SPARK: Ikea launches its first TV, Jay-Z's new Facebook game and girls going wild in the red light district

GIRLS GOING WILD IN THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT

I won’t ruin this one with an explanation, just watch it, the silence at the end says it all.

ORANGE MOBILE: THE PHONE FUND

Over the past few months, Poke have been building a socially-driven (physical) web game for mobile operator Orange. In it, people can power a giant set of robotic chattering teeth through a mini-cityscape via the use of a hashtag (or Facebook post, depending on which platform they use). Each tweet and each Facebook post a player shares helps to push the teeth further along the track.

If a user’s tweet / post lands the teeth on certain prize points dotted around the track, they win anything from iTunes vouchers to BlackBerry phones.
 
NIKE FREE FACE

Nike Free shoes are super comfy and flexible, you can squeeze them with your hands and now also with your… face! Nike Free Face is a fun web application just launched in Japan that allows you to bend, twist and control the Nike Free sole using the power of your face through a webcam. The app combines facial recognition technology and expression recognition technology. It first photographs the user’s normal facial expression and then uses it as a base to calculate facial flexibility from the eyebrow to the chin, in order to define the diagonal movement of the shoe. The horizontal movement of the shoe is defined using the level of symmetry of the mouth. In addition, the application recognizes the color of the user’s clothes and the background to automatically coordinate the color of the NIKE FREE shoe using the NIKEiD customization system.

AGENT PROVOCATEUR: THE CHASE

This is not a running commercial. The Chase is actually the latest Agent Provocateur video, quite different from the usual sexy sophisticated style. I’m not sure about it as it seems to detract from the normal premium, aspirational feel of the brand.

TRIDENT GUM: THE FACEBOOK FUN AUDIT

Tax time gets pretty tough and nobody wants to get audited, so Trident gum has just launched an audit process you might actually like, it’s called the “Facebook Fun Audit”. The Fun Audit is an interactive video experience that uses Facebook connect to analyse things like your photos, posts, check-ins, de-friends and pokes to see how much fun you’re actually having. Publishing your “fun” in a personalised scorecard, with a corresponding flavour recommendation from Trident Gum.

JAY-Z LAUNCHES FACEBOOK GAME – EMPIRE

Empire, a new Facebook game from Jay-Z, wants your virtual self to “go from hustler, to entrepreneur, to business mogul.” If that life path sounds familiar, it’s because it resembles Jay-Z’s story. He grew up in the housing projects in Brooklyn and eventually became a global hip-hop star and businessman.

The game lets you create a character and give it a dope name — think “Docta B” and “Big Daddy Hernandez.” Empire begins by giving you a slew of ways to earn points and move up life’s ladder. You can visit your mum or significant other for moral support, engage in a rap battle or make a mix tape for street cred, and get a job to pay for your bling, among other activities. Earned points help you move out of the projects and into the “hotspots of the rich and famous” in Manhattan.

“Make the right choices and the World belongs to you. LIVE THE DREAM,” reads a prompt early in the game.

PUMA FASTEST PURCHASE

Puma claims to have the fastest running shoes, so shoppers of the Puma Faas shoe should also be among the fastest, right? This in-store activation by Puma Mexico rewarded a speedy trip to the cashier. Discounts were handed out by counting the minutes it took you from entering the store to purchasing the shoes.

NEW COLOGNE DUPLICATES SMELL OF NEWLY UNBOXED APPLE DEVICES

Scheduled to be unveiled at the upcoming De Facto Standard art exhibit in Melbourne, Australia, the latest cologne from the aptly-named Air Aroma is modeled after the smell that comes wafting out of the box once you’ve popped open a brand new MacBook Pro. A group of three Aussie artists teamed with Air Aroma to “scientifically recreate the smell of an Apple unboxing,” using sophisticated technology and their own inherent sniffing skills to duplicate “the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components within the box and of course the aluminum laptop which has come straight from the factory where it was assembled in China.” Think of it as the proverbial “new car smell,” only geekier and with strong hints of the aerosolized incarnation of a smug grin.

MAGNUM PLEASURE HUNT: AMSTERDAM ARG

We’ve all seen the Magnum Pleasure Hunt Across The Internet #2, but the guys in Amsterdam have taken it just a little further, extending the campaign out into a real-time mobile ARG game that starts today at 2pm. There are 150 chocolate bonbons hidden across the 9 straatjes of Amsterdam, and you’ll need the augmented reality app to hunt them down and collect them before everyone else does. Claim the most and you’ll be headed to New York as a reward.

WILLIAM SHATNER TAKES HIS MILLIONTH TWITTER FOLLOWER OUT TO DINNER

Following William Shatner on Twitter has its perks, at least if you’re the Star Trek star’s millionth follower. Troy Pound from South Carolina was the millionth person to follow Captain Kirk, and in return he and his wife were recently treated to a dinner with man himself. Shatner had promised to take lucky one million out to dinner before he reached the number, a promise he made good on recently while traveling close to Pound in Charlotte, NC for his one-man show “Shatner’s World.” Shatner posted a grainy cell phone video of the dinner, which occurred on Tuesday, on his YouTube channel. The star’s follower count has grown considerably since Pound hit the follow button, with close to 20,000 more people now following the Priceline negotiator.

DO YOUR TIMESHEETS, GET FREE BEER!

JWT Brazil realised (like everyone else on the planet) that doing your timesheets is a) necessary to be a profitable agency and b) absolutely tedious to do. So in order to inject some fun into the process, they stacked a fridge full of beer that only opens once everyone has done their time sheets. An idea that both the MD and staff can cheer about!

COCA COLA AND SPOTIFY LAUNCH MASSIVE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek today announced a new global partnership with Coca-Cola that will bring Spotify to Coca-Cola's TV ads, 40-million-fan-strong Facebook fan page — and bring a Coca-Cola app to Spotify's desktop application. Here's the gist of the "strategic deal" the two companies have agreed to: Coca-Cola plans to "invite consumers into Spotify through live events, TV, digital media," and through a new app it's developing with Spotify. In return, Coca-Cola gets kudos from fans for sponsoring an up-and-coming tech startupthat puts music, a priority for Coca-Cola's ad department through the ages, in the forefront.

THE PARISIAN PINBALL PARK

In Paris, people will do whatever it takes to fit into a parking space. So Ford took this as an opportunity to promote Active Park Assist, a Ford Technology that helps even the worst drivers park their cars effortlessly. They installed a giant pinball over a free parking space and programmed the bumpers of the front and rear cars to react as pinball bumpers. The more the drivers hit the bumpers, the higher their score! I’m just shocked that Parisians have no problem repeatedly hitting other peoples cars!

IKEA LAUNCHES ITS OWN TV:

IKEA constantly manages to churn out innovative, affordable products. The latest, however, is seeing it move directly into the technology sector: it's launching its own TV, which comesintegrated into a piece of furniture to completely banish cables from your home. It looks pretty sleek. Built in co-operation with China's TCL Multimedia, the unit—called Uppleva—houses an HDTV and Blu-ray/DVD player. It also features 2.1 surround sound, with the subwoofer being a wireless unit that you can place anywhere in your living room. Elsewhere, it features WiFi connectivity to get you online, supports DivX HD, and comes with a raft of USB and HDMI inputs so, um, you can clutter the thing up with wires. All of which sounds great, but a lot will rest on the quality of the electronics.