Hasta La Creative!

BMW has come up with an ambitious faux documentary for the 2009 BMW 1-Series that involves the construction, in the imaginary town of Oberpfaffelbachen, Germany, of a giant ramp that’s intended to literally launch the vehicle across the Atlantic Ocean to the U.S. (all the way to San Francisco, in fact). Lots of guys with giant teeth seem to have worked on the project, which was filmed by (faux) documentarian Jeff Schultz. The U.S. government would shoot the car out of the sky and ask question later, but that’s a separate issue. Jalopnik has posted the video here in three parts. It clocks in at some 35 minutes, which is about 34 minutes and 15 seconds longer than our favorite faux-construction viral.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

John Minnec, the former president of DraftFCB London, has joined Euro RSCG Chicago as its executive director.

LONDON – Global Radio is to cut 12 jobs as a result of increasing its networked programming across its Heart and Galaxy stations from April 28.

(TrendHunter.com) Nothing else is known at this point, but LG is teasing with us with the releasing an image capturing what’s to be the next model in its Black Label line. The details are few, but it appears to be a lithe slider, slim and dark with a case made of nearly indestructible carbon fiber and a glass touchsc…

It’s tough for guys in New Zealand, who have to go to work and leave behind their chubby pink living security blankets, who more than make up for the lack of a wife or girlfriend. Created for insulation company Pink Batts by DDB Auckland. See some more Pink Batts commercials here. Via Advertolog.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

American mobile marketing firms are looking to Asia and Europe for inspiration. They may have found it in QR codes, as mobile ticketing, payment, ID verification and other location-based uses are being invented for this technology.

But are the funny looking barcodes catching on in this country? The New York Times says no, not yet.

A company called Mobile Discovery, based in Reston, Va., is conducting the test at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland in conjunction with the university’s engineering school, whose students are helping to manage it. Students and other people affiliated with the university can download software to their cellphones and then can get campus bus arrival times, order magazine subscriptions, enter a sweepstakes sponsored by QVC and get text alerts from USA Today, among other applications.

But interest in the pilot project, which started Feb. 1 and will run at least through May 15, has been tepid, according to students on campus, in part because of the cellphone fees associated with it.

Catherine Vermeersch, a fifth-year engineering student, for one, does not share that vision. “Students don’t perceive it as practical,” she said. “Why would anyone actually pay for advertising?”

There’s an easy answer to Vermeersch’s question. It’s not advertising people are paying for. Rather, it’s information they want or need.

(TrendHunter.com) Why can this dinky MP3 player be a threat to the omnipresent iPod you ask? It has a secret microSD card slot that will enable you to stuff this player with 32Gb of music and the battery lasts 24hrs for constant music playing or 5 hours of video watching

This ad for Best Maid pickles makes me dislike kids, animation and, by extension, pickles. It tries hard to be cute. Too hard. The little girl, drowning in ringlets, who plays hide-and-seek with “Smiley,” the company’s logo, squeals like nails on a blackboard. What’s she saying, anyway? Something pickle-related, most likely, but all the words sound like squeals. Then Mom arrives with the same squeaky voice and forced exuberance. The spot exudes a kind of 1950s family aesthetic gone wrong. It’s cornball and creepy, calling to mind pre-Jamie Lee Curtis Activia commercials in which apparently average people in everyday situations act so oddly, the spots take on sinister overtones. Dig deeper in that fridge, high-pitched moppet, and you’ll come across some Bifidus Regularis, way in back. (And check out that other kid on Best Maid’s site. He really likes that hamburger. Scary.)

—Posted by David Gianatasio

(TrendHunter.com) Adi Marom, a New York based designer, created an online project where you can create your own DIY finger-puppets of Obama, Hillary and McCain and stage your own presidential debates!

The process is simple! It’s all there, at your fingertips: Download the candidate, print, cut, fold, glue… And set…

(TrendHunter.com) Jeremy is this true? A new brain-scan study might explain why incredibly crafty financial dudes make risky financial decisions. And guess what – it’s sex. In a new study, young men were more likely to make a larger financial gamble after being shown erotic pictures.*cough* cough*. That’s because dir…