Because there’s apparently a demand for selfies of people while they’re drinking soda, Coca-Cola has a new bottle design that takes a photo while you sip from it. [More]
gimmicks
QR Code On Ketchup Bottles Points To Porn Because Of Expired Domain
By 6.19.15
When you’re setting up a 4th of July barbecue in a couple of weeks, you might want to make sure none of the kids or sensitive souls nearby scan the QR code on the Heinz ketchup. That’s because, thanks to an expired promotion, the site it leads to isn’t fun ketchup marketing… it’s hardcore porn. [More]
3D, Smell-O-Vision & Indoor Weather: Rating The Best & Worst Movie Theater Innovations
By 4.20.15
Summer blockbuster season is almost upon us. The months of kicking back in the full-blast air conditioning and watching digitally-created stuff blow up will begin in just a couple of weeks, and at this point, it’s an annual ritual. [More]
Russia’s Biggest Bank Offering Loaner Cats To Entice Mortgage Borrowers
By 8.28.14
Because it’s apparently good luck in Russia to let a cat stroll through your new home before you move your stuff in, and because mortgage interest rates have skyrocketed in the country, some employees at the nation’s largest bank are offering to lend out their feline friends to a handful of mortgage borrowers in the coming months. [More]
How To Banish Google's Personalized Gimmickry From Your Search Results
By 1.13.12
If you’re not a fan of Google’s new personal search results and would rather return to the old Googling you’re used to, you can do so with a few simple steps. [More]
Abercrombie & Fitch To Resurrect Soft Core Catalog
By 6.26.10
With sales down and consumer interest flagging, Abercrombie & Fitch has decided it’s time to bring back its provocative catalog. The return of A&F Quarterly, which will go on sale July 17 for $10, is a blatant grab for the attention of America’s recession-wracked teen spenders. Will it succeed? [More]
New Billboard Smells Like Steak, Sort Of
By 6.7.10
If you find yourself driving down River Highway in Mooresville, NC this summer and suddenly smell a vaguely steak-like odor, don’t worry, you’re not having a stroke. You’re passing by the billboard for Bloom, a supermarket chain that’s owned by Food Lion. The billboard went up last Friday and poots out a charcoal-and-pepper fragrance from 7 to 10 a.m. and again from 4 to 7 p.m. [More]
HDTV Lies Exposed By Industry Expert
By 5.24.10
The next time you go shopping for a new HDTV, keep in mind that the brightness and contrast settings don’t adjust brightness and contrast, and most of the fancier-sounding image quality controls don’t do anything except possibly degrade the image. Also, motion blur in live video is largely imaginary, which is good because advertised response times are highly exaggerated. And hey, that impressive “dynamic contrast ratio” the manufacturer is crowing about? Most of the extra contrasty goodness happens when there’s no image on the screen. [More]
Sweat Off The Pounds With The Snuggie Sauna
By 9.24.09
A New York spa is offering clients a Snuggie sweat lodge that allegedly burns 600 calories in fifteen minutes. We’re going to be sick.
Not All Camaro Owners Got Free Pizza From Papa John's
By 8.27.09
Like Quizno’s and KFC before them, Papa John’s went and set up a cute promotion without making sure that all of their franchisees have signed on. Papa John’s founder John Schnatter was reunited with his long-lost 1971 Camaro, and to celebrate, promised free pizza to anyone who drove up to a Papa John’s restaurant in a Camaro. Except, you guessed it, not at all Papa John’s locations.
Sears: Lose Your Job, Keep Your Purchase, Forget The Debt
By 6.29.09
Acknowledging that skittish consumers are still unwilling to buy big-ticket items, Sears tomorrow plans to unveil a bold new guarantee: if you lose your job after charging a purchase worth $399 or more to your Sears card, the retailer will credit 1/12th of the purchase price to your account for each month you are unemployed. If you stay jobless for one year, the debt is entirely forgiven, and the appliance is yours to keep.
Is Tentacle Grape Soda Real? Because Their Shipment Dates Aren't
By 3.13.09
Really, grape soda with a tentacle hentai theme (don’t Google it if you’re not sure what we’re talking about, especially if you’re at work) just makes sense. Sex-starved tentacled monsters getting it on with anime vixens just cries out to be packaged as a grape drink and sold. But one reader, Lincoln, says he bought his own 6-pack of the drink back at the start of the year and has yet to see it.
JetBlue Will Refund Your Ticket If You Get Laid Off Or Fired
By 2.18.09
Afraid you might get laid off? Too worried to book plane tickets? JetBlue thinks you are. They’ve launched a program that guarantees a full refund to those of you who get laid off at least two weeks before you fly.
