Mugshot Yourself and Come Face-to-Face with Your Criminal Past

BBC America Mugshot YourselfMark Michaelson is a New York editorial art director who has worked for Newsweek, Allure, New York, Entertainment Weekly, and Radar. Since the mid 90s he has been collecting old mug shots, posting some of more interesting on the ‘Least Wanted‘ Flickr account.

There are no back stories to the photos, only an odd assortment of tired, unhappy looking faces. Michaelson allows visitors to post their own thoughts on what brought the photo’s subject to appear in this unfortunate photo. In 2009, a small part of the 10,000 mugshots in his collection were published as ‘Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots‘. More recently the photos have been used in gallery shows and a soon to be released documentary.

To promote ‘Copper’, a period drama set in New York City in 1864, BBC America has launched ‘Mugshot Yourself‘, an application using a selection of Michaelson’s photos. Visitors upload their own photo, select a mugshot, and the application combines create an image of what they may have looked like as a 19th century criminal.

The Go Mugshot Yourself app was put together by Socialbomb and Kevin Slavin.

[via Digiday]

USA

AMC Sets Zombies Loose on the Streets of New York

AMC Put Zombies Back - NYC Experiment

The only thing that could be more terrifying than coming face-to-face with a brain-thirsty zombie, is the possibility of missing ‘Walking Dead‘ because Dish Network recently dumped AMC from it’s cable lineup. With the premiere of Season 3 of ‘The Walking Dead’ only a couple of short months away, AMC has launched PutZombiesBack, an online effort to get AMC back on Dish.

As a stunt to promote the ‘Put Zombies Back’ effort, AMC transformed dozens of New Yorkers into elaborate zombies and set them loose onto the streets of Manhattan. The zombie horde included a shoppers, postman, parking officer, road repair workers, and even a hot dog vendor zombie (I imagine the health department will have an issue with flesh dripping onto the food).

While some people react in terror, others seem amused. Even the New York squirrels are inquisitive, and believe me this world does not need to have zombie squirrels on the loose. If this is any indication of how New Yorkers will act when the real zombie apocalypse happens, the walking dead will eat very well in the big Apple.

The closing scene with one lonely zombie dragging a Dish network satellite dish along the sidewalk says it all. “Zombies don’t belong here. Put them back on TV.”

[via Adrants]

USA

Gordon Ramsey’s New Show Promoted with ‘Maid From Hell’ Gross-Out

Maid from Hell

Who knows what goes on behind the closed doors of the hotels and motels? Gordon Ramsey does, and with ‘Hotel Hell‘ debuting on August 13th, the celebrity chef is bringing his no-nonsense style and team of hospitality experts to rehab some of the most appalling hotels and B&Bs in America. You may never want to leave home again after watching.

How bad could things get? Ramsey told reporters at Fox’s Television Critics Association fall TV previews Monday, “if [hotels] suggest they will upgrade you to the honeymoon suite, don’t take it. I’m trying to be serious because it is somewhat shocking. I just didn’t think it could shoot that far.”

Yes, apparently things get that bad.

To promote Hotel Hell, production company Ralph & Co. have launched the ‘Maid From Hell‘ website. The site connects to your Facebook account to personalize the experience with your name, profile picture and a few images from your photo albums.

While you’re out of your room enjoying the day the Maid from Hell is in your room doing things that nightmares are made of. She’s left a little present on your towel and another one on your toothbrush. She’s checked out your Facebook account and the mini bar, she’s left you one last little present before moving onto the room of the next lucky guest.

[via Adrants]

USA

VW Builds Beetle-Shaped Shark Observation Cage for Shark Week

Volkswagen Beetle Shark Observation Cage

2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, and sponsor Volkswagen of America will be getting lots of audience exposure both above and below the water.

Volkswagen has worked closely with marine biologist and shark expert Luke Tipple and his team of engineers to create the one-of-a-kind “Volkswagen Beetle Shark Observation Cage”. They will be produce 3 one-minute segments showing the design, construction and submersion of the Beetle. The shark cage, which mimics the silhouette and shape of a real beetle, will be driven (or more likely towed) along the ocean floor.

