This would be awesome to tell a ghost story,'" the producer says. "After that, the question was, 'How do I do this differently? I don’t want to be an app that’s just a regular movie."

One of the major differences is the push notification format. The target audience has been trained to look forward to incoming content on their phones when one of their friends has favorited a tweet or hearted an Instagram. The same message will now signal the unexpected arrival of a new chunk of Haunting Melissa. Each segment is staggered for an indeterminate length, and the clock will not start ticking until after the last scene is finished.

Once users download the app, a story timeline appears in splitscreen, with what looks like a scrollable filmstrip on the right side. Each segment here is a new section of the movie, and they’re color-coded to let viewers know what’s available. If it’s in regular color, it’s ready to be seen; if it’s in black and white, you’ve already watched it; if it’s tinted, it’s not yet available. The producer won’t say how many chapters there are total, another way he’s working to control the unpredictable nature of the project.

The app itself is free, and so is the first chapter. Users will get a prompt to buy season pass for $6.99 or the hi-def version for $14.99. The hesitant but curious can purchase each chapter a la carte, at .99 cents a shot. Also, anyone who posts about the first segment on Facebook will get the second chapter for free--an incentive the producer hopes will set a precedent for starting conversations about the film on social media.

To make a film for the connected generation, Edelstein assembled a team through his production company, Hooked Digital Media, for both shooting the film and designing the platform.

"Taking a film discipline of post-production and marrying that with iOS development has been a really interesting challenge," he says. "Much more difficult than you would expect. There’s been so many iterations, and coding issues, and sound changes--just a lot of things that change in the process which normally might not."

Another thing that changed during the course of production is the movie itself. Haunting Melissa has what Edelstein calls dynamic storytelling elements. He shot certain scenes two ways, and then pushed the technology to allow for real-time edits. Viewers who re-watch chapter two later on might notice someone standing in a window, who wasn’t standing there before. Right now, these instances are predetermined and spread throughout the story, but the producer designed the CMS so that he can flip switches any time.

It’s an optimistic move that will allow Edelstein to refresh the content viewers have already seen by the time he gets around to making a sequel.

Levi’s-Backed “Station To Station” Revives The Music-On-Rails Magic Of “Festival Express”

Teressa Iezzi — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:40 GMT

Festival Express, the 1970s train tour with The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and other rock greats was forgotten for nearly 30 years. Now, it inspires a new generation of traveling festivals, including the most ambitious one yet from artist Doug Aitken, scheduled to debut this September.

In the summer of 1970, several of rock’s biggest names--The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band--set out on a tour across Canada aboard a train dubbed the Festival Express. It was a somewhat eccentric mode of transportation, even for the time, since most performers traveled by bus or plane, but somehow an apropos choice for this merry collection of jam bands, folk rock groups, and blues musicians.

The festival was doomed from the start. Their first scheduled stop in Montreal was cancelled just weeks before the event because city officials feared violent uprisings--a concern that turned out to be more than just administrative paranoia. Days later, as the first performance finally got underway in Toronto, the festival was met with riots over the outrageous $14 ticket price. News of the fiasco would follow them for the rest of the concert tour, spreading from city to city, and it became apparent that the Festival Express was going to be one big money sinkhole.

After that, the train ride was forgotten for nearly 30 years. But now a new generation of artists is out to re-create the Festival Express experience. There was the Railroad Revival Tour in 2011 and the Full Flex Express in 2012. And this September the most ambitious revival yet will debut from artist Doug Aitken: a three-week-long train trek and series of performances called Station to Station that will unfold across 10 U.S. cities.

So if the Festival Express tour was plagued with problems, what are these artists and musicians trying to recapture?

On the train, the performers were having the time of their lives. Reveling in the high-frequency creative energy that comes from being in close quarters with some of the best musicians of the time, compounded by copious amounts of free drugs and booze, the ride turned into a weeklong jam session of epic proportions.

“It was a train full of insane people, careening across the Canadian countryside, making music night and day, and then occasionally we’d get off the train and go play a concert,” recalled the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh in the 2003 documentary chronicling the historic tour.

The film, which was shelved for decades following the festival’s financial ruin, captures everything from iconic live performances to the endless guitar noodling and off-key drunken howls that took place aboard the train late at night. It serves as a love letter to the music of the '60s and '70s, to the creative craft, and, somewhat oddly since its events take place in Canada, to Americana.

The mythology of the Festival Express spread through the creative community, and that’s what led to the reincarnation of the doomed festival in a variety of modern forms. Several folk, country, and bluegrass rock acts, including Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, traveled the American Southwest in vintage train cars as part of the Railroad Revival Tour. Skrillex, along with electronic music heavyweights Diplo, Grimes, and Pretty Lights, staged a pretty literal reinterpretation of the Festival Express with the Full Flex Express tour, making stops at six Canadian cities. Even Rihanna’s recent 777 press junket tour seems to have drawn inspiration from the Festival Express.

Each of these tours seems to have inherited the same financial burden as the original. Though both the Railroad Revival and Full Flex Express initially announced a second tour, complete with all-star line-up, both were cancelled before they could even begin, citing financial difficulties. Apparently train travel is obscenely expensive.

Doug Aitken Ups The Ante

Aitken is best known for his large-scale video projections, installations, and experimental films, on which he frequently collaborates with musicians like Andre 3000, No Age, and Cat Power. Station to Station will be his magnum opus to the marriage of the moving image and sound, and from what we’ve heard so far, it’s shaping up to be something like a Coachella on wheels crossed with a museum exhibition on steroids. It’s shaping up to be the most ambitious spectacle the American railroad system has seen yet.

In addition to concert performances, Station to Station will feature a curated film program and will commission short films from several leading filmmakers. By partnering with cultural institutions and curators in each city, the event will be tapping into the local cultural communities, which will be represented in pop-up tents at each stop housing local craft food and design purveyors. And, in what may be the most opulent gesture of the whole campaign, Aitken is transforming the 10-car charter train itself into a massive LED light installation.

So how is he going to pull all this off when everyone else has failed? Apart from leveraging his A-list connections, Aitken has learned from his predecessors and realized that ticket sales alone cannot sustain such extravagance. In search of a different financial model, he’s turned the whole thing into a branded campaign and sold it to Levi’s, a partner that fits with the Americana iconography Station to Station celebrates. The brand partnership will not only finance Station to Station, it will allow Aitken to donate proceeds towards funding a multimuseum arts program throughout 2014.

Can Station to Station shake the ghost of Festival Express and bypass the financial ruin that plagued its predecessors? While it’s certainly gearing up to be a bank-breaking blowout, with corporate patrons behind them, Aitken and his crew may have the best chance yet to create a moving piece of musical art without getting derailed.

Never Show A Wolf Your Teeth, And More Illustrated Advice For When Animals Attack

Joe Berkowitz — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:38 GMT

Hip health blog Hella Wella has created an illustrated survival guide that might make you laugh while saving your life.

Although far less fearsome when they wear clothes, plenty of wild animals have the capacity to kill. While likely to be dispatched by razor-sharp claws or rows of bone-shredding teeth, humans who wander into the domain of apex predators can also be victims of their own lack of information. Now, the health and wellness blog Hella Wella is trying to drive that problem into extinction.

