PBS KIDS GO's Design Squad Nation Inspiring Community of Creative Kids

WGBH's Emmy® Award-winning Design Squad Nation is introducing a revamped website to inspire the next generation of engineers. The online community is fueling kids' spirit of inventiveness, providing a destination where they can discover firsthand that engineering isn't something done by boring grownups in hidden labs: it's solving problems in creative ways...everyday, and all around you. Full press release below.

PBS KIDS' Design Squad Nation® Introduces Revamped Site

To Inspire Community of Creative Kids

-- Emmy® Award-winning Team behind Design Squad Launches Extensive Updates and New Features to Inspire Next Generation of Engineers --

(Boston, MA, Tuesday, October 2, 2012) - WGBH announced the official launch of the revamped Design Squad Nation®, an online community that provides kids with a forum to express their adventurous, do-it-yourself spirit and share their creative ideas with other like-minded kids. Hot on the heels of a renewed DIY movement, the PBS KIDS Design Squad Nation website is the latest iteration of a franchise that includes a four-season run of the Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning TV shows Design Squad and Design Squad Nation. Design Squad Nation can be found at http://pbskids.org/designsquad/.

Why it's important

By nature, every young kid is a budding engineer: building contraptions with glue and Popsicle sticks or sketching an idea for an automatic pet feeder. But as kids get older, they have fewer moments in their daily lives where they can develop those critical thinking skills. Design Squad Nation fuels kids' spirit of inventiveness, providing a destination where they can discover firsthand that engineering isn't something done by boring grownups in hidden labs: it's solving problems in creative ways...everyday, and all around you.

How it works

Kids can join Design Squad Nation for free; earn points by contributing ideas, sketches, and photos of the projects they dream up; and keep track of all the things they have made in their own profile pages. As users contribute more to the site, they earn more points and move up in rank from "Newbie" to "Phenom." The goal is to frame the design process as a game, encouraging a virtuous cycle that gets kids to continue sharing their own ideas while cheering on others to do the same.

Kids ask great questions that deserve great answers! On Design Squad Nation, engineer-hosts Nate Ball and Deysi Melgar respond to questions in a series of short videos posted online. One week, Nate will add his own ideas to kids' sketches of waterpark rides. The next, Deysi will share what's so amazing about NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. As mentors and guides, Nate and Deysi show kids how engineers see things through a creative lens, inspiring kids to do the same.

Video made for the YouTube Generation

Into fashion? We've got a video about how engineering connects to it. How about cooking, sports, camping, or dancing? We've got those, too, and we're rolling out more videos all the time-from cool stunts to how-tos. We know that kids have many interests, and that their favorites shift from one thing to the next. No matter what they are into, Design Squad Nation has a video, project, or inspiring example of how engineering can further their interests.

The team behind the site

A passionate team of educators, Emmy® Award-winning producers, and website engineers at WGBH created Design Squad (the TV show) and Design Squad Nation. And that team is constantly looking for new ways to share the power of engineering and inspire kids to dream big. Their efforts are garnering wide acclaim. Design Squad Nation just earned a 2012 Emmy Award in the category of New Approaches-Daytime Children's.

"More than a website, Design Squad Nation is a growing community built around the belief that through creative problem-solving and engineering, any kid can make a difference," says executive producer Marisa Wolsky. "We currently are hard at work to make this community bigger and stronger, inspiring a new generation of engineers to dream big and change the world."

Design Squad Nation invites the next generation of great thinkers to get involved at pbskids.org/designsquadnation. Viewers also can follow Design Squad Nation on Facebook and on Twitter.

How To Adapt Your Brand Image Across Languages and Cultures

In some respects the business world has never been smaller. Globalization, mass communication and the internet have all put new markets within reach for businesses of all sizes. But linguistic and cultural barriers still remain, and marketers need to take care when venturing across these divides.

Lost in translation

There are numerous instances of companies whose message has been lost in translation. When Pepsi took their slogan “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” to Taiwan it was mistranslated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead” - a claim that even the staunchest of Pepsi fans might have difficulty backing up. Not to be outdone, Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous “Finger lickin' good” was translated into Chinese as “Eat your fingers off.”