USA

TNT Promotes ‘Perception’ With Electromagnetic Dot Display Window

TNT Perception - Electromagnetic Dot Display

Electromagnetic dot displays (aka flip-disc display, flip-dot displays) may be best known for being used on the arrival/departure boards at bus stations, airports and scoreboards. A sign can be made up of hundreds (or thousands) of individual two-sided magnetized discs. One side of the disc is usually black and the other side is a bright colour such as white or fluorescent green. When a current is sent through the closely coupled electromagnetic coil the disc will flip to one side, it remains in that position the current is reversed through the coil flipping the disc to the opposite side.

Brooklyn-based digital shop Breakfast leveraged electromagnetic dot display to create an interactive display to promote the new TNT drama ‘Perception’ starring Eric McCormack. McCormack’s character, Dr. Daniel Pierce is an eccentric neuro-scientist who assists the FBI in cases that include anagrams (are there a lot of those?).

Breakfast used the idea of anagram-solving and filled the sign with what appear to be hundreds of random words. The sign made up of 40,000 individual discs was programmed to spin from black to white 15 times faster than they were designed. As people walked past the sign the words would fall away revealing a hidden phrase.

The window display will in place at 32nd St. and 6th Ave., New York until July 29th.

USA

Project Runway Promotes Season 10 Premiere With Interactive Wall

Project Runway #MakeItWork Interactive Wall

Project Runway returns tonight for Season 10 but virtual versions of Tim Gunn, Heidi Klum, Michael Kors, Nina Garciathe have been hard at work for the past week judging the fashion sense of New Yorkers passing by the 20 foot long interactive wall located on Manhattan’s High Line park.

The judges were recorded against a green screen providing reactions from bored, to head nodding to a standing ovation. The video clips were then cleverly programmed to seamlessly transform from appearing to gossipwith the person neck to them to standing and clapping and then back to their seating position again from .

The reactions are triggered by remote control by an offsite operator depending on the fashion sense of the person walking by.

The installation was created by Nexus Interactive Arts.

USA

Twitter Users Can Watch the Full Premiere Episode of NBC’s Grimm Two Weeks Early

NBC GrimmOne of the most intriguing new shows this new TV season is the NBC fantasy-drama Grimm. The show follows Nick Burkhardt, a homicide detective in Portland, Orgeon – who discovers that he is a descendent of the ‘Grimms’.

However, it turns out that the Grimms are not just the famous storytellers that everyone thinks they are. It turns out that the fairy tale stories they told about were real, and that the family line has had the important role of policing the balance of humans and the mythological creatures.

Jacob and Wilhelm, the ‘real’ Brothers Grimm, released collections of hundreds of legendary fairy tales in the 1800s, so if the show does take off, the producers will have plenty of content to work with.

NBC has taken a bold step to get the buzz rolling on social media by letting Twitter users watch the full-length premiere episode of Grimm simply by following @NBCGrimm. Viewers will then be send a DM with a unique code to unlock the video on the NBC site.

The first episode plays around with the Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf characters. It’s fast-paced fun as Nick starts to discover more about his family’s secret history. As I watched I couldn’t help thinking of the campy horror of the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ series. It will be interesting if the show can find it’s dedicated audience within the cut throat competition of network television.

Grimm will premiere on Friday, October 28 at 9pm.

AMC and Bing Give Zombie-Wannabes a Chance to ‘Walk With the Dead’

The Walk With the Dead Stagger On Role Sweepstakes with BingAMC’s Zombie series’The Walking Dead‘ is back for Season Two on Sunday, October 16, and Microsoft Bing is offering a lucky viewer a chance to appear on a future episode with the Walk With the Dead Stagger-On Role Sweepstakes.

The winner will receive roundtrip airfare and hotel accommodations for two (to somewhere near where they are shooting), a visit to the set of The Walking Dead Season 3 and a chance to get transformed into a flesh-eating zombie for a stagger-on role on the show.

Check out the great TV spot created by the Atlanta offices of ad agency Bark Bark. As you’ll see, Bing is great when you’re searching for advice on ‘Dating an Actor’ OR ‘Eating an Actor.

Unfortunately the contest is only open for Zombies in the United States. Local Canadian zombies will have to make due with the Toronto Zombiewalk next weekend.