Hella Wella is mostly known for offering remedies and recipes, not teaching survivalism, but staying healthy sometimes involves a manic, instantaneous decision, rather than a series of smart health choices over the course of one’s life. Advice on dodging deadly critters fits neatly into their jurisdiction. Each animal covered in the survival guide is rated with a danger level, along with a listing of some preventative ideas on avoiding attack, and how to come out of one intact. Best of all, the advice is doled out in the cheeky style of the website, so that users might find themselves laughing while tucking away some info that may potentially help them survive.

Are You Good In A Crisis? Test Your Lifesaving Skills With This New App

Meg Carter — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:24 GMT

Lifesaver uses absorbing, interactive film to instill unforgettable lifesaving tips.

If someone collapsed in front of you, would you know what to do? Lifesaver, a new crisis simulator for smartphones, tablets, and PCs that combines interactivity with live-action film, just launched in the U.K. to enable members of the public to help should they encounter one of the 60,000 people in the country who have an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year.

Fewer than 10% of those who arrest in public places or at home survive, according to medical charity Resuscitation Council (UK), producer of the official U.K. guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) followed by the U.K.'s National Health Service and first aid charities. Yet a bystander able to start CPR can double a person’s chances of survival.

The bystander problem’ has been a concern for emergency services for many years, according to interactive writer and director Martin Percy, who came up with the idea for the new CPR simulator, Lifesaver, after undertaking a traditional CPR course in south London almost 10 years ago.

"The traditional approach to teaching CPR skills involves working on a plastic dummy while you’re given guidance over a nice cup of tea," he explains.

"But aside from the fact that in London alone the ambulance service has struggled to reach its goal of encouraging just 1% of the population to take a CPR course, many people soon forget how many pushes to do or how hard and lose confidence in their ability to help."

Lifesaver, a free app backed by the Resuscitation Council, the digital production company Unit9, which reps Percy, and the U.K.'s Technology Strategy Board, offers an interactive and engaging lesson for people who might find themselves in a position to help. The app puts you the viewer into a series of films where you make on-the-spot decisions to help a person who may have just suffered cardiac arrest.

Interactive film offers an opportunity to provide a new way of learning that challenges people to make lifesaving decisions in a pressured environment, Percy explains. Users learn the mechanics of CPR by interacting with the screen--by either clicking or dragging a mouse on the web version or, on an iPad, moving the device up and down.

Careful preproduction planning and scripting was essential to ensure Lifesaver achieved the desired impact. "One problem many interactive films suffer is suspension of disbelief and users’ failure to identify with the choices the lead character they are meant to identify with has to make," he says.

Another is shooting solely from the main character’s perspective in the first person. Do this and you risk weakening the emotional connection an audience feels, which is why it is also important to show your character from other people’s perspectives, for example: looking agitated or upset.

Percy adds: "The key is to ensure the user believes they are controlling a real character in a real situation at all times."

Lifesaver comprises three dramatic interactive scenarios ranging in duration from eight to 12 minutes, an accompanying Real Life Stories & Questions film, plus additional medical and emergency information and opportunity to feed back.

Live action footage was shot by Percy and Unit9 producer Pietro Matteucci last November working in partnership with commercials production house Outsider.

A rough linear edit was then done highlighting key decision points. Interactive elements were then integrated by the Unit9 team headed by technical director Yates Buckley and executive producer Piero Frescobaldi, whose emphasis throughout was on ensuring the user experience was "gamelike rather than binary."

Further edits and adjustments were then made before the crisis simulator was user tested.

Lifesaver should be seen as an addition to rather than replacement for existing, more traditional CPR education tools, Percy stresses. That said, he admits he is excited about the potential of the iPad version in particular to offer users an experience that’s more immersive and instinctive than any that’s been previously available.

Moving forward, he adds, he hopes to secure funding that will enable Unit9 to produce a version of Lifesaver for the United States where resuscitation guidelines differ from those that currently operate in the U.K.

Lifesaver is now available online for smartphones and tablets. Without any marketing budget, it will be promoted by the Resuscitation Council, relevant health charities, and word of mouth--in Percy’s own words: standing or falling by being good enough for people to talk about and recommend to friends.

Noah Baumbach On Conversational Collaboration And Small Ideas That Don’t Stay Small

Ari Karpel — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:47 GMT

The director and cowriter of Frances Ha--who also wrote and directed Kicking and Screaming and The Squid and the Whale--talks about his collaborative process making the new film, and small ideas with big reverberations.

Noah Baumbach makes movies about people. Well, except maybe for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which he cowrote with Wes Anderson and was about a family of foxes and an opossum. But since his first film, Walking and Talking, the 43-year-old Brooklyn native has made movies about people in conversation.

His latest film, out this weekend, is Frances Ha. It’s about a woman who dances in a world where dancing is odd. The low-budget, black-and-white movie has drawn comparisons to Woody Allen’s Manhattan.

Here, Baumbach talks about the tiny ideas that lead to bigger ones, how collaboration is really just one long conversation, and why he pared down to make Frances Ha.

START WITH THINGS THAT ARE SMALL.

Noah Baumbach

"I tend to start with things that are small," says Baumbach. "I don’t really mean they’re small, because they have big reverberations." For instance, in Frances Ha, the earliest small ideas came out of his desire to work with actress Greta Gerwig, who costarred in his film, Greenberg (and is now his romantic partner). "I wanted to make another movie with her and I wanted to make a movie in New York. And since she was 27, it was going to be about a 27-year-old."

As they began their collaboration, mostly via email since Gerwig was traveling for work, she wrote to him about that debate one goes through when at an ATM: Whether to hit "yes" or "no" when prompted about accepting a bank’s fee. "Even though it could almost be, like, a line in a stand-up act," he says, "it’s an observation that said so much about who this [character] could be, and I didn’t know who Frances was yet or anything about what the movie could be." And, in fact, that very debate, that small moment at the ATM, is one of the relatable details that made it into the film, about a young woman on the verge of adulthood, struggling to find who she will become as she endeavors to stay afloat in the city.

Baumbach says that’s typical of how he works. For 2010's Greenberg, with Ben Stiller in the title role, Baumbach first had notions of driving in Los Angeles. "I was thinking about [the character] Greenberg and about Los Angeles and then [those entities] start speaking to each other: What is Greenberg’s relationship to driving in Los Angeles?"

Baumbach continues: "There was something about walking in L.A., a nondriver in Los Angeles. It so spoke to his resistance to the world, he’s not accommodating to everyday life, so to then put him in a car culture and it made that even stronger. . . . That idea generated a lot of other ideas and informed the character." The resulting film is a portrait of a man lost at midlife, at odds with much of the world around him.

IN COLLABORATION, YOUR WORK BECOMES A CONVERSATION.

