We know our story is very different from what our competitors want us to think. Today we are drawing a line and are going to start telling the real story. The quiet majority of million and millions of Windows Vista users out there are going to have a great experience,” Brooks said. “The message is ‘Move to Vista. The time of worry is over.’

And if you ask us, Vista isn't all that bad. [ZDNet]

Video here.

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One of my workmates thought it was Generic VoiceoverMan™, while most were pretty sure it was Beardface. It wouldn't be surprising though, as Cupertino has used Richard Dreyfuss and Kermit on VO duty, as well as Jeff Goldblum (runs the Death Star?) and Will Ferrell.

Richard Dreyfuss spouts some unwholly guff about how utter, utter bastards who are more focused than a Sidewinder missile go on to change the world.

Kermit said it wasn't easy being green, sentiments that Apple shared, as it changed its multi-hued colorscheme to white PDQ. Shall I mention the damning accusations from the eco lobby as well? [Apple]

The companies claim, of course, that the cameras won't store pictures of you almost getting into an accident when you drive past that Victoria's Secret ad, instead just registering your gender and how long you look at the ad. But if there are cameras there that can train on your face there's no guarantee that in the future they won't somehow link up what billboards you look at with the profile stored on the internet hooked up to the picture of you that was secretly taken of your with your iSight camera. They'll be able to create a total consumer profile of you, the marketers wet dream.

I'm kidding, of course. That would never happen. People would protest as soon as the little invasions of privacy added up to something that large. Right? Right, guys?

But in any case, the companies behind this tech have visions of targeting billboard ads to specific demographics. You know, like Metamucil ads to old ladies and iPods to young men. Cool? [CNET]

[Copyranter and Ads of the World via Gawker]

Nope.

Sony commercial. We should have known.

We'll post the video when it's released. [slam x hype]

Due out in next month's Journal of Consumer Research, the study looks at how people react when exposed to overt or subliminal IBM and Apple logos. Once they'd been shown the image, test subjects (students!) then underwent an "unusual use test", which asked them to come up with some creative uses for a brick. The number of suggestions and a rating of the "creativity" of their responses were tallied up. The results: both measures indicated that exposure to that little bitten apple shape improved people's creative thinking the most.

The authors suggest it's partly a motivational thing: people who felt motivated to think creatively showed the strongest response, versus non-creatively motivated types.

Psychology eh? It's amazing to me how our minds manage to associate such different-seeming stuff together. It also seems that brand identity worms its way deeper into our psyches than we may have thought, doesn't it? Wonder what kind of emotional response the Microsoft logo would garner? Let us know your ideas in the comments... [Ars Technica]

The winner of the "You Make It, We'll Play It" competition will get the equivalent of $40,000 and their advert shown on terrestrial TV too. Meanwhile, on June 12th, aided by astronomers from Leicester University, the EISCAT 500Mhz UHF Radar will direct the space-bound advert transmission toward the star 47 Ursae Majoris, which is apparently pretty similar to our Sun and may have habitable planets. How far off is that potential alien audience, you ask? It's (you'll love this) 42 light years away.

Assuming aliens are interested at all in our transmissions, that means that in 42 years time, the signal may be either amusing and confusing alien scientists on another planet, or triggering an incoming invasion of cheese-frenzied extra-terrestrials.

So, Giz readers, is the Dorito advert more culturally relevant than a cheery Beatles tune? Let us know in the comments. [PRnewswire]

The ad was created by advertising agency DDB in Sydney, all after the State Traffic Commander, Chief Superintendent John Hartley said:

"The NSW police would look at the New York senator's proposal and the impact it may have in twelve months' time," as reported in an article entitled "Alert Sounded on iPod Use" by Asher Moses on February 7, 2007 in The Sydney Morning Herald. Superintendent Hartley went on in that same article to say; "You can't legislate stupidity - if people are stupid enough to do something that's so distracting they can't see cars coming, that's a problem they need to deal with."

Sounds reasonable enough, but apparently the problem started to get really serious (yes, a lot of stupid people in the world, it seems) and the authorities decided to warn all those crazy crazy personal media player junkies. To probably be ignored shortly thereafter. [iPhone Savior]

The unit, which supports VGA, DVI and video signals, can display three 600 x 800-dot images, two 600 x 1,200-dot images, or one 600 x 2,400-dot image, and the size varies between 75 cm and 150cm tall. The unit, which is manufactured by German firm Kinoton GMBH, costs from around $6,450. New Launches

Although it will offer service, ThePudding isn't trying to claim a piece of the pie that Skype, Vonage and the cable companies have been wrassling over for years. According to the AP, it hopes to "license its speech-recognition service to other companies that use Voice over Internet Protocol." But AP tech writer Peter Svensson had mixed results when testing ThePudding's speech recognition:

"Relevant ads appeared when this reporter talked about restaurants and computers, but the software was oddly insistent that he should seek a career as a social worker, showing multiple ads and links pointing to that field."

According to an AP story, advertisers in this lucrative program currently include Warner Music, 20th Century Fox and New Line Cinema. They'll be paying $20 per 1,000 clicks. The first videos to run the ads will be from artists signed to Warner, and from a totally horrible band I only just heard about called Killswitch Engage (wish it were literal). People who host videos on YouTube will be able to opt into the program, though it's not yet clear what the revenue share is between YouTube and the content owner.

Why is this happening? Because Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion, and yet last year it only generated about $15 million. Chump change, as they say in Silicon Valley. [AP]

Intel's intent of our ad titled "Multiply Computing Performance and Maximize the Power of Your Employees" was to convey the performance capabilities of our processors through the visual metaphor of a sprinter. We have used the visual of sprinters in the past successfully.

Unfortunately, our execution did not deliver our intended message and in fact proved to be insensitive and insulting. Upon recognizing this, we attempted to pull the ad from all publications but, unfortunately, we failed on one last media placement.

We are sorry and are working hard to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Nancy Bhagat Vice President, Director of Integrated Marketing

Now I hate pervasive advertising as much as, if not more than, the next guy, but this is awesome. Its rare that you actually get rewarded for watching an ad, even when it's so very valuable to advertisers. I'll watch all the ads you want, just give me free stuff. I'm not a complicated man. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Digital World Tokyo]

Pogue-o Schtick video after the jump.

Nice one. David, ask for a raise. Sony, go scold someone.

The ads, and the driving philosophy behind them, are far superior to those stodgy, self-important PS3 ads that had us so confused. Something the focus groups and artists working on that project forgot: Video games are supposed to be fun.–Brian Lam

With New Agency, Sony Tries to Focus Its Electronics Image [NYTimes]

"Hey there, big guy. Having a few drinks? It's time to call a cab or ask a sober friend for a ride home."

DWI message finds home in urinal [Free Newmexican, via CrunchGear]

Bill Gates' To-Do list [News.com]

I don't mind the idea of having a high-def ad. However, I'm not sure they'll get their point across to people who don't have a clue what HD is. It's not certain what sets they'll be using, but in order to prevent them from being stolen they'll be housed inside bulletproof glass, wired with alarms, and feature GPS tracking devices. Lock it in with The Club and that's as NY as you get. – Louis Ramirez

Discovery Brings High-Def Bus Shelters to NY [Adweek via The Raw Feed]

Google expands video ad test [CNET]
mockup via Center Networks