Too Much Cheese

The bros at Epic Meal Time have been taking culinary excess to cartoonish extremes since 2010. They’ve stuffed Philly cheesestakes into sushi wrappers, baked cinnamon roll/cotton candy pizza, and-- in the video above—created the enormous All-Bacon Burger, which clocks in at nearly 50,000 calories and includes 25 pounds of pork. Their cheerful culinary abominations have garnered 800 million YouTube views and attracted the participation of celebrity guests like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tony Hawk. The crew even has its own merchandise and mobile game.

So, by combining the 21st century model of Internet success with the 20th century model of the good life (or a gross parody thereof), Epic Meal Time has inadvertently created a perfect commentary on contemporary America, a place where "bigger and better" has become "biggest and weirdest."

In the video above, they also manage to embody our current racial confusion—without, one expects, quite meaning to. Listening to four white boys refer to themselves as “gangstas” and boast about “trill mobbin’” in mock hip-hop accents leaves one feeling almost as queasy as the sight of an entire block of cheddar being wrapped in raw bacon: you worry that if one doesn’t make your heart explode, the other will.

PERISCOPE UP!

It’s not often we have the chance to test drive a new app the moment it’s released. We missed the boat with so many of them–Instagram, Vine, Meerkat. So when we saw that Twitter had just released Periscope, its live video streaming app, we jumped on in an attempt to get ahead of the curve for once.

What we found was…well,  a lot of people doing what we were doing: testing it out by filming their dogs, or their office, or their kids, or talking into their front facing camera. It’s fascinating to see these early baby steps, before the platform has thrown up any “stars” or anything has gone viral.

Of course, Periscope seems ripe for misuse, and we assume that it’s only a matter of hours before the network is chock a-block with all kinds of kinky stuff we shouldn’t be watching. Stay tuned for a Buzzfeed story on the first live robbery to be “periscoped“ (see, we don’t even have an official word for it yet!) or the first couple do do the nasty while sharing it with every one of their Twitter followers. About five minutes ago, we saw some guy take a pee, so things seem to be off to a grand start.

Will Periscope take over the mantle that Meerkat assumed only last week? Who can say? This is social media, baby: things move fast. Who knows if either platform will even survive the two minutes it will take us to finish this post?

EDIT - Well, that was quick. Ten minutes after we posted the above, a building collapsed in NYC’s East Village and Periscope became a go-to place for people to share video of the scene. Not at all the kind of viral event we were hoping for.

Are You Watching?

This being America and all, we figured it was only a matter of time before someone took the NSA scandal and figured out a way to make money from it. But we’re pleased that the creators of new iOS app TouchTone seem to have their priorities straight: while we’re sure they’d like to turn a profit, they seem most concerned with teaching a lesson.

TouchTone perfectly illustrates the dangers of domestic surveillance by making the user complicit in it: to do well at the game, you have to spy on your (fictional) neighbors. The directions have a disturbing Orwellian tone—“The innocent have nothing to hide”—and the graphics are pure “24”-style tech. This is an example of a game in which the premise and design actually serve an idea beyond simply garnering buzz—a rare thing in the tech world these days.

Oakley Dokley

We went searching for well-designed websites, and our discovery of moto.oakley.com presented us with a question: is it appropriate that a site promoting "impact protection" should itself make such a powerful impact?

The clean, cool design of Oakley's site employs parallax technology, and sensibly avoids the cheesy effects to which said technology is often put. What you get is an interactive site that conveys the product's value to its intended audience, blends with the aesthetic of other companies in the competitive dirt biking space, and makes keeping mud out of your eyes seem like a fashion choice. We approve, Oakley: we approve.

HER

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.

Finding Our Level

We will never climb Mount Everest, or any of the “6K club” (i.e., mountains 6,000 meters and above). We will never climb the Himalayas, the Swiss Alps or the Rockies. We might hike a bit in the Catskills, but that’s about it.

There are a lot of reasons we won’t be tackling Everest: the lack of oxygen, the altitude sickness, the sheer expense. But perhaps the most compelling reason of all has recently made the news. Mount Everest has gotten so crowded, it’s evidently cover in poop.

Fortunately, technology is stepping up to the plate. Not to clean up the mountain—God no—but to allow us to enjoy the view. Check out this astonishingly high-res film shot in the Himalaya by Teton Gravity Research. Using gyro-stabilized cameras, and filming from a helicopter that went up to 24,000 feet (5,000 shy of the Everest summit, admittedly), this film provides all the glorious vistas you can handle, while keeping you firmly at sea level (or thereabouts).

Only Missing Mugatu

Can this be for real? Derek Zoolander and Hansel McDonald showed up at the Valentino show in Paris! We feel like we're taking crazy pills!

Actually, this is a great example of non-traditional integrative marketing. Blurring the lines between fiction and reality (or as close to reality as fashion gets), this execution is all win. Valentino gets a little extra Hollywood buzz, and shows that they don't take themselves too seriously. Paramount can sit back and relax, confident in the knowledge that everyone on the Internet now knows about "Zoolander 2." And we all get to wig out at the joy of seeing these two iconic characters inject themselves into a real fashion show.

First those amazing stock photo shots of Vince Vaughn and the other stars of "Unfinished Business," now this. Integrated marketing stunts are soooo hot right now!