Greta Gerwig with Adam Driver having dinner

"I don’t talk things out so much when I’m working alone, but with Greta, the talking becomes the work," Baumbach explains. "That’s the nice thing about collaborating with someone: Your work becomes a conversation. Ideally, we would have been in the same room a lot, talking at the computer, like the thing that movies do when they try to make writing interesting"--by which he means you see a couple seated at desks that face each other and they high-five a lot. "No, it’s not like that. We were really not in the same place a lot unfortunately. We were emailing back and forth and then after a while we did divvy up scenes."

Because the movie is broken up in chapters, it was easy for them to divide the work: One would focus on the sequence set at Vassar while the other would work on the dinner party scene. "We would then go over them and make a bigger pass. It’s fun to do it that way. It’s like I’m getting new scenes to read and it’s for this movie," he says excitedly. "Sometimes things would conflict and we’d have to make a decision--'That can’t happen here because this is going to happen,' but that’s the fun of it, too."

Since Baumbach and Gerwig are collaborating on two other projects--an animated movie for Dreamworks, about a dog, and another, New York-set feature that they’ve been filming lately--they will, at times, switch gears. "Sometimes we go back and forth because the animated movie is being written over a longer period of time. But whatever’s up next needs to get the main attention. It’s important to make time. When I’m in a mode of writing I am [very disciplined]. I used to get up and write every day even if I wasn’t working on a specific thing. Now, when I have a thing I’m in the middle of, I do that but when I’m not, time can go by when I’m not writing at all."

CREATE YOUR OWN WRITING PROMPTS.

Even Baumbach needs inspiration in order to begin to sit down and write. "I find a lot of writing happens when you’re not actually at the computer," he says. "So I carry a notebook." Ideas that he gathers in the course of a day he will then use when he’s at his computer as a sort of writing prompt. "Those things help. Bringing them to the computer helps. You have something to input and that can start you off, but often once you bring them to the computer they don’t seem as inspired as they did on the subway the day before, like, 'oh, god, that’s brilliant,' and then I’m like, 'Why was this even a good idea to begin with?' "

SIMPLIFY TO FREE YOURSELF.

For Frances Ha as well as their next movie, Baumbach and Gerwig decided to go as minimalist as possible with the production. "I had a way I wanted to work," he reports, "to strip the film crew down to its barest essentials, knowing I would lose certain things because I wouldn’t have the support I need. I thought [Frances Ha ] was the right movie for it, being small and, to some degree, more private." He likens what he envisioned to records that Paul McCartney made after The Beatles and both before and after Wings, such as Ram. "He played a lot of the instruments and he made [those records] in his basement," Baumbach says, acknowledging that McCartney’s basement is probably unlike yours or mine. "But still, to my mind he was in his basement. And yet the records aren’t small in scope, they’re soaring even."

Greta Gerwig & Mickey Sumner play fighting.

It’s the soaring that Baumbach was going for, soaring from a small place. "I wanted it to be elegant and beautiful and have this intimacy. I wanted to be able to move faster." So how small? Fifteen people? "Something like that," he says. "I think you could mistake us for a student film." It was a way to shoot in New York while allowing the city to go about its business around them. "For that reason, too, to not call a lot of attention to yourself. It’s like how we shot a lot of the Greenberg stuff. Of course, it’s different when you’re shooting with Ben Stiller--people notice him. But no one walks in L.A., so you’re kind of free to do it. We do the proper channels"--by which he means getting permits and such--"but it’s about keeping it small and quiet."

Baumbach also wanted to shoot over a long period of time. "You can only get a small group to commit to that. I think there’s this kind of crazy thing about traditional filmmaking: There’s all this money, all these people and as soon as you start shooting, you have to make a schedule. That’s the time you have to do it--there’s one day for this and one day for that."

The extended timeframe was an unconventional indulgence. "I felt like, Wouldn’t it be great to shoot a movie until you felt like it’s done, as opposed to when the clock runs out? And wouldn’t it be great, too, if an actor doesn’t feel well that day, which inevitably someone doesn’t--or someone just isn’t on or something isn’t right or I’m not feeling it--that we can say, 'Let’s come back and do this tomorrow’? That’s a great feeling. What ends up happening, of course, is you end up actually doing that very little, but once you have the pressure off, everybody can just kind of get it right the first time." He’s used to making movies under pressure, of course. "The Squid and the Whale I shot in 23 days. I would have loved more time for it at the time, but in some ways that kind of kamikaze way of shooting was right for that movie."

"[This new way of working] allowed me to do many, many takes. There’s a real rigor to how we shot these scenes; they take a while. We’re often shooting a high page count in one take, not many takes of someone picking up a phone. It’s really about trying to get it right, and not obsessively, but trying to get it right in a way where you don’t feel like, 'I don’t think we’re going to do better after that,' as opposed to, 'Okay, we’ll take that.'"

[Photos Courtesy of IFC | Pine District, LLC.]

See The “Game of Thrones” Houses Reimagined As Modern Corporations

Joe Berkowitz — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:25 GMT

Photo hub ShutterStock imagines what the Lannisters and Starks might be getting up to today--and it’s a real game changer.

Disruption. Headhunters. Execution. Yes, the cutthroat nature of modern corporations could rival any of the hand-severing antics of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Perhaps that’s why the stock photography site ShutterStock recently unveiled a series of mock ads featuring the houses of Westeros as contemporary businesses.

Although the fantasy series, based on George R.R. Martin’s novels, is nominally about chaotic battles, heaving bosoms, and soaring dragons, what it’s really about is an epic power struggle among several organizations with different world views. It’s not that big a leap to see an analog in the rancorous ongoing battle between, say, Apple and Samsung. Rather than merely redesign the houses’ sigils for modern style, ShutterStock has used some of its own stock images to create legit-looking depictions of the show’s major players in a whole new context.

Game of Thrones has indeed flirted with branding before, but never like this. Each of the houses has been considered across a number of factors--including belligerence, wealth, and dragon possession--in formulating the various businesses. The Greyjoys’ history of piracy contributes to their status as a cruise ship, just as Daenerys’ dragons make Targaryen House airline-appropriate. And even though a Lannister always pays his debts, that noble house has been reimagined as the kind of business that never seems to pay--an investment bank.

Have a look through the rest of the family businesses in the slide show above.

See The Works, And Stories, Of Renoir And Van Gogh As Comics

Jennifer Miller — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:55:12 GMT

The Museum of Art of São Paulo brings the dramatic stories behind famous art works to life via comics.

The Museum of Art of São Paulo wants visitors to take guided tours, so, with agency DDB Brazil, it has illustrated the dramatic stories behind the art on its wall using comics. The comics are created in the style of the artist in question, with panels inspired by painting and the narratives informed by real events in the artist’s life.

The comic below features the tragic life of Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani. Modigliani spent most of his career in France painting nudes and elongated modernist faces. He lived an impoverished life and died of tubercular meningitis at the age of 35. The comic, which ends with the tagline, "a painting is just one frame of the story," reminds us that behind every painting is a human being with his or her own story to tell. See comics for Renoir and Van Gogh below.

This Is What Happens When You Invite Vultures For Dinner

Jennifer Miller — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:05:18 GMT

Art installation meets nature film . . . meets vultures.

