Hasta La Creative!

Here’s a cool piece of ad tech for your production department: Luminous Media makes electroluminescent advertising — posters, billboards, POS. The video demo is at the end of the post; Michael, director of company’s operations, explains how the technology works:

“The technology is actually its own light source, even though its paper-thin.
There are special conductive inks, that when we apply a small electrical current so they illuminate (and very brightly too, as you can see in the video.)

We can also isolate, and define the areas which illuminate to create sequences and basic animations like you see in the Spiderman clip. We can control which areas illuminate at which time by connecting a small electrical driver to the sign (which is generally about the size of a DVD player for billboards.) This feeds the current to the appropriate areas at appropriate times through a custom-programmed timing chip, much in the same way you can create an animated GIF to having specific timings.

And, because they’re so thin and flexible our clients use them on billboards, transit shelters, subway stations, for window signage, and in-store retail campaigns.”

New York-based HUSH has collaborated with Nike to bring diversity of style and imagery to the iconic brand with a series of large format images displayed in Niketown and NikeID stores throughout the United States and Europe. The dynamic imagery is delivered directly to the consumer through two core concepts. In Splash, a blank white shoe stomps into a puddle of paint. In Stitch, a shoe is frozen in time as new layers and colors are sewn onto it. Both of these displays are perfectly paired with an expansive wall filled with Nike shoes in an array of all colors and styles.

“Nike is the kind of company that continually strives to reinvent its image and reach millions through its brand identification. We relish the chance to work with such a company, aligning ourselves with the same chameleon-like qualities. In the diverse advertising community, we pride ourselves on our ability to provide a wide range of high-caliber work no matter what the project medium,” commented HUSH director Erik Karasyk.

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(TrendHunter.com) Coke Zero has launched in Brazil an extreme guerrilla marketing campaign using people’s tongues.

Several shops in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Salvador give free piercings with the brand logo, with the only condition of taking pictures to publish on the website which redirects to a G…

A massive problem for the homeless in San Francisco may have just been solved thanks to Google. The company is offering free lifetime phone numbers and voice mail for the homeless.

It gives those without a permanent residence a point of contact for government assistance and employer contact. This …

Right on the front page. And in an obituary no less. The title of the obit “William F. Buckley Jr., 82, Dies; Sesquipedalian Spark of Right” is (for those of you not in the U.S. and/or old enough to remember him) a play on the fact that Buckley was fond of using words like “sesquipedalian” in his speeches and his columns. He definitely kept Webster’s in business.

I mean I don’t know about you, but I had no idea what ”sesquipedalian” meant – my basic knowledge of Latin got me to “150 footed” (sesqui=150 + pedalian = feet or footed) which clearly was wrong.Dictionary.com to the rescue: Sesquipedalian means “given to using long words” and is derived from some term meaning “words of a foot and a half long” (so I was on the right track. Sort of.)

Regardless, it’s nice to see the Times loosen up a little bit and employ some intellectual humor when appropriate. It’s a lesson many corporate and B2B advertisers should heed, because as an old mentor of mine once said: “Just because people are reading about work, doesn’t mean they want to be bored.” 

And besides, we all just learned a new insult today. 

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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — It's been a depressing week for retailers, with grim earnings reports and gloomy forecasts. For some, sales were up while income was down. For others, the terrible quarter was offset by a better showing for the full year. And most stores are not optimistic about 2008.

As you will have seen, this issue of Campaign contains a booklet on Jean-Marie Dru’s Disruption advertising philosophy, which has been produced for TBWA\London by Haymarket Brand Media. It’s part of our new Thought Leaders series, which will reprint pieces about our industry that are worth acknowledging, preserving and celebrating.

The Children’s Society has published a report that calls for a ban on “ruthless and exploitative” advertising aimed at children. The Advertising Association countered by pointing to the role advertising has in funding children’s TV.