Companies are advised to check that their actual brand and product names give the right impression abroad. Ikea, for example, brought out a mobile work desk for kids. The name 'Fartfull' suggested speed and mobility in Swedish, but caused more of a stink elsewhere.

Good quality translation is clearly essential when taking your brand abroad. This ideally means working with native speaking translators. They will not only avoid linguistic errors, but can also identify any cultural issues and nuances that might otherwise be missed.

Attention to detail is obviously important in a major international marketing campaign, but the same rule should also be applied even if you are just localizing your website. Automatic translation tools such as Google Translate can be useful for getting the gist of foreign texts. But they’re prone to misunderstandings, contextual errors, and do not deal well with colloquialisms, slang, linguistic variations or commonly used acronyms and abbreviations.

English might remain the single most widely used language online, but it still represents only around a quarter of total usage. Studies have shown that customers place far more trust in websites in their own language. Localization can help you break into new markets, but a badly translated site can do as much harm as good.

Cultural issues

There can also be issues arising from a lack of cultural understanding or foresight. As well as translating the language, consider the use of images carefully. Sexually charged images and innuendo can end up being more risky than risqué, and even images that may be considered relatively innocuous in your home market can cause grave offence in another.

Even the use of color can have different connotations within different cultures. In most of the western world, for example, white is associated with weddings and purity, while in India, Japan and China it is more likely to be associated with death and mourning. In Ireland, orange can have political and religious connotations. Using an inappropriate color scheme is unlikely to cause rioting in the streets but it can set the wrong tone and trigger a negative subconscious response in viewers.

A knowledge of slang, colloquialisms and naughty words in particular can also come in handy. Like many other companies, Swedish medical suppliers Locum sent Christmas cards to their customers. It's a little touch that can mean a lot - but their seasonally loved up logo took on a different meaning in North America and the UK.

The above example might have been no more than a faux pas that raised a chuckle and provided a few red faces, but some mistakes are far more serious. They can also occur not just when dealing with foreign markets but also within a single multicultural market.

In 2002 the British sportswear company Umbro (which would later be bought out by Nike) was forced to withdraw its Zyklon range of running shoes and issue a hasty apology. 'Zyklon' means 'cyclone' in German, which may have been an appropriate name for a running shoe if not for some unfortunate and horrible connotations. Zyklon B was the trade name of the poison used by Nazis to murder Jews and other concentration camp victims during World War II.

Dr Stephen Smith, co-founder of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire, said: "Commercial appropriation of words carrying connotations of mass murder is utterly unacceptable.”

It’s important to give careful thought to potential cultural oversights and misunderstandings. Native-speaking translators can again help avoid mistakes and faux pas and, at the very least, material should be tested with a sample group from the target market. Without a little attention to detail it can be relatively easy for a company to either make itself a laughing stock or, even worse, to cause serious offence and alienate a huge swathe of potential customers.

About the author

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, a top translation service in the USA. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 150 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over forty million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24.

Interactive Campaign Using Instagram For Velux

Students Kat and Andrew put together a little interactive installation for VELUX set in the streets of Copenhagen for an industry project at The Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) run by Jamie Allen.

#theVELUXpose is an interactive installation for VELUX set in the streets of Copenhagen. VELUX specializes in roof windows and our brief was to inspire young urban citizens to see the roof as an opportunity space and something to aspire to. Our goal was to connect the digital generation and VELUX.

As a symbol, we used the posture people have when looking through these roof windows, which is looking up at an angle of 125º. We brought this experience from the roof, down down to the streets and used Instagram as a way to get people excited and involved.

We put an iPhone in a box with a frame that has VELUX written on it so that it would come up as the border in the image. We hacked together a really long handsfree kit cable so that we could trigger the camera from far. The image gets synced with an iPad for participants to upload their image to Instagram with their own filter.

We put an iPhone in a box with a frame that has VELUX written on it so that it would come up as the border in the image. We hacked together a really long handsfree kit cable so that we could trigger the camera from far. The image gets synced with an iPad for people to upload their image to Instagram with their own filter.

