“Battle of Los Angeles” Flash Microsite
To promote the highly-anticipated alien invasion movie from South African director Jonathan Liebesman, Sony has unveiled a Flash microsite incorporating faux viral videos with “expert testimony” and “eyewitness accounts” of extraterrestrial incursions. The actual Battle of Los Angeles/Great Los Angeles Air Raid (1942) and other reported UFO sitings and encounters of the 20th century serve as the movie’s historical context and back story.
From the microsite and limited production photos, the Battle of Los Angeles looks to be set in contemporary America rather than—as I’d hoped—just before World War II. Rather than rehash Independence Day, why not let the Greatest Generation take a crack at the aliens? Would the Allies and Axis powers have joined forces to defend the Earth?
Battle of Los Angeles stars Aaron Eckhart and is scheduled for release on March 11, 2011.
Related: The movie was filmed partially in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Why use Baton Rouge as a stand-in for war-ravaged Los Angeles? Check out this New York Times article.
Photo Credit: Richard Cartwright
Burger King Breakfast Menu Flash Advertising
It’s been hard to escape Burger King’s recent advertising push to promote their new breakfast menu. This kind of saturation may become more commonplace with a likely increase in Burger King’s ad spending under their new ownership. The fast food chain’s grip on the No. 2 spot in the U.S. (behind McDonald’s, ahead of Wendy’s) has been slipping the last two years.
The image to the right is a screen cap (actual size) of a block Flash ad (300 x 250 pixels) 
spotted recently on ESPN.com. Its differentiating characteristic is its most prominent: the countdown clock. The ad calculates the countdown to 10:30 am (when Burger King stops serving breakfast) based upon data from the user’s system clock, presumably. It also could be done with an IP trace to determine a user’s time zone, though that seems needlessly complicated to accomplish the same result.
The concept behind the ad is well-worn: false scarcity. Not the scarcity of the product in this case; the scarcity of available time to consume the product today. Do you really want to wait 24 hours for another crack at that delicious, nutritionally-void breakfast sandwich?
Given the ESPN.com placement, the target audience for this ad seems to be office-dwelling men who didn’t have the time or desire for a traditional at-home or even in-the-car breakfast. These are men who watch sports games governed by ticking clocks. Men who understand that a countdown demands decisive action and execution to succeed or, in this case, to solve a problem: the distraction of hunger. And perhaps to fulfill a want, as well, like the cheap and easy indulgence of fast food.
For the record, we didn’t run out to beat the clock and grab a Croissan’wich, but it certainly raised our awareness of breakfast at Burger King. And that’s more than the half the battle in any form of advertising.
PNCA Hand-Drawn Animation Class for Teens
Yep, analog as opposed to digital, sketching not clicking, specifically for illustrators who are 13-, 14- or 15-years old. Neophytes and semi-experienced amateurs welcome.
The class functions as somewhat of a time machine, transporting those born in the mid-1990s back to the era of hand-drawn animation and storyboarding. In other words, Adobe Flash, After Effects, Premiere and Illustrator (et al.) not welcome.
The class meets Saturday mornings in October and November. More details: http://pnca.edu/programs/ce/
Fisher Communications Centennial Interactive Flash Timeline
Upon their 100th anniversary, Fisher Communications—owners of Portland ABC affiliate KATU—has created a microsite with an interactive Flash timeline highlighting the company’s accomplishments.
It’s an interesting design, similar to the Oregon Baseball History piece that we created several years ago. Two notes: one, there is way too much copy in the Events column. Either cutting down on the content or including a scrollbar would’ve been good for the user interface (UI).
And second, the anniversary logo could be improved by omitting the years. Given the black background, the dates become imbued with funereal significance, as if to mourn the passing of a beloved public figure. Subtracting 100 from 2010 is pretty easy math for most people to do. The word “century”—instantly impressive—is sandwiched and buried. Make it bigger and give it room to breathe.
“Celebrating a Century” might be a better tagline: “service” and “innovation” are buzzwords that many, many businesses try to co-opt as their own distinguishing characteristics. These terms have lost any value they once held. Push them down into body copy or drop them altogether.
Kobbi Site Launches, Receives Recognition from CoolHomePages.com and iStockphoto
The Kobbi web site design might be our most popular and frequently complimented. It’s part of our web design and development portfolio, and we performed all the work on this site including some interactive Flash and eCommerce.
This post is from August 17, 2006:
After a thorough redesign process, the new site for Kobbi launched today. The new Kobbi.com includes eCommerce functionality and several interactive Flash elements for navigation and informational purposes. Upon launch, the site received immediate acceptance to iStockphoto’s Design Spotlight.
Kobbi, with a product line based upon the concept of “The Art of Thankful Living,” is based in Portland, where its products are sold in several retail locations in addition to its online store.
Update: As of January 3, 2007, the Kobbi web site design has earned a near-perfect 98.7% approval rating in peer-reviewed comments.
And from October 13, 2006:
The new Kobbi site was recognized by CoolHomePages.com for general excellence in design and specifically in the categories of Color Schemes, CSS & DHTML, E-Commerce, Flash, Products and Usability.
Update I: As of December 12, 2007, members of the CoolHomePages.com have rated the Kobbi home page design 9 out of 10 stars.
Update II: As of June 19, 2010, the site maintains its 9-star rating. More than 5,000 users have clicked on the thumbnail to visit the site.
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