Social TV Platform Miso Launches Enhanced Experience for Dexter Premiere

Miso Dexter Enhanced Experience

Sunday’s premiere of Dexter saw the first launch of a new feature from social TV platform Miso. Users of the app could access and interact with enhanced content that was synched with the show’s broadcast, including polls and actor’s bios. Viewers can sit back and watch the show and receive text updates as enhanced events in the timeline are reached.

While any Miso app user could follow along by tapping play at the beginning of the show, DirectTV subscribers can have the app synch with their set-top boxes. Once synched the Miso app will communicate with the set-top box (they must be on the same wifi network) to determine which show the viewer is currently watching, updating as the viewer changes channels. The app will provide opportunities for viewers to ‘check-in’, access enhanced content and view updates from other viewers of the show currently being watched.

Most followers of Twitter already know that there is a huge social experience that happens during the broadcast of popular shows or live events. We are seeing more and more apps that are trying to tap into that social experience and have viewers interact through an app such as SocialGuide, YapTV or BeeTV. Even networks such as CBS are launching their own mobile apps trying to create and capture that social buzz during broadcasts of their shows.

The free Miso app can be downloaded in the App Store.

ABC’s Pan Am Social Media Efforts Help Show Take Flight

ABC Pan-Am Social Media SitesIt’s the traditional fall TV premiere season and the networks are pulling out all the stops to promote their new crop of shows. Audiences are by no means guaranteed anymore as the TV viewing public is faced with hundreds of options in each time slot, as well as other activities such as video games, internet content and especially social media to distract their eyeballs. TV shows hoping to connect with an audience in 2011 must look to social media to not only promote, but to provide a second and third screen experience on laptops, mobile phones and tablets.

In January, 2011 Neilson and Yahoo revealed survey results (to little surprise) that indicated that 86% of mobile phone users use the internet on their device while watching TV. Of those people, 33% were using mobile apps, 37% were browsing the internet and 40% were interacting with their friends on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Pan Am debuts this Sunday
Sunday marks the premiere of ABC’s highly-anticipated and heavily marketed show Pan Am (I even received a physical postcard in the mail, the ‘real’ mail!). The show is based on the experiences of Nancy Hult Ganis who worked as a Pan Am stewardess for the airline from 1968 to 1975. However, the show will first go back to the year 1963, touching upon the music and style of that time, as well as the significant political and cultural events.

ABC’s offcial Pan Am website features video, photos, cast bios and a discussion area featuring user and official tweets and Facebook status updates. The site links to their social media outposts on Facebook, Twitter and Pandora as well as partner sites such as Jetsetter.com

Your Facebook Flight Crew
The ‘My Flight Crew‘ application on the show’s Facebook page allows fans to create their own Pan-Am ID (despite my best efforts, mine looks super-creepy), choose a destination and assemble a flight crew including their friends to unlock exclusive content.

Pandora Pan-Am Station
My favorite part of the show’s social media effort is the Pandora Pan-Am Station, featuring selections of great pop, soul and jazz music from the 60s including Tony Bennett, Ricky Nelson, James Brown and of course the iconic Frank Sinatra. It’s been playing all morning and I haven’t hit the skip arrow on any of the tracks.

Tweet Powered Flights
Fans of the show can enter to win an exclusive Pan-Am travel bag by sending a tweet with the #PanAm hashtag on the Pan Am Tweet Flight site. Each tweet advances the airplane 1000 feet towards its stop on a trip around the world, awarding prizes at random intervals. Each week sees the flight heading off to a different destination from a short London to Paris jaunt to a long haul to Hong Kong.

Unlock Limited Stickers on GetGlue
Earn exclusive stickers on GetGlue by checking in to the show. It seems odd to let users ‘check-in’ to the show before it airs, but over 55,000 GetGlue users have done just that. FYI, yes GetGlue does send you actual stickers if you want – when you have unlocked 20 stickers you can make a request to have physical stickers mailed to you.

Travel Deals
If you’re feeling the itch to travel the one of the exotic locations featured on the show, starting Sunday at 11pm EST travel site Jetsetter.com will begin to offer weekly deals based on the episode.

Travel Accessories
If all this Pan-Am content makes you want to take on a stylish retro look when you travel, check out US retailer Brookstone’s stylish bags and accessories.

It’s good to see the efforts that ABC is putting into social media to promote the show. The Pan Am brand has a nostalgic appeal to a 1960s lifestyle and style that has already been proven successful to shows like Mad Men.