Hoo-Hoo-Hoo

From the three wise men, two not-so-wise, one wise woman and one woman named Wise - we wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.

Image up your retail

No project goes without love at HRW. Not even those freebie-coupon ads you get in the mail each month. And in a Great Recession, it's even more important to lay out price points with pride and making sure the brand is alive and well in every medium. After all, if it's intended to be seen, it may as well be entertaining. Hear that, air duct-cleaning service place?

When Liberty Mutual has an accident

Sometimes web ads that invade content are cool. Sometimes they aren't. This one's just plain squirm-worthy. Before you say "Too soon, Liberty Mutual?" their cracked-screen animation had been used long before this. It just was never this, say, 'ill-timed.'

For an insurance company, you would think they would've predicted a possible bad outcome to using this technique. Maybe they should have called out keywords or sent some sort of automatic instructions to the webmaster to take some of the risk out, so as not to allow the brand to be commit such a faux pas. After all, if anyone should be taking extra steps for the responsibility of managing their online image, it's Liberty Mutual. That's their policy anyway.

Deck the halls with disco balls

It's the most wonderful time of the year at HRW. Can you guess who's been naughty and who's been nice? And don't forget to vote for our doing-more-with-less decorating here.

Illuminating history of light art

Popularized by Sprint in its beautiful "Dreams" commercial, light art has once again appeared mostly in cameos in a few commercials this holiday season. This has spurred a discussion around the nest here about one of the original inspirations of the light-pen-as-art element - a series of photos taken by Life magazine's forward-thinking photographer Gjon Mili of Pablo Picasso in 1949. That's sixty years ago for those scoring at home. Just unbelievable images. And they don't even move.

Cracking the barcode

With the increase in self-checkouts in retail stores, Design Barcode presents a unique and disarming opportunity to brand the purchase decision, or just give your loyal patrons a little lagniappe.

It's also a good idea for those oversized boxes that are small enough to put in the shopping cart, but too big to roll down the conveyor belt. Computers, lawn equipment, HVAC, grills, artificial Christmas trees. And how cute would it be for a baby furniture manufacturer to add a little fun to the barcode that mom and dad are throwing their back out trying to find so it can be facing up when they checkout.

Of course, form must follow function when you're tweaking the purchase process. That's why the folks at Design Barcode develop and test their designs to conform to worldwide barcode standards such as UPC-A and EAN-13.

It might even bring about a resurrection of promotions requiring proofs of purchase. Now if they could just do something about QR codes.

Yes, Christina, it's still possible to sell-out

Used to be music celebrity endorsements were hard to come by. To be seen as selling out seemed such a risk that at least such stumping was generally few and far between. But those walls have long been torn down. Probably around the time Sting was doing Compaq commercials.

These days, people don't really care if Gwen Stefani and Jay-Z peddle for HP. Especially if the concept is entertaining and unique. Or if Justin Timberlake is part of an ensemble cast for Sony. He is half of the Barry Gibb Talk Show after all.

But Christina Aguilera's spot for DirecTV proves that selling out is alive and well. It just takes a cheesy script and a talent that's willing to send pride on a potty break to read it.

"I'm savin' the world...from cable." Aw, snap.


The chintzy production value compared to Beyonce's and the Black-Eyed Peas' commercials doesn't help either.

Cougar Woods

Can this Tiger change his stripes?