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Vintage ads from science fictional futures

Marvellous Hairy author Mark A. Rayner is holding a Photoshop contest to create vintage advertisements for futures that don’t exist yet. Here’s a small sampling of these retrofuturistic print pieces from both the current and past contests. Here are the rules for entry and winners from the previous vintage ad contest. Thanks for the heads…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Sep 19

Cthulhu: Great Old One, unspeakable horror, deodorant pitchman

Sleeping in R’lyeh under the sea for millennia is no excuse for smelling like mackerel and elements that don’t exist in our star system. Allow the ever-debonair Cthulhu to shill you some shower goop that will leave you smelling Shoggoth-fresh. [Dung Beetle Comics via Laughing Squid]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Sep 15

Watch This Foam Printer Churn Out Beautiful Man-Made Clouds

At IFA in Berlin, one clever company pumped up business for themselves by bringing along a foam printer. The result: gorgeous, ethereal letters floating high into the sky. Highly recommended for love letters and other flights of fancy. [BoYT via The Daily What

Tech News Brian Barrett Sep 14

Playstation’s MoveMen Will Stalk You, Crash Your Party and Force You To Play Games

I’m not entirely certain what’s going on in this commercial for the Playstation Move, but it appears that there are these freaky MoveMen who’ll troll your Facebook page for mentions of parties, gatecrash, and force you to play a game. And here I thought that the Nintendo guys who showed up unannounced and proclaimed “Wii…

Tech News Rosa Golijan Sep 13

Watch the New Kindle Ad’s Creeptastic iPad Takedown

This is Amazon’s new Kindle ad, which showed up just today on Good Morning America. Argue all you will over its direct attack on the iPad’s glare-plagued LCD display. I’m more worried about the maniacal cackling at the end. UPDATED: There are a few possible explanations: maybe it’s dubbed in! Maybe it’s supposed to be…

Tech News Brian Barrett Sep 13

This three-breasted Russian woman wants to sell you a dishwasher

Great shades of Total Recall! This Russian advertisement for the German electronics chain Media Markt roughly translates as “You will find more than you expect.” Check out some more photos of this tripartite ad campaign. Slightly NSFW. The below billboard is from Moscow, and be sure to check our round-up of the most famous triple-nippled…

Movies Cyriaque Lamar Sep 11

This Is Why The iPad Will Never Replace Newspapers

I love my iPad so much that I hug it daily, but I don’t think it could ever replace newspapers. After all, how could I ever use my magical gadget to murder an innocent creature? Theoretically I certainly could use my iPad to commit an act of violence, but it’d be gadget homicide too. [AllThingsD…

Tech News Rosa Golijan Sep 10

Antivirus Software: It’s What Keeps Dolph Lundgren From Lighting Your Unicorn On Fire

If you don’t quite understand the threat that cyber criminals pose to your online banking, let Norton explain: your bank account is like an adorable little unicorn and the hackers are like Dolph Lundgren with a flamethrower. See? Simple. [DailyWh.at]

Privacy & Security Kyle VanHemert Sep 10

RIM Wants Billboards That Know How Fast You’re Driving

You’re flying down the highway at 70MPH and you notice a billboard that reads “LIFE’S BETTER WITH BBM.” The next day, crawling along that same stretch during a traffic jam, the billboard enumerates a BlackBerry’s many features. That’s RIM’s vision. In a patent filing for “Adaptive roadside billboard system and related methods” (there’s one for…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Sep 7

Australian Tech Ads From the ’80s Are as Odd as Their Animals

Capitalizing on the wave of hysteria post-“a dingo took my baby!,” second-hand hard drives are shown as dangerous as Australia itself. Let’s face it, any advert from the ’80s is always going to crack a smile. [Gizmodo Au]

Tech News Kat Hannaford Sep 6

Tom Carvel, outsider video artist

Most folks remember Tom Carvel (1906-1990) as the frozen dessert magnate behind Carvel Ice Cream empire, but what a lot of people forget is that Tom Carvel created some of the most phantasmagorically confusing commercials ever to air on television. There was a disconcerting, almost Lynchian quality to Carvel’s ice cream commericals. Behind the innocent…

io9 AD Jameson - Big Other Sep 5

Expat Ad Agency Crams English Cottage Inside Its Office

Take a quick look around the offices of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and you might think you missed your plane to Shanghai. Rooms ripped straight from a meticulous English household offer a respite for the homesick, and commentary on Shanghai’s boom. BBH hopes the cottage cross-section will serve as a “catalyst for social commentary,” though at…

Tech News Sam Biddle Aug 24

You Know When You’re Biking and You Hit That Wall?

