Axe: Send SMS to complete this picture

This Axe ad from Uruguay is the best mobile "send SMS and get something" implementation I've seen. Send a text message after dark to a phone number listed on the ad, and you'll get the missing fragment of the picture. Good teaser, meaningful payback. Very smart.

Sony promotes Bravia TV by smashing a PS3 into it

A video in which a PS3 Slim gets smashed into a Sony Bravia LCD TV at 50 mph (22 meters per second)? Yes. It’s part of a promotion during which Sony Australia is giving away 25,000 PS3 slims for buyers of selected Bravia LCD TV models.

A couple of blogs were invited for the event, which included a specially-constructed sled that hurled the 3.2 kg heavy PS3 Slim into the Sony Bravia KDL46X 3100 Full HD LCD TV which was standing some 60m away. You can read the gory details over here, or simply check out the beauty of sheer destruction (in slow motion).

Oddly enough, it reminds me of the Onida "Devil" TV spot done in India in the 1990s.

(via Mashable.)

Twitter in real life

A witty take on microblogging service, Twitter

The world's most dangerous airports

Toncontín Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Having negotiated the rough-hewn mountainous terrain, pilots must execute a dramatic 45-degree, last-minute bank to the left just minutes prior to touching down in a bowl-shaped valley on a runway just 6,112 feet in length. The airport, at an altitude of 3,294 feet, can accommodate aircraft no larger than Boeing 757’s.

Paro Airport, Bhutan.

Tucked into a tightly cropped valley and surrounded by 16,000-foot-high serrated Himalayan peaks, this is arguably the world's most forbidding airport to fly into. It requires specially trained pilots to maneuver into this stomach-dropping aerie by employing visual flying rules and then approaching and landing through a narrow channel of vertiginous tree-covered hillsides.

Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong

Although it closed in 1998, this infamous urban airport will go down in history as one of the scariest of all time. Planes would practically graze skyscrapers and jagged mountains surrounding Kowloon Bay as they took off and landed on a single runway that shot headlong into Victoria Harbour.

Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Lukla, Nepal

Recently renamed after the famous Everest climber-conquerers, mountainous Tenzing-Hillary Airport not only has one of the steepest uphill runways in the world, but its drop-off, into the wind shear-prone Himalayan valley below, is sure to give even the heartiest mountaineers pause. Here, daily 30-minute flights from Katmandu are only allowed to land during daylight, weather permitting.

Courchevel Airport, France.

Part of massive Les Trois Vallées ski resort in the French Alps, Courchevel’s airport is notorious for its super-short ski slope-esque runway (it’s just 1,722 feet), which is punctuated with a vertical mountainside drop. Ice and unpredictable winds are always a concern for pilots, who must meet rigorous training requirements before being able to land in this stunning winter wonderland.

Tioman Island, Malaysia

Landing on this volcanic South China Sea isle—referred to as giant sleeping dragon for its emerald ridges and misty plumes—has set many a pilot’s and passenger’s hair on end. Its approach, directly into a mountain with a 90-degree turn to align with the runway, ends short with a cliff—if you don’t jam on the breaks you’re a goner.

Saba Island Airport

Saba Island is an idyllic, secluded, honeymoon destination. Travel and Leisure voted it the best island in the Caribbean. But before all you soon to be marrieds rush to book a post wedding trip to Saba, please make sure your partner to be can handle a ride on a Win Air DHC-6 Twin Otter.

The landing strip is a reported 1300 feet, which makes it one of the shortest commercial runways in the world. Furthermore, the strip is flanked on one side by steep hills, and on the other side and at both ends of the runway by cliffs dropping into the sea. This creates the possibility that an airplane might overshoot the runway during landing or takeoff and end up in the sea or on the cliffs.

Maderia Airport, Funchal

Wedged in by mountains and the Atlantic, Madeira Airport requires a clockwise approach for which pilots are specially trained. Despite a unique elevated extension that was completed back in 2000 and now expands the runway length to what should be a comfortable 9,000 feet, the approach to Runway 05 remains a hair-raising affair that pilots absolutely dread. They must first point their aircraft at the mountains and, at the last minute, bank right to align with the fast-approaching runway.

Alberto Carnevali Airport in Merida, Venezuela

The airport of the city of Merida, Venezuela is in between a valley with 17,000-foot mountains and houses at the end off the runway.

And now for some fun:

Airport:

The animated story of one man's epic journey, created entirely from public domain symbols. In other words, an airport story told in the language of airport infographics.

Bent objects by Terry Border

Wacky artist Terry Border specializes in bringing food and ordinary objects alive - all with a deliciously dark sense of humor. You can see more of Terry's Bent Objects at his website, and you can order the book here.

Mallu guy speaking to a call center girl

The Rolling Stones creative brief to Andy Warhol

Now if only more clients briefed ad agencies in this manner.

Inflatable bag monsters

Using only tape and garbage bags, street artist Joshua Allen Harris creates giant inflatable animals that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk grate. Steven Psyllos caught up with Harris recently to discuss his older works (including a bear and a giraffe) and unveil a new beast that looks not unlike the Cloverfield monster.

