Even for someone as relatively tech-savvy as I am, it’s difficult keeping track of the ever-changing developments in cell phones, PDAs, laptops, cameras, etc. (and whatever pocket-sized gizmo will show up next to more conveniently combine all four). If you’re someone who still rocks an old Nokia out of fear of any device that functions as more than just a phone, doesn’t understand a word of technology jargon, and/or often spaces out during Apple Genius appointments (“I don’t care what you do or what it costs — just fix it!”) Sephora, in tandem with the many brands the makeup mothership carries, offers a variety of gadgets that might actually speak your language! While more and more people are trying to save by cutting back on their regular spa trips, high-tech beauty tools for at-home treatments are becoming increasingly popular, easier to use, and even more advanced for cheaper costs, making even the pricier devices good investments when you think about all the trips to the salon you’ll be saving. While a technology-phobic gal may argue that her old-fashioned eyelash curler works just fine, the upgraded heated ones are undeniably simple to use and get the job done better! And it’s hard to resist the convenient convertibility of the Bliss rechargeable hair trimmer with interchangeable blades for all those pesky hard-to-reach spots you risk nicking while shaving. Before your inner caveman acts out and forces you to reject all things techie, check out the slideshow to see just how convenient some of these new cosmetic contraptions really are!
Just the thing for manipulating your 3D model by hand, as if it were a real object — assuming that object is trapped inside a cube and can never come out.
Via Develop3D, 13 seconds that will blow your mind a tiny bit.
Crispin, Porter + Bogusky is an advertising agency that, to say the least, divides opinion. When bestowing its coveted agency of the year award for 2008 on CP+B, the US trade magazine Ad Age sounded almost apologetic, acknowledging that the announcement meant that “any number of curmudgeonly bloggers and envious creative types all over adland are fuming”. Its sister title, Creativity, observed that “the agency is unrivalled in the amount and the intensity of antipathy it arouses”. Most successful advertising agencies will suffer sniping from others in the industry, often motivated by simple jealousy, yet CP+B’s detractors are especially persistent and vocal – but why?
A survey of online commentary about the agency, combined with the opinions of creative directors at rivals (off the record, natch) reveals certain themes. Accusations of facile humour, a lack of interest in art direction or aesthetic qualities, and an aggressive interest in courting the press, both for its clients and its own gains, are all regularly repeated. Another common complaint is that CP+B is simply a ‘rock star’ agency, fond of its own press but without the work to back it up. A recent rant on thedenveregotist.com claimed that the agency’s “recent ‘big’ ideas were recycled, either from themselves or other work”. (Although the author, Felix, also neatly illustrated the dichotomy surrounding CP+B by claiming at the end of his long rant that he’d “still take a job at CP+B. I’m just mad … not insane.”)
Whopper Sacrifice homepage at whoppersacrifice.com
Certainly the agency appears to enjoy courting controversy. As is typical, it entered 2009 riding on a wave of both admiration and admonishment, caused largely by its recent work for Burger King. Whopper Virgins, the agency’s latest spot for the fast food brand, was launched in early December to accusations of insensitivity and even cultural imperialism. People in far-flung corners of the world who were previously untouched by American fast food were featured in a BK comedy taste test. ‘Poor, backward foreigners: let’s give them some real food’ is one possible reading of its message. By contrast, Whopper Sacrifice, a Facebook application also for BK that encouraged users of the social networking site to ditch ten friends and receive a free burger in exchange was being heralded as an innovative step forward in digital advertising (despite being quickly banned by Facebook itself for breaking its privacy rules). Such debate and discussion is nothing new for a company which actively encourages conversation around its clients’ work, recognising that creating discourse around a brand can be a vital way of breaking through our over-saturated media. “We ask ‘will the press write about it?’,” readily admits partner/co-ECD Rob Reilly. “That’s our ultimate goal.”
CP+B’s unconventional approach to advertising has been evident since its early days. The agency was quick, far quicker than most, to realise the benefits of digital advertising, and scored a huge hit with its Subservient Chicken website, created in collaboration with the Barbarian Group, which has achieved over a billion hits since its launch in 2004. Other experimental projects followed, with the agency creating Burger King’s Xbox King Games project – a tie-in with Microsoft to create a series of computer games around the BK ‘king’ character, which were sold only through BK outlets. Both of these campaigns were prescient in predicting the structure of CP+B today, with its heavy emphasis on digital – its in-house digital team is “the biggest at any advertising agency”, according to partner/co-ECD Andrew Keller – and also its recent expansion to include an in-house industrial design department. Designs produced by the agency so far range from the invention of Chicken Fries for Burger King to a LED Wi-Fi lightbulb.
