videos | Hot Tub Crime Machine

Never give up.

April 1, 2016 Leave a comment

In advertising, sometimes you and your team come up with great ideas that for one reason or another never see the light of day. But you don’t give up on them. You nurture them, you bring them back to the client, you tweak them, you hope and wish and pray, and you present them (and re-present them), and maybe you even offer them up to a different client. Because you know it’s such a good idea it has to get made.

And sometimes you even go so far as to produce them. And then sit on them. and sit. and sit. and sit.

But every once in a while, after laying dormant for months (or years!), they rise like a fresh corpse in The Walking Dead. And unlike that walker, they’re beautiful.

This is one of those ideas. So simple. So well produced.

and now it has a home. Enjoy.

And stop #distracteddriving before you kill me or somebody else. Seriously. I know you think that whatever you’re doing on your phone is important, but it isn’t. If you were really that important, you’d have someone driving you. It can wait.

Filed under Account Planning, advertising, videos Tagged with Account Planning, advertising, creative, distracted driving, distracteddriving, dui, hidden camera, Marketing and Advertising, safe roads alliance, video, Viral

New work I’m proud of, #VowToProtect from MassMutual

November 11, 2015 Leave a comment

I rarely use this blog to plug my own work, but our recent efforts for MassMutual is just too great not to share. From a simple ask, we developed a great campaign.

To quote our Creative Director John Wolfarth

“There’s been plenty of discussion about giving the LGBT community the right to marry, but no one has really talked with them about what it’s like to be married. One of the biggest reveals was that, despite all the buzz about marriage”—and especially in light of continued discrimination and hostility in some quarters—”the journey for LGBT equality isn’t over.”

This is the first element in that campaign (directed by skateboarding legend and acclaimed director Stacy Peralta):

I’ve seen the future of video games and it is awesome

January 28, 2014 Leave a comment

In this game, one player wears Oculus Rift, the others do not. The guy wearing OR can see the bomb and interact with it, with tools. The other players have bomb diffusing manuals. Without seeing the bomb, and relying only on the first player’s description they have to talk him through disarming the bomb before it explodes.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes:

Filed under Gadgets, Games, Technology, videos Tagged with Bomb, gadgets, game, games, gaming, Keep Talking, Oculus Rift, technology, Video game, Virtual reality, VR

The Future is Ours

June 26, 2012 1 Comment

This is awesome. Watch it full screen and crank up the volume.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/44658040]

–

Filed under videos Tagged with brands, gadgets, technology, trends, video

Call 911 or Go Viral – The Choice is Yours

May 22, 2012 Leave a comment

Have you ever been watching TV and seen a video of something terrible happening to someone? Like this:

–

85,000 people have watched that video. It was shown on tons of major news outlets. Who was recording it? Why weren’t they calling for help? Are people more interested in getting their video on TV, or having it “go viral,” than in helping out someone in trouble?

My friend Ian Cohen recently wrote a post on the Weber Shandwick Social Studies blog about a time when he had to make a choice between calling 911 and recording a horrific accident. Here’s a little bit of it, click through to read the rest.

…I looked out my window and I saw a car across the street on fire. A car had crashed into a telephone pole and was going up in flames.

Instead of reaching for the phone to call 9-1-1, like you have been trained to do since a little kid, I did what I have been trained to do in my career and grabbed my camera (iPhone camera bc it was at arms length). I started taking a video of the car on fire as others ran across the street trying to help.

Click here to read the rest of his post…

Filed under Blogging, social media, Trends, videos Tagged with blogs, Ian Cohen, planning, social media, trends, video, Viral, weber shandwick

Twitter and the Rebirth of Appointment TV.

July 13, 2011 Leave a comment

SPOILER ALERT!! No, I’m not about to reveal the ending of Lost or who may or may not have killed someone on True Blood last week. But if you are online, and using anything social, you are probably familiar with that term. Just the other day I had the ending of an episode of a show I watch ruined because someone on Twitter forgot to put that in front of their tweet. But it’s not really their fault. It’s Twitter’s.