That may or may not what this bike shop in Altlandsberg, Germany had in mind when they decided to put up 120 old bikes instead of a sign. I’ll take that red one by the vine, please. [Flavorwire via Notcot]

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Aug 19

SunChips’ New 100% Compostable Bag Is Hilariously, Ear-Damagingly Loud

There’s one kinda big problem with SunChips’ new 100% compostable bag: It’s noisy as Hell. An Air Force pilot says it’s louder than the cockpit of his jet, and this video test pegs it at a potentially damaging 95 decibels. Yes, this bag of chips crinkles up to 95 decibels, about five dB higher than…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Aug 19

Xbox 360 Commercial Pulled, for Using PS3 Footage of Same Game

Ha! Hahahaha. Sorry, please excuse my laughter—I just find it hilarious that the advertising agency employed by Microsoft thought they could get away with showing PS3 Final Fantasy XIII scenes. “Wot, it’s the same game, innit?” Sparked by an eagle-eyed British viewer, who dobbed in the commercial to the Advertising Standards Authority, the commercial was…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Aug 18

Apple’s Strangling iAds With Creative Control

Apple’s iAd platform is here, but the advertisements themselves are still few and far between. According to the WSJ, Apple’s desire to closely control the creation of the ads has slowed their arrival. https://gizmodo.com/apple-hates-ads-unless-theyre-the-ones-selling-them-5558561 WSJ notes that of the 17 partners Apple named at launch, only two, Unilever and Nissan, had iAds for the greater…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Aug 16

Earn a Graduate Degree in Texting!!!11

There’s graduate school, where you’re encouraged to throw yourself into your studies, and then there’s Graduate School, where you’re encouraged to throw grammar out the window and recruit your friends via text message. [Reddit via Huffington Post via Daily What]

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Aug 10

MetaMirror Concept Unites Your Tablet and TV

It’s happened to us all. One minute you’re just vegging out, letting the gentle glow of your TV wash over you, and then the next thing you know a computer is sucking away all your attention. Let MetaMirror play mediator. The concept, developed by the Irish studio Design By Notion, makes your tablet and TV…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Aug 10

Shouting Match at Google Over Stalkery Ads

Google’s co-founders ended up in a shouting match in front of subordinates during internal discussions over aggressive ad targeting, according to the Wall Street Journal. The pro-targeting side prevailed, and Google is now edging toward Facebook-level privacy standards. Ack. Google has overcome long-held reservations about tracking users to push into “uncharted privacy territory for the…

Tech News Ryan Tate Aug 10

Leaked Google ‘Vision Statement’ Shows the Company Warming Up to Selling User Data

In a seven-page “Vision Statement” made in 2008, the top brass at Google is shown weighing their options between not being evil and keeping up with new companies selling user search and surfing data to advertisers. Selling surfing and search data is becoming a huge business, allowing advertisers to get more and more targeted with…

Tech News Adam Frucci Aug 10

Vintage ads from science fictional futures

Cthulhu: Great Old One, unspeakable horror, deodorant pitchman

Watch This Foam Printer Churn Out Beautiful Man-Made Clouds

Playstation’s MoveMen Will Stalk You, Crash Your Party and Force You To Play Games

Watch the New Kindle Ad’s Creeptastic iPad Takedown

This three-breasted Russian woman wants to sell you a dishwasher

This Is Why The iPad Will Never Replace Newspapers

Antivirus Software: It’s What Keeps Dolph Lundgren From Lighting Your Unicorn On Fire

RIM Wants Billboards That Know How Fast You’re Driving

Australian Tech Ads From the ’80s Are as Odd as Their Animals

Tom Carvel, outsider video artist

Expat Ad Agency Crams English Cottage Inside Its Office

You Know When You’re Biking and You Hit That Wall?

SunChips’ New 100% Compostable Bag Is Hilariously, Ear-Damagingly Loud

Xbox 360 Commercial Pulled, for Using PS3 Footage of Same Game

Apple’s Strangling iAds With Creative Control

Earn a Graduate Degree in Texting!!!11

MetaMirror Concept Unites Your Tablet and TV

Shouting Match at Google Over Stalkery Ads

Leaked Google ‘Vision Statement’ Shows the Company Warming Up to Selling User Data

‘Cognitive Surrender’ Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains

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