Credits:
Project by:
Andrew Spitz - andrew-spitz.com
Kat Zorina - katzorina.com

In Between Odds "Astral" Toronto International Film Festival

A struggling director develops a very noticeable facial defect thanks to having the door slammed in his face a few times, talks about how tough it is to break into the film industry. The short film is meant to highlight Astral's support of Canadian culture and the creatives.

Astral invests more than $170 millions into Canada's film industry each year.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: BCP, Montreal, Canada
President: Alain Bergeron
Creative Director/Lead Copywriter: Étienne Bastien
Co-creative Director/Art director: Jonathan Rouxel
Copywriter: Dom Bulmer
Agency Producer: Carole Beauchamp
Account service: Michèle Bastien
Production House: Quatre zero un
Director: Emmanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Director of Photography: André Turpin
Producer: Marie-Claude Langlois
Music/Sound design: Sonart
Post production: Vison Globale

In Honor of Tony Scott | The Last Diet Mountain Dew "Livin' the Life" with Mark Cuban

In honor of director Tony Scott (directed Hollywood hit movies Top Gun, Days of Thunder and Beverly Hills Cop II) who passed away this past Sunday at the age of 68, Great-Ads would like to honor Scott by featuring one of his last directorial works. The Last Diet Mountain Dew commercial entitled "Livin’ the Life" featuring Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban offering up all sorts of luxuries for the last Diet Dew only to be rejected.

Credits:
Ad Agency: BBDO, New York
Director: Tony Scott via RSA Films
Art Director: Eduardo Petersen
Copywriter: Christopher Cannon
Director of photography: Jeff Cronenweth
Editor: Skip Chaison
Visual effects and post production: Smoke & Mirrors, New York
Chief creative officer: Sean Broughton
Head of production Amy Selwocki

Director Tony Scott was a thrill-seeker in his personal life, an avid rock climber who also liked driving fast cars and motorcycles. Still, filmmaking was his real thrill.

Domino's Pizza Get's a New Look Logo

The New Domino's Pizza Logo above, the old below. Not much of a difference really, it's basically the same logo minus the text.

In the U.S., when the text does still appear in the new logo, the "Domino's Pizza" will be replaced with "Domino's" only. Russell Weiner (Domino's chief marketing officer) said that "so much of our menu is beyond pizza right now that we feel like we're more than just a pizza place."

Domino's ad agency is MDC Partners, CP&B.

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An Illuminati Conspiracy in an Axe Ad?

Here is an interesting analysis of the AXE Susan Glenn commercial, it is lengthy but you can't help but watch it (a few times myself) know matter what your views are on the whole Illuminati and Symbolism thing.

The Groxt has his own interpretation of the Illuminati and the symbolism found within the Susan Glenn Axe spot, he claims and actually makes some very compelling points that show the rapture, earthquake, day of the lord and on and on...

Personally, I enjoyed the fact of just how detailed he was in dissecting the spot frame by frame.
Discovered via: Agency Spy

The Art Of Logo Design

PBS OffBook presents The Art of Logo Design.

Logos surround us in digital and physical space, but we rarely examine the thought and artistic thinking that goes into the design of these symbols. Utilizing a silent vocabulary of colors, shapes, and typography, logo designers give a visual identity to companies and organizations of all types. From cave painters to modern designers, artists throughout history have been reducing the complex down to simple ideas that communicate with the world.

The Art Logo Design features: Stephen Heller, Sagi Haviv, Kelli Anderson, and Gerard Huerta. Produced by Kornhaber Brown.

A Visual History of Advertising

Here's a cool little illustration of the history of advertising, the advertising timeline dates back to 2000BC when Egyptians first invent outdoor advertising by carving public notices in steel, to the year 2011 where online advertising worldwide becomes second in budget priority, typically at the expense of print and radio.

The illustration was created by/for InfoLinks, you know the ad company that places pop-up in-text ads.

I know there may be some disagreement with the info-graphic on dates and who did what and when, either way it's a fun illustration of where advertising has been.

