letting fans run with your brand

The age of self publishing, brand fandom and yummy food have finally converged.

Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's, a book authored by a fan of the popular grocery store chain was self published, sold over 70,000 copies and inspired other books to follow on the Trader Joe's meme.

While it's not currently available at the store, its existence certainly adds to the brand's cult favored status. (And c'mon Trader Joe: putting this book in your stores could only work to sell more product!!)

Just another great example of a brand that's building so much love that fans can't keep it to themselves. Can your brand say the same? (And couldn't you really go for some of those Wasabi flavored crunchy snack things right now??)

life on google

ResearchBuzz reports that Google's just made the entire collection of Life Magazines from 1936 to 1972 available online. That's over 1800 issues of yesteryear ready for your browsing.

It's also cool to see (on the cover pictured above) that "tweens" used to be called "subteens", and that they were going to hell in a handbasket because of heavy necking and sensual dancing. (And why don't ladies wear hats like that anymore??) From BBH Labs.

wild things in nyc

If you're in NYC tomorrow or over the next couple of weeks, you'll have to check out the Sendak in SoHo exhibit at the Animazing Gallery. Billed as the world’s largest exhibition (& sale!) of original illustrations and etchings from the collection of artist and author Maurice Sendak, this is a must visit event!

There will be over 200 pieces on display, and if you make the opening tomorrow you'll even get to see Mr. Sendak receive a Lifetime Achievement award. Thanks, Deb!

you should do this on your neighbor's house

Another fantabulous stop motion masterpiece from Notblu. Thanks, Lee!

holiday inn may be out of key cards when you check in...

Holiday Inn is in the midst of "the largest re-launch in the hospitality industry." How to celebrate? How about building an entire lobby and hotel room with Holiday Inn key cards? Nice.

Thanks, Casey!!

madmen tweets: the whole story

You've probably seen a handful of the MadMen characters tweeting about their lives back in the 60's...on Twitter.

MSNBC has done a nice job telling the story about how this started, and what it's evolved into - like how now even the office copy machine tweets. From Adbroad.

best career advice ever

World famous creative super hero Alex Bogusky has some pretty awesome career advice for those just getting their careers into gear, or about to enter the advertising/design/creative industry.

His post is geared toward students and young creatives, but I think you'll agree that it applies to just about everyone. Send this to any students or youngsters just starting out in the biz, and then read it yourself as a reminder to keep "success" in check. Beautious.

mmmm. pancakes.

Here's a promo from Hungry Jack that understands that you already have a half used box of pancake mix in your pantry. Called Use Up the Box, the campaign acknowledges that we once bought the product, and encourages you to do creative things with it.

Although the site is a beast of ugliness that was designed by someone who loves 1970's internet style, the concept is nothing short of pancake eating genius.

(Let's have pancakes tomorrow, ok?) From BrandFreak.

what you look like as a scarecrow

To celebrate the fact that the Wizard of Oz will be available as a digital download tomorrow, (and streaming on October 3), Netflix has created Oz Yourself, one of those grossly overused customize-a-video-clip-with-your-face promos.

Here's my version, which looks a little like leatherface from the Chainsaw Massacre films. (Cool, but I really wanted to be a flying monkey.) From YesButNoButYes.

social media is old

Just in case you thought that you were a social media expert, here's the real history of social media, according to Social Media Rockstar. (And it didn't start with Twitter.)

Early social networking stars started before digital cameras, blogs or decent haircuts, judging by the phone phreaks pictured above.

How many of these networks have you been a part of? From DC2FLA

art installations put people to sleep

Artist Mark Jenkins has a series of installations in the Winston-Salem area to promote “Sleepers,” an outdoor exhibition sponsored by the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art.

The police were surprised to find that the lady sleeping on top of the billboard was only a mannequin. Fun.

this week at Plaid

Here's what happened this week at the world's most incredible creative agency:

I gave the keynote at the American Advertising Federation in Savannah on Wednesday, to kick off their 2009 - 2010 season. I shared the details of what we call "the attraction engine" at Plaid, our industrial strength business generation machine. You can listen to the audio and see details of my presentation on the AAF Savannah website. What a cool city, with an awesome creative community. Special thanks to Melanie, Cathy and Hal for extra amazing southern hospitality.