LED Wi-Fi lightbulb, designed in-house at CP+B
CP+B’s attempts at creating a one-stop shop for its clients – providing them with solutions in digital and product design, as well as traditional media such as TV – has been heralded by many as representing a model for the ad agency of the future. The agency’s emphasis on collaboration means that every department will be involved in a brief, allowing the possibility for unexpected results, as John Winsor, VP/executive director of strategy and product innovation, explains. “It’s fully integrated,” he says. “So when there’s a brief for a project, our planning department attacks the strategy and research side of things, and the guys from the design group look at that problem as a product problem versus an advertising and marketing problem…. I think it’s the future. I think more and more clients want and need, especially in this financial environment, to figure out how to serve their customers better and how to grab market share and do a better job. Some of that’s advertising and some of it’s trying to figure out how to serve the client better with different design products.”
BK Chicken Fries, an idea dreamt up by CP+B
Keller (who now oversees all client work at the agency alongside Reilly, following Alex Bogusky’s move to co-chairman) sees the range of services on offer at the agency as a way of helping clients to adapt to the new marketing possibilities available now. “I think a lot of clients still think about television a lot, it’s still the main thing that they can think about,” he says. “And if we didn’t do digital, we’d be really happy to let them carry on thinking that way. But since we do digital, there’s no conflict of interest for us to help them see the light. We’re going to do that whether they want it or not, because we believe in it and we’ve got to help them be great. I think because we do both we’re in a great position to help clients make that transition.”
Not everyone agrees that such multiplicity of skills is the way forward for advertising, however, with concerns that no company is able to provide all the specialist skills required in today’s complex communications world across all media at the same time and at equal quality. And other commentary around CP+B’s practise has trodden a darker path than simply whether it is constructing a good business model for the future of advertising. In its early collaborations with digital agencies, it was accused of a lack of generosity when it came to acknowledging the input of others on projects: many felt that it could have done more to credit the contribution of the Barbarian Group in the Subservient Chicken website, for example. But these are issues for the ad industry as a whole, particularly when it comes to the major awards, which often reduce the contributions of digital agencies to a bit part, with the credit given solely to the lead agency. CP+B says that all its digital work is now done in-house (bar “some programming and testing and things like that”, says Keller), though complaints about its past behaviour in this area rumble on.
Burger King Whopper Freakout
What is undeniable about the agency however, and is a point that even its more furious detractors will acknowledge, is that it has a deft ability to recognise what will seep effortlessly into popular culture. It began 2008 with another hit for Burger King, for Whopper Freakout, which showed CCTV footage of BK patrons ‘freaking out’ when told that their beloved Whopper had been taken off the menu…. forever. The ad spawned a number of spoofs, including most famously the Whopper Ghetto Freakout, which has had over three million views on YouTube. The ad may have contained a gentle mockery of BK’s customers at its core, but this in no way put them off, with the ad leading to a significant increase in sales of the Whopper.
Other hits of last year included the introduction of Tivo-based ordering for Domino’s pizzas, as well as the ability to custom order your Domino’s pizza online and follow the order via the website a la FedEx. The Tivo ordering, while undeniably a clever idea, led to claims that the agency was promoting laziness, and in turn, obesity. “You see a lot of the press and they are on it,” acknowledges Keller. “And it’s just natural that they’re going to have to take a dig of the notion that ‘ah, how much lazier could you be?’. We can’t expect them to grab the insight, which is what we’re doing is connecting our product with moments…. To connect with movies and television that directly is an incredible thing. But certainly part of the tension resides in the fact that it’s like ‘wow, you couldn’t even get up to use the phone’.”
Alec Baldwin in an ad by CP+B for hulu.com
CP+B has also demonstrated a knack of knowing which celebrities will get our attention. Going against the commonly held theory of using a squeaky clean star that will make the associated brand look good, CP+B regularly chooses celebrities who have a history, and sometimes even a rather checkered past. It used Brooke Shields in a series of ads for VW’s family wagon, the Routan (which were accompanied by a website where users could get a glimpse of what their future babies may look like, with either real or fantasy partners), and, most recently, Alec Baldwin in an ad for online video service Hulu that aired during this year’s Super Bowl. Both had been caught up in very public celebrity spats in recent years (Shields with Tom Cruise and Baldwin with his own daughter).
