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Sexbots have been the dream of lonely nerds since time immemorial, but who knew we were living in the age when they become a reality?

This weekend, users of dating/hook-up app Tinder who happened to be in Austin for the SXSW conference found a fresh new face to swipe right on. Her name was Ava, and she was gorgeous. She was also interested in what they had to say, and seemed full of questions. In every case, she gave the person with whom she was texting an Instagram handle and told them to check it out.

Those who did check it out experienced a mix of disappointment and admiration–for, of course, Ava was a bot, a bot specifically created to promote a film called Ex Machina about artificial intelligence. A surprising number of people responded with praise for the audacity of this viral marketing campaign—though how many of them were just trying to put on a brave face is impossible to say.

As we only heard about this after the fact, and never got our heart broken by this achingly beautiful bit of software, you can believe us when we say the whole thing is genius. Ava caught the user’s attention, engaged their emotions, and gave them an experience they will always associate with the product she was promoting. The perfect marketing machine.

via AdWeek

It's A Crazy Case Camera Kit!

Most of the DML crew is out of the office today, in Miami filming a video for one of our clients (more on that later). Those that are left are busy helping another client conquer SXSW via Twitter and other social media platforms.

So that just leaves us to man the store. And our way of manning the store is to find cool designs to share with you. This one is via Laughing Squid--and though it came out late last year, we only just noticed it.

It's a crazy case/camera kit for the iPhone 6. We admit that part of our fascination with it is due to the Amy Adams-ish charms of the spokesmodel in this video, but that's just because we appreciate good marketing.

The case itself looks handy--though it goes to such great lengths to look like a real point and shoot that we start to wonder "why not just buy a point and shoot?" One of these days, someone is going to invent a pro-grade camera that comes with a phone as an add on. Probably someone already has.