Kiefer Sutherland Goes Ballistic for Cupcakes in Jack Bauer-Inspired Acer Ad

Acer Ultrabook - Kiefer Sutherland's Dynamite Cupcakes

As anyone who’s spent an enormous amount of time on the internet knows, the cupcake industry is fraught with danger, conspiracy and international espionage. So, who would be better to get to the bottom of this nasty business, kick some ass, and blow up some stuff than Mr.24 himself, Jack Bauer.

Kiefer Sutherland reprises a Jack Bauer-like character in this new Acer Ultrabook spot. Using his tough-guy interrogation skills he finds out where to get the essential supplies, and then sets out to create a cupcake that best fits his ‘explosive’ personality.

The ad which was released in the U.K., France, Russia and Germany today was created by Mother London and directed by Ivan Zacharias for Stink.

[via Creativity-Online]

Watch the clip on YouTube

USA

Nike Japan Twists Their Shoe to Match Your Funny Face

Nike Free FaceMy mother would frequently warn me that if I made a weird face it might just freeze that way. Decades have past and many odd and twisted faces later it thankfully hasn’t frozen up.

Nike Japan has launched the ‘Free Face‘ website and is inviting people to come by and contort their faces for fun and profit.

The site uses facial and expression recognition via your webcam to capture an image or your face at both it’s relaxed and most twisted state. The site promotes the super-flexible sole of the Nike Free shoe. The more you can twist and contort your face the more twisted a 3-D image of the shoe ends up looking.

Once your image is captured it then competes head-to-head against others for votes. The face with the most votes each week ends up winning a NikeiD gift card. Contestants must be living in Japan.

The campaign was created by Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo.

Japan

‘Fifth Avenue Frogger’ Features Real Cars in Real Time

Fifth Avenue FroggerWhenever I hear about Frogger, my mind goes back to the Seinfeld episode where Jerry & George return to their high school hangout for one last slice of pizza before it closes. There they discover that not only is the original Frogger arcade game still there, but George’s high score is still tops. George decides the buy the game and hilarity ensues.

It’s been nearly 14 years since that episode of Seinfeld was first broadcast, and over 30 years since Frogger was first released by Konami in 1981. In the game players must navigate a frog across a busy highway and safely back to it’s home.

Tyler DeAngelo, Renee Lee, and Ranjit Bhatnagar have created an updated version of the classic game that transmits real-time traffic from Fifth Avenue in NYC. The group is trying to get the project featured in the Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

To track the traffic on Fifth Avenue, DeAngelo mounted a web camera high up in a building with a clear view of the busy street and wrote code that translated the real-time position of the cars into live-streaming data. In the game the car graphics are mapped on to those positions in the game in real-time.

As a final stroke of genius, DeAngelo hauled out his hacked version of game to the sidewalk facing Fifth Avenue, and invited passing New Yorkers to play.

USA

The VIP Fridge Magnet Brings Pizza at the Touch of a Button

VIP Fridge MagnetEven in the very early days of the web, the dream of ordering pizza directly from your computer was alive and well. In 1994 Pizza Hut became the first national chain to launch a website with online ordering in a test to customers in Santa Cruz, CA.

In 2012, ordering a pizza using your computer or smartphone is commonplace, but Dubai’s Red Tomato Pizza has taken pizza ordering to a whole new level of simplicity with the VIP Fridge Magnet. The VIP Fridge Magnet utilizes Bluetooth technology allowing customers to order pizza by simply pressing one button. When the button is pressed a preset order is automatically sent to the pizzeria. An SMS message is sent back to the user to confirm the order.

I imagine that Port Credit, ON may be a little out of Red Tomato’s delivery area, but that Alla Carni e Chilli Pizza on the menu sounds very appetizing. I certainly hope that the VIP Fridge Magnet isn’t some kind of cruel April Fool’s joke.

The project was created by Dubai-based TBWARAAD.

Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam Hosts Awkward Virtual Holiday Dinners via Skype

Weiden + Kennedy Virtual Holiday PartyThe folks at the Amsterdam offices of ad agency Wieden + Kennedy have taken the experience of the awkward holiday dinner to a whole new level thanks to technology.

They’ve created a Virtual Holiday Dinner Party by attaching small flat screen monitors to the top of five robotic life-size dolls dolls seated around an elaborate holiday table setting. People from around the world attend the virtual dinner party as guests via Skype with their face appearing on the screens mounted on top each doll. Facial-tracking software follows your face and rotating the doll’s body and the guest’s view of the party.

This is the second year that the agency has hosted the Virtual Holiday Dinner, and spaces can be reserved for one of the 20 half-hour sessions happening on Dec 15, 16 and 19.

To liven up the conversation, guests can choose from one of three dinner conversation themes that come complete with on-screen scripts. ‘The Business as Usual Dinner’ puts the guests in the middle of an agency client holiday sit down (oh, the hilarious awkwardness), while ‘The Resolutions Dinner’ features a series disturbing resolutions for the new year, and ‘The Overly Friendly Holiday Dinner’ will surely have you wishing for the holidays to be over as soon as possible.

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Macy’s ‘Believe-O-Magic’ AR App Brings ‘Yes, Virginia’ Characters to Life

Macy's Believe O' Magic Augmented Reality AppWith the holiday shopping season lurking just around the corner, Macy’s has released the ‘Believe-o-Magic’ mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android.

The app uses augmented reality marker technology at special ‘Believe Stations’ within Macy’s stores nationwide to bring the characters from the animated movie ‘Yes, Virginia‘ to life. The app can then be used to capture a picture of the character and your child to create a customized holiday card that can be sent to family and friends directly from the app.

