Ogilvy Deploys Purposeful Outdoor Ads to Promote IBM Smarter Cities

IBM Smarter Cities

IBM and the Paris office of ad agency Ogilvy & Mather have created a series of outdoor advertising with an added practical purpose. The colorful ad installations were constructed to include a bench, an overhang to provide shelter from the rain, and a ramp to help people more easily navigate stairs.

The campaign promotes IBM’s “People for Smarter Cities” initiative, which looks to bring people from around the world together to collaborate on solutions that improve the ways that cities function.

[via Gute Werbung]

France

Mercedes-Benz Curates Photo Exhibit From User’s #Untamed Instagram Pics

Mercedez-Benz #Untamed Instagram ExhibitDo you have a few truly unusual photos in your Instagram collection? If so, then now’s your chance to add them to #Untamed, a unique digital photo installation inspired by the new Mercedes-Benz CLA.

To participate, go to untamed-installation.com, connect to your Instagram profile and select the three most unusual photos from your stream. Each of your photos will be evaluated (it’s not clear exactly how), and given an #Untamed Score. The score is based on how original your style is, and how different it is from others that have been submitted.

As you can see in the screen grab above, my picture of a wooden cat that doubles as a birdhouse scored a healthy 89, yet a giant zombie hand scored a paltry 36.

The installation was created by Hamburg agency Jung von Matt/Alster, and will be on display in Paris in April 2013, hopefully with a few of my Instagram photos included.

[via PSFK]

FranceGermany

French Ad for Toilet Paper Shows That Even Digital Technology Has It’s Limits

Le Trefle - Digital Has It's Limits

A new ad for Le Trèfle toilet paper shows one man’s obsessive quest to replace paper with digital in his home, constantly chiding his partner and child to use a digital tablet as the “better way” of creating art, leaving notes on the fridge door, playing a game or simply reading a book in bed.

But digital technology has it’s limits, and his whole mission unravels when he finds himself sitting on the toilet with nothing but an empty roll of toilet paper. Then it’s time for ‘Emma’ to get her revenge.

While there may not be a virtual bidet app, the toilet paper manufacturer has created a free iPhone app called ‘Où sont les toilettes?‘ that helps people find the nearest, and hopefully well-stocked washroom.

The ad was created by Leo Burnett France.

[via LSA]

France

Thirsty Parisians to Use Wifi-Enabled ‘Smart Drop’ for Evian Delivery

Reminiscent of the Red Tomato pizza at the press of a button fridge magnet, Evian water is promoting it’s Paris water delivery service evianchezvous.com (Evian at Home) with a similar Wifi connected device.

The Smart Drop attaches to your fridge and allows a user to choose an Evian product, pick a time and date when you’d like it delivered. The device then uses your wifi connection to send the order directly to Evian. Evian hopes to offer the Smart Drop to it’s most faithful users by 2013.

Is it useful? Maybe, but it’s hard to believe that the fridge of the future will be covered with so-called ‘smart objects’. Your fridge is likely ti be able to track the objects that are stored within it. Embedded sensors in food packaging like milk containers can track ‘best before’ dates and create a shopping list that can sync an app on a homeowner’s smartphone.

The Smart Drop was created by BETC Digital

France

Holographic Lingerie Model Struts Stuff in Paris Shop Window

Empriente lingerieAt Empreinte l’Atelier lingerie, curious passerby are being stopped in their tracks by what appears to be a lingerie model in the shop window. The masked model appears in the Paris store window in a burst of stars, strikes a pose or two and then disappears again.

The technology used is likely very similar to that used to create the illusion that the late rapper Tupac Shakur was performing onstage with Snoop Dogg at Coachella. It that case, animation created by Hollywood special effects studio Digital Domain, was projected onto an angled sheet of mylar foil, known as Musion Eyeliner. These experiences are best described as a ‘holographic illusion’ rather than a hologram.

These illusions are actually an updated adaption of a 19th century magician’s trick known as ‘Pepper’s Ghost‘, which used hidden rooms, reflections and special lighting to achieve it’s effect.

Closed Paris Subway Station Serves as Stage for Prometheus Promotion

Prometheus Promo takes over closed Paris subway stationPassengers on the Paris Subway may have been surprised to look up and for a few seconds see a strange glimpse into the future or the past, as imagined in the upcoming movie ‘Prometheus‘.

The promotion takes over the Saint-Marten station, which has been closed since 1939. The station has been transformed into the cave from the movie where the explorers from Prometheus come across the origins of humanity.

The Prometheus ghost station will be live from May 16 to 25 between the Strasbourg-Saint-Denis and République stops.

Watch this brief clip of the view from inside the subway train as it passes by the promotion.

via Minute Buzz

France

Ford Turns Paris Parking into an Interactive Pinball Game

Honda Paris Parking PinballOne of the most challenging parts of getting my driver’s license was the parallel parking test. Where I grew up in Nova Scotia there was little need for this driving skill unless you had to park a tractor between two cows. Since I’ve been living in urban environments my parallel parking skills grew to be pretty solid, however I also learned the stress involved in finding a decent parking spot on the street.

In Paris, like most large cities, great parking spaces are rare and hard to find, so drivers will do whatever it takes to fit into one when they find it. To promote theit Active Park Assist, Ford of Europe installed a giant pinball game on a building above an open parking spot, and programmed the bumpers of the cars in front and behind to react like pinball bumpers.

The creative for the pinball parking experience comes from Ogilvy & Mather Paris, with production by Moonwalk.

France

Google Doodle Celebrates Famed French Photographer Robert Doisneau

Google Doodle April 14 Robert DoisneauThe creative folks at Google has created hundreds of their doodles over the past 14 years. The first time Google modified their logo was on August 30th, 1998 to commemorate the Burning Man festival.

Today’s Google doodle commemorate’s what would have been the 100th birthday of French photographer Robert Doisneau. Doisneau is best known for the 1950 photograph titled ‘Le baiser de l’hotel de ville‘ (Kiss by the Hotel de Ville), featuring a young couple kissing on a busy street in Paris. The photograph, which was first published in the June 12, 1950 issue of Life, came to be recognized as ‘the’ iconic image of the romance of Paris and has been featured on hundreds of posters and cards sold around the world.

The identity of the couple in the photograph remained a mystery until 1992, when Doisneau was taken to court by Jean and Denise Lavergne. Doisneau revealed that the couple were two aspiring actors, Françoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud. He had seen the two kissing just a few moments earlier and asked them to recreate the scene at three locations; Place de la Concorde, the Rue de Rivoli and finally the Hôtel de Ville.

Françoise Delbart was given an signed and stamped original print of the photograph as part of her payment. She sold the print in 2005 for €155,000, after an unsuccessful attempt to sue Doisneau for a share of the photograph’s royalties.

The three other photographs in the Google doodle are Dog on Wheels(1977), The Tug Boat of the Champ de Mars, and Three Children(1971).

Doisneau passed away April 1, 1994 a few weeks shy of his 82nd birthday.

IKEA Hosts 5 Roommates at Apartment Built in Paris Subway

IKEA Paris Subway ApartmentNext time you’re down in the subway waiting for your train to come, consider how comfortable it would be to live there for a week. Well, that’s exactly what IKEA France is doing for five people in a Paris subway station starting on Monday.

Roommates Jeanne, Audrey, Anis, Lucie and Benjamin will be living in public all week in a specially built 54 square meter apartment constructed on the subway platform at Auber Station.The 5 will demonstrate how IKEA can optimize a small space and make it a comfortable living space for anyone. Each day the highlights of their adventures will be posted at YouTube.

Once they’ve left the apartment on Saturday, they’ll turn it over to a lucky IKEA France Facebook fan and their 12 friends for a great end-of-the-week party

The campaign was created by Paris creative agency Ubi Bene.

via PSFK