Bad FedEx Delivery Guy....An Epic Fail

At Great-Ads we love to share truly great advertising campaigns, and sometimes we need to remind ourselves here that it's the creatives behind the work that we want to compliment and not the brands. Ok so why are we rambling on.......FedEx, oh FedEx with so many a great ad featured here like The Enchanted Forest, the Dominoes spot from BBDO, Toronto, and one my personal favorites The FedEx AAAAAAAAA Auto Repair Shop ad...one of your delivery guys does this!!!



"goobie55" who uploaded this video on YouTube, obviously upset about how her package was handled by the FedEx delivery man, was even more surprised considering she was home with her front door wide open.
Note To FedEx: the best advertising campaign is useless when videos like this are as common as your commercials.

Koko Productions Can Make Anything Sound Good Even Cow @&$!

Koko Productions is a sound house that claims it can make anything sound good. So we asked: anything, anything? Yup, turns out it’s anything. Even this.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: DDB, Vancouver, Canada
Creative Directors: Dean Lee, Cosmo Campbell
Associate Creative Director: Daryl Gardiner
Copywriters: Amina Halim, Daryl Gardiner
Art Directors: Daryl Gardiner, Amina Halim
Agency Producers: Sue Bell
Account Services: Sue Bell
Film Company: Transmission Inc.
Director: Joe LaFleur
Director of Photography: Mike Hawley
Line Producer: Joe La Fleur
Post Production Co: Transmission Inc.
Editor: Bradley Smith
Post Facility: Transmission Inc.
Online Editor: Bradley Smith
Colourist: Bradley Smith
Audio House: Koko Productions
Audio House Producer: Steve Lowe
Audio House Engineer: Murray Price
Composer / Actor / Flautist: Murray Price

BGH Quick Chef Music | Awesome Microwave That Plays Music

Say good bye to your old microwave and that annoying "Beep...beeep...beeeep" when your food is ready. Thanks to a brilliant idea from the ad agency Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi who came up with idea of a music playing microwave for the firm BGH. The test was so successful that they are going begin mass production of the Quick Chef Music Microwave and available to buy in 2012.
And yes, that is the music of The Mamas & The Papas in this commercial and the wildly popular song "California Dreamin."
Credits:
Advertising Agency: Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Argentina
Executive Creative Directors: Maxi Itzkoff, Mariano Serkin
Creative Directors: Diego Medvedocky, Ignacio Ferioli
Creatives: Guilherme Souza, Breno Costa
Producer: Camilo Rojas
Agency Producers: Adrian Aspani, Lucila D'Amico
Account director: Jaime Vidal
Account Executive: Manuela Sorzana
Microwave product development: Marcelo Da Torre / Creavis
Production Company: Pank
Directors: Pablo Fusco, Juan Chappa
Executive Producer: Lucas Urquiza
Photography Director: Federico Cantini
Post Production Company: La Sociedad Post
Music: Diego Grimblat
Advertiser's Supervisors: Ezequiel Devoto, Viviana Insaurralde

Cat + Advertising = Catvertising

One of my favorite ad agencies John St. from my home town of Toronto, have just lost their minds or so they would have us think with the agencies new direction in Catvertising and this great self promo spot...'Nobody wants to see ads anymore. They want cat videos'
To stay on top of the ever-changing advertising landscape, john st. has opened the world's first cat video division. With production, filming and seeding all in-house. Ask yourself, what can cat videos do for your business.

2 Minutes with Kate Moross via Think-Work-Play

Think Work Play (http://think-work-play.com/), the webzine that charts the creative process in London. A recent interview with Kate Moross, a well-acclaimed London-based illustrator/designer who has done work on Cadburys, Topshop and Samsung ad campaigns, as well as the who’s who of music and culture (Kate has just finished the latest music video for the electronic duo Simian Mobile Disco). In the video, Kate talks about how a certain company approached her about designing a bong, her favourite colours and her admiration of the Queen Mother’s fashion sense.