Keller and Reilly emphasise that central to the agency’s success with such campaigns is a deft understanding of what will get people talking. Inevitably such a goal will also have its downsides, however, and the coverage of its first work for new client Microsoft last year can’t have made for easy reading. The campaign began with two ads featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, an unlikely pairing that made for awkward exchanges and a somewhat confusing message, before the strategy abruptly changed direction with the ‘I’m A PC’ ads, which came as a direct response to the ‘Mac vs. PC’ ads by Apple. While the intention of these latter spots may have been clear, the agency was derided for riding on the coat-tails of the Apple campaign and faced further humiliation when some nifty technical types exposed that the ‘I’m A PC’ spots were in fact made on a Mac.
Microsoft ad from CP+B starring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld
This seemed a surprising mistake from such a press savvy agency, but if it was attention that they wanted with this campaign, attention is what they got, even if it was broadly negative. “You know, there really is no such thing as bad publicity,” says Keller. “People like to say it, but you have to believe it, because it really comes down to the fact that [if you want] to generate energy around something, [it] can’t be harnessed for a positive outcome. Unfortunately it’s not the nature of culture to generate a lot of excitement and energy around really positive things. But our goal is to be positive, it’s not to be cynical…. We know that we have to generate a conversation and to have a conversation there has to be two sides. If you’re not willing to have the negative side, then you’re not willing to have a conversation, and if you’re not willing to [do that], you’re not going to create anything.”
Perhaps in this lies the root of CP+B’s success. Its work may not be pretty, and it may at times centre on a certain style of frat boy humour, but it will always get our attention and get us talking. As will the agency itself. Those working there might find it frustrating – “it’s bad enough dealing with clients and the economy, before attacking each other,” says Reilly of the regular swipes the agency receives – but it seems that the debate around CP+B is as ingrained in the agency’s DNA as the conversation that its ads are intended to encourage. It will no doubt continue to be the one agency that everyone, but everyone, has an opinion about. But perhaps secretly that’s just the way it likes it.
I’m talking to my computer right now. I’m speaking these words — rather than typing them — and watching them appear in my Word document.
I’m using a program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a voice recognition software program by Nuance. I bought a version of it last summer when I strained my wrists typing. Then, it was a necessity, and now it’s a convenience.
It’s a useful tool because Nuance claims that people type an average of 35 words a minute with only 58 percent accuracy, but speak 120 words per minute. The company’s Senior Vice President Peter Mahoney said, “When you type, the accuracy rate is abysmal because people get good at using the backspace key.”
If you type 35 or fewer words a minute, then an increase to 120 words would significantly improve productivity. If you’re already typing more than 100 words a minute, though, you may not notice such significant gains in speed.
Edit your work carefully, though. When the software is getting used to your voice and style, it may write something other than what you intended. For example, when you’re writing about rich, sweet, frozen, dairy products it may type, “I scream” instead of the correct “ice cream.” But, the more you use it and correct mistakes, the greater the accuracy.
It also scans for context. Mahoney said, “Dragon doesn’t understand what you’re saying but does understand the likelihood of words appearing near other words. It picks the appropriate word such as ‘over there’ not ‘over their.’” You can actively adapt Dragon to your writing style. Just point the software toward e-mails and reports you’ve written and let it analyze them. That allows Dragon to do a better job of knowing what words you tend to use, and can improve accuracy.
The Professional and Preferred editions include a feature called Voice Shortcuts. With Shortcuts, you can tell the program, “Search the web for Italian restaurants in Chicago,” and your default browser will open and start searching. You can also go to specific websites. For instance, you can say, “Search eBay for MP3 Player,” and it will search eBay.
While Windows Vista offers basic free voice recognition software built into the operating system, Dragon out-performs Vista with its speed.
Dragon requires some PC strength, so make sure your system meets the minimal specifications. On Amazon, you can find the standard version of the software for $54.99. Dragon is not available for Macs, but Nuance offers a similar program called Dictate. I’m not a regular user of Dictate, so I can’t speak to its performance.
Do you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking or another voice recognition software? Let us know about your experiences in the comments area.
If you don’t know what an RSS feed is, then this post is for you. RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication. It is a useful way for internet users to compile loads of information all in one place.
