Saturday, April 19, 2008

I Suddenly Feel the Urge to Buy Something





The evil geniuses in advertising (sorry, guys) keep finding tricky new ways to sell you stuff. Let's start with cloud ads. Yes, that's right. Cloud ads.

A company has found a way to create floating "clouds," which they call Flogos. Made from "a mixture of soap-based foams and lighter-than-air gases," Flogos can take any virtually any shape. (For instance, the peace sign shown above--or your favorite corporate logo.) Each Flogo is approximately two feet long and can float for miles. A single Flogo machine can produce one tiny cloud every fifteen seconds, which means it won't take long to fill the skies with flying logos.

It's a little bit sinister, but nothing compared to the advertising campaign that hit New York earlier this year. For weeks, pedestrians walking through downtown Manhattan were surprised to hear someone whispering in their ears. “Who’s there?" the mysterious voice said. "It’s not your imagination.”

The voice was coming from a nearby billboard (shown below), which advertised a television show about ghosts. Using a new technology, speakers above the billboard were sending focused beams of sound directly into people's ears. Each pedestrian felt as if she were hearing something that no one else could hear. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those people are now seeking psychiatric help. Read more here.


21 comments:

Invisible Turtle said...

I'm afraid of ghosts, so...

ss chick said...

THATS SO COOL!!! i freak myself out about ghosts every now and then, but the rest of the time i just have good stories about ghost encounters. like my friends older brother was out driving with his friends (when you live in the middle of nowhere, theres alot of space to drive) and it was all dark... and the rest is history. well not really, but ya know. but yeah, that would be so cool.

ps: hey ananka! you should do a post on how they tested the fairy tale stuff (climbing hair, uh, and other stuff). we read it in language arts class, you should check it out. but... i'm not really sure where you would go to check it out. hehe... yeah...

Gamma said...

Oh no, NOT THE FLYING WINDOWS LOGO, nooooooooo!

Anonymous said...

Amazing! How much would it cost to send the Irregular's logo up there? The world should know more of Kiki Strike! Oops, that's not what Kiki wants, is it?Oh well. We, the curious, are still the select group.

Brrrr. The thought of thinking you were hearing ghosts freaks me out. Maybe Lester Lu should have come up with that when trying to convince Oona there was a hungry ghost in the mansion.

Wow. This edition of the blog could relate to Kiki Strike in several ways.

~Skyla

E-star said...

Wow, I found that rather scary. I'm a little "afraid" of advertising because it alwaysmakes me think "is it that easy to get into peoples minds?". It's scary but at the same time facinating.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I just noticed that this was posted at 5:30 AM. Kirsten/ananka, do you do look up random things when you can't sleep? Where do you find this stuff, anyway? lol. 5:30 am. lol.

~Skyla

Sekrit7 said...

The Cloud thing is cool, but I am against it. In my opinion, the sky is the most beautiful place on/above earth. We shouldn't mess it up with "flouting cloud ads" Does anyone agree with me?

The Into Your Mind thing is soooo completly feaky! It's really cool, but they should say somewhere around the bill board what it is, because I bet a ton of people are now deemed "nuts" or are seeing a phycatrist or something. As you can see, I'm mostley against ads

Where DO you find this stuff??

Kitty said...

I wonder if it can create an Irregulars logo! ('o') Lol

International Mastermind said...

Curse the 27% of Americans who don't believe! (According to that billboard.)

If I heard that, I would be all "PROOF! I have PROOF!" and the world would say,
"Yes, sweetie, yes, yes you do..."
And then send me to the wacky shack.

Anonymous said...

do any of you live in san luis obispo california?

Kiel said...

Sweet! u should make an Irregular logo Flogo!!!

I always get freaked out at supermarkets when they annouce stuff over the PA, so if "someone"
whispered in my ear, id be like paranoid for the rest of my life!

Cupcakedoll said...

Cloud ads. Hmm. I'm torn between "cool" and "tacky."
...
....
After some thought, I decide on tacky! Don't muck up the perfectly nice sky.

What was cool was when the Mythbusters used lighter than air gas and soapsuds and made a tower of foam and then lit it on fire, woosh! They do lots of cool things that I'm smart enough not to try on account of I'd blow up my house.

FN da World Dictator said...

thats. so. COOOLLLLL!!!!!! I've always been interested in ghosts.
By the way, the one anonymous who said if we lived in san luis obispo or not, why would i reveal my abode? That's is NOT irregular!

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with sekret7 about the sky. We have advertisments everywhere else. why do we need it in the sky? One more thing to mess up this world. But to be fair, its a amazing invention.

As for the ghosts, I dont bleive in them, and, I think it was cruel to do that without people knowing. that has to be some violation of SOMETHING. haha. again, great invention, but in my popinion, wrong use.

Anonymous said...

your right,world somthing,i shuoldent have asked.sorry:(

Kirsten Miller said...

Anonymous: Don't be sorry! As long as you don't reveal your home address, I don't see any reason why you can't say what town you're from.

I've never been to San Luis Obispo. Is there anything weird and dangerous there?

Anonymous said...

nothing dangerous,persay,but there are a lot of tunnels and mysterys:)

Anonymous said...

oh,and weird,yes.

insanewriter said...

are there any harmfull effects on the environment. and no, i don't live there (TUNNELS!!!! that sounds cool)


that's sounds cool, except, then it wouldn't be so much fun to do cloudwatching (1 says "hey look i see a cloud that looks like an elaphent (eeeek, that's spelled totally wrong isn't it!)"

2 says "hey that cloud looks like the logo for randomcompany!"

1 says "Duh! it's a flogo, they did that on purpose!")


and that would be kinda annouying!

Marinovska said...

cool! i want a flogo 4 my band!

-Zero

CosimaCat, who gave up on her old account said...

Well that wouldn't be much of a problem with me! I already hear things... I'd just think my gods were cracking up!

No I am not schizophrenic. Seriously.

Wow did I miss this blog! Now I've got months to catch up on.