The times they are a-changin’. Again.

[UPDATED] THREE of my Favorites from the PSFK Conference.

May 5, 2011 1 Comment

I know that I promised you my presentation from the PSFK conference but it hasn’t been shown to my department yet, so you have to wait. But I do want to share the videos of my ~~two~~ THREE favorite sessions of the day.

The first is Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb.com. His story of creativity, ingenuity and determination (to not become homeless) is truly inspiring.

The second is from Aaron Dignan, founding partner at Undercurrent. His presentation, entitled “Why the future of work is play” is a great breakdown of the future of how we learn and improve our skills, as well as a critique of other so-called “games.”

The third was just released the other day, hence the update. Justin Gignac, a recovering art director, entrepreneur, innovator and all around awesome guy talks about his creative process and includes great advice like “Don’t be an asshole.”

I’ll share my takeaways from the conference soon, I promise.

PSFK Conference 2011 (hottubcrimemachine.com)

Filed under Account Planning, advertising, brands, Conferences, Games, Presentations, Trends, videos Tagged with Aaron Dignan, Account Planning, advertising, AirBnB, brands, Game mechanics, games, Joe Gebbia, psfk, social media, Strategy, technology, Undercurrent, video

Did You Say “Taser Grenade?”

April 5, 2011 Leave a comment

Yup. TASER. GRENADE.

This takes less-than-lethal stopping power to a new level.

And we all know how much I love a good tasing.

New Taser Specially Designed For Use On Wildlife (treehugger.com)
Taser Protection When Running at Night: Cool or Not? (fitsugar.com)
Citizen Tasers are coming? (elkrapidslive.wordpress.com)

Filed under random stuff, videos Tagged with funny, humor, Non-lethal weapon, Taser, video

Viral Videos vs. Viral Campaigns

February 20, 2011 2 Comments

If you work in advertising you’ve probably heard a client say “We want a viral video.” Of course they do. Every one loves viral videos. They love getting them, they love sending them. And brands REALLY love when something they create “goes viral.” Who wouldn’t? Millions of impressions, recommendations by friends, likes, tweets all involving your brand.

But you can’t create a viral video. You can only create great content and hope that people like it enough to share it. Or you can create great content, promote the hell out of it and hope that people like it enough to share it.

Starting to see a theme here?

And that is where I got the title for this post. Far too few people realize that there is a difference between a viral video and a viral campaign.

Stuff I Liked From 2010

January 3, 2011 Leave a comment

Inspired by Gareth Kay, and as a follow up to my predictions for 2011, here is a look back at some of my favorite things from 2010.

iPhone app: Twitter – It’s not the most advanced app around, and certainly not the first Twitter app, but it is the official one and it works really well. It was a great movie by Twitter to acquire a very popular app and make it the official one, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

iPad app: flipboard – I still don’t own an iPad and probably won’t for some time. But if anything is going to make me buy one it’s this app. Flipboard pulls all the content from your social graph into an easy to consume “magazine.”

Website: We’re all fans – what better way to celebrate musicians and their fans?

Gadget: Xbox Kinect – Radically re-imagining the way we play video games. It’s incredible and yet still primitive. But it shows the way that wind is blowing.

Meme: Bed Intruder – What can I say about this that hasn’t already been said?

…and the remix:

New TV show: The Walking Dead – After the first episode AMC ordered a full season for next year. That’s how good it is.

Movie: Its a three-way tie between The Social Network, Inception, and Black Swan

Filed under brands, Gadgets, Games, random stuff, social media, Uncategorized, videos Tagged with apps, brands, Flipboard, gadgets, Gareth Kay, Inception, IPad, iphone, social media, Social network, Twitter

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Hot Tub Crime Machine

Never give up.

New work I’m proud of, #VowToProtect from MassMutual

I’ve seen the future of video games and it is awesome

The Future is Ours

Did You Say “Taser Grenade?”

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