The coolest gadget in the world for relaxation lovers

Yesterday I found the coolest gadget that I've seen in a while. It's actually useful, educative, it can be used outside in the fresh air (meaning it's good for your health), keeps you entertained when you get bored of just laying around in the sun (ok, if that can happen), keeps you connected to your friends (it takes care of your social life) and more and more. So what is this miracle device? It's Pool PC! Pool PC is a waterproof computer made to be used in the pools, oceans, rivers or basically anywhere where there is water and people bored of just floating around in it. It is still only a prototype but I'm sure there are many potential customers out there. I know I am one.

How does it work? You attach this little computer to the swim ring so while you are laying in the pool or the ocean and relaxing in the worm sun you can now also browse the internet, check the news, use Facebook, download and watch movies, chat on MSN and do any other great thing that you usually do with your computer. How great is that! As much as I love laying in the swim ring and floating around the pool imagine how much more fun it would be if I could write e-mails to my friends telling them how much fun I'm having!

This little baby (which I now really want) is powered by solar power so you don't have to worry about low battery, you just need to insure that you are swimming on a sunny day. It has a GPRS tracker in case you float away from the shore while watching your favorite movie, which consequently means less work for the rescue team so everyone is happy. It has a total wireless solution which I think it means that is allows you to access internet from anywhere where there is even a glimpse of wireless internet. You can also use it even outside of water as it has a CD hub and speakers you can attach making it into a small stereo system.

This is a perfect and mandatory device for everyone that loves sun and watter but always knew that there is something missing but couldn't quite tell what it was. Now we know - it's Pool PC! So let's hope this actually gets on the market and we can start making the swimming experience even more super than it already is.

See it for yourself on this page.

Keep your fingers crossed and an eye open for News (TM).

Selection of print winners from Cannes

Here are some selected winners for print ads from Cannes. Personally I think that print ads should be left to be understood by each reader individually because after all they never come with advertiser's explanation. So, no comment from me...simply enjoy the ads.

If you don't understand what ads are trying to communicate to you they're obviously not doing their job very well (award or no award).

Who has the best design?

As promised, here are some more winners for the Cannes advertising festival. Again, I am listing those that i find interesting...so here is my selection:

Design lions
Grand Prix and
some golden ones

Coca-Cola redesign won the Grand prix for design (the new category this year). Agency responsible for this redesign is Turner Duckworth. They say they simply stripped away all the clutter and made the brand simple again. Coca-Cola yet again has the image it got famous by. Simple. I think this is an example of how simplicity yet again won in advertising and design. Sometimes the simples ideas work the best and we shouldn't try and complicate things too much...oh wait...is that only in advertising?

What is something I am always interested? Beer. If only advertising, design and beer would go together. Well if they didn't before they do now. Thanks to the VBAT agency from Amsterdam who did the design and Heineken who provided the product we now have a golden winner for design of alcoholic beverages - Amstel beer bottle. A slick, elegant, sexy beer bottle with a "pull off" top. Now even the most feminine man don't have to feel threatened by masculinity of beer drinking. This "very cosmopolitan and classy looking" beer bottle will make beer drinking a very metropolitan, stylish thing. Well at least to me it looks like something that goes more with a hip 30 year olds' cool lounge than with a pub.

One other golden Lion I want to share with you is more for the ladies. In order to create an intimate atmosphere, one in which we would not feel uncomfortable while explaining what type of "hairdo" we would like to have down under, a Canadian agency GJP Advertising created this clean, innocent, simple and unobtrusive guide to the styles of the private areas (for the Down Under service of Gee Beauty salon in Toronto). I have to admit it took me a while to figure out that they don't actually make a lace like pattern on your "area" but simply make the shape that is demonstrated with the lace pattern. Silly me. All though that could be the next step for the Down Under service. If so, i claim idea ownership of it!

P.S. I really like the names of the styles such as in Material Girl, Gig, Upper Management, Titan and especially Houdini.


So much for today, till next time keep an eye open for News (TM).

Cell phones with highest radiation

For this post I wanted to take a little break from advertising. Don't worry, other winners from Cannes are coming soon... think Coca-Cola till then ;)

Today I will introduce you to ten cell phones with the highest radiation, based on the research done by CNET reviews. So let's see if your cell phone is one of the most brain and sperm damaging.

The radiation is measured in SAR units which is a specific absorption rate for cellular phones. The FCC's (Federal Communication Commision) top level of radiation is 1.6 watts per kilogram. Good for Motorola that a lot of their phones are just bellow or at the limit of allowed radiation. And how lucky must our brain cells be.

Cell phones with highest radiation levels:

1. Motorola V196s - SAR level 1.6






2. Motorola Slvr L6 - SAR level 1.58






3. Motorola Slvr L2 - SAR level 1.54






4. Motorola W385 - SAR level 1.54







5. RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 (Sprint) - SAR level 1.54







6. RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 (Verizon Wireless) - SAR level 1.56







7. Motorola Deluxe ic902 - SAR level 1.53








8. T-Mobile Shadow (HTC) - SAR level 1.53






9. Motorola i335 - SAR level 1.53








10. Samsung Sync SGH-C417 - SAR level 1.51







Till next time, keep an eye open for News (TM).