For those not able to visit a Macy’s store, a marker can be printed from the ‘Million Reasons to Believe’ website that provides a sneak preview of the in-store augmented reality experience.

The ‘Believe-O-Magic’ app can be downloaded free for the iPhone or iPad at the iTunes app store or at the Android Market.

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Randy MathesonI am a Nova Scotia raised Creative Guy, currently Director of Emerging Media at Delvinia, a Digital Strategy & Customer Experience Design Firm in Toronto. I’m a huge fan of the creative use of digital technologies in social media, marketing, sports and entertainment. I use this blog to share the more interesting examples that I find. If you’re in need of a break, join me over at Madtini.com for a cocktail.

Everything Becomes a Screen as Microsoft Imagines Future Productivity

Everything Becomes a Screen as Microsoft Imagines Future ProductivityIf I can offer one piece of advice for people looking to invest in future needs, it would be this. Invest in screen cleaning fluids and wipes. Soon everything from your coffee tables, kitchen counter to the wall in your living room will be a display.

Screens are both shrinking and growing, but they are also becoming thinner, mobile and more powerful everyday. Projection and surface technology are evolving quickly to enable the kind of interaction imagined in this video from Microsoft Office Labs.

It’s been almost ten years since we watched Tom Cruise’s character in Minority Report interact with hologram projections both as a participant and as a target of personalized advertising. Now interactive digital screens are everywhere around us, from bathroom mirrors to interactive out of home advertising and information systems that can accept gestural, voice or input from personal mobile devices.

People now carry smartphones and tablets featuring amazing applications that augment their productivity, providing instant communication, and allow them to connect and interact with personal and public data stored in the cloud. You may even be reading this post on a mobile phone or tablet.

Microsoft’s video walks us through a day in the life of people around the globe as they collaborate on projects do homework or search for an apple pie recipe for the school bake sale.

Can you imagine how your daily life will change when we are freed from our screens?

LEGO’s ‘The Life of George’ Connects Physical and Virtual Gameplay

LEGO - Life of GeorgeI can’t remember a time where I didn’t have LEGO around. There have been more than 400 billion LEGO bricks produced since 1958, that makes 58 Lego bricks per person on Earth if my math is reasonable correct. There must be at least that many still stuffed down between the couch cushions at my parent’s house.

LEGO has always been a leader in incorporating technology into the product. They created a Lego website in 1996 in the very early days on the web. They created a line of programmable robotic bricks and bit called Mindstorms, which it developed in partnership with MIT Media Labs. LEGO’s Digital Designer software lets budding designers create models using virtual bricks, then post the results online at LEGO Design ByMe and purchase the real bricks to make the design in real life.

On October 1, LEGO released it’s latest product ‘The Life of George‘, an interactive game that requires the player to recreate the items that appear in George’s vacation photographs using LEGO bricks assembled and placed on a special gridded gaming mat. Players use the free iPhone app to score to time and capture an image to test the accuracy of your LEGO building skills. The game features 12 levels of play with 10 group of photos in each level. The game begins with images from George’s trip to Hawaii including sunglasses, palm trees, a crab, even a cocktail glass(??). You can challenge yourself or battle against one of your brick-building buddies for LEGO dominance.

‘The Life of George’ kit is available for $30 at LEGO stores now. The free ‘Life of George’ app is available in the Apple app store.

Volkswagen Canada Unleashes Out-of-Home AR Experiences for the New Beetle

Volkswagen Canada Beetle Augmented RealityIf you’re in Toronto over the next few weeks and you’re near Dundas Square, you’ll see large billboard advertising the launch of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. The displays come to life when viewed through an Augmented Reality iPhone app available at VWjuicedup.ca.

When viewed through the AR app the tall billboard located to the west of Yonge Street opens up and a massive skateboard ramp pushes itself out of the building. A red VW Beetle speeds down the ramp and performs spins and tricks high in the air. It really is pretty cool when you see the ramp appearing above your head.

The smaller billboard located on the north-east corner of Yonge and Dundas will show a beetle ripping back and forth through the other signage above and around it, while a smaller transit shelter cracks up, revealing a deep tunnel and a beetle speeding directly toward the viewer.

All three OOH experiences are triggered not by an ugly marker but by an unobtrusive rectangle that fits in nicely with the existing creative. Instructions to download the app are clearly communicated on the billboard, and I like the use of a vanity URL being used to access the app store.

The creative is from Toronto’s Red Urban with animation by Bully! Entertainment. The technology is licensed comes from London-based AR innovator String.

RFID Wristbands Help French Surf Fans Post Facebook Pics

French Surf Fans Check-In to Facebook Using RFID wristbandsWhen surf fans arrived at the beach in Biarritz for the Roxy Pro Women’s World Surfing Championships this past July, they found more than just ‘sweet’ waves. Event sponsor partner, Orange distributed ‘RFID wristbands’ that enabled wearers to interact at special terminals located around the event site.

People were able to connect the wristbands to their Facebook accounts allowing them to win free gifts or take photos which were then posted ‘automagically’ to their walls. For every 100 Likes (or check-ins) one surfing lesson was donated to Surf Insertion, a program that provides the surfing experience to rural and urban youth in France.

Let this be a lesson to the people that tell you QR codes are the wave of the future. This is an example of creating an easy experience connecting mobile (in this case not their phone) without burdening users with app downloads and awkwardness of using your camera phone in a public space. There will be a variety of technologies available to connect offline to online, choosing the right one will be dependent on a careful understanding the environment and audience.

Similar RFID bracelet initiatives have been used by Coca-Cola recently at the Rock’n Coke Festival in Instanbul and Coca-Cola Village Amusement Park in Israel