The advantage of using RSS feeds is that they are updated in real time so you know when a site you regularly visit is updated with new content. If you find yourself visiting the same sites over and over again, you may want to add those sites to your RSS aggregator. An RSS aggregator is an online tool that keeps track of all of the websites that you want to read.
This is how I explained it to my mom, “An RSS feed aggregator is kind of like an email inbox for your favorite websites. When a website you’d like to follow is updated, you receive a notice in your ‘inbox.’”
So how do you go about tracking your favorite sites via RSS feeds? Well, step one is to choose an RSS feed reader. Here are some options:
Google Reader: This is a web based aggregator that is very popular and easy to use. You need a Google user account to access the service, but it’s free. Once you’ve set up your account and added your favorite feeds, you can group your feeds by categories.
NewsGator: This service has options for both Windows (Feed Demon) and Mac (NetNewsWire) and they have a very informative video to get you started.
Ensembli: This is a newer aggregator that claims to work with you and over time learns what interests you. From their site:
The more you read, discard, or even ignore the stories Ensembli finds, the more it’ll be able to locate the stories that you’ll really like. Just to be extra clever, as your tastes change, Ensembli will be able to automagically keep up with you!
Bloglines: Bloglines has a tagline I like, “It’s the same internet minus the clutter.” It is also web based, like Google Reader. You can learn more about Bloglines here.
After you have chosen your aggregator, you can start adding your favorite sites that you’d like to track. You can easily do this by clicking on a site’s feed button. The RSS feed icon is like the orange image in the top of this post. Simply click on a site’s RSS icon and you will then see the feed link in your browser’s address bar. You can then add that link to your aggregator.
Once your aggregator is set up, don’t forget to check it to read all your updates. Just be sure to add Unclutterer’s feed to your list. Or, if you’ve been reading Unclutterer for more than a year, check out our RSS feed without the A Year Ago posts. When you become a savvy RSS feed reader, you might feel comfortable creating customized feeds using Yahoo! Pipes.
Nothing is a new commercial creative agency formed by Michael Jansen and Bas Korsten that has just opened its doors in Amsterdam. While the city houses the KesselsKramer agency in a fairly unconventional building – a nineteenth-century church – the Nothing office is an unusual construction too, in that it is built almost entirely out of cardboard. They sent us some great pictures of the space, which was created by designers Joost van Bleiswijk and Alrik Koudenburg…
The Nothing team took the idea behind the company name (taking nothing and turning it into something) as the starting point for the physical design of the office; which included creating walls, signage, beams, tables, shelving and even a set of stairs out of cardboard.
But Nothing aren’t going to be prissy about the clean lines of designer cardboard that surrounds them. Apparently, the walls will double as a blank canvas with visitors encouraged to leave their mark on the surfaces. Indeed, illustrator Fiodor Sumkin was the first to liven up Nothing’s predominantly brown colour scheme with some well-crafted penmanship.
And when they get bored by the accumulated daubings, the studio can presumably replace individual sections of their workspace for, well, nothing much at all.
Nouveau concept du studio Art Lebedev avec cet hub USB au design agréable. Un périphérique qui fait directement référence aux expériences optiques menées par Newton et selon lesquels un rayon de lumière traversant un prisme en ressort sous la forme de sept rayons colorés.
In tune with their motto “Celebrate Originality”, Adidas Originals will launch the first Urban Art Guide for the iPhone on March 20th showcasing some of the finest street art around. The selected works will be frequently updated by Adidas’ editorial staff. The Urban Art Guide can be purchased free of charge via the iTunes App Store starting on March 20th.
It’s been said that you’re supposed to get five servings of fruits a day. So, that means wine counts, right? Well, wine-not? The world of wine is so big and high society’s taken it to such a labyrinthine level it could boggle your brain. Wine enthusiasts have paved the way for both fellow winos and casual drinkers alike with some very inventive gadgets to help you enjoy your favorite fermented grape juices! In fact, fashion designers like Christian Audigier, Juan Carlos, and Roberto Cavalli have jumped on the wine band-wagon. While, yes, your favorite Ports are important, the point here is to accessorize! Mama always told you not to play with your food … but technically wine’s not a food. So let’s play away with wine gadgets galore and see a taste of such trinkets in the slideshow!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
I’m talking to my computer right now. I’m speaking these words — rather than typing them — and watching them appear in my Word document.
If you don’t know what an RSS feed is, then this post is for you. RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication. It is a useful way for internet users to compile loads of information all in one place.
