Advertising: Hip-Hop for Food

What is getting one of Switzerland’s biggest companies (Coop) to ask the country’s best known and maybe most controversial Hip-Hop artist (Stress) to write a song for them and do a TV spot?

And this without prescribing the topic or other limitations put up.

… and then the whole thing becomes a great success and is shown multiple times everyday on TV.

It’s not exactly like 50 Cent would do a clip for K-Mart - (despite he might never consider this because of…)

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Data Visualization: Doctors of the World

The image below was created as a poster for Dutch doctors to hangs on the wall of their waiting rooms. With 170 inhabitants per doctor Cuba is still the world leader on that chart. Not unsurprising other (former) communist countries follow on the next positions (in some of those countries the numbers have already started to deteriorate).
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Earthrace - the last run on its 2007 record attempt (Part 1)

There was a lot of press coverage lately on the “Earthrace” attempt to break the world record of circumnavigation for power boats with a bio-diesel boat.

It happens to be that we have (together with another company) sponsored their last leg on their attempt to break the world record. And we have just learn that “Richard Branson” now is considering to “sponsor another attempt” for the world record next year, so we thought we might still share some of our impressions and images of our time on-board during the run from Egypt to Spain…

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Advertising: The WWF Billboards

With its billboard design for a Global Warming awareness campaign the “WWF” has demonstrated that clever advertising and eco-friendliness is a good match.

The WWF billboard for this campaign uses a specially shaped awning that casts a shadow onto the poster. Throughout the day that shadow rises and illustrates graphically the raising ocean levels on the billboard…
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Global Warming: The shrinking African lake(s)

Lake Chad as shown below is just one of the vanishing large lakes in Africa and elsewhere on this planet.

Experts are warning that the lake, which was once Africa’s third largest inland water body, could shrink to a mere pond in two decades. A recent study by Nasa and the German Aerospace Centre blames global warming and human activity for Africa’s disappearing water…
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Fridge gadget to reduce greenhouse emissions

A small device called e-cube is getting quite some press coverage throughout the UK the last days. It could save more greenhouse gas emissions than taxes on gas guzzling cars, low energy light bulbs and wind turbines on houses combined.

Invented by British engineers, the GBP25 gadget significantly reduces the amount of energy used by fridges and freezers, which are estimated to consume about a fifth of all domestic electricity in…
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UN: An on-line game to teach children how to save lives

As part of the 2006-2007 World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Disaster Risk Reduction Begins at School” the secretariat of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction has launched an on-line game to teach children how to build safer villages and cities against disasters. Players can chose between five scenarios they will try to prevent - from earthquakes over hurricanes to flood and Tsunamis. Each scenario takes between 10 and 20 minutes to play, depending on the disaster you are trying to prevent and…

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Formula One: Honda’s new environmental concept

The 2007 Formula One season gets underway with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne next weekend. The Australian Grand Prix will see the Honda RA107 take to the track in its new “earth” livery for the first time. The Honda Racing F1 Team’s new 2007 F1 car carries no corporate colors, no advertising and no logos beyond the FIA-required insignia. To help raise awareness of the environmental issues facing the planet, the RA107 F1 car will simply feature a huge image of earth. Via the website “myearthdream.com” you have the opportunity to put your name on the car by making a pledge to make a lifestyle change and to improve the environment. Within the concept of…

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Virtual Worlds: 3D Berlin in Google Earth

Since this week Germany’s capital Berlin is available as a 3D model within Google Earth. In difference to other 3D worlds already available in Google Earth the buildings within the virtual Berlin have detailed architectural representations including their photorealistic facades. Some buildings can even be visited or entered virtually. So far the present model covers about 10% of the area of Berlin - only a small sample of the official three-dimensional city model of Berlin. The model consists of some 44,000 buildings in the centre of Berlin shown in…

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Quote of the day: The World and Experts

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can’t be done.

Peter Ustinov