Hand from above

Chris O'Shea, an artist with latent fantasies about growing into a giant and teasing, then destroying, the people of Liverpool, England, has a new installation! It's a live video billboard that teases, then destroys, the people of Liverpool, England.

The piece, titled "Hand from above," is best explained in video, but in any case it's fairly simple: a live camera feed from in front of the billboard is overlaid with a giant finger, which has its way, such as it does, with rapt viewers. The tickling and teasing soon gets more severe, and before you know it, said finger is throwing you off of the pavement, or shrinking you into nothingness.

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

Marge Simpson's Playboy pictorial revealed at last

The November issue of Playboy has hit the stands. The cover features a very famous mother of three, who just happens to have a towering blue beehive and bright yellow skin. It’s none other than Marge Simpson of The Simpsons – the gal knows how to walk on the wild side. Her much anticipated pictorial has finally been revealed and is, well, revealing.

We also learn about Marge’s turn ons such as, “having enough saucers for your cups.” Her turn offs? “Slim men who work out regularly and take care of their bodies and whose oiled muscles gleam in the sun when they take off their shirts.”

Homer will be getting free donuts for months.

Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an advertising man

Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland, from TED Evil, makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value -- and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life. An absolute must see.

Varuna D Jani Fine Jewellery: Seeing is believing

Most newspapers in India have a low screen. Therefore they cannot reproduce the intricate designs of Varuna D Jani’s line of jewellery. The top line research threw an insight that when customers walked into Varuna D Jani’s store and saw the exquisite designs, they more often than not bought the product. The brief was therefore to encourage more walk ins through a series of posters.

Client: Varuna D Jani Fine Jewellery

Ad Agency: IBD Brands (Mumbai, India)

Art Director: Mandar Wadke

Copywriter: Sunil Shibad

How to make music with cornflakes, squeaky toys and nail clippers

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra are 5 Australian musicians that perform music from some of the films that made Clint Eastwood a star. Movies like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, For A Few Dollars More and Once Upon a Time in The West were all scored by composer Ennio Morricone.

Their quirky set of instruments include asthma inhalers; rubber bands, tree branches, rubber gloves, cornflakes, squeaky toys, rubber-gloves, bicycle pumps, nail clippers and many more. Simply brilliant.

1. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2. Once Upon A Time In The West

3. Fistful Of Dollar Medley

4. Chi Mai

5. Medley

Is this the future of air travel?

Lynx, the male grooming brand sold by Unilever, is sold on the basis of sex appeal. Television viewers are being introduced by a new “sex appeal” stunt: the launch of a fictitious airline, Lynx Jet.

“Introducing the future of air travel. Lynx Jet”. Get on. Get off.”

How to dance without legs

David Toole of CandoCo Dance Company compels attention. Propped on his hands, head lowered between his powerful shoulders, his gaze has a burning intensity. He disappears below the waist, unburdened by legs: his arms are his means of locomotion and of dancing, with or without a wheelchair.

Physically, David Toole is half a person, yet he mesmerized me with his strength, skill and musicality. His dance has come on in leaps and bounds - except that he does not leap conventionally but on long, muscular arms.

No one watching would describe Toole as physically challenged. David succeeds in shattering our preconceptions about the handicapped and is truly an inspiration.

Invisible speakers

One company making some big buzz at the DEMO 2009 conference is Emo Labs, which revealed their “invisible speakers” to the applause of the audience. The concept: instead of sound emerging from giant speakers, they come from thin, clear membranes that could completely redefine how you watch TV or use a computer.

The technology they’ve developed is nothing short of impressive. Dubbed “Edge Motion,” (the long form of Emo), the technology makes sound with sideways forces on an invisible membrane. This vibration creates a full range sound that, from our vantage point, isn’t distinguishable from even the regular speaker.

Here Jason Carlson, the CEO of Emo Labs, to give us a video demo. Be sure to have your audio on for the full effect:

More for audiophiles:

Woody Norris shows off two of his inventions that treat sound in new ways, and talks about his untraditional approach to inventing and education. As he puts it: "Almost nothing has been invented yet." So -- what's next?

PhotoSketch: The greatest graphic program since PhotoShop

What if you could draw some stick figures on a screen and somehow magically create a beautiful image montage?

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

Their abstract:

We present a system that composes a realistic picture from a simple freehand sketch annotated with text labels. The composed picture is generated by seamlessly stitching several photographs in agreement with the sketch and text labels; these are found by searching the Internet. Although online image search generates many inappropriate results, our system is able to automatically select suitable photographs to generate a high quality composition, using a filtering scheme to exclude undesirable images.

We also provide a novel image blending algorithm to allow seamless image composition. Each blending result is given a numeric score, allowing us to find an optimal combination of discovered images. Experimental results show the method is very successful; we also evaluate our system using the results from two user studies.

Here is a link to the source code for the project if you want to tinker with it.

Mind-blowing, right?

Swedish Armed Forces: What does it take to be a Swedish Army officer?

Do you have what it takes to be a Swedish Army officer? I wish I could do a series like these simple, intelligent and engaging TV commercials for the Indian Army.

Telephone:

Dog:

Dot:

Machine: