360 DEGREES Weblog

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Isbank in Turkey have created this billboard ad which has passers-by literally stopping in their tracks. From a distance one sees what appears to be a cop car hiding behind a billboard, which automatically makes the passer by slow down enough to read the small text on the board. “Pay your traffic tickets on time without waiting in line - isbank.com.tr”. To ad insult to injury, it then becomes apparent that the cop car is a fake cut out. Advertising bastardry at its best.

Thank you Coolhunter

From the gold foil wrapping to the cork, the wire tie, and the shape of the bottle it looks - and bubbles - much like the real thing. But Disney Partyfizz, a fizzy juice drink aimed at the massive children’s party market, has been seized on by health campaigners as a potentially dangerous gateway to alcoholism for youngsters. (THE SCOTSMAN, SCOTLAND)
Sure and maybe we should also ban chocolat cigarettes and powder sugar. You never know if these kids will start putting their sugar powdered pancakes up their nose!

General Motors, E-surance and Royal Caribbean, are among the first advertisers to line-up for the yet-to-be-named “YouTube killer” planned by NBC, News Corp., and Yahoo, among others, according to Ad Age. Advertisers have been wary of buying space on sites like YouTube because consumer-generated clips often contain objectionable content. That marketers signed on to the opportunity so readily underscores the importance of editorial adjacency for marketers.
Cadbury Schweppes, Intel and Cisco are also among the charter advertisers that have signed, writes the Hollywood Reporter (via AdWeek). The site will feature thousands of hours of content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios. News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin is quoted as saying the undertaking is “the largest advertising platform on Earth.” (MARKETINGVOX.COM)

iLetYou lets you, and anyone else, set up a NetFlix-like video and game rental store in a matter of minutes. The San Diego-based start-up is aiming to give consumers access to an estimated 10 billion DVDs that can be found in US households alone, allowing both individuals and independent brick and mortar stores to set up shop online.

There’s no minimum number of DVDs or games to get started, which means that anyone with a collection can start renting out to people with similar tastes. The rental economy, as described in trendwatching.com’s transumers briefing, caters to consumers more interested in experiences than ownership. iLetYou lets minipreneurs (another term coined by our sister site) take advantage of this growing trend, earning repeat fees from an item instead of putting it on eBay for a one-time sale. Small entrepreneurs who have a knack for curation and can add personality to their stores, should be able to compete with NetFlix, creating the online equivalent of small, indie video rental shops with a personal touch and unique selection.

Pricing and terms are set by the stores themselves, and there are no listing fees. iLetYou takes a small cut of every transaction, from USD 0.40 per rental, in exchange for providing the platform and payment processing. Store owners handle shipping, but can order 2-way disk mailers from iLetYou (USD 190 for a case of 1,000, plus applicable shipping). iLetYou hopes to expand to different products and countries in the future

Baggage claims at airports get more and more interesting for advertisers. The Venice Casino uses the moving ad space to communicate with tourists. Additionally free tickets for the casino get shared to the tourist

Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, has decided to sign with Starbucks.
McCartney, who released his most recent album through his longtime record label, Capitol Records of EMI Group, said Wednesday that he would become the first artist to sign with Hear Music, a label being created by the international coffee retailer Starbucks. (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)

This takes personal flight to the extreme. For $250,000 you can get yourself a rocket belt. That’s right, a Jetson-style jet pack custom-made for your weight and size. The service includes a fully-tested custom rocket belt, a machine to help you make your own rocket fuel, hands-on training including 10 flights in your own rocket belt and expert support. You probably can’t use this to commute to work but you could always rent yourself out for promotional gigs and it is definitely a toy that all your friends won’t have.
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Goldman 25 Hours Hotel Frankfurt’s Wohnzimmer with its stiff green armchairs protected by white crocheted doilies may remind you of gloomy Hansel and Gretchen readings at Great Auntie Gertrude’s. But fear not, she’s not likely to show up here, and the reading material is far less grim, too. The cool pink and pale-green lighting fixtures will also tip you off — there’s much more going on here than reading.

The Wohnzimmer (which means Living Room) is part of the free-flowing ground-floor space of the boutiquey Goldman 25 Hours Hotel catering to “busy and cosmopolitan urban nomads.” It opened in December 2006 in Hanauer Landstrasse in Frankfurt’s Ostend (that’s East end).

Most cities have an old dilapidated industrial area that is being revitalized with former industrial buildings now housing design firms, fashion shops, clubs and cafes. Hanauer Landstrasse is one of such districts in Frankfurt. It is transforming itself slowly but funkily, and 25 Hours’ owner, developer-visionary Ardi Goldman has his hands in much of it.

He is known for repurposing many buildings in Hanauer Landstrasse, most notably the massive Frankfurt Union brewery. Goldman is also responsible for many of Frankfurt’s top clubs including King Kamehameha, Sansibar and the Cocoon Club. “One person has an eye for halls, another for banks, I have an eye for atmosphere, I see habitats,” says Goldman.

Establishing a cool hotel here had long been part of Goldman’s vision for this district. The seven-storey, 49-room Goldman 25 Hours is also a repurposed building. It is the old Hotel Henniger Hof although former guests would not recognize the building inside or out.
The Wohnzimmer is just one of eclectically juxtaposed spaces in the hotel. Each floor has a unique color scheme and each room is themed with its own story. Schokolade macht nicht dick (Chocolate doesn’t make you fat) and Grun ist die Liebe (Love is green) are examples of the themes that range from romantic to childish to beatnik to casino. The rooms have identical basic furniture, but each is accessorized to express the story of the particular room by fabrics from mfta and Romo, furniture by the Swedish Snowcrash, accessories from Designers Guild and lamps from Flo.

Frankfurt’s 25 Hours Hotel is part of the Design Hotels brand and second in the string of Goldman’s hotels. The first opened in Hamburg in 2003 and additional hotels are opening in at least Cologne and Berlin in 2007/2008 Plans include hotels also in Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Barcelona, Madrid and Nice.

A night in the pale-green and whimsical kiddie-themed room at Goldman 25 Hours Hotel Frankfurt brings us back to Brothers Grimm and to total agreement with their closing words in Hansel and Gretel: “Then all anxiety was at an end, and they lived together in perfect happiness.”

Abercrombie & Fitch, the casual luxury clothing brand founded in 1892, is to open its first ever store in London on Thursday in a Grade II listed building. The shop - in Burlington Gardens - will be the retailer’s first ever venture into Europe. (THE GUARDIAN,UK)