We began the production of our Purple Pedals project. We were invited by Yahoo! to participate in this super cool, international creative initiative. They've crafted 20 custom Yahoo Purple Pedals bikes, each equipped with solar powered cameras that automatically take a photo every 60 seconds, and then it uploads to Flickr. Pretty amazing.

We're turning it into our own project of sorts, and have created What Makes You Happy? We're attempting to have the bike photograph as many people as possible holding the answer to the question "what make you happy?" in front of the camera. We hope that the end result will be a really sweet gallery of photos that reads like a melting pot of human happiness. We'll see how this unfolds over the next couple of weeks. Dave got to ride the bike behind a police escort, earlier in the week (pic, above.)

In the meantime, you can check out the live photo stream for our bike on Flickr, as well as the Plaid Flickr photostream for regular updates.

Our Parking Day event from last week was a huge hit, and landed us on the front page of the local paper. Always great to be in the local news, especially when it's not the police blotter.

Leaves have begun to fall, and this weekend Plaidsters will enjoy a rockabilly festival, cool local shows, and some rest and relaxation. You should do the same!

masters of the universe get a makeover

This is pretty hot. The Masters of the Universe realized as wearing the latest hipster fashion brands. (Because you know that this is totally how Skelator dresses on his days off.) From Waxy.

because you've always wanted to be in a paint fight?

Not entirely sure what this says about the Samsung Corby mobile phone, but who doesn't love a great paint fight?

a car with creamy filling and icing on top

If you could drive any car in the world, what would you drive? How about a car with icing on top?

Little Debbie, the sweetest girl on the internet, is looking to give away one million cupcakes. Rather than take the easy way out by sending a truckload to our agency, they've decided to drive a bunch of Little Debbie cars around the U.S. in a cupcake share-a-thon. It's like the Plaid Nation tour, but with cupcakes on board. Yummy.

it's only a little dust

There's some stunning photographs of the "red storm" that hit Sydney earlier in the week. Tom Coates decided to cruise the interwebs and pull together the best of them into a collection. Check 'em out if you haven't already - you'll swear it's Photoshop or a movie set.

who says that slat wall has to be boring?

Slat wall. That retail interior design invention from the 1980's that plagues the ugliest retail environments across the world. Until now. Check out what Strukt Design Studio created for a space in Vienna. Wow.

From Maria Popova.

fake ny post paper raises awareness about climate change

The Yes Men, professional pranksters extraordinaire, created their own versions of the NY Post complete with headlines and stories that talk about how climate change could unleash heat waves, flooding, and other disasters over the next decades. Nearly one million copies of the paper were distributed throughout NYC along with a fake website, all to commemorate Climate Week.

According to the Yes Men blog post on the stunt, the 32-page New York Post is a fake, but everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts. From SJ Boden.

mother nature takes on serena williams

Tampax has brought on Serena Williams as a spokesperson in a campaign that kicks off in October. They don't blame her recent outburst on PMS, but they do bring on Mother Nature as a formidable challenger. (And Mother Nature has way more sass than you likely imagined.)

Ads hit in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime you can enjoy the Mother Nature vs. Serena clip above. Cute.

because your poop doesn't smell

From art projects to actual products, here's a super good collection of toilet paper awesomeness. Because you deserve better when you're wiping up the very best. From Guy Kawasaki.

quique, the man born only with a head.

This new campaign for Diesel is so much fun.

Meet Quique The Head. After you've watched the video, you'll want to check out his life story website, and become his friend on Facebook. If you'd like you can even submit a pic of your body to see if he'd like to use it as a template for the development of his own body.

The fact that this was produced for the "Diesel Helmets division" is extra awesome. Nice work.

people are coming, people are going.

