Working on the BK account has got me thinking about a post that I originally wrote on my blog back in ’06.

What ever happened to The Hamburgler? I have been wondering the same thing myself for quite some time…..

The character was originally introduced as part of the McDonald’s youth marketing campaign in 1971. At first glance, The Hamburgler character appears to be nothing more than a common crook whose favourite pastime is stealing McDonalds hamburgers (usually many at once). The commercials in which he appeared typically followed a predictable plot line: the Hamburglar steals McDonald’s hamburgers, Ronald McDonald devises a plan to trick him, and everybody gets their hamburgers back. But did anyone ever stop and wonder “why”? Why did this socially inept young man try to steal hamburgers, only to be met with failure time and time again? As they do with most criminals, people simply assumed he was just “born that way”; a corrupt, bored, aimless street youth who did it for the thrill. But perhaps we should not be so quick as to judge a book by its cover. Indeed, there are many plausible explanations for his behaviour:

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\”Global Earth Hour\”

Click on the link and watch how the world’s skylines changed during this year’s Earth Hour.

Unless you’ve been stuck under a rock for the past few months, you’ve likely heard about location check-in services such as Foursquare and Gowalla.  If you aren’t hardcore into these services like Drew and Christian are, then you might have found yourself asking “What’s the point?”

Obviously businesses and advertisers can appreciate what these services are trying to accomplish, but what about users?  Sure it’s useful to see where your friends go for sushi, or where they are right now, but beyond getting to be the “Mayor” of a location, there is little incentive to check-in.

MyTown differs in this respect by offering a game mechanic to the user.  You gain points from each check-in you make, and these points can be used to “buy” locations.  After you’ve bought a location, you start getting rent every time anyone else checks in at that location.  Then you can use this rent to improve your property (which increases the rent you receive from every check-in) or buy new properties.

The stats speak for themselves:

• Gowalla: 100,000+ users in one year (source1+source2)
• Foursquare: 600,00 users in 15 months (source1+source2)
• MyTown: 1.2 million users in 2 months (source)

It just goes to show how a seemingly small differentiator can make a big difference.

I’f your a fan of digg nation and I mean who really isnt… then you’ll no doubt know hippy glenn. Well here is a video re-cap from his perspective of SXSW. Pretty self explanatory.

For kicks please name as many people as you can in the comments.

p.s. I’m going next year for sure.

The weather is getting warmer, spring soon leads to June.
But first we’ll have to deal with those little treasures of poo.
There’s big ones, small ones and in every shade of brown.
Skinny ones, long ones, some just big and round.
Avoiding poo takes the subtlest of moves.
Stutter steps and shuffles, anything to avoid your shoes.
No one knows quite why they multiply in spring.
Hey, it’s poo, maybe it’s just doing its thing.
So the next time you’re out for a leisurely stroll,
and the whiff of something pungent seeps into your soul.
Look down on the ground cuz your shoes may have taken a hit
Then crack a smile and say ‘Holy Shit’.

http://stewdio.org/pong/

AKQA Shanghai developed a microsite for Lipton China during Chinese New Year .

Visitors were invited to input their personal greetings and see the message transformed into the steam from a Lipton mug. The mug was then delivered to a virtual doorstep to be picked up. Recipients of the message could blow into their computer microphone to see the message.

Over the first two weeks after the launch on January 1, the site was visited by 17 million people, and 6.4 of them sent a greeting. But that was just the beginning. Check out the latest results:

Total Site Visits: 102,146,250

Messages sent: 45,980,970

Message received: 17,610,462

Despite the fact that China has over 1.3 billion people and over 300 million people online everyday, these are pretty staggering results for such a short period of time.

Link to microsite (in Chinese)

Check out the rest here

March 22nd was World Water Day and National Geographic is sharing a collection of photos from around the world. The photography is exquisite although the message is frightening. You have to log in and set up an account to receive your free digital issue but it is easy to do and well worth it. You can skip the profile bit they ask for. It is only up till april 2nd.

Enjoy

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/zinio/freshwater/

Attack of the 50 foot child, or really creative use of scale and media for Hotwheels.
Let’s hope Pampers doesn’t pick up this concept.