This is why you should never set up a fancy, multicourse meal in the wilderness and then go off to take an important phone call. Spanish artist Greta Alfaro set up a camera to record what would happen to this extravagant meal (the video is old, but it’s new to us). The answer is a surprising level of suspense (when the vultures start to swoop in, just out of frame, the results have a cinematic horror effect), the destruction of fine wine, and some very, very big birds.

Surfaced by It’s Nice That.

Is Amsterdam The Global Seat Of Cool? A New Tourism Spot Says Yes

Jennifer Miller — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:34:59 GMT

And tells us how to say "Van Gogh."

Are you looking for a vintage, hip, indie, artisanal, open-minded vacation? Welcome to Holland. A new ad, Holland, The Original Cool, created by the Dutch government to lure American tourists to Amsterdam, appears to promise travelers a cooler version of Brooklyn. Who knew that the city’s main airport had a library and grand piano for travelers to play? Or that pretty much everyone there speaks English--except for one crotchety old guy who will make fun of you for butchering the pronunciation of Van Gogh?

The ad was created by the Mustache agency, with sponsorship from the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, KLM Airlines, Schiphol Airport, and Amsterdam Marketing.

See A Beautiful, Data-Enriched Map of New York City

Jennifer Miller — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:59:38 GMT

Marcus Kirby’s (real) maps are gorgeous works of art packed with information.

Londoner Marcus Kirby was bored with traditional maps and pastel-colored countries, so he started a company to revive the age-old business of cartography. The Future Mapping Company uses traditional map-making techniques (lithographic instead of digital) to create colorful, intricate city representations. Most recently, the company has created a map of New York City, to be released later this month.

The NYC map is painted with a mixture of bright colors and metallics and includes color-coded bike lanes (shared and protected), as well as 1,700 public parks and public spaces. He also denotes various landscapes: from marshland to woodland to car parks, which are definitely their own distinct environments in New York.

Every Recurring Joke On “Arrested Development,” In Chart Form

Joe Berkowitz — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:14:08 GMT

There are more recurring jokes on "Arrested Development" than you can fathom.

More like, "some touching." A new interactive visualization of Arrested Development’s recurring jokes is rather hands-on, so try not to leave any blue fingerprints behind.

As anticipation for the Netflix-revived cult comedy’s new season rises to a fever pitch, most fans have been revisiting the show’s initial output. The digital designers at Beutler Ink and Red Edge have been paying more attention than most, however. The two companies recently teamed up to create Recurring Developments, a comprehensive catalog of all the inside jokes on the show that seemed to keep coming back--like an envelope tossed into the ocean.

On the left side of the visualization is a list of jokes, ranging from themes ("Tobias is obviously gay") to behaviors ("Lucille winking") and statements ("You’re gonna get some hop-ons"). On the right is a list of episodes. Clicking on an episode title immediately propels a bunch of lines out to the corresponding jokes within it. Clicking on a joke reveals its source and all the episodes it’s in. Additionally, there are circles around the mentions of which episodes the jokes are in, and if you hover your cursor above them, specific details about the variation of said joke emerge.

All in all, Recurring Developments makes a killer companion to Brad Evans’ epic hidden joke roundup on Splitsider. If you’re a true fan and you ignore this visualization, you will have made a huge mistake.

The End Of Rational Vs. Emotional: How Both Logic And Feeling Play Key Roles In Marketing And Decision Making

Teressa Iezzi — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:41 GMT

Douglas Van Praet argues that while decision making is governed by our emotions, brands should still provide people with a logical lifeline (but they should steer clear of research that lets the post-rationalizing tail wag the emotional dog).

One of the longest-running debates in marketing is whether to use a rational or emotional advertising approach in marketing--but cognitive science says that argument is pointless. While emotions overwhelmingly drive behavior, it is misguided to believe that thinking and feeling are somehow mutually exclusive. Emotion and logic are intertwined.

Behavioral science is now telling us that we don’t really have “free will.” We have “free won’t.” We can give in to the visceral impulses that drive us or choose to apply the brakes of rational restraint. While we can’t choose our emotions because they originate unconsciously, we can choose our conscious response to our feelings. This is essentially what consciousness is--a series of critical reflections and interpretations about how we are feeling.

When our emotional desires begin to shift toward a prospective brand, we align our reasons to be consistent with that intention. Our critical mind is always looking for evidence to support our beliefs. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the belief, and the greater the tendency is to seek out supporting evidence. We are not rational. We are rationalizers.

This predisposition is deeply ingrained in our everyday experiences. In one study that Harvard professor Ellen Langer conducted, researchers approached people in the act of using copying machines and asked if they could cut into the line and make photocopies. The experimental subjects were given different reasons for the request ranging from the sensible to the seemingly senseless, such as “because I’m in a rush” and “because I need to make copies.”

The researchers found out that compliance was higher when they gave a reason, almost any reason within limits. As Langer explained, “because an elephant is after me” didn’t cut it.

Reacting to Logical Interpretations at the Expense of Emotions

This tendency creates problems when people in survey research and focus groups seek out reasons to explain their feelings about new products, concepts, and ads. Self-reported research shines the spotlight on their logical interpretation of emotion, rather than the motivators of behavior, the emotions themselves. Respondents and subsequently marketers often end up inventing rationalizations instead of big ideas. Creativity suffers and concepts die prematurely as marketers try to react to the sometimes arbitrary reasons people make up.

James Dyson discovered this trap when he sought to revolutionize the way vacuum cleaners were made. His most notable innovation was the clear plastic collection bin that let people observe the dirt being vacuumed. Retailers warned him that it wouldn’t sell because, “no one wants to see dirt.”

So Dyson did testing that confirmed what any logically minded respondent would tell you in survey research: Dirt is disgusting; and nobody wants to see it. What a surprise! He chose to ignore the research, and a good thing he did. As Dyson now advises: “Don’t do market research--it will either tell you what you already know or put you off altogether.”

I have invented a seven-step process to shine light through behavioral science on how we decide.

1) Interrupt the pattern.
2) Create comfort.
3) Lead the imagination.
4) Shift the feeling.
5) Satisfy the critical mind.
6) Change the associations.
7) Take action.

Give People Permission to Take Action.

Step 5 is: Satisfy the critical mind. If you want people to buy what you’re selling, you have to give them logical permission to buy.

Dyson put his passions into his products, not the advertising. An inventor and industrial designer, Dyson founded his company on twin product pillars, equal parts engineering and design. Unlike many marketers, he actually built a better mousetrap. And the allure of the brand came from the product itself, as he turned an everyday household appliance into a fashion statement. Made of beautiful polycarbonate plastic with flecked aluminum and a glossy bright-hued sheen reminiscent of a Jeff Koons sculpture, they were sold even by clothing impresario and prolific fashion designer Paul Smith in his London store.

Because desire was baked into the design, Dyson didn’t need to employ glitzy branding or fancy ad campaigns. The ads were as straight as Joe Friday’s “Just the facts, ma’am” style of criminal investigation. His emotionally alluring product freed the brand’s advertising to focus on satisfying the critical mind.