Voyeurism, cute greeting cards, pub travels the world and internet shut down

And we have the first winners!

Today the winners were announced for Direct Lions and Promo Lions. I'm listing the ones that I find really cool, since this is my blog at I have that right :)

So...let's start with Promo Lions. The Grand Prix went to HBO Voyeur integrated campaign, done by BBDO New York. Campaign's perspective was to strengthen brand loyalty of the super fans of HBO. This was done through a strategy or platform called HBO Voyeur. On different media platforms a house with a wall cut of could be observed so that the spectators could watch what people in the building are doing. Also little pieces of information were scattered around the web about the "inhabitants"of the house to increase the curiosity of the spectators. With this campaign the agency took the act of watching (the integrated part of HBO experience) and made it the vocal point of the campaign. As hbovoyeur.com puts it, everything was done to confront the viewer with the question: "Do you like to watch?". Sounds a bit scary, eh?

If you visit HBO voyeur website you can scroll around the house observing different apartments. The stories you see range from people simply reading their book, to renovating rooms, to even a woman having a baby! Episodes last for about 5 minutes. The Voyeur campaign made it possible for people to track the stories everywhere from life size projection in Manhattan, online website, blogs, TV, to mobile (each of the platforms had specially adjusted content). That's integration!

The campaign had huge success among the super fans, increased positive feelings towards HBO programming, increased brand awareness etc. Successful for sure but I can't help wondering about the "morality"of it. The campaign plays with the massively popular concept of reality shows and people being obsessed with voyeurism. It could be thus said that the campaign simply used what is currently "hot"on TV and made it theirs. Consequently promoting morally questionable behavior of people spying on other people. But on the other hand, it's not HBO's fault people are obsessed with other people and like to watch what's happening in other people's bedrooms. They simply took advantage of it. Good for HBO! And, who am I to talk about the morality of viewers and the voyeurism when I am an addicted viewer of ANTM, Swan, Nanny and others (i think it's stupid and horrible, but I still watch).

So to sum up, I think this is a really cool campaign integrating different media vehicles to promote a brand. Plus during the campaign it makes consumers do exactly what it wants the result to be - watch more TV. Well done!

Other campaigns that won as doing the best promotion in one way or the other are:

- Speight's great beer delivery (client: Lion Nathan, product: Speight's Beer, agency: Publicis Mojo, Auckland): when you put a working pub on a cargo ship and send it to from New Zealand to UK to bring domestic beer to all New Zealanders living in UK, you know you have a great promotion.

- Sense and sensibility deposit (client: Caja Madrid, product: bank account, agency: Shackleton, Madrid): a super cute campaign about how to change your bank without making your previous bank sad and consequently losing a friend. The campaign included postcards with jingles like "Forget me and go away" which could be sent to your previous bank.

- Internet shut down (client: Maor, product: donation organization, agency: Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv): in order to raise awareness for two kigndaped soldier for which all search has stopped, agency recreated a internet shut down. More than 400 major Israeli sites stopped working for five minutes on July 12th, 2007 at 9.05 AM. Instead of "Page not found" users saw "Soldiers not found" page. 65% of Israeli population got exposed to the campaign.

For much more winners from the Promo category, visit the Promo Lions winners site.

Next post will be about the Direct Lions...but till then keep an eye open for more News (TM).

And the lions shall roar!

It will be an interesting week for all of us interested in advertising as the biggest festival in Ad World begins in Cannes. From tomorrow till Sunday we will be able to follow who was the best in "getting" the modern consumer.

This year advertisers are competing in their creativity in 10 categories, nine of which are the typical Lions (Cyber, Direct, Film, Media, Outdoor, Press, Promo, Radio and Titanium and Integrated Lions) and one is a new category - Design Lions. Being new, doesn't make it a shy category. With more than 1100 entries it will be one of the more prestigious Lions to be won.

To make the waiting for the winners pass quicker, here are some interesting statistics about this year's Lions festival in Cannes (as reported by canneslions.com). The biggest categories, based on the number of entries this year are the Press Lions with more than 7000 entries, Outdoor with about 5000, Film with a bit over 4600 and Cyber Lions with about 2700 entries. The fastest growing category is Promo Lions with the change in entries from last year of about +40 percent. Not far behind in growth are Titanium and Integrated Lions (+33% change from last year) and Media Lions (20.4% change from last year). What is surprising to me, since internet is such a powerful communication tool today, is that the Cyber Lions have only a 1.7% growth in entries from last year. On the other hand they are still the 4th biggest category in the festival and the use of internet as an advertising medium is judged in other categories as well (for example Media).

Not to forget the guests will we dining exquisite food and enjoying great drinks while attending of the many parties raging from sushi parties, "before-beach" parties to Craig David concert. Oh well, I as well will one day treat myself with a 2000 euro advertising experience (as the Full Delegate registation costs).

For more information on the Lions go to:
http://www.canneslions.com/
and for information on the shortlists go to:
http://www.canneslions.com/winners/

Till next time, keep an eye open for News (TM).

Welcome to news (TM).

Here i will try and post everything that i find interesting and that catches my attention. Keep an eye open for news (TM).