A Logo Romance

It’s time we told you about our boyfriend. We haven’t mentioned him before, which is kind of incredible, given how much we think about him. But it’s true: our company has a boyfriend. And he is awesome!

Our boyfriend is the Dosa Man. The Dosa Man runs a dosa cart on the southern edge of Washington Square Park, a few blocks from our office. When the weather is warm, he sets up shop and starts selling his dosas—a delicious South Indian pancake made from rice batter and lentils and filled with wonderful vegetables and spices.

We aren’t the only people who love the Dosa Man. He has many admirers, and the line to buy lunch from him is always long.

But even so, the Dosa Man wants to grow his business and spread the word online through new branding. When he mentioned this to us, we jumped into action. After all, this is what we do for a living.

So we took some time and designed him a logo. We thought it was pretty cool, and we sent it to him.

He didn’t end up using it. Dosa Man is his own man, and he marches to his own drum. He settled on a different logo. The one we made is above, the one he settled on is below. We’re sad, but we still love him, and will never stop going to him for lunch.

As we think more about it, we realize that Dosa Man has taught us an important lesson about being a marketing agency. Sometimes, your aesthetic doesn’t match that of your client. Sometimes they see things differently from you. And that’s ok. In the end, having a good product is the most important thing, no matter how you package it.

Thank you, Dosa Man. We will never forget our time together.

Magic Emotions

So we saw this Wired video review of Magic, the new text-based delivery start-up in San Francisco, and felt conflicting emotions.

On the one hand, Magic feels like another example of the cheapening of labor in America, a trend that is turning the country into a high-tech luxury hotel where vast armies of room servants cater to the whims of a lucky few, all for low wages with zero job security. It feels entitled and elitist, like Google’s bus service or that time those tech guys tried to reserve space in a public park.

On the other hand, how cool is it that you can text a stranger and have them turn up at your door an hour later with a Mexican wrestler’s mask? It’s the kind of thing that would have blown our 8-year-old, lucha libra-obsessed mind.

So, like we said: emotions.

Net Neutrality, Naturally

Overall, we’re neutral about a lot of things—string theory, cashews vs. almonds, the artistic value of the “Finding Bigfoot” franchise. But one thing we’re not neutral about is Net Neutrality. We’re nuts for Net Neutrality. After all, the Internet is the arena in which we make our magic, the worldwide street fair in which we peddle our wares. If Big Cable has its way, that wonderful street fair will become an awful big-box mall, with only three or four chain stores that all sell the same products, and anything funky or interesting will be priced out. The internet will turn into Manhattan, for God’s sake!

The FCC is voting new Net Neutrality rules TODAY, and while things are looking good for the pro-Neutrality cause, no one should get complacent. Help seal the deal by visiting sites like the one below and making your voice heard.

http://demandprogress.org/

A Camera Falls...

 A camera falls from a plane, plunges several thousand feet through the air and lands in a pigsty. If we remembered more from our college Lit courses, we could make some fancy reference to pride coming before a fall, or the flight of Icarus, or Lucifer in Paradise Lost “hurled headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie.”

But as we are all just day-jobbing swine, incapable of looking further than the next paycheck, we’ll just go with: “Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool.”

Polar Vortex

Polar Vortex

Winter Storm Janus (really? Are we naming blizzards now?) hit New York City (and lots of other places) yesterday, resulting in some beautiful photographs (and lots of other things). Here is a prime selection, put together by @Gothamist.

DML Man of the New Year

Sir Patrick Stewart, who continues to not give a flying f*** about his reputation as a distinguished old man of the theater. Case in point: appearing on an obscure podcast and spending a good ten minutes imitating the different accents of British cows.  Either he is Buddhistically enlightened or smoking more weed than Seth Rogan. Regardless, we send him a solid “Ave Caesar!”

NYC is the Matrix

We could talk about how these aerial shots of NYC, courtesy of Gothamist, feel like stills from a new Star Wars movie, or like what Neo saw when he tried “the jump” in the first Matrix film. Or, we could be slightly less nerdy, and say they represent a stunning new angle from which to contemplate our urban spaces. But that sounds academic and pretentious. So let’s just say that these shots are epic, and leave it at that.

Saul Leiter's Allure

We’re afraid to click on the link to more of these pictures—because once we do, important work will not get done. Unimportant work will not get done. We will forget to eat, and will only tear our eyes away from the screen with the most extreme reluctance.

Photos by Saul Leiter

via

photojojo

The Yurting Kind

When we die, we hope our obituary contains a line as awesome as: "No one did more to promote yurts than Bill Coperthwaite."

(via Cabinporn.com. Photograph by A. William Frederick.)

Keep Your Nose Clean

The fellows (and ladies, presumably) of Laughing Squid recently posted a link to a book of dogs licking their noses.

We particularly like this because our office is run by a queen pitbull bitch named Gouda: she pretty much calls the shots around here, and she licks her nose a lot. The dog above is not Gouda, who you can see below.

DML Man of the Week

Because if Francis Albert Sinatra wants to drink a scotch while riding in his helicopter, then he will drink a scotch while riding in his helicopter. (Notice that none of the wind kicked up by the rotor knocks his hat off his head. It wouldn’t dare.)

Miley Surprised Us

Miley Cyrus has finally done something that legitimately shocks us. She collaborated with the Roots on an a cappella version of We Can’t Stop and she totally crushed it.