Dyson never wavered from the facts about how his best-selling vacuum came to be. From the hardworking end product of 5,127 prototypes to a clear product demonstration, from technology that moves the air inside the vacuum at 924 miles per hour to a smart-sounding, technologically advanced name--G-Force Dual Cyclone, Dyson knew the least sexy aspects of his vacuum would sell the sexiness of its design. The end result is a remarkable perception that the vacuum cleaner is worth every penny of its premium price. Dyson now owns a brand image that is head and shoulders above the competition.

Even during a recession in 2010, the company reported that it had doubled operating profits in the past 12 months to £190 million, thanks to new products that are equal parts fashion and utility, and branding that is equal parts emotion and logic.

Your product may not be the result of over 5,000 refinements, but you still need to throw out a logical bone somewhere or they simply won’t bite. This can even be the retsyn in Certs breath mints or the “sheeting action” of Cascade dish detergent, just enough critical information to provide permission to believe the brand’s message.

All too often, marketers hand off an undifferentiated product to their ad agency and expect the advertising to compensate for that lack with an emotional impetus. This approach is doomed toward failure because we now live in a sea of both parity products and advertising messages.

So the next time you think about what approach to use in marketing, make sure both minds, logical and emotional, are satisfied somewhere in the mix. If you really want to increase your revenue, invest your innovation and passion into what you’re selling, not just how you’re selling it.

Douglas Van Praet is the author of Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing. He is also executive vice president at agency Deutsch LA, where his responsibilities include group planning director for the Volkswagen account. Van Praet’s approach to advertising and marketing draws from unconscious behaviorism and applies neurobiology, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral economics to business problems.

[Images: Dyson | Flickr users Vernon Swanepoel, Neal Fowler, and Todd]

5 Things You Can Do Today to Make Yourself More Creative, And Productive, Tomorrow

Teressa Iezzi — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:31 GMT

From Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People report: Simon Rich, one of the most productive writers we know, outlines 5 steps to upping your own creativity quotient.

As we’ve noted here before, Simon Rich is a mind-bogglingly prolific creative force. At 29, he’s built a body of work that includes screenplays, novels, magazine articles, short stories, and Saturday Night Live sketches. He wrote his first book at 18 and his latest, a collection of short stories, The Last Girlfriend On Earth, debuted this year.

Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People In Business honoree follows a strict routine that allows all that productivity. Here, he shares five key creativity boosters that you can put into play right now.

Know when you work best.

When Rich wakes up, the first thing he wants to do is write, so that’s what he does. As the day progresses, however, the story changes: "I don’t usually have a lot of problems getting stuff done in the morning," he says. "But after lunch I really slow down." He estimates his pre-lunch versus post-lunch productivity ratio to be about 80/20. "It’s really diminishing returns."

Work on what you want first.

For more on global leaders in technology, design, media, music, movies, marketing, television, and sports, see Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People In Business 2013 report. Read more with Simon Rich here.

Recognizing that not everything you do today will be something you’re dying to do, Rich says you might be better off tackling your favored task first. "It sometimes depends on deadlines, but I’ve found that the most efficient thing is to write what you want to write," Rich says. "So if I have a movie script due, and I don’t really want to do it--really what I want to do is write some short story that I’ve started--I’ve found that it’s actually faster to just write the story and then go to the screenplay. There are exceptions to that, if something is really due imminently, but I always secretly know, in the back of my mind, what I really want to be writing."

Go for quantity over quality.

Rich calls himself a "law-of-averages guy." "I figure, if I throw enough stuff out there, some of it will hopefully stick." His favorite writers are the ones who keep writing: T.C. Boyle, P.G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh. "I just read this great biography of Charles Schulz, and he produced a new Peanuts every single day for half a century. And obviously not every Peanuts strip is on the same level, but still, it’s pretty staggering."

Know how you work.

Simon Rich

Routine works for Rich, but to each his own: "I know a lot of extremely talented people who are very successful who hate work and never do it," he says. "And they’re fine. I really like the band Tegan and Sara, and I read that…one of them generates hundreds of songs, and the other generates five or six, but they have an equal number of songs on each album. I thought that was really interesting. It’s like, if I had a higher batting average with my pieces, I wouldn’t have to write as many of them. I think everyone’s got to sort of figure it out."

Forgive yourself.

Rich says that he was horrified at 18 when he reread his first novel and discovered that it was—in his words—"terrible." "I remember being so upset because that novel accounted for probably half of the pages I’d ever written in my entire lifetime. Whereas a couple years ago I threw out a novel, and it was just a small portion of the pages that I had even written in that year." The lesson? The more you do, the more you know you’re capable of. "You write a bad novel. So what? You just write a better one."

[Image: Flickr user Steve Ryan]

At I/O, Google Finally Launches Its Own Version Of Apple’s Game Center

Teressa Iezzi — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:41:28 GMT

From San Francisco, Google announces a cross-platform game upgrade, with a new social level for playing.

After more than two years without an integrated gaming network to compete with Apple’s Game Center, at its sixth annual Google I/O conference in San Francisco, the Android company today introduced an application programming interface (API) called Google Play Game Services as part of a new update, available for Android version Froyo and up.

The service makes gaming more of a social experience. The vice president of Android product management, Hugo Barra, said players can now pick up and play with the convenience of cloud saves, which maintain player progression and game states across devices. Players can complete one level of a game on their phone and then switch to a tablet without missing a beat.

Hugo Barra

Google also announced achievements--or in-game awards for completed actions--and two types of leaderboards that encourage “friendly competition": public and friends-only, Google+ supported lists that show how you rank compared to other players. The company used developer 2D Boy’s World of Goo as an example of how the latter feature works--all without forcing players to exit the game.

In an interesting move, Google is launching this service for iOS and the web as well to maximize cross-platform gaming experiences. This could position the service as an even bigger rival to Apple’s Game Center.

Google Play Game Services also includes comprehensive matchmaking to enable multiplayer sessions, independently handling the labor of peer-to-peer connections to take some of the load off developers. Via Google+, players can find friends or new people to play with or compete against.

Google showed off a preview of developer Vector Unit’s Riptide 2, a racing game launching this summer, but encountered network problems and had to skip over the multiplayer demo. Despite these issues, the audience could see how three players were able to invite each other from their Google+ circles to go head-to-head.

Google announced that games, such as World of Goo, Super Stickman Golf 2, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos, are already using these capabilities. The service also builds in APIs for monitoring piracy, which is a big concern on Android. These track whether games were purchased from the Google Play store. Developers can then take appropriate actions if desired.

We’ll soon see whether players engage better with Google Play Game Services than they have with Apple’s Game Center.

“Dollar Shave Club” Guy Has A Lot of Pennies

Joe Berkowitz — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:08:58 GMT

In a cross-promotional ad for American Express, Dollar Shave Club CEO Mike Dubin calculates how much money his credit card has saved him, penny for penny.

Michael Dubin earned the dubious distinction of being perhaps the funniest CEO around with the brazen maiden ad for his startup, Dollar Shave Club. The silly, yet effective spot earned the entrepreneur enough notoriety that he is now appearing in ads for other services.