Virgin Book by Weather

Feeling adventurous? Well now you can let Virgin pick your next vacation destination.
Instead of booking a trip, you can book a weather. Yes, a weather, because that's what more often than not can ruin even the most well-though-out perfect vacation. Weather you're going somewhere windsurfing and you're in need of wind, a skiing holiday and you need snow (obviously) and minus degrees or a beach bum looking for sun - this is what you need.
Although, this would appeal to the more adventurous traveler or the one that doesn't really have a specific destination in mind. Technically it's very simple. Virgin would scan the weather forecasts right up until your departure date and take you as far as your money stretches in order to also provide you with the perfect weather to match your soon-to-be perfect vacation.

Credits:
Advertising School: Miami Ad School, Hamburg, Germany
Instructors: Tara Lawall
Art Director: Glen Hansen
Copywriter: Otilia Dobrea

Athletes and Ad Agency Crew Get Naked for Athena Happy Boxers

Not only does the client, Athena convince members of the French Athletics Team to go naked for their promo of "Athena HappY", but the athletes convince the ad agency (Euro RSCG 360) crew to get naked during the shoot for the campaign too.

Credits:
Athena, number one seller of men underwear in retail stores across France is launching its brand new line while anouncing its partnership with the French Athletics team. The brand strategy brought by EURO RSCG 360 brings a new playful spirit to the brand. Gone is the idealized image of the muscle man, welcome fun and humor for a campaign as colorful as the new boxers. 4 athletes strip down in the first step of the integrated campaign in a series of outdoor ads and a making of that reveals the naked truth about advertising.
Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG 360, France
Advertiser's supervisors: Dominique Seau, Anouk Ribard, Françoise Chauvin
Agency's CEO: Pascal Allard
Agency's Managing Director: Vincent Mayet
Executive Creative Director: Hugues Pinguet
Account supervisors: Vanessa Bernard-Granger, Anne-Flore Seringe
Art Director: Thomas Derouault
Copywriter: Dimitri Hekimian
Art Buyer: Isabelle Baud
Agency Producer: Christophe Demeure
Photographer: Jean-Yves Lemoigne
Retoucher: Asile
Director: Agathe Riedinger
Production Company: Marcassin
Athletes: Renaud Lavillenie, Kevin Mayer, Martial Mbandjock, Romain Barras

Cosmo For Guys The What Girls Look At Experiment

Anthony wants to find out which one of his body parts girls look at when they first meet him. Four hidden cameras are placed on his body to conduct this experiment: a crotch cam, a bicep cam, a butt cam, and a glasses cam (so the viewer can always see what/who Anthony is looking at). All videos are being recorded onto HD DVRs that are placed in Anthony's backpack.

Anthony walks around New York City and approached different girls, asking them for directions. The video is a montage of some of the girls who chose to take a peek at either his butt, his crotch, or his biceps.
The concept was created by Thinkmodo for the second edition of iPad magazine Cosmo For Guys. The first one, iPad Head Girl, featured a girl walking around with iPads around her noggin, based on the idea of "What do girls think about?"

Credits:
Agency: Thinkmodo
Client: Cosmo For Guys
Creative Director: James L. Percelay
Creative Director: Michael Krivicka
Editing: Michael Krivicka

The Impossible Song

The Prime Minister of Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas: President of Palestine and President Barrack Obama star in "The Impossible Brief" doing the impossible song in this spot created by BBR Saatchi Saatchi.
Credits:
For over 60 years it has been waiting for a great creative mind like yours. Crack the brief and win a pass to the 2011 Cannes Lions Awards Festival. Last Deadline - December 1st. http://www.theimpossiblebrief.com/

Advertising Agency: BBR Saatchi & Saatchi, Israel
Chief Creative Officer: Yoram Levi
Creative Directors: Ben Sever, Eddie goldbenberg
Art Director: Eran Nir
Copywriter: Tomer Gidron
Digital Designer: Yaron Sagy
Additional credits:
Original Music: http://www.krop.com/tomerbiran/
Editor: Deddan Uziel

@radical.media Announces Site Relaunch

Radical Media, the firm behind such great ad campaigns as: Dos Equis - Stay Thristy My Friends, Mastercard - Priceless, Walmart - Hi Mom, and Nike - Jump to name just a few launches  their new website.

