May 25, 2008

Guinness Rugby Ball

Guinness is a tremendously successful global brand, that has managed to spread around the world while retaining its Irish heritage. While the sun may have set on the British Empire quite some time ago, Guinness lives on - as does rugby in many former colonies - making a branded rugby ball a great choice of promo.

Posted by mark at 8:39 PM. Permalink: Guinness Rugby Ball | Comments (0)

March 25, 2008

Aquent Beach Ball

Here's a cute promo done by Aquent, a custom beach ball to promote their pool of talent. Very clever guys! I actually used to work for them. I can also say that one thing they used to do and probably still do, is purchase promos centrally to ensure they meet brand guidelines. I think this was important as they were going from a niche staffing agency to an international company that's probably the largest of its type in the world.

Posted by mark at 6:40 AM. Permalink: Aquent Beach Ball | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

Onion Swagology: Resident Evil Sand Ball

The Onion passes judgment:

Item: An odd plastic ball full of glittery sand; when one side is up, the sand falls through to the other side to reveal a Vegas landscape and the words "This fall all bets are off." Turn the ball over again, and the sand falls back to the Vegas side, revealing the black words "Resident Evil Extinction."

Promoting: Take a wild guess.

Relevance to product promoted: Vegas is in a desert, right? Deserts have sand, right? Okay, we get it. Also, they totally got the name of the movie in there.

Item quality: 3. It's a useless tchotchke, so film-specific that we can't pawn it off on Great-Aunt Myrtle and pretend it was a thoughtfully chosen gift. But it is reasonably well-made, and the way the sand falls through the holes to slowly reveal the title, shining up from the remaining glittery sand, is kind of eerie. Wouldn't work too well on an item promoting, say, Winnie The Pooh: Wonderful Word Adventure, but as zombie-film promo merch goes, this is almost classy.

Posted by mark at 3:40 PM. Permalink: Onion Swagology: Resident Evil Sand Ball | Comments (0)

February 8, 2008

Onion Swagology: Electric Apricot Stress Ball Bus

I came for the satire, but stayed for the trenchant analysis:

Item: A soft, squishy foam bus with "National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot" printed on the top.

Promoting: The sloppy jam-band mockumentary Electric Apricot, directed by Primus frontman Les Claypool

Relevance to product promoted: Acceptable. Electric Apricot follows the zany misadventures of a hard-touring jam band that presumably traverses the country in a soft, squishy foam bus. Or a non-soft, non-squishy real bus. In the crazy, mixed-up, upside-down world of late-period National Lampoon movies, who can even tell any more? Like the film it's promoting, this promo item is probably only amusing to people who are really high.

Item quality: 2. It's sufficiently soft and squishy, and thanks to its complete lack of moving parts, it has yet to fall apart, but it's also insanely cheap-looking; the promo merchants didn't even bother to print the film's title on the sides of the bus.

Posted by mark at 7:08 AM. Permalink: Onion Swagology: Electric Apricot Stress Ball Bus | Comments (0)

December 11, 2007

Morph Ball Animation

You kind of have to see the Morph Ball™ in person to appreciate its coolness. However, this animation does help convey its near-magical properties. Basically, when thrown in the air, it turns itself inside out, thus reversing its color from black to white with each toss. While I am not a scientist, I have surmised that this has something to do with aerodynamics, and perhaps even space age engineering. The perfect product if you're looking to both promote and blow minds!

Posted by mark at 2:41 PM. Permalink: Morph Ball Animation | Comments (0)

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