Check out this killer interactive map of the world that showcases CO2 emissions, birth rates and death rates in real time. People are dying as you're just staring at a website! (They're also being born, so it's probably all going to be ok.)

Thanks, Devon!

smoking isn't as sexy as the madmen make it seem

If you've taken up smoking recently so that you could live life more like your favorite MadMen character, then you might want to take a good peek at this new anti-smoking video from the UK.

It may actually be appropriate to call this bloody good.

jobs!!

We all have at least four friends who have recently been downsized, laid off or thrown out. There's a new site that aims to help people on both sides of the fence.

Koda is a social recruiting site. We met Katie from Koda while visiting LaunchPad in New Orleans on the Plaid Nation tour. And we just now got around to checking it all out. And WOW.

First: there are JOBS. Real jobs. For smart, cool, awesome people. Send your unemployed friends in this direction.

Second: There are some awesome candidates for employers. Sure, there are hundreds of candidates lined up at your door, but Koda takes the time to measure the details and help you search for just the right candidates.

Nice tool, please pass it to your friend who's looking!

new castrol campaign knows your car

Castrol is utilizing some bitchin' technology in their new outdoor campaign.

Their new billboards in London:
+ take a pic of your license plate,
+ match your marker number to the department of motor vehicles database,
+ determine the year and model of your car,
+ cross reference your car year and model against the Castrol database,
+ and then display the type of oil that you should be using.
All in a split second.

Amazing.

lawyers: please stop it.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

You're probably already thoroughly entertained by the disclaimer copy at the end of most pharmaceutical ads that promises projectile diarrhea, loss of appendages and melting eyeballs.

Bill Baker points to a hilarious legal disclaimer on the Ambien site. The home page features some models rotating on a giant six foot in diameter pill. There's a disclaimer that says "not actual pill size."

If that's not enough, the accompanying television ad features a magical floating pill over a sleeping woman's head, with particles sprinkling their way into her skull. The printed legal disclaimer says "dramatization."

Seriously??

you should really fly to savannah. right now.

I'll be speaking about self promotion to the Savannah chapter of the American Advertising Federation, at Alligator Soul on Wednesday. If you get on a plane right now, you could probably make it.

FutureDarryl already attended the event (because you can do that when you have time travel at your fingertips) and he says it's the most awesome presentation ever.

From what I've heard, every awesome person within an hour's drive of Savannah is going to be there. If you live nearby, you should take a long lunch and attend. You don't want to be the one cool person left in your office with the creepy guy who decided to "eat lunch at his desk." Gross.

big box stores of the dominican republic

When branding people go on vacation, the photos they take aren't always your typical vacation photos. If you can relate to that, then you'll love Ted Murphy's photo collection of the "big box" stores of the Dominican Republic.

should your brand be human in social media?

There's some heady discussion and points being made over at Thought Gadgets about the corporate use of social media. Can a brand be human? Should a single human represent a brand? Fantastic stuff.

I have no idea what the "synthetic authenticity" graphic above represents and I'm too lazy to read the details. But there's some nice arrows and circles and a Nike logo that will probably look good in your PowerPoint presentation. Enjoy.

social media policies: what others are doing

Mashable points to the details on what over 80 organizations are doing with their social media policies. This may be helpful if you're in the process of drafting your own, or just want to be nosy and see what everyone else is doing.

the best theater you'll see on a boat

If you're in NYC tonight, you may want to check out the last showing of The Confidence Man. According to Gothamist, there's nothing like it, anywhere.

The concept takes place on a decommissioned U.S. Coast Guard vessel docked at Pier 40 and is a take on the Herman Melville’s 1857 novel. The show is an immersive experience that takes place on four levels of the ship. It's impossible to see/experience them all, so you choose which side of the story to experience. You're free to wander the ship as the performance is happening, which lets you explore the story in a unique way. Sounds interestingly awesome.

google has fun with a birthday greeting

A couple of weeks ago Google changed their home page logo (as they often do for select holidays and events) to the image above. The twitterverse was a buzz with what it could mean.

