Advertising With Houseflies

Advertising with flies has to be simultaneously one of the ingenious and disturbing marketing tactics in history. Watch the above video of the Frankfurt book fair to see unsuspecting people’s minds blown as a house fly buzzes by trailing a tiny red advertising banner like one of those planes at the beach. I don’t know how effective it would be once the novelty wore off, but in this instance, there were bookworms aplenty stalking flies with their fancy digital cameras, hoping to get a picture. If you have the kind of business where any publicity is good publicity (check your spam box), then this may be your next gimmick.

Before you run off to rile up PETA, the flies were supposedly not harmed, and were only attached by a small amount of wax which fell off in time. You might think I’m kidding about PETA, but they already went after Barack Obama earlier this year for swatting a fly that landed on his arm. I’m not a fan of cruelty to insects, but a swatted fly is hardly cause for a national incident.

I wonder if this adverfliesing was inspired by the recent Bill Gates talk where he released a swarm of mosquitoes on the crowd at the beginning of his speech about the death toll of malaria.

(via Geekologie)

Inspiration Fail

Some ideas come in a sudden flash, as all of the pieces come together in your mind. This is great unless it happens at three in the morning waking up from a drunken stupor, as illustrated below:

Winkers Jeans. For those who would really like their butt to be the first thing people notice about them, and the last. This almost seemed like it had potential, but no, it’s just weird, and not in that good way.

Glowing toilet paper. Funny, but why not make something that isn’t a consumable glow, like the holder? It just seems like a good way to end up with people asking you why your butt is glowing.  (via Geekologie)

A scooter attached to your dog. There are so many accidents waiting to happen here I shudder to think of them all. (via Gizmodo)

Ahh, the never ending battle between people trying to price gouge captive consumers on their beer, and crafty(ish) guzzlers trying to find sneaky ways of smuggling in cheap beer. There have been some interesting attempts over the years, this is not one of them. You fill the seat with beer and then you can sit on it while you drink it, resulting in a cold butt and warm beer, followed by a warm butt on a hard seat. What happens when some lard ass sits on one of these and explodes beer all over the nearby populace? (Via CrunchGear)

This is a live-feed App for the IPhone called E-Mail and Walk. It turns your backgrond into a live view from the camera. This will be great to keep people from falling down manholes while texting. I think it will more often be used while driving. (Via TheRawFeed)

The Uncomb

Keeping up those savage, boyish good looks isn’t always easy. The trick is getting everything placed just right in such a fashion that it looks like you didn’t do anything.

Finally, Martí Guixé has come to our aid with a grooming tool designed for men’s needs: The Uncomb. Did some well meaning individual try to comb your hair? Just leaving the office and losing the suit and tie, wanting to feel like a real human being again? Just pull the uncomb out of your back pocket and give it a few passes for that perfectly tousled look.

(Via GeeksAreSexy)

Poor Man’s Roomba

Are you tired of waiting for your babies to be old enough to be child labor? Too cheap to buy a Roomba? Or just plain lazy? This could be the product for you!

(via CrunchGear)

How to Get Your Stolen Car Back

Alan Heuss was sitting in his BMW in Ohio one night. ”Some young man came up and opened the passenger door and stuck a gun in my face and told me to get out,” Heuss said.

The thieves got away with Heuss’ car, cell phone and some cash.

Later that night, one of his friends got the brilliant Idea to use the stolen phone to get back the stolen car. His friend texted the stolen phone: ‘I’m going to tell them I’ve got a bunch of hot chicks, as if I’m texting you, and that we’ve got some drugs, too.’”

The thieves took the bait and arrived in the stolen car, only to find cops rather than chicks and drugs.

(va 10tv)

Let Me Google That for You

One of the problems associated with geekdom, or even general competence, is that people expect you to fix things for them, answer obscure questions, and show them how to do various simple tasks. Most of the time if I have a problem, I do what any other geek with the resourcefulness of a squirrel would do; I consult google. It isn’t hard. It isn’t any more time consuming than asking someone else, because then they are just going to have to google it for you. Coferifous has heard our call and come to our rescue with his new service let me google that for you. The next time someone asks you a question they should really go find the answer to themselves, don’t tell them to ‘RTFM‘, outsource your snark to letmegooglethatforyou. Such a simple service they offer, yet the need was so great for their services that they have gotten over a million hits in their first 48 hours of existence.

Reverse Graffiti

Robbery

Not all innovations are used for the good of the people. As an armored truck driver walked into a bank with a bag of cash, he noticed a worker with a dust mask and a pump sprayer. Unfortuantely for the guard, the sprayer was full of pepper spray. After this cleverly disguised individual grabbed the cash, he ran to a nearby river where he had an inner tube stashed as a getaway vehicle. To discourage pursuit, he had put out a craigslist ad requesting workers and listing the required clothing for the job: An exact match for his own. His decoys had been told to meet in the area of the bank, and didn’t realize they had been duped until after the robbery.

Full story via King5

Update: It looks like our thief was a bit sloppy. Three weeks prior, he had left a can of mace, a wig, a two way radio, and a safety vest behind a dumpster near the bank. Someone noticed him picking up the items and wrote down his license number. The tip, combined with DNA evidence made solving this one almost too easy. What a Wile E. Coyote moment. Adding this to Imperfection.

Via Wired DANGER ROOM