How many times have you been waiting for a bus or a train when you hear that alarming beep? You take out your phone only to find the battery is drained and only a sliver of red remains. Foolishly, you dig for your charger and look around for an outlet that doesn't exist. Well, search no more. Next time you're in this pickle, you just might find what you're looking for.
In an effort to plug (pun intended) the "energy-boosting" properties of their drink, Vitaminwater is outfitting bus shelter ads in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston with 5-volt battery USB ports so users can charge their phones, iPods and gaming devices while on the go. Sure, it's a brazen marketing campaign preying on the vulnerable, battery-depleted masses, but what isn't these days?
The ad campaign is brainchild of Miami-based advertising agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, famous for their Truth anti-tobacco campaign. The agency has been named agency of the year for the second year in a row by Communication Arts.
Although bus shelters are literally a new outlet (Samsung offers this service in airports) creative marketing is no stranger to them. In 2009,the Got Milk? campaign rigged bus stations in San Francisco to smell like cookies.
Now if only an ad agency could come up with a way to recharge our spiritual batteries after enduring long, cross-town bus rides with loud talkers, sloppy eaters and crying babies. Wouldn't that be something?
Mosquito bites are perhaps the one thing that are worse than the heat in Japan during the summer. Not only do they itch the entire day, these pesky little blood-suckers annoy the general population with their loud buzzing and constant flying in circles. Sea’s Garden, a smart phone gaming and utility app maker, offers a solution to the terror that mosquitoes bring to man, without harming the environment.
The Mosquito Buster is an Android app (soon to be released for the iPhone as well) that acts as a mosquito coil, but instead of burning off insect killing smoke, it releases a high-frequency sound from your smart phone speakers which these insects detest.
The app is extremely simple to operate: users choose between 3 modes, each with corresponding frequencies. The first is obviously to avoid mosquitos, and the second, rodents. The third was what caught our attention and seemed particularly amusing. The third mode is titled “Avoid Children”, as it releases a frequency only detectable to children, as adult ears cannot hear the high pitched sound. It would be useful for parents who need a little bit of peace and quiet from their screaming, energetic toddlers. It’s nice to see useful utility apps like these that offer clever ways of solving consumer problems in an eco-friendly manner. Looks like I’m going to finally get a good nights sleep tonight without having to worry about pesky insects (or children for that matter) that bring a world of itchiness to my feet .