A global transmedia company that creates some of the world’s most innovative content launches new company site with CSS-powered animations, flash video player, web application and full feature HTML5 iPad/iPhone version: www.radicalmedia.com

About the website:
The new radical media website is a light-weight content-forward website, aimed at providing the most relevant and most recent material up front. All animations are powered by JavaScript, and our use of AJAX provides a seamless user experience with minimal page refreshes. The site works for desktop and HTML5 compatible devices such as the iPad. For desktop, the site utilizes a homemade flash video player. For iPad, the site utilizes a html5 video. Mobile users are given the option to view the new html5 enabled website or view our Webby-nominated .mobi site from 2007.

About radical.media
radical.media is a global transmedia company that creates some of the world’s most innovative content across all forms of media.

The company develops, produces and distributes award-winning projects in a variety of media including television, digital, feature films, music programming, commercials, graphic and interactive design, exhibitions, events, and original photography, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Sydney and Shanghai. The company’s global network has given it a foundation for identifying and incubating in-house and new talent, while offering their client base a worldwide platform for the production, development and distribution of content.

The company has been honored with an Academy Award®, Emmys®, a Golden Globe®, Grammys®, Webbys, The Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Communication Design, two Palme d’Ors at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and just about every other accolade and trophy associated with the advertising, marketing, and programming businesses.

Starbucks, Lexus and Budweiser First to Advertise on Pandora iPad advertising platform

Pandora announced today that Starbucks, Lexus, and Budweiser are the first brands on the new Pandora iPad advertising platform. Each campaign features attributes that fully make the most of one or more of the rich video, audio and interactive capabilities of the iPad.

Pandora's unique advertising solutions draw from its multi-platform presence – now including the iPad – and ability to hyper-target consumers by gender, age, location, the type of music they like, and time of day. Advertisers on Pandora can stream video, audio, direct response or experiential creative to a specific set of consumers anytime, anywhere: on their computers at the office, home, on their smart-phones, and now, on the iPad.

John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer of Pandora, said, "Our debut advertisers have gone all out with eye-popping creative that really works in the anything-can-be-done world of the iPad. Pandora users already engage with their Pandora application to the tune of eight times an hour, refining their stations or interacting with relevant advertising. We expect that engagement to be in full-force as they experience the appealing and relevant ads playing in concert with their musical experience on the iPad. We're extremely excited that our newest platform is being utilized to its fullest extent by Starbucks, Lexus, and Budweiser to reach the consumers they want, anytime, anywhere."

Starbucks
The however-you-want-it Frappuccino® beverage campaign brings to life the new customization aspects of the iconic beverage aimed to connect with consumers for whom self-expression is a priority -- especially when it comes to their choice of beverage. As part of this campaign, Starbucks has created unique experiences with Pandora across several digital platforms. While Pandora web users can build their however-you-want-it Frappuccino® beverage which then generates a radio station playlist matched to the user's beverage taste, iPad users are able to connect with the Starbucks brand through videos, without leaving the Pandora application.

Lexus
"As the exclusive automotive partner for the Pandora iPad application, we look forward to showcasing our new brand commercial to this audience of early adopters," states Dave Nordstrom, vice president of marketing for Lexus. "The spot, titled 'Pitch,' features the LFA as it revs its engine to a pitch that shatters a champagne glass. It shows just how deep our pursuit of perfection and commitment to innovation goes and by running the ad on untraditional media, we show that Lexus is not only at the forefront of technology with its vehicle designs, but also with how we communicate with consumers."

The Lexus "Pitch" Commercial is very cool

Budweiser
"Integrating Budweiser and Bud Light Lime into the Pandora iPad application is a great opportunity for us to interact with adult music enthusiasts utilizing the latest mobile technology," said Mark Wright, vice president of media, sponsorship and activation, Anheuser-Busch. "As the exclusive festivals page sponsor, Budweiser gives Pandora users a destination within the application to connect with some of the biggest music festivals of the year. Additionally, by extending Bud Light Lime's summer-themed stations to the iPad application, users will have a new platform to enjoy the 'Summer State of Mind' year-round."