In a new spot for American Express, Dubin shows up to deliver a testimonial in quirky deadpan fashion. The CEO sits behind a desk with a nameplate that simply reads "Boss" and attempts to calculate the amount his credit card of choice is saving him in pennies. Apparently, for Dubin, denominations that aren’t dollars remain a mystery.

A Demo Of “Toyota Collaborator” At Google I/O Will Reveal The Potential Of Social Car Shopping

Christine Champagne — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:54 GMT

Before stepping foot into a dealership, consumers can convene with friends via Google+ Hangouts to build and test-drive a car.

You will have to visit a dealership for a whiff of that intoxicating new car smell, but you can build your dream car, take a few friends on a virtual test-drive and even consult with a salesman online through Toyota Collaborator.

Toyota and its advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi LA collaborated with Google and employed Joystick Interactive to build the social shopping app being demoed at the Google I/O conference this week.

“A car configurator is something every car company has, but this is really the first truly social and truly multiuser collaborative car configurator we’ve ever seen,” says Saatchi creative director Dylan Schwartz.

The Toyota Collaborator allows car shoppers to get immediate input on their potential purchase by inviting family and friends to a Google+ Hangout interactive video chat. Up to 10 people can attend, and five can actively take part in designing a vehicle--choosing paint colors and features--in real time.

“The beauty of this is everyone is seeing the same screen,” Schwartz says. “They’re all sharing the same environment, so when I change the color, you’ll see that change reflected. If one of my friends spins the car around, I’ll see that as well.”

While clicks are required to activate most of the Toyota Collaborator’s functions, the interior view of the car will shift left or right, depending on the tracking of eye movements. “It’s the little touches like this that make the experience feel special and fun to play with,” Schwartz says.

Once you finalize the design of your car, it can be saved and shared via Google+, Facebook, and other social media outlets.

You can also take a virtual test-drive and see how your new ride looks cruising through your neighborhood or whatever location you would like by entering the coordinates into Google Maps with Street View.

And if you still have questions after consulting with your trusted advisors and taking a virtual test-ride, a “Talk to an expert” feature can bring a salesperson from a local dealership into your Hangout for a face-to-face conversation. “The thinking here is: No matter how smart your friends might be, there might be things they don’t know; so let’s give you the opportunity to connect to a local Toyota dealer. You can bring a Toyota dealer into this experience and start interfacing and building rapport, and when you’re ready to take that next step, you’re already familiar with them, and you have a relationship with them,” Schwartz says. “It bridges the gap between online shopping and going to a dealer.”

Dealers are excited about the Toyota Collaborator, according to Kimberley Gardiner, Toyota’s director, digital marketing strategy. In fact, those who have seen a preview of the experience have asked if they can be part of the pilot program--Toyota Collaborator will be tested for a few months before a broader rollout. “The dealers are looking for more authentic opportunities to connect with customers before they get to the showroom because they realize the car-buying process starts well before customers come in,” Gardiner says, “and they want to help guide people’s decisions.”

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Merida? Disney Provokes Outrage By Tarting Up “Brave” Hero

Jessica Grose — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:33 GMT

The director of Brave and about 160,000 others have protested the cosmetic changes to Merida. But will that be enough for Disney to rethink its redesign?

Earlier this month, Disney debuted a new look for the heroine Merida from the movie Brave to mark her introduction into their “princess” line of products. Known for her pluck and self-sufficiency (she doesn’t need a stinking prince to save her), the original animation of Merida was slimmed down, glammed up, and her trademark bow and arrow were removed in favor of a sassy, low slung belt.

Before and After

Fans of the more scrappy, less skinny Merida were incensed: So far 168,881 people have signed a Change.org petition asking Disney CEO Robert Iger to ditch the new version. “By making her skinnier, sexier, and more mature in appearance, you are sending a message to girls that the original, realistic, teenage-appearing version of Merida is inferior, that for girls and women to have value--to be recognized as true princesses--they must conform to a narrow definition of beauty,” the petition reads.

Fans are not the only ones who are incensed at the maturation of Merida. The director of Brave, Brenda Chapman, wrote to the Marin Independent Journal, calling the makeover "a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money." This is not the first time that a company has taken a beloved doll and forced her into a more grown-up package. Strawberry Shortcake was put on a diet and given a new do and a cell phone back in 2008. Rainbow Brite and her crew were similarly redone. Even those ugly-cute troll dolls from our youth are not immune to being tarted up.

There has also been push back before. The cultural critic Peggy Orenstein has written a book, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, about how negative princess culture is for the body image and self-esteem of young girls. Orenstein registered her unhappiness over Merida’s new look on her blog, where she takes aim at the way all the Disney princesses have been botoxed and lobotomized. “I’ve always said that it’s not about the movies. It’s about the bait-and-switch that happens in the merchandise, and the way the characters have evolved and proliferated offscreen,” Orenstein writes.

When Dora the Explorer got a tween makeover, there were protests and petitions similar to the Merida outcry. Her cute short do was grown out, her stout frame was elongated. People protested, but the impact was much smaller then: Only about 10,000 people signed a petition to make the new Dora more in the spirit of the original Dora, with her compass and sneakers included to show the desire to explore. Mattel was unmoved—the new Dora remained as designed, though she was unveiled six months early.

Perhaps, with the virality of the Merida protest, this time angry parents and kids will eventually make more of an impact. The official statement sent by a Disney spokesperson is vague: "Merida exemplifies what it means to be a Disney Princess through being brave, passionate, and confident, and she remains the same strong and determined Merida from the movie whose inner qualities have inspired moms and daughters around the world.” With their defense of her inner qualities, unfortunately it doesn’t sound like they’ll be making any more changes to her exterior. Still it’s heartening to know that parents are standing up and starting to object to the way toys are marketed to their little girls.

Update: Disney has pulled the new Merida from its Princesses site, though it’s not clear if the revamped version will live on in merchandise, etc.

View All Unregistered Wikipedia Edits in Real Time

Jennifer Miller — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:29 GMT

See who’s editing what in real time.

It turns out only 15 percent of all updates to Wikipedia English come from unregistered users, but they can sure wreak some havoc. Recently, someone added the phrase "grandma sucks" to the entry for "Grandparent." Shame on whoever took to anonymous grandparent bashing!

But the Wikipedia Recent Changes Map, shows where every unregistered user is editing from in real time. You can watch the titles of Wikipedia entries that have just been altered on a map of the world, or you can watch a quickly moving list of items scroll by. By clicking on the page name, you can also view the other edits each user has made. The grandma hater, for example, apparently had a number of qualms with the Wikipedia entry on "U.S. Temperature Extremes" back in December.

Does Google Glass Have A Branding Problem? Marketing Experts Map Steps To Mainstream Success

Teressa Iezzi — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:04 GMT

Still in its test phase, Google Glass may be dorked to death before it gets the opportunity to take off. Here, marketing players from a range of agencies provide their assessment of Glass’s chances and some suggestions for paving the way to mainstream success.

Google’s much-hyped wearable computer, Google Glass, has been touted by the tech elite as one of the leaps forward of recent times, but those same elites may hobble mainstream adoption of the device.