Ten days later, the UFO returns, and Google is tweeting coordinates to some place on earth. It turns out that the UFO and subsequent coded Google tweets were a salute to H.G. Wells' birthday, which was yesterday. Read the whole story on the Google blog.

Here's proof that no matter how large your brand, it's ok to step out of the norm every once in a while and have some fun.

this week at Plaid

Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome creative agency:

Whew! What a week! Lots of crazy, cool work in house, and fun events happening this week.

Earlier in the week, David art directed a two day photo and video shoot for client Sikorsky Financial Credit Union. We shot with the legendary Chip Simons for stills, and Renato Ghio for video. They made people beautious. Even in the rain.

My new post was published on Advertising Age. I've outlined Plaid's awesome open management philosophy, and how it could change the world as we know it. ;)

Our Purple Pedals bike has been shipped from California, and on its way to Plaid world headquarters. We have great plans for it over the next few weeks.

Future Darryl stopped by our office to deliver a most important message about an earth shattering event happening in Savannah, GA next week. If you live anywhere near the peach state, you should be making arrangements to get there.

Today our agency participated in PARKing Day, an an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens independently but simultaneously temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. We've added a few photos and video clips to our Flickr photostream, and will update more next week.

This weekend, Plaidsters will be enjoying the last weekend of summer and sun, checking out a sweet local art show, and getting ready for another Plaidtastic week. Hope you're doing the same!

happy park(ing) day!

Today our agency will be participating in PARK(ing) Day, an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.

We'll be turning a parking space in front of our building into a Plaid park. We imagined the perfect park would be a place with comfy chairs and free wifi so that you could hang outside and tweet your friends. So that's the park that we're creating! (If you're in the area, stop by and say hi!)

google's future in...paper.

Google has produced a magical printing machine capable of printing a 300 page gray-scale book with a color cover in about 4 minutes. They're in the process of getting these into book stores (stores that sell collections of paper) around the world, so that you can order a book, have it printed locally, and walk down to your store and pick it up.

Right now they're offering any of the 2 million plus books currently in the public domain. But they believe the future On Demand Books is that every old book will have 15 readers. That's the long tail economy coming true.

From Steve Woodruff

behind the cover of wired magazine

Wired Magazine has some of the best covers in what's left of the print publishing industry.

Check out this presentation from Creative Director Scott Dadich, who takes you throught the creation process of several of their more magnificent cover designs. From Michael Surtess.

levis says to unbutton your top button

There's a new set of ads from Levis that promote "life unbuttoned" currently running in Holland and Belgium.

You might think that life unbuttoned means skinny models trouncing around an abandoned industrial area, like the clip above. But in reality, this means you can eat that extra donut or cupcake today. Take it easy. Unbutton.

come to denmark and have anonymous sex

This is definitely one of the oddest tourism campaigns that you'll ever see. A single mom from Denmark who doesn't remember her baby daddy's name, but hoping that he'll see the YouTube video, and remember having sex with her.

This is meant to inspire you to vacation in Denmark.

There's much more juice and background on the campaign over at Adland, including some detail about where the concept might have originated from (a ripped off idea?).

Planning a vacation? Bring protection.

that computer in your pocket has magnificent powers

You'll have to take four minutes and watch this wonderful video from our friends at XPlane.

Four minutes that will help you realize what an amazing time we're living in and how the possibilities for awesomeness are being multiplied by a hundred every day.

giving a different perspective to street art

UK artist IMBUE has installed fancy plaques next to the street art around his town. The plaques identify the tags as art for an audience that might not have thought of them in that respect before. Nice.

it's man cereal

Being your lovable breakfast morning blog, how could we not report on the re-branding of Wheaties? They've revamped the product to become...Fuel.

Retail Design Diva points out its resemblance to Axe or Tag, the hot girl attraction spray that men love so much. And you do have to admit that amidst the cartoon kaleidoscope of the cereal aisle, this will stand out. Served best with a quarter gallon of gasoline.

gary vaynerchuk crushes brand flakes for breakfast

Maybe you know Gary Vaynerchuk for his immensely popular Wine Library TV show. Maybe you're a fan because of his Today Show appearances. Or perhaps you've seen one of his countless keynote speeches at conferences across the globe.

