Grab bag

Today I’ve got a few short notes on totally unrelated subjects.

Bunny funny-business:
After the blog entry from Friday about the amazing Sony Bravia spots, including the brand-new play-doh bunnies cavorting in New York, this morning I browsed to find that they are being accused of stealing someone else’s idea and not crediting it. Uh oh.

Apparently an LA-based artist Kozyndan is known for his bunny-themed works, including a panoramic scene of rainbow bunnies scattered through a New York landscape and a Hokusai wave with bunnies forming the foam on the crest of the wave.

That’s disappointing – especially after I just finished talking about how much I admire their creativity and originality. I hope they have a good explanation.

Unexpected “I made that” moment:
While browsing ad blogs this morning I ran across an entry from Friday on Advertising Lab about goofy nostalgic gadgets, including an analog handset (so you can have that “pay phone” feeling wherever you go), and an MP3 cassette that can play in an actual cassette player. Weird. The fun little surprise for me came at the bottom of the list – Verbatim’s Digital Vinyl CD-Rs “modeled after 45 rpm singles.” With a pretty picture of my favorite orange-labeled disk of the 5-color set.

That was a fun little vanity boost – because I was the designer on that product. They’ve been out for about 4 years and were a big hit when they first came out, but I haven’t seen them in stores as much lately. Nice to know someone’s still getting a kick out of them.

Inspired by sock:
After successfully locating his lost red sock, a man goes on to save a bus full of people, wrestle yeti and climb a tall mountain, all with the stirring song sung by the nuns in Sound of Music to convince Maria to give nannying another try. It’s uplifting… it’s inspirational… and without the credits underneath, I would have absolutely no clue what they were selling. Apparently it’s for a bank. Who knew?