For more information on what is dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this video, which is quite depressing, sheds light on the capacity of this phenomenon.

On a lighter note, it’s Friday! Our advertising this week comes from Mother New York for Target and features an amazing light show done at the Standard Hotel in New York City. The event actually happened last year, but we just came across this video today, and had to share. Watch below:

Though the extravagance of the lights wholly distracted us from the clothing featured, we thought this was a great ploy on Target’s part. As evident in the video, people all over NY got to see the show, even if they weren’t planning on it. This seems like something a major fashion house would do, so kudos to Target for executing it so well.

Happy Friday!

(source: Dvice)

The EmoLens app distinguishes four separate emotions (happy, sad, anger, fear) to determine how one feels about a certain image on Flickr. The image is tagged by the respective emotion, and once the feeling fades, the app displays another image pertaining to the user’s selected topic. Essentially, the headset allows the user to control Flickr without ever touching the keyboard or mouse, through the use of brain signals and blinking. Watch this video below to see a detailed explanation of how it works. We want one!!

(Souce: Dvice)

It seems quite anticlimactic, doesn’t it? That’s because it’s not very exciting– those of us not ashamed of our affinity for American television have been buffered for this advancement for years.  Product placement has been commonplace among our advertising counterparts in the US since the 80′s – you may have noted American Idol judges’ preference for Coca-Cola, Gossip Girl’s endorsement of Verizon, or even Jerry Seinfeld and friends’ love for Junior Mints.

We are all for product placement when done subtly and tactfully. It can be a great opportunity for the product to be seen and buzzed about as long as it doesn’t affect the content of the program. For instance, Britney Spears may have made $500k on her video for Hold it Against Me, but the product placement was far too much, making the video look like cheap advertising for Sony, PlentyofFish.com, and Make Up Forever.  However, here we are writing about it, so we suppose the point was made. Nice one, Brit. In the end, we look forward to spotting those sneaky placements in our favorite UK shows, and following up to see if there are any changes in sales for advertisers.

And what would Friday be without us sharing an ad campaign we enjoyed this week? We love this one from Oreo which gives a twist on their newest tagline “Milk’s Favorite Cookie.”

Milk’s Favorite Pampering Technique

Milk’s Favorite Breakfast

Milk’s Favorite Cookie

Though we would have liked a line that flowed better than “pampering technique,” overall the campaign seamlessly tied creativity with a great product shot.

(Sources: GOOD and Ads of the World)

The Wizard of Oz

The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland

Great Expectations

The posters were featured on Kickstarter, and NovelPoster has already surpassed it’s original goal of $5,000 by over $3k, and the campaign still has 53 days to go! We can certainly see why so many are eager to back this very cool idea. In full size, the text of every work is completely eligible.

On top of the literary works, NovelPoster is now featuring iconic images created from the twitter feeds of popular celebrity tweeters such as Kanye West, Stephen Colbert, and Lady Gaga. Watch the video here for more information from Matt and Alex, as well as a preview of the Twitter posters.

(Sources: My Modern Met and Kickstarter)

We’ve come across this one, which not only will warm you up during those cold winter nights, it is also a beautiful piece of furniture, and serves as a table as well!

The colours represent the different Earth’s layer, from red to gray, giving this coffe table/fireplace a unique look. And it works on bioethanol liquid fuel, which apparently is harmless and easy to use, and maybe more importantly it is environmentally friendly!

The only downside is like most design items, you’ll have to pay the price to get your hands on it: £5,440. Seems a bit pricey, but for such a unique item that will also keep you warm and add a lot of character to your living room, it actually isn’t too bad!

(Source: Design Buzz)

For example, something as unaesthetic as a bic, has been turned, in this case, into a beautiful chandelier. We couldn’t believe how amazing a lot of ball pens put together could look.

Definitely something we would like in our offices. Unfortunately, the link to purchase one seems to be broken… Shame!

(Source: Design Fetish)

According to Sean, the first couple of weeks are a bit hard, but his skin and hair very quickly adjusted to his new washing routine, and were actually healthier than before. We stand corrected! And it has other benefits: saves you loads of money, and better for the environment (all that plastic wasted!).

It actually all makes sense. Soap, and other chemicals in shower gels/shampoos/etc. actually disturb our naturally balanced ph levels. So going soap free seems to be the way forward!

Totally unrelated to this is the video of the now famous homeless guy with a golden radio voice, in case you have managed to escape all the coverage of this amazing and uplifting story – he got a job following the success of this video.

(Source: Boing Boing. Pictures: Design Geek and The Cool Hunter)

Build your own Christmas tree with decorations! We tried to read through the process, and it sounded utterly complicated, but the result is simply fantastic!

It looks really modern, and even though it might sound tacky on paper, the result is actually very stylish.

So if you’re done with Christmas shopping and have a fair amount of time and ornaments to spend in the next couple of days, give it a go! Follow this link for a how to.

(Source: not martha)

First, there’s the school bus. Can you imagine being a kid and being picked up by a giant Pikachu? Would probably be the most awesome thing ever!

Very similar to it, but for people affected by the Peter Pan syndrome (aka once a kid, always a kid), there’s the Pikachu car. Tacky and geeky…

There’s also this “theremin-esque Pikachu statue”, which is pretty much a talking Pikachu. Pretty standard as merchandising. But someone had the brilliant idea to get 12 of them and turn them into an orchestra. Press play and prepare to cringe.

For the hardcore female gamers (we doubt guys would every wear such thing), there are the Yellow Gameboy shoes with Pikachu. Platforms are already pretty dodgy to walk with, adding a Gameboy on the side probably doesn’t help the process.

Finally, there is the real live Pikachu! And they are so cute, but pretty pricey. Yes, the gentleman who caught them, and put them for sale on Yahoo! demands 99,000,002,805,760 yen (over $900 million) for one. Pretty expensive for a… Mouse?

If you haven’t had enough of yellow for a day, there’s more here.

Two Finnish designers have hijacked a popular game, the Brio Shape sorting box, to create the IOBR box, a social networking platform for kids. Each shape corresponds to an activity – brushing teeth, sleeping, eating – and is fitted with a magnet. If a box is connected to another one, being of a friend or family, when the right shape is inserted in the right slot, it will show up on boxes connected to it, being of friends or family.

The designers argue that the box “can be used as a small game to motivate children to be more swift in their activities: ‘Let’s see if you are in bed before your friend.’”

We personally think it’s a bit creepy, and might get kids hooked on social networking, and other communication technologies much earlier than they already are.

(Source: Co.Design)