Well, Gary's got a new book called Crush It! that's all the rage in the social media universe, and he wants to spend just a couple of minutes telling you about it. In true Gary V style, he recorded a video just for Brand Flakes readers!

While we still love our brand flakes with whole milk, we appreciate that he even drinks wine with his breakfast. Thanks, Gary!

astro boy for a new generation

Japanese anime lovers will either freak out in anger or delight at the fact that they're making a full length feature film of the classic Astro Boy character.

Astro Boy was created by Osamu Tezuka who is considered the godfather of manga, and was originally popular in the 1960's. Astro Boy has since become somewhat of a pop culture icon to anime fans. The producers of the new film worked with the son of Mr. Tezuka, and promise that it keeps true to the Astro Boy culture. Get your rocket feet ready.

mad men as an advertising history lesson

There's a new blog called The Footnotes of Mad Men that chats about advertising in the era of Mad Men, and ties real world topics to themes from the show. It's like a fun read about your favorite tv show, and a history lesson all in one blog.

The concept has already been picked up by Harper Collins for a book! Light up a smoke, pour yourself a scotch, and sit back and enjoy.

the journey of a lost backpack and southwest airlines

American Copywriter points to an excellent story from Peter Hartlaub, and how a lost backpack turned him into the biggest Southwest Airlines fan ever.

Long story short, his son lost his backpack on a flight without any identifying information on the bag other than his kid's name embroidered on the back. It turns out that Southwest Airlines not only came across the bag, but went way over the top to find its owner. They found a receipt in the bag, identified a customer name, cross referenced with their passenger list, and several steps later the backpack was back in the hands of Peter's kid.

A wonderous story that he'll tell over and over to at every opportunity. An investment in time from Southwest that's better than any television ad they could ever buy. What kind of extra juice are you giving your customers?

the greatest article ever published on ad age

If you haven't been paying attention to Advertising Age lately, then you might have missed how it's become the most awesome publication on earth. Yes, they already feature Brand Flakes on their top 150 ad industry blogs, but now they've published several (that's more than two!) pieces of mine in their Small Agency Diary section.

These latest words of genius are titled Transparency Begins at Home, and it's all about being transparent with your employees. Taking the sharing philosophy inside the organization as well as outside the organization can do wonders, and you should give it a try.

We're here to change the world, and Ad Age is on board. Woot!

google reinvents the newsstand

Yesterday Google launched a fun new tool called Fast Flip. This news aggregator pulls together content from a kazillion sources and lets you flip through it as if you're looking at a newsstand in the old timey world of print publishing.

Very fun. Think of all the time you'll save so that you can tweet more during the day!

puma makes stock market hot

Puma has created a new iPhone app that helps you feel better when the stock market is tanking. As the stock market falls, the Puma models strips her clothing. If the market goes up, she puts on more sweet Puma gear.

If you're thinking "well that sucks, I don't have an iPhone," not to worry - they've even prepared a video so that you can see some of the hot stock action. Prefer men? They have models from both genders and tie to worldwide stock markets, so everyone can sex it up, Puma style.

"20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minutes."

Just another useless fact that gives me an excuse to embed the video above featuring Kanye West, interrupting the President.

If you like spouting lots of impressive stats with numbers in them, or just need some good filler to make your PowerPoint deck a little thicker, then today's your lucky day. Steve Rubel found Google Internet Stats. It's mostly UK based, but a lot of the info features global numbers. Impress your friends.

people still litter like it's 1973

Chris Beesley was frustrated by all of the trash he sees in his neighborhood, so he gathered it up and did something about it. Actually, he arranged it to tell his story in a poster. Nice.

Where's that silly little hoot owl, when you need him?

all you ever tweet about is brands

This is Herd points to a new study from Penn State that reviewed a half a million tweets. (That's even more tweets than I read in a day.) They concluded that 20% of them were comprised of people 'asking and providing' product information.

