hal thomas

Last week, McDonald's initiated a Twitter campaign aimed at encouraging people to share their McDonald's stories on Twitter using the hashtag #McDStories. The campaign featured a promoted tweet linking to a video (see above) of a potato farmer, which was intended to encourage people to share happy tales from the Land of Mickey D's. What could possibly go wrong?

Suffice to say that the campaign backfired horribly, with the #McDStories hashtag being quickly hijacked as a public forum for airing all grievances McDonald's related. Find out more about what went wrong here and here, and check out what McDonald's social media director had to say about the whole debacle.

[This post also appears on the bfg blog.]

Noel Gallagher, formerly of the British mega band Oasis, always struck me as a songwriter of the old guard, one of those guys who strives to capture in song something both universal and intangible. I read somewhere last year where Gallagher said one of the things he dislikes most about the digital music marketplace is the ability it gives people to listen to tracks outside of the artist's intended order of play. He said that the best artists put a lot of time and thought into ordering the tracks on an album so as to create an ebb and flow that takes you on a musical journey of sorts.

To that end, Gallagher has taken a unique approach to the release of the first three singles off his solo debut album, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. The video for each song tells a short story. When viewed together in succession, the plots of the three videos interweave to form a larger narrative in a style not entirely dissimilar to a Quentin Tarantino film. Even the cinematography is reminiscent of Tarantino, switching visual styles from story to story but always with plenty of eye-candy to keep your interest.

For the three of you who will actually take the time to watch the 19-minute video above (that's like 2 hours in Internet time), you're in for a real treat. They don't make 'em like this very often.

[This post also appears on the bfg blog.]

Unless you've been avoiding the Internet today, you probably already know that Wikipedia, The Oatmeal, Google, and many others have made public protests against SOPA/PIPA, a nasty little piece of legislation which promises to curb online piracy while secretly undermining the pillars of our beloved InterWebs and a tiny little thing called due process.

What would a world without the Internet look like? Leave it to "South Park" to help us imagine. Kind of ironic, because [enter movie trailer voiceover guy] "In a world ruled by SOPA…" the website you are reading right now could be shut down for posting the video above.

Today on WSAV Tech Tuesday, we talk about AutoMD, a website that can help you decide if your time and money are better spent doing auto repairs and maintenance yourself or paying a mechanic to do them. The site also features an extensive how-to section and can facilitate quotes from multiple local auto service shops.

On a recent Tech Tuesday we talked about about the hot new visual bookmarking tool, Pinterest. If you've been wondering how a brand might use such a tool then you're in luck. Pinterest has given Mashable a list of the the brands it believes are using Pinterest in the true spirit of the Pinterest community. Check out the Mashable article for Pinterest's rationale or jump directly to each brand's Pinterest page (linked below) and have a look for yourself.

Brands Using Pinterest Well

1. Whole Foods
2. Martha Stewart
3. Better Homes and Gardens
4. Real Simple
5. west elm
6. Bergdorf Goodman
7. The Today Show
8. Travel Channel

[This post also appears on the bfg blog.]

Here's a quick list of cool/interesting things I found this week while going Lewis and Clark on the Internet. Enjoy!

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If you dig snarky humor, this one's for you. My favorite line: "Maybe she's born with it. Nah, I'm pretty sure it's Fotoshop."

Thanks, AdVerve!

What information consumes is rather obvious. It consumes the attenton of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.  - Herbert Simon, 1978 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics

The clip above, from the IFC television show Portlandia, lampoons a scenario that (at least in my world) is becoming all too real. If everyone and everything is a content producer now (and they are—just look at your Facebook and Twitter timelines and you'll see video games and streaming music services making updates on your behalf), then the coming Information Apocalypse is being ushered in with open arms.

How then can one take shelter from (and make sense of) the daily barrage on our attention spans? Well, beyond learning to say "no" every now and then, LifeHacker gives us these five steps for boosting your reading comprehension.

My favorite piece of advice: Stop following people and reading things only because you feel like you should rather than you want to. [paraphrased] Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some social media and RSS Spring cleaning to do.

Via The Daily Infographic.

[This post also appears on the bfg blog.]

self-inking ID stamp

striped shower curtain

In Caffeine We Trust interactive #poster

iPhone retro camera case.

DIY Star Wars snowflakes. #DIY #StarWars #crafts

#iPhone instant camera decal.

InCase Tote bag. My wife would dig this.

"The Walking Dead" action figures.

"The Neverending Story" iPad case.

Star Wars pin-ups #starwars

“Dark Lens” series by Cédric Delsaux.

Bacon-scented candles, aka candles for men.

"Here's to the crazy ones" poster

The Manifesto Poster.

North Face eTip Glove works lets you use your touchscreen devices while wearing your gloves.

Secret Room Light Switch

Travel cables.

Full wall bookcase

Credit card knife.

Star Wars trash compactor bookends. $195 #starwars

Zombie doorstop. $20 #zombies

R2-D2 trash can. #starwars

Sit or Stand Desk. Wish I had one of these at work.

#tshirt

#tshirt