All Together Now

Those who know me well know that I usually make fun of these things, but I couldn’t help it. I’m intrigued (and slightly obsessed) with this new Budweiser ad:

and this is what hapenned when I put together a couple of friends, a ton of time, and some beer.

Yes, that’s me and of course you’re allowed to laugh.

Free Nothings

 

read the small print

 

 

All companies want a piece of the free publicity that social networking brings. Twitter, Facebook and bloggers have the ability of getting the attention of a lot of people. Recently, companies have been trying to find new ways to exploit this new media and its influence. Moonfruit has been the best example so far. They managed to get themselves on the trending topics by simply offering 10 MacBook Pros to one random person per day that mentioned moonfruit in their tweets. It managed to get them a huge amount of attention and free press. 

Some have been victims of it. Yesterday i saw that one of the trending topics was “AT&T is a big” and another one was “steaming, hip of failure.” Of course, I had to click and it led me to an article that trashes AT&T and encourages Apple to not renew their exclusivity contract for the iPhone with AT&T. 

Hopefully, Starbucks won’t get trashed for their pathetic attempt to get positive press. Thier offering a free pastry  on the morning of July 21st to anyone that buys a beverage. But by morning they mean opening time to 10:30am. They are obviously trying to increase sales and entry into their stores, but maybe they should try harder. Ben and Jerry’s has a free cone DAY  and one day a year Dunkin Donuts offers free iced coffee from 10am to 10pm. Everyone could get a free cone or a free iced coffee but only those that print out the paper or show it to the barista on their handheld device will be able to get the pastry. I think braving those bound-to-be-crazy lines is certainly enough.

I wonder if Starbucks will get the publicity and sales rise it desires. I personally, don’t think a couple of hours is enough. And they definitely owe loyal customers more than 2 or 3 hours of a limited amount of free pastries.

In an Ideal World

I’d love to see this concept in action.  It’s a paper bottle to replace the plastic bottle. Though it’s still not as environmentally friendly as drinking regular tap water or using your own reusable thermos it offers users an option other than the typical overused plastic bottle. Yes, it has its shortcomings (it still needs to be recycled, paper production takes a lot of energy, people won’t catch on…), but at least it’s proof that people are thinking the right way.

CHALLENGE
Each day, Americans throw out 60 million plastic bottles. Only 14% actually get recycled—meaning 86% become garbage or litter. We looked at this as a radical problem requiring an equally radical solution. Could we design a container that would leverage sustainability, be easy to transport, and enhance the consumer’s drinking experience?

SOLUTION
The 360 Paper Bottle is a sustainable vision of the future. It is the first totally recyclable paper container made from 100% renewable resources. Versatile in its range of consumer applications and made from food-safe and fully recyclable materials, it decreases energy consumed throughout the product life cycle without sacrificing functionality. It is paper packaging that stands up to all liquid categories.

This is a project from BrandImage that still needs a branded home in order to work. 

 

 

via Dieline

Too Much

it is a glass for drinking a lot.
a device consists of a bulb shaped container with the glass below.
when the amount in the glass decreases, a constant amount is poured from the tank into the glass.
never overflowing from the glass because of air pressure and water pressure.

In theory, this sounds good enough. It’s a wine glass for drinking a lot of wine.But after seeing the picture I see it as a work out of some sort. That’s the unfit side of me, but the klutz side of me can’t help thinking what would happen if i dropped it.

via NotCot