(It's true. Look through your own timeline, and see how many brands you've named.)

More proof that when people are in need or feeling emotional about a brand, they're going to Twitter. Or that brands are so much a part of our lives that we can't remove them. Still think your brand doesn't need to be there?

resume richard is not so bright

Resume Richard is kind of a jerk. Not a Kanye West kind of jerk, but more of a dumbass kind of jerk. So he's the perfect central character for a new campaign for ResumeEdge, a service that helps you produce good resumes.

this week at Plaid

Here's what happened this week at the greatest creative agency in all of the land:

We launched the Segway commercial compatibility test with Segway. The tool helps businesses determine how Segway could impact their operation. Generic product information or marketing messages can't speak to the countless variables that exist within different businesses. The compatibility test generates information that's true to the business person's actual need - based on their type of business, work environment and goals. Pretty cool. (Take the test and see if Segway could help your business!)

We also launched our official plan for Plaid's Purple Pedals project. We've been invited by Yahoo to take part in their Purple Pedals program, and we have some awesome plans. We're going to tour our community with the purple bike (which snaps and uploads photos every 60 seconds) and let people from all walks of life tell the camera what makes them happy. You can learn more about our plans on our Purple Pedals project page.

Meanwhile, Plaidsters are knee deep in some really cool work on a multitude of projects for clients like HeadBlade, Aflac, Riunite, Rosa Regale, Nielsen, and the Sikorsky Financial Credit Union. (I know there's more, but I'm too lazy to review the details.)

We started our flex schedule this week! (See the article that I wrote about it on Advertising Age.) Employees can come in anytime before 10am and leave anytime after 4pm. Their actual work schedule is left entirely to what works best for them individually. Late sleepers can come in later, early birds come in early and skate out at 4pm. The first week was a pretty cool test, and we saw Plaidsters enjoying both ends of the schedule.

Next week is a crazy Plaid week, with photo shoots, (PARK)ing day and so much more - so Plaidsters are resting up this weekend to prepare for awesomeness.

nike suggests you stop watching silly videos

Nike does a cute piece to promote their upcoming 10K race for NikePlus users. (Not that there's anything wrong with cats on a treadmill.) From Hal Thomas.

david lynch does store windows

David Lynch has created some killer window displays for a gallery in France. We can only hope for such creepy goodness at the Macy's window during the holiday season in NYC. From Boing Boing.

domino's pizza. wherever you want it.

In the Netherlands, Domino's Pizza has installed white doors with a phone number for delivery at various outdoor locations.

So you're sitting in the park getting all hungry from whatever might give you the munchies while in the Netherlands. You call the number and order a large pie. The Domino's dude shows up at the door (a "delivery point") and rings the doorbell so you know he's there.

Genius. Let's put these all along the Appalachian Trail and in the Grand Canyon. ;p

mini and audi both go to auto show with "untamed" themes

The Frankfurt Automotive Show will be treated to two campaigns with the "untamed" theme. Audi launches their Untamed Electricity campaign with a campaign site and a bunch of videos about electricity.

Meahwhile, MINI launches MINI. Two Untamed, featuring set of twins getting all untamed with themselves.

Frankly, this just leaves me all confused and wondering what the "tamed" automotive brands are doing.

what the people are buying

JustBought.it is a location-based social shopping app that lets you share photos and tweets on the things that you buy. (Because the tweets about what you had for lunch weren't exciting enough.)

Actually, Zappos implemented something like this a while back and it works great with their product, and it's a fantastic illustration of how the You Bought It service could be integrated with a brand. Possibilities = endless.

From Sharon Johns-Taylor.

beer for people who like it in the can

DDB, the same worldwide agency now famous for the horrific 9/11 ad, launches an ad for Bud Light Lime (from their Chicago office) featuring people who like it in the can. Gives the expression "tastes like ass" a whole new spin.

I used to love beer with lime in it, but now I'll just be thinking of butt sex when drinking a Bud Light Lime in a can. (Perhaps that beer with the orange slice is still sweet, juicy and safe.) Thanks, Blaine!

the future of the music business = ad business?

