Hasta La Creative!

Rice. Cheap goods. Pointy hats. Christmas decorations. Fortune cookies!

Those are just a few of the stereotypes that pop into a Western mind when asked to think about Asia—and Asian products. To beat this stereotype, and demonstrate how diverse and innovative Asian countries really are, Singapore-based Tiger Beer partnered with Marcel Sydney to repurpose an old discount store, right in the middle of New York’s Chinatown. 

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Sometimes a mistake is so embarrassing, it cycles all the away around the shame circle and becomes kind of awesome.

Today’s case in point: Kyrzbekistan, a country accidentally invented by a New York Times piece that meant to reference the Central Asian nation Kyrgyzstan.

In fairness, the story is otherwise quite compelling and dramatic, telling how a climber escaped captivity by shoving an armed militant off a cliff. Unfortunately, the newspaper accidentally portrayed the events as happening in Kyrzbekistan, which has the unfortunate distinction of not being real.

“An earlier version of this article misidentified the country whose army chased Tommy Caldwell’s kidnappers,” notes the newspaper’s online correction. “It was Kyrgyzstan, not Kyrzbekistan, which does not exist.”

Or at least, it didn’t exist before. Today it has its own Twitter feed and a Fodor’s Guide worth of sarcastic tweets.

Beyond the parody account, the mockery has already begun to roll in:

Rumour has it that #Kyrzbekistan has been given the go-ahead to enter Eurovision 2015.

— deedee (@del_souky) January 8, 2015

We Austranians don’t like Kyrzbesistanis ever since they have sided with Luxemstein in the United States Of Amigos question #Kyrzbekistan

— Martin Hovezak (@MirrorOfMirrors) January 8, 2015

I suppose, if all nations are “imagined communities”, the NYT making one up just took that to its logical conclusion. #kyrzbekistan

— Oliver Bullough (@OliverBullough) January 8, 2015

You can’t just will a country out of existence… Stand up for #kyrzbekistan!

— Lew Ayotte (@LewAyotte) January 8, 2015

Next time you see a sale online, be sure to read the details closely. 

Yahoo Shopping’s Japanese division is running hilarious ads promoting 50 percent off several items: suits, bicycles and household appliances, to name a few.

But there’s a catch: The prices aren’t cut in half. The items are.

Yahoo partnered with Web promo company Burg Hamburg Burg for this 15th anniversary sale that actually exists. Take a look below at a few of these ridiculous ads. 

The only way I could see this look working is if I were a model: 

Actually I am pretty sure there are dudes in Brooklyn who would buy this: 

I hope this sweatshirt is for sale, too:  

Via RocketNews24.

When JWT Singapore was tapped by the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) to create an educational campaign about date rape, the agency decided to go in a different direction.

The result was Guardian Angel, a personal safety accessory line that looks like jewelry but is also designed to get women out of dangerous situations.

The $120 device, which can be worn as a necklace or bracelet, has a button that, hen pushed, automatically triggers a call to the wearer’s cell phone. That method is billed as a way for a woman receiving unwanted attention to create a convenient excuse to leave. If things become more serious (read: dangerous) the wearer can push the button and hold it down, sending a text alert to a designated contact, who will receive the wearer’s GPS coordinates and an automatically generated request for help.

While the idea is interesting and seems to be made with good intentions, there’s something problematic here: If you take a look at Guardian Angel’s website, you’ll notice it’s filled with cloudy backgrounds and waifish young women in white tops and little makeup. The image we’re presented with is one of innocence. While the visuals are probably supposed to look heavenly and angelic in the vein of the product name, the end result is that the Guardian Angel is a device to protect innocence. 

Why is that a bad thing? Because sexual assault isn’t something that just happens to cute, unassuming young women. And sexual assault doesn’t have a gender or sexuality associated with it. (Yes, many sexual assaults do involve young men attacking young women, especially those that are widely reported and picked up by media outlets, but assaults don’t happen to a specific type of person.) Sexual assault is pervasive and upsetting and a huge issue in our culture, so let’s try to keep that in check while creating the visual idea of an assault victim.

On The Verge, Adi Robertson describes a deeper problem with the idea of everyday assault-prevention tools:

“That’s what’s wrong with the Guardian Angel’s gauzy, stereotypical femininity: it ends up normalizing rape as an unremarkable, if unfortunate, part of the female experience. The soothing language—making women ‘feel less vulnerable’ so they can ‘live their lives to the fullest’—smacks of the vagaries in tampon commercials. It’s something everyone knows about but nobody wants to hear about, and certainly nothing that we want to acknowledge is a shamefully common plague in our schools, our prisons, our armed forces, and almost every other social institution.”

