Random Culture

Shepard Fairey: Obey Obama

Shepard Fairey of "Obey" fame has created some nice posters in support of Barack Obama. According to the Creative Review Blog, the Obama campaign said Fairey wasn't on the campaign payroll, and created these posters on his own. Fairey offers the following on his site:

”I believe with great conviction that Barack Obama should be the next President. I have been paying close attention to him since the Democratic convention in 2004. I feel that he is more a statesman than a politician. He was against the war when it was an unpopular position (and Hillary was for the war at that time), Obama is for energy and environmental conservation. He is for healthcare reform. Check him out for yourself: barackobama.com. Proceeds from this print go to produce prints for a larger statewide poster campaign.”

You can buy posters or find out more by visiting ObeyGiant.com.

Link via Creative Review.

Branded Entertainment: Kit-Kat

Following in the footsteps of animated branded entertainment such as Coke's Happiness Factory, Kit-Kat has created a short animated film. Watch it below...

Link via Adverblog.

Quick Links: Jan. 27, 2008

Edward Tufte on the iPhone
Waxing poetic on the challenge of touch-screens and how to display large amounts of information. Of course, he's been there, done that. [via Fimoculous]

Old Websites Are Funny
Gizmodo's gallery of old websites from the 90s. Blast from the past! [via Digg]

The Bible According to Google Earth
Creative collective "The Glue Society" creates images from bible stories as if seen through the eyes of Google Earth. [via BoingBoing]

HBO Broadband Video

HBO has announced that it's finally going to offer broadband viewing of its shows, but with a twist... You can only watch them on your PC if you're a Time Warner subscriber, and only in a few select markets. Here's the skinny from Business Week:

First, the basics: You can watch the live HBO feed online, choose from more than 350 movies, and download and store such TV shows as Sex & the City, The Sopranos, and Entourage. It will set reminders for you when things are on, allow you to preset to record movies and TV shows when they air on the cable network, and suggest new stuff that maybe you would like to watch.

HBO describes HBO on Broadband as free. But to get the service, a cable subscriber will need to have already paid not only the $12 or so a month to get the pay channel, but also the $30 or $40 a month to get a cable operator's broadband service. That's right. The free HBO actually costs subscribers $52 or more per month because consumers will first have to dip into their pockets to buy HBO from their cable or satellite provider, and then add broadband service from the same provider. By contrast, a rival pay-TV network, Starz, offers a similar download service for $9.99 a month that doesn't require you to have a video subscription. (Starz says it will soon start offering an HBO on Broadband-like service called Starz Play that will be "free" if you already have a video and data subscription.)

What networks like HBO and Starz are missing is the consumer expectation of watching television content online. Networks like ABC, NBC and Fox have set the precedent that TV shows should be able to be streamed online for free, supported with minimal advertising. Heck, HBO hasn't even jumped on the bandwagon of selling shows through iTunes. Simply put, networks like HBO are losing out on revenues, and the Time Warner solution isn't going to help.

Read Business Week's take on the situation.

Listen to more on NPR's Morning Edition.

Case Study In Shortsightedness: Scrabulous

You may have heard by now that Hasbro and Mattel are trying to get the plug pulled on Scrabulous, the user-created Scrabble application created for Facebook. It's one of the most popular applications on the site, with nearly 600,000 daily users... myself included. There's no argument that Scrabulous is violating their copyright, but why would Hasbro and Mattel stick their head all the way up the gift horse's mouth and rip out its intestines? I'm not sure if they've been paying attention, but with all the entertainment options available today, people aren't exactly tripping over themselves to snatch up all the board games on the shelves.

Clearly, anyone can see that Scrabulous has been the best thing to happen to Scrabble in a long time. I'm a case in point for this... I own the Scrabble board game, but I've only played it twice. Once Scrabulous came along, it gave me a renewed interest in the game. I have several games running concurrently now, and yes, I've actually played the REAL board game a few more times because of it.

I can only think about the sheer amount of angst that Hasbro and Mattel are creating because of this demand to pull Scrabulous from Facebook. Think about how much more positive press and brand affinity they would have created for rewarding the ingenuity of the Scrabulous creators by purchasing it from them. This is ingenuity they obviously can only pay for...

Yes, I'm a bit sore on the subject because I love Scrabulous soo much. And the folks at Hasbro and Mattel can rest assured that if they succeed in this dim-witted legal task, there will be one less Scrabble board game in existence, because I will boycott the tiles for life.

More from the BBC here.

Join the Facebook group, Save Scrabulous!

Embracing The Free Exchange of Ideas

Prior to Macworld, many websites were buzzing with links to a beautiful application for ordering at Starbucks. Turns out, it wasn't an official Apple release, but the imagination of a multimedia designer, Phil Lu. You can view an animated concept of the application here, and the folks at Influx Insights have a short interview here. If someone doesn't hire this guy and treat him like a rock star, something is wrong with the universe.

Ideas like this make me even more sad that Apple didn't embrace developer applications from the outset. As we've seen with Facebook, the value of opening platforms to developers can have an amazing impact. We're waiting...

Guitar Hero 3 On Mobile?

I was shocked to see an ad on a website today that touted a mobile version of Guitar Hero 3... Who could imagine someone plugging a giant plastic guitar directly into your phone, and then squinting as you try to make out the notes on a tiny screen you are somehow holding in front of your face while your two hands are occupied finding the right green or blue button.

Of course, that's not how the mobile version of Guitar Hero 3 works. They've re-purposed it well for the mobile platform, with different keys on your phone replacing the colored frets on the guitars. I wasn't able to download the game as it's incompatible with my phone and carrier, so if anyone tries it out, let us know!

Quick Links: Jan. 14, 2008

Top 50 Web Design Resources of 2007
Highly "bookmarkable" list of articles, tools and other resources on a variety of web design subjects.

Nokia Entertainment Report
Great set of videos being published by Nokia on the future of mobile entertainment. In installments, of course. Via Planning from the Outside.

DailyLit
New website which allows you to "subscribe" to books, getting bite-sized pieces every day via email or RSS.

Bill Gates' Last Day at Microsoft

As you may have heard, Bill Gates is leaving Microsoft to focus on his charity work. So as a part of the keynote for CES this year, the folks at Microsoft put together a video about his preparations for leaving. Watch the video here, chock full of cameos.

Friday Fun: Cadbury vs. Sony

It seems that the Cadbury drumming gorilla isn't the only musical monkey. Check out this great ad from 1987 for Sony in Japan...

Link via Hi-Res.

Back for 2008! Quick Links Jan. 1, 2008

After a few weeks break for the holidays, I'll be back to posting as usual this week. Here are a few links to get the juices flowing for the new year.

In-game advertising for video games builds momentum
Looks like 2008 will be even bigger, great write-up from Clickz.

Sony and Virgin Mobile Facebook applications

Web-Alerts.com
Simple way to subscribe to RSS feeds by text message.