The Corpus Callosum

Paying homage to the Rube Goldberg Machine and inspired by the Honda Accord commercial “Cogs”, American pop-rock band OK Go partnered with Synn Labs and director James Frost to create this insanely complex video for their hit single “This Too Shall Pass”. OK Go’s ingenuity and creativity never cease to amaze me. This is structured chaos at it’s finest!

I don’t watch much TV in Beijing because the quality and production values are average at best. However, I caught this sensational commercial for CCTV Beijing on television the other day, produced by Troublemakers.tv and designed by weareflink. I wasn’t surprised to find out that both companies are foreign (Paris and Hamburg, respectively), but it’s good to know that China is willing to spend money for quality once in a while. Now if only this happened more often…

CCTV Ink from Troublemakers.tv on Vimeo.

Look at these Puma kicks and tell me what comes to your mind? Looks like Classic Pumas in different colorways right? Well, read on and you’ll see that a little marketing can go a long way.
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Volkswagen teamed up with DDB Stockholm to develop a terrific marketing campaign called The Fun Theory. The call-to-action in this viral campaign challenges consumers to come up with simple, fun, and innovative ways to change people’s behaviour for the better. Whether it benefits your family/friends, your work, or the environment, the important thing is that some aspect of life is improved through this change, as illustrated by the following examples.








Check out the The Fun Theory website for more great ideas or submit your own fun theory for a chance at fame (your idea will be brought to life at a public venue) and fortune (2500 Euros). Deadline for submission is Dec 15, 2009.

This ad by BBDO Dusseldorf is a bit cheeky but you can’t deny it’s creativity. For their ad agency recruitment campaign, the minds at BBDO needed something raw and eye-catching yet simple enough to convey the “Join us” message all in one memorable symbol or catch-phrase.

Their final recruitment ad killed two birds with one stone by playing off the iconic Southern California “Blood” gang symbol. It also worked out nicely that the letters “b-b-d-o” were finger-friendly (I love my old ad agency, but try spelling TBWA with your fingers!) Hard to say if the general public will understand this hip-hop/gang reference, but a brilliant ad nonetheless.

Mos Def is a world-renowned MC, Hollywood actor, producer, and stand-up comedian just to name a few of his talents. Now he can add creative marketing guru to that list with the launch of his latest album, “The Ecstatic”.

He’ll be one of the first artists to fuse digital music with graphic design by releasing his album in a Music Tee format. “The Ecstatic” Music Tee features the cover art on the front of the t-shirt, tracklist on the back, and a unique download code printed on the hang tag.

A clever concept, indeed. Maybe funky t-shirt designs will be incentive enough to entice the public to purchase albums again.

I think Happy Planet Shots appeal to me because they bring back memories of Flintstone vitamins and their visually colorful graphics . These shots are formulated to boost your health and come in four varieties: Energy, Immunity, Detox and Glow.  Although these health shots aren’t necessarily aimed towards children, the package design has a playful touch that appeals to young and old alike.

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Here’s a very interesting company portfolio website from Boone Oakley, a full-serviced ad agency based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their entire site is housed on YouTube, changing the paradigm of how portfolio sites should look, feel, and function.

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