While privacy concerns have blossomed (the device may be on its way to being banned at a number of locations), it may comfort those worried that we are all about to become spies for Google that the early adopters of Google Glass are helping to give it an image problem it might not recover from.

The futuristic-looking headset can augment our everyday reality by putting data in our field of vision as well as allowing us to take pictures, and translating the spoken word on the move. But unfortunately, it also appears to have unintended contraceptive powers, as illustrated by this Tumblr featuring members of its decidedly unhip core fanbase.

It’s all very well having wearable technology that lets you livestream yourself hang gliding. But if it has all the sex appeal of orthodontic headgear, it’s unlikely to catch on. Google’s Glass Explorer program has put Google Glass in the hands and on the heads of developers and tech pundits who Google has selected to test it and have paid $1,500. Google chief executive Larry Page has indicated that the product won’t be in stores for about another year, by which time it may be hard to separate it from its association with tech fanatics.

Arguably, success in wearable technology hinges on making people look and feel good as much as providing a functional service. Developers might be happy to fork vast sums for the privilege of being a Google Glass owner, but when the product goes to mass market, fashion, or at least some sort of coolness and covetability will be as critical as functionality.

With this in mind, we asked five marketing experts: How would you position Google Glass to make sure it achieves mainstream success?

After Nailing The Early Adopters, Focus On Less-Expected Applications.

Jinal Shah, digital strategy director, JWT New York
Google is embracing its influencers. Make no mistake though--they aren’t just going after the nerds. They are strategic in who they’ve invited to their Glass Explorers program, an influencer program that allows a handpicked group to use the first generation of Google Glass. Google has carefully curated a group of people who sit at the intersection of nerd and celebrity. For example, tech celebrity Soraya Darabi, among others. People like her not only bring their passion for technology but also their massive audiences (500K+ followers in the case of Soraya) into the conversation.

There’s incremental innovation and there’s wow-your-pants-off innovation. Google Glass is in the latter category. We tried it on last week at Google and it was pretty amazing. Mainstream success will happen as it expands the breadth of its audience and also as its simplifies its technology. What we’ll end up with in a few years is just a tiny camera that we’ll be able to attach to any eyewear. To the broader point, wearable technology is the future. Making it as nerdy as possible at the outset is a smart strategic move to get those who will engage most with the glasses to develop their capabilities and advance them to a place of general adoption. It should be no surprise that Google has already developed a partnership with Warby Parker. The aesthetic will change over time, and this will be one of the many norms of wearable tech.

The Google Glass initial approach has focused on driving exclusivity in select communities. And they’ve nailed it. In the next stage, I’d focus on creating desire by introducing a library of plain interesting to bizarre applications of Glass. Think government, music, Hollywood, retail partnerships--maybe even an episode of Family Guy with Stewie touting Glass.

There’s Something About Nerds.

Jonah Disend, CEO and Founder of Redscout
When we look at the challenge of extending Google Glasses out of nerdom, we believe that the challenge is first, one of execution and second, one of positioning and targeting.

First, in terms of execution, Google Glasses inherently plays in two worlds--fashion and technology--and they haven’t created “cool kid” lust in either area. It is neither an incredible fashion accessory that you would want to wear, nor is it a beautiful or obviously useful gadget that you would want to own.

Second, in terms of positioning and targeting, today Google Glasses is seen as a barrier to social engagement as opposed to an enabler. While it may make your world more exciting and dynamic (as the promotional video might suggest), it does not currently enhance socialization nor have they shown how the value of the glasses increases with additional users (there is currently no clear Network Effect).

Now for our gross generalization about nerds v.ersus everyone else. Nerds actively look to create barriers to protect them from the world, mitigate social engagement, and connect through virtual worlds (think World of Warcraft). In this context, Google Glasses are the ultimate tool for nerds to add a layer of protection between them and others and potentially seal the fate of Google Glasses as something that only the geekiest of the geeks would ever want to wear (or even own).

Work With Trendsetters.

Lloyd Salmons, Director of Digital, Saatchi & Saatchi London
I love Google. It gives me convenient access to a world of information and that’s something I want. I don’t love their glasses, because they don’t give me what I want. What I want is my glasses. If you’ve ever chosen a pair of glasses you’ll know how long it takes, how many opinions you seek, how many photos you’ve texted and images of celebrities you’ve looked at, be they fashion, sport or sunglasses. What I want is the Google I love, in the glasses I love. I want Google in my glasses.

Open APIs, products as platforms, and cocreation are the norm for tech companies. There is no way Apple or Android could have brought the level of innovation needed to create so many apps personalized to individual needs. Just because Google Glass is a physical product doesn’t mean Google should change the approach to creating the range of glasses needed to facilitate individual tastes.

To facilitate this, we’d build a platform allowing us to work with a range of individuals and the people who make their glasses. These people would range from well-known celebrities in fashion and sport, to everyday style leaders. The content generated across the journey from inception, build, and trial to launch would provide both broadcast content and ways to engage.

Google in Bradley Wiggins’s glasses: We follow the journey of Bradley and his glasses climaxing at the start of the Tour de France. Google in Elton John’s glasses: No one has more glasses than Elton John; he’s given us a hundred of his best to create a range of Google glasses and we’re going to find the perfect person for each of them. You get the picture. Google in P.Diddy’s glasses. Google in Sven Göran Eriksson’s glasses. Google in Victoria Beckham’s sunglasses.

If you try on anyone else’s glasses, you look like a nerd; that’s just a law of the universe. If you don’t believe me, try it. What I need is Google in my glasses.

Identify And Embrace The Usage Sweet Spot.

Brian Carley, SVP, Executive Creative Director, Rokkan
It’s a challenge, specifically because of the stigma that was quickly attached to them. Putting aside all flaws in its physical appearance, it would be ideal to tap into how people would realistically use them day to day. Very few people are going be wearing them ALL the time, but there are times when it would be useful to have a device such as this and also have complete use of your hands. We all assume that our mobile devices have no boundaries, but there are instances when we are apprehensive about having them on our person. I think that utilizing those moments is the sweet spot for this product. It’s a more useful Go-Pro and those are wildly popular within their specific usage, which is quite broad. There’s no real need for these beyond enjoyment, and so it would be wise to illustrate the truly hands-free experiences that surround the product beyond the dorkiness we’ve experienced already. At least they’re not as cumbersome as a Segway.

Don’t Change A Thing.

Bud Caddell, SVP, Director of Invention and Digital Strategy, Deutsch LA
Yes, white middle-aged men love Google Glass. Is it a problem? Of course not. Wearable tech has hardly fallen down Geoffrey Moore’s chasm. We’re seeing early adoption, and in tech (if we’re not counting Pinterest), white men from the Valley with disposable income tend to be first in, first out. And that didn’t stop iPads, laptops, or the mobile phone from reaching mass adoption. Yes, Robert Scoble in the shower is frightening. But take a breath. Google has already tapped Warby Parker, who I personally trust in putting things on my face, and I think Google Glass (in one iteration or another) is here to stay.

