Water, water, everywhere

From Laurie David at StopGlobalWarming.org:

With 2.5 MILLION(!!) plastic water bottles being thrown away every hour in the United States, StopGlobalWarming.org is proud to partner with SIGG to create a re-usable water bottle so we can all do our part and ditch the plastic!

The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-partisan effort to bring citizens together to declare that global warming is here now and that it is time to demand solutions. Global Warming is the most urgent issue of our time, and the necessary first step to combat this problem is to encourage all Americans to take action! This online grassroots movement is about change-as individuals, as a country and as a global community. With the support of leading scientists, political, corporate and religious leaders, Prominent Americans and concerned citizens, the Virtual March is a way to come together, make our voices heard and demand that our leaders address global warming now! Add your voice to over a million citizens already marching! Once a person joins the Virtual March, they receive regular updates from StopGlobalWarming.org which highlight the effects of global warming on the U.S. and solutions that are readily available to each and every one of us. By spreading the word, we are building a movement to stop global warming.

Get one here.

Keyboard shortcuts will save your life

It's safe to say, I haven't really figured out the clothing business. Starting a t-shirt company is a recurring dream, but it takes a fat wad of cash to do it on any level where you can produce enough to make a profit, let alone a living.

But the thing is, the ideas don't stop coming. I've actually got quite a backlog. So, I've decided to try to design one per month, and offering them for sale on Cafepress. I will post them on my Flickr page, my blog and my web site.

If you like them, let me know. I'm really just doing this for fun, but it wouldn't hurt to sell a few anyway.

If I get enough orders and demand, I'll start using a screen printer.

Available at Cafepress.com

Wild postings

Much has been said this week on blogs more frequented than mine about whether or not a certain creative pair from DDB were actually involved in the creative development, copywriting, design, hair trimming, back rubbing or lunch ordering process of the notorious multiple award-winning Philips Bodygroom viral web site which I had the good fortune to work on as an Art Director at Tribal DDB.

Armed with tasty morsels of misinformation and not concerned to the slightest degree with accuracy, a snarky blogger by the name of Super Spy launched into a libelous rant, clumsily accusing the copywriter/designer pair Scott Ginsberg and January Vernon of everything short of insider trading for the stated offense of receiving credit for work that "they didn't actually produce." This, in the author's bitter logic, was the sole merit for them receiving job offers at Droga5.

Well, did they?

Not that anyone asked me, or the Creative Director, or the receptionist, or the cleaning lady, but if any of the above individuals at Tribal DDB (or DDB, which is in the same building - duh) had been questioned, they most certainly would have confirmed that, yes, of course, they were part of the team.

They did far more than a mere "wild posting campaign". Though they were not involved at the project's inception (the first couple of creative rounds were rejected by the client anyway), both were involved in creative brainstorming, copywriting, design, the video shoot, lunches from Angelo's pizza and the regular daytime debauchery required to produce this interactive masterpiece.

I've already said this and more on mediabistro, so I'll just wrap up with this personal message to Super Spy. Someone ought to out you for your own wild postings. I never read your blog once before someone brought it to my attention because of an issue I actually knew something about, and you obviously didn't. Are you prepared to eat a little crow now that you have heard the real story?

Cell phone bills make me nauseous

Cell phone bills make me nauseous, originally uploaded by dM.nyc™.

Is anyone else feeling a bit crushed by the weight of cell phone bills these days? I'm really not sure what I'm even paying for anymore. Am I really getting my $20 worth of internet access when it seems to take forever to retrieve email or access a web page? And I can't remember the last time I ever dipped into my AT&T rollover minutes. Nights and weekends? I just don't have that many interesting things to say to people on the phone. Or, maybe that's it exactly. Most people don't have anything interesting to say, so they just... talk.

I'm gonna get so fat

I've been eating at Chipotle a lot. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there's one in the building where I work. And now there's one just up the street from my apartment, and practically ANYWHERE ELSE I find myself these days.

So I've often wondered what kind of nutrition and calories I'm absorbing from these deliciously overstuffed monster burritos. Well, my curiosity has been satisfied with chipotlefan.com.

Here's a breakdown of the average meal I order:

Chipotle Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Burrito

Calories 1138
Calories from Fat 446

% DV*
Total Fat 50g
Saturated Fat 12.5g
Cholesterol 30mg
Sodium 4031mg
Total Carbohydrate 141g
Dietary Fiber 16.5g
Sugars 8g
Protein 34g
Vitamin A 83%
Vitamin C 135%
Calcium 49%
Iron 34%

1138 calories? Wow. Someone alert George Lucas.

dM

The Joost is loose

Of all the “Internet is TV” promises heard over the past few years, Joost is the closest I’ve seen so far to the real thing. After finally receiving my beta test invite (sorry, I don't have any invites left), I’ve had a weekend to try it for myself, and I’m pretty impressed with what I see.

