Taipei City, Taiwan: Beef Noodle Soup

One of my best noodle experiences ever at this Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup shop tucked away in Ximending, a poppin’ trendy shopping area in Taipei City. The Beef Noodle restaurant was actually on the outskirts of all the action so it was a little hard to find, especially because the only information I had was the name of the restaurant, written in chinese, on a piece of note paper. A challenging find as I can’t read Chinese. Challenging but not achievable! When the restaurant was finally in sight, I still wasn’t that sure I had found it. I had to ask a couple of people before I finally decided that this was it. Not the usual set up that I’m used to in the states.
The outdoor kitchen is in the front facing the street.

Dining area da back. Ho Holey ah.

PALDO Bibim Men Korean Spicy Flavor

These are pretty awesome! Sweet, savory, garlicky, spicy and cold! Garnished with honey smoked turkey, organic pea shoots, some jalapeno & a perfectly cooked egg! What an awesome meal. Yummy! Yummy!

DOLL Instant Noodle Pickled Vegetable Flavor August 1st, 2011

Very salty and actually tasted like pickled cabbage. I enjoyed the texture of the noodles as they were nice and round and slurpy.

Illusional advertising

Victim Support |Find The Strength

Victim Support, a UK charity giving free and confidential help to victims of crime, witnesses, their family and friends, is running a print, radio, television and ambient advertising campaign featuring the stories of people affected by crimes. Launched in May 2010, the campaign began with the narratives of victims of attack, burglary and domestic violence, written in handwriting across the faces of the victims, with a reference to the role of Victim Support in helping each one find the inner strength to face life again. The campaign, promoting Victim Support’s new logo and strapline, “Find the Strength”, was followed up with a further campaign with the tagline, “Invest Now”.

On Saturday 11th June, 27 volunteers performed a mini flashmob drama in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens. Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK8G6Ei3-g4

Credits

The Find the Strength campaign was developed at MWO, London, by art directors Steve Williams, Mark Hurst, Jo Webb, copywriters Martyn Smith, Natasha Freedman, Jez Cripps, and photographer Jad Oakes.

Australia Post| Zing Your Thing

Australia Post has released “Zing Your Thing”, an advertising campaign designed to promote parcel services to small and medium businesses that trade online. The campaign, online at zingyourthing.com.au, uses “Zing”, a red furry ball that comes in any size, a metaphor representing the different products and services that small businesses may provide.

Click on the image below to play the Introducing Zing video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBrIDs5PTV0

Click on the image below to play the Zing Yoga (Balanzing) video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=osxoFfAElz0

Click on the image below to play the Zing Fashion video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV-eOXyagLk

Click on the image below to play the Zing Bo video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iB64fOyHTU

Credits

The Zing campaign was developed at Marmalade, Melbourne, by creative director Neil Mallet, creatives Frank Trobbiani and Brian Thacker, agency producer Beaver.
Filming was shot by director Trent O’Donnell via Jungleboys with director of photography Simon Chapmanand producer Nicola Patterson
Digital work was by Amnesia Razorfish.

Australian Government |Clean Energy Future

The Australian Government has launched “Clean Energy Future”, an integrated advertising campaign design to provide the Australian community with information about the Government’s plan for a clean energy future. The campaign, online at cleanenergyfuture.gov.au, climatechange.gov.au, Facebook, Twitter (@cefgovau) and Youtube, provides information on what the Government’s plan means for households, businesses and communities. Television commercials feature real Australians who work in large and small organisations involved in creating a clean energy future for Australia. The campaign also includes print and radio advertisements, along with brochures.

Click on the image below to play the Australia’s Clean Energy Future video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=GclABRT23fA

Click on the image below to play the Creating a Clean Energy Future video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ4EFCPHwus

Click on the image below to play the Cutting Carbon Pollution video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF0MXZq-0Y8

Click on the image below to play the Household Assistance video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcEQuuuuB_4

Click on the image below to play the Why act on carbon pollution now? video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au8-Mr1vGAc

Click on the image below to play the How does carbon pricing work? video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQd_DlkdQ1w

Greg Combet, Minister for the Environment, introduces the Clean Energy Future concept. Click on the image below to play the Greg Combet video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF3bdx5C4_w

Professor Will Steffen, Executive Director of Climate Change institute, Australian National University, and Commissioner, Climate Commission, talks about the risks of rises in temperature and sea level. Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWPN5Ga6g7E

The campaign includes a range of videos outlining the ways households will be helped to deal with the effects of the Price on Carbon. Click on the image below to play Mick’s video in YouTube (HD)

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGsfS-ptODs

The following three commercials are currently set as “private”. Dr Doone Wyborn is Chief Scientist at Geodynamics. Chris McGrath is Development Manager, Infigen, a company responsible for building wind farms. Alex Wonhas is director of the Energy Transformed Flagship in CSIRO, the government’s scientific research community.

Credits

The Clean Energy Future campaign was developed at Smart, Melbourne. The site was developed at Osky Interactive, Canberra.

