360 DEGREES Weblog

Last year Volkswagen won The Super Bowl commercial battle with their little kid dressed like Darth Vader ad. This year they’re returning to the Star Wars theme as teased in this super cute commercial with a pup who appears to be Bones the AT-AT Dog we first showed you in October.

All we know about this ad, other than what we can ascertain by watching it, is the note saying it’ll somehow “all make sense” when you see the commercial.

Samsung are looking to turn your regular HDTV into a web connected one with their newly-announced InTouch kit.

Combining a Wi-Fi enabled Skype camera and unique QWERTY keyboard, it adds apps, high-definition video calling and the ability to browse the web to any HDTV.
The camera has a tilt-range of -30 degrees – 0 degrees, making placement relatively pain-free for a clear view in even the most cluttered of home entertainment set-ups. An integrated USB port also lets you browse videos and images, letting you upload them to your favourite social networks.

“While internet connected HDTVs are now common, not every household gets to experience this fun and interactive feature, especially if they have an HDTV purchased just a few years ago,” said Mike Palazzolo, vice president sales and marketing, consumer video monitoring and security products for Samsung Techwin America.

“With the inTouch camera system, Samsung is now bridging the gap between this experience and those consumers who own HDTVs without networking capability.”

The Samsung inTouch will be available from March 2012 and will cost around $199.99.

Celebrate a golden age of consumerism with Mid-Century Ads: Advertising from the Mad Men Era ($60). Arriving in a slipcase, this two-volume set contains over 700 pages of advertisements from the ’50s and ’60s, including full-color ads and interesting insights from authors Jim Heimann and Steven Heller. Arriving in February 2012, or just in time to brighten up the middle of a dreary winter.

It’s hard to think of a better way to showcase augmented reality technology than by making use of it to undress models. Case in point is the latest marketing push by outerwear retailer Moosejaw. Last month they released an iPhone app that works in conjunction with their print magazine. Get the mag, download the app, and point your camera at select pages on the magazine. While the boring old dead tree reality would show you the models fully clothed, they’d appear in their skivvies on screen. From the video below, the technology works quite well. What seems to work even better is its effect on the company’s bottom line as they’ve seen a 37% increase in sales from the same period in November last year. Other retailers have tried similar products before but Moosejaw seems to have seen the largest impact on sales. What’s more, Gary Wohlfeill, the company’s creative director, said that although they’re pleased with the increased ROI, their ultimate goal was to delight their subscriber base and build long term loyalty.

Nearly naked models will do that!

Moosejaw X-Ray App from Gary Wohlfeill on Vimeo.

Nearly naked models will do that!

How many times have you been going about your usual business of cheating on your spouse, being an idiot around your boss, or drunkenly harassing fellow party-goers when some wildly irresponsible person tags you in a photo and posts it online? What’s that? “Never,” you say? Well congratulations on being an alright human being then. You can feel good about the fact that you don’t need the Norte Photoblocker to ruin any potentially damaging photos of your night out as they’re being taken.It may sound like something dreamed up by a cheesy mens magazine as a joke, but apparently this is a real thing that actually exists. Ostensibly, the Norte Photoblocker is a functional beer cooler surrounded by four sensors that can detect the flashes from cameras or cell phones. If a flash goes off in the direction of the Photoblocker, it fires its own flash to flood the resulting photos with bright white and obscure anyone nearby. It’s similar technology to the clutch bag from a couple years ago that was designed for celebrities hoping to strike back at the paparazzi, or the car accessory that obscures stop light cameras.

In this case, a cautious individual would just need to set the Photoblocker near them while at a bar or club to ensure their nightlife stays private (at least until they decide to move somewhere else, where they’ll have to repeatedly explain to everyone why they’re carrying an electric blue wastebasket). The Norte Photoblocker is the brainchild of South American beer brand Cerveza Norte and Brazil-based ad agency Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. The agency has actually field-tested the device in a few bars in Argentina and found they work exactly as promised. “People took lots of photos that ended up being blurry beyond recognition and then uploaded them to social media anyway,” says Maxi Itzkoff, executive creative director at Del Campo. All joking aside, the Norte Photoblocker could also appeal to the privacy-conscious club goer who doesn’t lead a life of constant abandon and just wants a night out without worrying about an acquaintance posting photos online of their drunken fun. Del Campo however has decided to focus on the sleazier uses for the gadget in the accompanying ad campaign. Check out the none-too-subtle commercials below to see how the Norte Photoblocker can be used to save your job, your marriage, and your reputation.

Instead of creating a healthier version for those hoping to indulge guilt-free, McDonald’s’ new billboard in downtown Chicago uses a set of focused spotlights to create what could be the world’s most super-sized order of its famous french fries.
The clever billboard was created by ad agency Leo Burnett for the restaurant chain’s “Best Fries on the Planet” campaign. And on a clear night the yellow beams can be seen by hungry barhoppers and clubbers up to three miles away.
It doesn’t have quite the same emotional impact as the similar Tribute in Light installation at the site of the World Trade Center, but I’m sure the ad is still going to sell a hell of a lot of fried potato sticks.

As our minds shift towards Holiday gift buying, Beats by Dr. Dre presents a promising item with these limited edition headphones that really pop with their vivid and colorful makeover. Peep this video that showcases the bold new colors.

Reebok CrossFit, a revolutionary strength and conditioning programme, teamed up with artists 3D Joe and Max to break the Guinness World Record for the largest ever 3D street art. The painting measured an impressive 1,160.4m² and was unveiled at London’s West India Quays, Canary Wharf.