The Curator News Feed: November 22, 2013
This week, we've got some viral videos and links ranging from future female engineers to forensic artists sketching true beauty and famous photos re-imagined as selfies, plus much more to explore. Happy Friday!
Engineering kits for girls + Beastie Boys tune = best toy ad ever, MSN. I think the little girl's yellow message T-shirt sums it up best… "more than just a princess"! -- Jennifer
A Mother Lets Her 4-Year-Old Finish Her Drawings. She Never Thought It Would Lead To This., Distractfy. A mother's sketches completed by her young daughter. I love everything about this. -- Chelsey
2 People Described The Same Person To A Forensic Artist And This Is What Happened, Upworthy. Apparently I'm on an art theme this week, but saw this video and couldn't resist sharing. Watch as people describe themselves to a forensic artist compared to how another person describes them to that same artist. Definitely goes to show we sometimes see ourselves much differently and harsher than how others see us. -- Chelsey
Time to Shine, Rebecca Minkoff. The holidays are the time for innovative brands to really push the limits. Women's retailer Rebecca Minkoff is known for their digital integration and strong social presence so it only seems natural they would launch a digital storefront in San Francisco. The large touch screen is loaded with their top picks of the holidays and offers free overnight shipping. Would you shop a digital store or keep walking? -- Brooke
British Airways Billboards Interact With Their Planes Overhead, PSFK. Digital billboards have been around for years, but have generally only been used as a display screen. It makes sense; you can sell a lot more "space" when you can cycle through multiple ads. But they have the potential for a lot more - potential that has been disappointingly untapped. Here's a great example of utilizing real-time data and specific locations to connect with people in a way a traditional billboard never could. -- Matthew
Business Owners: Want to Offer a Black Friday Deal? Here's How, Entrepreneur. Curator retail brands are already savvy to success on Black Friday, but an interesting read nonetheless as we come up on one of the most anticipated shopping day of the year. -- Megan
Behold, Your Favorite Historical Photos Turned Into Selfies, Huffington Post. There's no arguing that Selfie earned its title for Oxford Dictionary's Word of the Year. In honor of this achievement watch as historical photos are "selfie-ized" -- Brooke
Where’s Waldo? That’s Easy. A Foolproof Strategy for Locating the Stripe-Loving Cartoon Man, Slate. I'm a big data nerd, and I especially like when data can be used to make me seem smarter than my friends — or children. Slate writer Ben Blatt dove into the seven "primary" "Where's Waldo" books to find the places he's most likely to be found. He discovered that "53 percent of the time Waldo is hiding within one of two 1.5-inch tall bands, one starting three inches from the bottom of the page and another one starting seven inches from the bottom, stretching across the spread." Click through for heat maps. -- Paul
Map: The United States of Watersheds, Washington Post. Interesting take on how the U.S. would look if we drew state boundaries not by arbitrary lines but rather based on watershed data. Look, we now border CA! -- Dan
Zappos Hilariously Takes Down Kanye West, but CEO Insists: 'I Admire Him', AdWeek. Once upon a time, "news" happened at 5 o'clock, 10 o'clock and when the morning paper hit your doorstep. That's no longer the case. News happens 24 x 7, and companies should be ready to react. This is a hilarious example of a quick reaction from Zappos, when Kanye West attacked the brand and its products. -- Ann Marie
Why Bring a Child Into This World?, Unilever on YouTube. Unilever has launched a huge, glossy, heavily produced and promoted new sustainability campaign called Project Sunlight - it's an interesting look at how to pull a ton of brands under one umbrella of good. And even more interesting is the tactic used, asking pregnant couples when they are at their most vulnerable to react to the rhetorical "why bring a child into this world?" - watch the turn, check out the site, definitely will get people talking. -- Shawn