The channel guide is cleanly broken down by title as well as genre, and is of course searchable. The interface is completely transparent and disappears soon after a video starts. The star of the show is of course the full motion, full screen video, which looks pretty good on my MacBook, though it could be a bit annoying to watch on anything larger. It has a channel chat feature (which I could care less about, but some will find it cool), some widget thingies like an RSS news feed and a clock that you can pin to your screen to keep track of how much time you've been wasting spent.

I watched the first episode of Comedy Central’s Stella, some music videos, an indie flick, and last night caught a National Geographic nature show and an episode of Rocky & Bullwinkle with my kid. Something for everyone.

It’s still in beta so a lot of things need to be worked out. I experienced a lot of lagging, stuttering video and in some cases programs became unavailable halfway through watching them. I’d of course love to see more channels and more content (some UGC, perhaps?). I’m sure it’s going to become an advertiser’s dream once the community is built.

News at Seven

If you like having RSS-enabled news and blog articles read to you (somewhat slowly) by a computer-generated news anchor, then News at Seven is for you.

It's the brainchild of Northwestern University's Intelligent Information Laboratory. The content is automatically generated and spoken through a series of characters from Half-Life 2 in settings that range from a virtual studio to man-on-the-virtual-street locations.

Is this the future of newscasting? Will news from war zones be conducted via armored camera-toting machines designed by iRobot and read by celebrity avatars in Second Life?

They report. You decide.

www.newsatseven.com

Flunking the human test

A report card published recently in the Seattle Times states that out of 500 major American corporations, only 10% of them received an acceptable rating (grade C or above) in how well they dealt with customers over the phone. Only nine companies (that's the number 9, not 9%) received an A rating. The article goes on to state that entire industries (cable and satellite TV, insurance, software) are failing to meet minimum standards for telephone customer service.

The report card was compiled by Paul English, creator of the brilliant gethuman 500 database. It rates companies for such criteria as:

• Can you hit zero to speak to an operator?
• Does the system let you know how long you will have to remain on hold?
• Does the caller have to repeat information such as names and account numbers?
• How easy is it to understand the human customer representative who eventually answers?

Some companies have begun to respond to complaints about confusing menus, hard-to-find operators and other annoyances and started to make changes. For the rest of them, the volunteer-run web site at gethuman.com provides a constantly updated cheat sheet for how to avoid hold rage and actually speak to a human being. Whether or not you'll be able to understand them when they answer the phone is another issue.

Give me what I want

In case you haven't seen it, Frontline (PBS) just re-aired its program The Persuaders on Tuesday evening. It takes an in-depth look at how brands are succeeding and failing at using emotional and psychological marketing methods to connect with consumers in a landscape that is becoming more complex and personalized by the minute.

It features some very thought-provoking segments with NYU communication professor Mark Crispin Miller, legendary market researcher Clotaire Rapaille, and Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts, author of the book Lovemarks, the Future Beyond Brands.

The entire program can be watched online at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

C-Wrappywriters Wanted

C-Wrappywriters Wanted

I was walking on 9th Avenue the other day when I came across a sign taped to the window of a sandwich shop that read:

"Give us a sentence for our ad, we will give you $1000.00 cash."

The web site address they gave out led me to ­ hands down, beyond a shadow of a doubt ­ the absolute worst web site I have seen in the 14 years I have been online.

Needless to say, I did submit a few sentences of my own. Perhaps after learning a little about their unique product, you'll be inspired to do the same. I mean, a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks.

www.chicagowrap.com

Nissan Sentra: The official car of the homeless

Nissan Sentra: The official car of the homeless

My jaw nearly dropped to the sidewalk upon encountering this work of advertising genius on display at the corner of West 33rd St. and 9th Ave.

I have actually known people in my life who at one time or another have lived out of cars. I imagine it's not exactly a pleasant experience. I had to live in a car, a brand new subcompact import probably would not be my first choice.

And for non-homeless New Yorkers who can't afford to keep a car because of their ridiculously high rents, it's doubly insulting.

As it turns out, this is part of an online campaign called 7 Days in a Sentra where a lousy actor blogs about the joys of automotive living.