Toyota is showing off the new heads up display for its hybrid car Prius through an interactive online ad. The ad uses head tracking through a webcam to let people control point-of-view inside the Prius HUD.
In recreating the actual HUD, the ad s visuals are not entirely impressive (and for gamers could conjure up memories of Sega’s classic Thunder Blade ). The neat part is the interactivity. We should mention here the link is to a video
Watch it at Creativity Online.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the classic sci-fi TV series, The Twilight Zone. Falling on a Friday, [a]list daily thought you might have some time to spend with NY Times thoughtful commemoration of the anniversary.
The Times has posted four clips ranging from condensed episodes to full acts that define the formulas the series almost religiously followed. Formulaic storytelling and dated production value aside, Rod Serling’s thought-provoking, sometimes mind-bending, socially conscious stories stand the test of time. Happy anniversary, fifth dimension.
Watch the clips at NY Times.
Sometimes all it takes to transform that dreary commute is a dose from your sweet music library. Sony Ericsson takes that trip in this colorful ad for its headphones.
The spot uses a combination of simple cartoon animation and claymation (or really good looking digital clay ). The premise is simple. The ad starts in a drab and dreary commuter train where everything is black and white except for our product protagonist, a young kid. As soon as the kid dons his presumably Sony Ericsson headphones, the train transforms. Funkadelic sound and psychedelic colors fill the scene as previously somber passengers groove and inanimate objects come to life, all as if hearing his music. It s a visually pleasing transformation, and the ad uses a nice plot cum product messaging device to reinforce it. The kid is interrupted by a phone call, which he seamlessly answers with the same headphones, during which everything goes back to drab. To make matters worse, a giant of a man enters the train and sits right next to him during the sequence. What to do? Put on the headphones, and everything goes back to normal.
Watch the spot at BrandFreak.
Ed Fries, former VP of Game Publishing at Microsoft, recounts his days building the Microsoft games division and the Xbox in this session filmed at the 2009 [a]list summit.
Watch it at the [a]list summit channel.
Todd Wasserman sums up the impetus for Norton’s clever metaphor in this spot when he points out the challenge in visualizing software in TV ads. For Norton’s ad it starts with casting UFC fighter and King of the Web Brawlers Kimbo Slice to represent a cyber-criminal. Then they portray a caterpillar to represent user identity. It gets more surreal from there.
Check out the TV spot, and read Wasserman try to make sense of it all, at BrandFreak.
