Friend of Giz and contributing editor Brendan I. Koerner was on the Colbert Report last night to school Stephen on ways to save the environment. Koerner discussed the paper/plastic debate, using air conditioning vs. windows, and whether it's cheaper to buy CFLs or regular bulbs. Colbert let the green-concious Koerner…
The Pitch A Super Bowl debut we somehow overlooked
The Pitch "Originality? We don't need no stinkin' originality!" So sayeth Toshiba's ad agency, which commissioned this stunningly unimaginative Super Bowl spot (which we previously lampooned as the game's "Best Lost Cause"
The Pitch A harried mother, her face creased with exhaustion and dread, pleads with her son's principal via telephone. It seems that little Sammy's been expelled on account of some violent malfeasance. Mom promises that her demonic offspring has seen the light, but Sammy proves otherwise in the background; he inserts a …
The Pitch Nokia ramps up its N95 8GB campaign with this lyrical-yet-baffling spot, featuring an array of international archetypes absorbing media in ways that may soon be obsolete: sitting in darkened cinemas, listening to battered boomboxes, watching interference-addled TVs. The narrator's ghostly voice spills forth…
The Pitch Apple sticks with the "dance with the one that brung ya" philosophy for the start of '08, churning out yet another Mac-versus-PC chestnut. This time, though, the tone's a notch more acidic than in spots past—John Hodgman's PC comes off as more flummoxed than usual, readily admitting to Vista's many faults.…
Few things set geek hearts aflutter like a juicy hardware rivalry. Who among us hasn't thoroughly enjoyed taking sides in such legendary throwdowns as Mac versus PC, PlayStation versus Xbox, or (for the truest of old-timers) Atari versus Intellivision? It's thus in our nature to pay excessive attention to the raging…
The Pitch With mere days left before the dawn of 2008, there's precious little time left to celebrate a geek milestone: the silver anniversary of the incomparable Magnavox Odyssey gaming console. This particular ad, however, aired in early 1973, about nine months after the Odyssey's debut. The oddly unenthusiastic…
The Pitch An intrepid mountaineer summits a snowy peak, raising his arms in the universal symbol of triumph. The celebratory moment is ruined, however, when his flip phone rings—T-Mobile has apparently been installing cell towers in the Himalayas. The message our intrepid hero receives is an important one: His fly is…
The Pitch Someone over at TBWA\Chiat\Day has been reading their Sandman back issues, it seems. How else to explain the terrifying image contained within this Pioneer spot, of teeth embedded in eye sockets—seems to be a direct rip from the Corinthian, no? The stuff of nightmares, perhaps, but also a pretty memorable…