Maybe if the Guardian Angel’s creators had more directly acknowledged how awful it is that we need a piece of technology like this to begin with, then maybe the mission could resonate more.

Via Fast Company.

Would more people recycle if the process were actually fun? Coca-Cola and agency Grey Dhaka tried to answer that question by placing six "Happiness Arcade" machines around Dhaka, Bangladesh.

But these aren't just your run-of-the-mill video games. Unlike 2010's "Happiness Machines" these do not vend the soft drink itself; instead they work the opposite way, accepting empty soda bottles and rewarding the user with a turn playing a Pong-like game. 

As you can see in the video below, the stunt drew quite a crowd, despite the relatively simplistic game. (I mean, when was the last time Pong made you grab a grown man and lift him off the ground in celebration?)

All told, the project collected thousands of bottles at six locations, which might not have a huge impact itself on a place as populous as Bangladesh, but the brand believes the effort helped by "making a case for recycling one game at a time."

Via Gizmodo and Design Taxi.

UPDATE: Some commenters have noted the idea is similar to Volkswagen's "Bottle Bank Arcade" created by DDB Stockholm in 2009. Here's how that one worked:

Jurian Gravett nous propose avec cette vidéo de 6 minutes de nous évader et de nous emmener en Asie découvrir ainsi des paysages splendides. Le résumé d’une année d’expériences à dévorer dans la suite avec une vidéo tournée à la GoPro mais aussi au Canon 550D.

"My Beautiful Woman" is a series of three short ad films totaling 20 minutes of running time. And while that might sound like an eternity on YouTube, in this case it's definitely worth it.

The stories—narrated in Thai, subtitled in slightly broken English—are beautiful, emotional and likely to move sentimental types to tears. (They did for me, anyway.) The real surprise is that they're for lingerie brand Wacoal, though you'd never know it from the completely unsexual storytelling. 

Each movie tells a story about a "beautiful woman," and then quietly closes with the copy "Wacoal believes all women were created to be beautiful." Then comes a request: "Who is your beautiful woman? Post a photo and hashtag #MyBeautifulWoman."

I don't want to give away the storylines, because they're lovely and surprising in their subtle twists. Some may argue they're sappy or cloying, and there are certainly some cultural differences to take into account. But feel free to block this off as your sniffly-faced, feel-good moment of the day.

Here's some hot wood-on-wood action for Valentine's Day, courtesy of Ikea. 

BBH Singapore created this Valentine's Day image, which was posted to the brand's local Facebook page and is being featured on posters in stores, according to Campaign Brief Asia.

Hat tip to Mashable, which reminds readers of the even saucier (though unofficial) Ikea stunt, Hot Malms.

Ikea continues its pairing of austere design and New Age pseudo-friendliness with a campaign that uses customers' Chinese zodiac signs to help them shop.

BBH Asia Pacific has dedicated the Ikea Singapore Facebook page to this endeavor, and entering your birthdate or zodiac sign will create a list of "compatible" furniture for you. Year of the Pig, for example, brings up a lot of storage and home organization stuff because the pig is "meticulous, loyal and loveable" with a dislike for clutter.

I'm not much for astrology, but it's clear that a lot of work went into this idea, and it shows in the presentation. Furniture is something that people are notoriously indecisive about, too, so a little nudge in one direction or another couldn't hurt, no matter how goofy the process might be. Via Design Taxi.

Mother Monster has created her own monster clones. That's right, Lady Gaga has created a line of life-size real dolls of herself, hand crafted in Japan, experts in all creepy, real-life doll things.

Though the replicas are not yet available for sale, they might someday be. They're currently designed for a Japanese promotion of her new album that points fans to Gaga's Japanese Facebook presence. But English speakers can watch the video where they mold and make her naked body, paint the nipples and dissect her to add a special set of musical organs that play Gaga's hit songs when you hug the doll and place your head on her chest.

The end of the video shows an eager, adoring fan doing just that, pressing his face into GagaDoll’s bosom with a look of orgasmic release. The doll is so lifelike, it's hard to tell which one is Gaga in a picture she sent out from her Twitter account (it's the middle one). It makes a lot of sense given the strong pop art connections with her new album Art Pop. I mean, you know Andy Warhol would have been all over this kind of thing.