In the old days, developing artists would do everything in their power to get attention from music labels - usually their single chance at success. Now that music labels have imploded and artists are born through advertising, the internet and elsewhere, artists have other opportunities.

Which led the band New Age Dad to create an open proposal for ad agency Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. They detailed the pitch through Twitter and their website, and propose that the agency use their song "the Weekend" in whatever new car commercial that Crispin produces. (That is, as soon as Crispin chooses which car company to work with, now that the VW account is so last year.)

putting the money behind a cause

Aflac is up to something pretty spectacular. (disclosure: Aflac is a client of Plaid.) You're certainly familiar with the fact that the Aflac duck is one of the most recognized brands on earth. But did you also know that they're associated with a giant cause?

The Aflac Cancer Center is an extremely worthwhile cause - and they're doing some pretty cool things on Facebook and the internets that other non-profits and causes could learn from.

Aflac has committed to donating a dollar for every person that joins their cause on Facebook. They're essentially paying you to join their cause. (An easy way for people to get involved and make a difference.)

They've also committed to matching a dollar for every dollar donated. (Incentive for users to give now.)

And they're organizing and spreading the word using the Causes application on Facebook (an application with an impressive history and founders.)

Well done. (and not even our work!)

tweet for a job

Hal Thomas points us to a sweet opportunity for anyone that might be looking for a job in social media. And you can apply by tweet.

Finally the job application process gets down to 140 characters. Finally there will be no room to state senseless crap like "I'm a team player, self starter, and highly motivated, blah, blah, blah."

May the best Tweet win. (Although we're really liking Hal's response.)

happy 9/9/09

In Hollywood today, nine lucky couples will be tying the knot. At the 99 cent only store.

The store's ad features a beautiful bride dressed in a dress made entirely from things available at the store, for 99 cents. For real. Kathy Jacobs created the masterpiece above using t-shirts, embroidered table runners and silk flowers.

This is genius. Not only will this very likely be picked up by the national news tonight, it's a great illustration of the diverse products and everyday value associated with the brand.

this is not about vampires or the NFL

When you hear that this video is to promote Twilight, you'll first say to yourself "what do bulls have to do with vampires?" But then you'll realize there are other brands associated with the name "twilight."

And then you'll see that this video promotes Sony's Twilight Football game. And you'll wonder why there isn't a football in the clip. But then you'll realize it's the other kind of football. What only Americans call soccer. And after you've completed that thought process, you can sit back and enjoy the mad skills of some fast moving feet. Fun.

how to cram 100 people in a photo booth for 60 seconds

Here's what the crew from Never Hide Films can produce with footage from a video photo booth at SXSW. Videomixmasterawesomeness. From Cory Obrien.

money talks and social media walks

Just when you thought that everyone on earth has already done a YouTube contest and it's impossible to get any buzz with the same old "submit your video" idea comes a new YouTube mystery contest that's getting tweeted, blogged and otherwise socially loved.

They can't tell you exactly what the contest is for, what it's about, only that they're going to give away $100K. Proof that money still talks, even in the social mediaverse.

become a twitter search expert

Mashable has an outstanding overview on how to use Twitter's advanced search. Required reading for all Brand Flakes devotees - because we need to be smarter than the rest of the nation. (Whatever nation you're a part of.)

it's brizzly.

What's cute and cuddly with blue feathers?

It's Brizzly. The new Twitter tool that looks killer as a grizzly and sweet as a tweet. But it's not ready for prime time yet. You'll need an invite to give it a try (don't ask me, I don't have any) so just sign up on their site.

In the meantime, you can watch the YouTube video about how the tool works. From Steve Rubel

you control the catwalk

Uniqlo always has a fresh way of presenting their new season of product, and fall is no slouch.

You're presented with a virtual catwalk fashion show, where you can change the show from men to women or select an individual style. Click on any model walking the catwalk and you'll get the full rundown of what they're wearing.

An elegant way of presenting a fall catalog. Beautifully produced.