10 Cool Uses of LED Sign in Times Square

When American Eagle opened its Times Square store in late 2009, most of the attention was on the retailer's sprawling 25,000-square-foot, four-story floor plan. But in the year and half since then, it's the brand's towering building-side LED display that's had the most noticeable impact, even in one of the world's most notoriously cluttered visual landscapes. By the numbers, this digital ziggurat is 15,000 square feet of LED, climbing 25 stories above Broadway and playing animations 18 hours a day. It's one of the nation's premium ad spaces, not only for American Eagle but for the brands and charities that buy (or are given) space there. We've compiled 10 of the more interesting ways the display has been used. Check them out after the jump.

1. '15 Seconds of Fame'
   
   A signature use of the display comes from American Eagle itself—actually, its in-store photo studio, which lets customers pose for pictures that are then displayed on the LED tower, granting them a raucous "15 seconds of fame." Check out the finished product below, and R/GA's case study for more details: American Eagle - 15 Seconds of Fame (case study) 
2. Foursquare
   
   It's not every day that an advertising display itself gets free advertising, but that's essentially what happened when American Eagle's space became home to a massive ad celebrating Foursquare. Sure, it was a great deal for Foursquare, which reportedly didn't pay a dime, but the flood of photos and blog coverage were also great publicity for the Times Square display itself.
3. 'Hear to Help' Haitian Relief
   
   After the devastating Haiti earthquake in 2010, American Eagle partnered with Filter magazine to sell a compilation CD, "Hear to Help," with all proceeds going toward Oxfam's relief efforts.
4. Experience China
   
   This video featuring the people of China was commissioned by the Chinese government to help pave the way diplomatically for President Hu Jintao's visit earlier this year.
5. Mexico: 'The Place You Thought You Knew'
   
   Rounding out our trio of international executions is this colorful tourism display for Mexico, which used the ad as part of a campaign aimed at convincing Americans and Canadians that their southern neighbor has more than just beaches.
6. Milus
   
   Now here's a classy way to show the current time. The watch in the ad is accurate in real time and is shown as part of a video loop. You can see it in action here:
   
7. 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1'
   
   Here's a nice wraparound video execution, made to promote Blu-ray sales for the first-last Harry Potter film. Luckily, some wandering muggle snagged a video:
   
8. Fleet Week
   
   American Eagle ratcheted up the patriotism for Fleet Week. Not a bad idea when you've got thousands of sailors and Marines in town looking to check out Times Square.
9. 'Mary Poppins' on Broadway
   
   A photo doesn't do this one much justice, so check out the full animation for the Broadway revival ofMary Poppins here:
   
10. Audi
    
    What, no augmented reality? Audi seemed to pack every other hot bit of mobile tech into this display, which featured QR codes, SMS and location-based check-ins via Facebook Places or Foursquare. By scanning the QR code, you could access a mobile site that let you tweet a message to Times Square. Or learn about the new Audi A7, I suppose.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to show some love to the people behind the scenes. To build the display, American Eagle hired the Barnycz Group to design it, with the screens provided by Barco and the computer systems set up by Activate the Space LLC. R/GA creates much of the content, and the ad space is sold by ABC Regional Sports & Entertainment Sales (which we also thank for providing much of the art for this post).

B2ten / Canadian Sport for Life| a live-action infographic

What is RSS

 
What is RSS and why do you care?
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the Web.
Say you want to read updates from more than two dozen sites weekly. Having a way to subscribe to those sites from a central location, instead of needing to visit them individually, is very convenient. I read about 232 sites and blogs, and pull the questions from LinkedIn for three categories.
You can also syndicate Google Alerts to an RSS reader, for example, and save your inbox for real correspondence. I also have a service that tells me if someone is reposting my feed, which is how I know when sites scrape my content.
As a publisher, you want to offer a way for people to subscribe to your content -- and offering a feed along with an option to receive it in the form of email, is the easiest way to do that.
Despite the link sharing taking place on various social networks -- Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ -- feeds are still a major way to publish and pull content.





[image courtesy of Stephanie Quilao]

Kerala Tourism| Your moment is waiting

This promotional film for Kerala Tourism can be considered as a refreshing deviation from its usual line of communication. The promotional film titled ‘your moment is waiting’, whether you like it or not, is worth watching.
Kochi based Stark Communications, which has been handling the Kerala Tourism brand for almost two decades, has developed this promotional film, and the credit mainly goes to the renowned ad film maker Prakash Varma.
Well, Kerala has been promoted as ‘God’s own country’ (the credit for coining this much-used tagline too goes for Stark) and almost all the campaigns for KT has pivoted around it. It’s true that Kerala is rich with natural scenery and picture-perfect destinations. Backwaters, paddy fields, Ayurveda- indeed Kerala evokes all these images in the minds of a tourist. However, at some point the frequent use of this imagery in usual communication track seemed a bit tiresome. This commercial too is rich with such imagery, but in a different communication style- it’s bold.