[Base Image: Heiko Kiera via Shutterstock]

Fetus Gives Dad In Utero Finger In This Stunt For LG’s Smart TV

Jennifer Miller — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:12:20 GMT

In the latest dubious live-marketing stunt, LG swaps ultrasound images with video of a wiseass, bird-flipping baby.

In order to promote its new Smart TV, LG recruited a handful of pregnant Israeli women and had them pull a fast one on their husbands. The couples go to the doctor for an ultrasound and are told that a new technology allows for a clearer image of the fetus.The fathers (surely in on the gag; no one can be this clueless) scream with astonishment as their unborn children appear to wave and clap and even wink at them. One father is so enthralled that he asks to see his son’s penis. The new TV may be pretty smart, but these dads are extremely dumb.

The ad was created by Yehoshua TBWA, Israel.

Translate Your Site Into Klingon When “Star Trek” Takes Over Bing

Joel Keller — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:42:48 GMT

Ever wanted to see what your site looks like in Klingon? That and more are available from Bing and MSN to promote the release of Star Trek Into Darkness.

Klingon isn’t just a a few grunted words said in your favorite Star Trek episode or movie; it’s an entire language, created by linguist Marc Okrand. He’s done such a complete job of creating the fictional language that he’s been asked to advise actors playing Klingons in the various Trek incarnations on how to speak it properly.

Today, the folks at Microsoft are partnering with Okrand and having a little fun with the language. In support of the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, the show is doing a "takeover" of the software giant’s Bing service, with one of its biggest features being a Klingon translator. In the examples above, for instance, you’ll see what Fast Company’s website would look like translated into Klingon.

Adding Klingon to the Bing Translator is one of the new features Trek fans will enjoy on Bing and MSN. Bing’s Snapshot feature will give fun, Klingon-centric responses to queries such as "who said live long and prosper?" MSN will have headlines that might have appeared had it been part of the Trek universe, such as "First Vulcan Comedian Ever Tells A Vulcan Joke, Crowd Infinitely Confused." Other Easter eggs will be hidden on both sites.

According to Matt Wallaert, Bing’s behavioral scientist, the effort came together from different teams within Microsoft, mostly in the past few weeks. The idea is for users to connect to the fact that Microsoft has helped make things like universal translators, tablets, and other technologies--that were science fiction in the franchise’s formative years--into science fact today.

While they do want to "make inroads" with the franchise’s devoted fans, says Wallaert, MS feels the group they’re aiming for is much larger. "I think that this sort of effort goes beyond the hardcore fan. I mean, this is the second blockbuster Star Trek movie in four years," he says."There are millions of more casual fans out there who have seen the show and for whom the ability to take out a Windows Phone 8, point it at a sign in Klingon, and get back a solid translation is not just about Star Trek fandom, but about the incredible things that technology has achieved."

There is no measure of success, says Wallaert, that will determine whether other "takeovers" will happen; they just want people to enjoy themselves. "I think we want people to laugh and smile and enjoy what we’ve created. A tremendous number of people have put in a tremendous amount of effort. It really is a labor of love, and we want that to shine through."

[Klingon Alphabets Images via Wikipedia]

An Analytics Company Ambushes Upfronts To Point Out The Inherent Flaws In The Model

Christine Champagne — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:26:03 GMT

As part of an “Outsmart the Upfronts” campaign, Networked Insights is handing out Lotto tickets and deploying mobile billboards in an effort to dismiss the annual TV ad buying event as too much of a gamble for brands.

It’s not exactly the Occupy movement, but Networked Insights is trying to inspire revolt at the television upfronts in Manhattan this week.

The upfronts--that enduring, seemingly anachronistic tradition whereby networks pre-sell the bulk of their TV ad inventory (this year, roughly $10 billion worth) to advertisers and their agencies--are a juicy target. And Networked Insights, which provides social data for use in media planning and buying, is trying to convince brands through an “Outsmart the Upfronts” campaign that it’s not sensible to commit billions in ad dollars based solely on limited impressions of shows that in most cases--65 percent of the time, according to Networked Insights--will be cancelled by Christmas.

“People are making financial bets, if you will. They’re putting their money to work before knowing anything. The risk is certainly not worth the reward,” says Networked Insights founder and CEO Dan Neely, who equates buying ad time at the upfronts to gambling.

Dan Neely

To reinforce that notion, the Networked Insights Outsmart the Upfronts campaign (#OutsmartTheUpfronts), orchestrated with help from RevisionNYC, has street teams handing out Lotto tickets to attendees as they enter the venues hosting the events. “It’s symbolic of the big gamble people are taking,” Neely says.

A truck equipped with giant electronic billboards is also part of the effort, cruising around upfront locations bearing provocative slogans like:

“You wouldn’t bet on the NBA finals in September. Why buy TV in May?”

“In Vegas, they call it gambling. Here, we call it the upfronts.”

“What do casinos and networks have in common? The house always wins.”

It’s not exactly high marketing art, but the point is made. There is self-promotion involved, too, of course. The electronic billboards are also a source of predictions of which shows will be hits this fall and which will fail based on SocialSense, consumer insights gleaned by Networked Insights from analysis of real-time social data. “We’ve been doing this for the last three years now, and we’ve been over 85 percent accurate as to which shows would succeed and which shows would fail,” Neely says.

According to Networked Insights’ findings, the “Buys” among the current crop of pilots include Fox’s Almost Human, Sleepy Hollow, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine; NBC’s Blacklist, Believe, and Crisis; and ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Super Fun Night.

The shows pegged as “Don’t Buys” because of weak social engagement include NBC’s Ironside and Sean Saves the World; Fox’s Us and Them and Surviving Jack; and ABC’s Mind Games and Back in the Game.

In an ideal world, according to Neely, brands would use social data to make informed buys, and they would make those buys not in the spring but much closer to fall premiere dates.

The networks can’t be thrilled about Networked Insights’ critical--not to mention in-your-face--campaign. Neely reports that the event staff at the Fox upfront was trying “to move [our street team] out of the way.” Meanwhile, the electronic billboards truck was able to park in front of the NBC upfront for about an hour before police told the driver to move along.

Despite the resistance, Outsmart the Upfronts will soldier on. “Legally, we can do this,” he says, noting, “It’s our way of disrupting the upfronts.”

Play The “Great Gatsby” Game Online and Win Your American Dream

Jennifer Miller — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:24:50 GMT

An 8-bit alternative to the film.

If the languid prose of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby didn’t enthrall you, and you felt altogether passive watching Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation on the silver screen, you can now get in the action yourself with Great Gatsby, the video game.

A group of developers say they found the 8-bit Nintendo game at a yard sale, paid 50 cents for it, and then converted it to an open-source, playable, online platform. You move through the game as Nick Carraway, searching through Gatsby’s mansion for the elusive man, killing tuxedoed butlers and dancing flappers. And, of course, you rack up lots of gold coins. It wouldn’t be Gatsby without gross materialism.

Gatsby said that Daisy’s voice sounds like money. Great Gatsby, the video game, definitely sounds like 1990s Nintendo.