Yesterday's absurdity often becomes today's reality.
In 1953 Tex Avery created a cartoon around the future of television (see below). While much of this cartoon was meant as satire, a surprising amount of this content has come to fruition.
Consider the list below. The primary bullets are points made in 1953. The secondary bullets reflect the view from 2008.
Video Below
OK, here's my confession. I am a big fan of everyone's favorite furry little monster, Elmo. Not only is he incredibly cute, but he's incredibly well marketed, and yes, innovative.
I had an Elmo TMX while it was completely unavailable (it was a gift). It was probably one of the coolest toys I've ever seen. And the envy factor from other friends (including adults!) was huge. Fisher Price's Elmo Premium lines have become the Apple of the toy market. Buckets of hype drive incredible demand while low supplies drive incredible desire.
Last night, I came across a video of the new Elmo (see below) - featured at the NY Toy Show. This Blows My Mind. It's cute, it's cuddly, it has personality, and it is going to be all over popular media when it is released. I don't want to know how much this is going to cost, all I can tell you is that the lines are going to be insane, and parents will be gladly emptying their wallets.
On that note, my 7 month old son is going to be growing up with a different expectation of his toys. I expected GIJoe to have accessories, and I expected his arms and legs to randomly pop off. My son is going to expect his toys to have an active personality. Elmo is bringing robotics to a new generation.
Elmo is becoming everything that my good old Teddy Ruxpin should have become.
Check out the video below (many more videos here):
Now compare that to Teddy Ruxpin (video below)
In the words of a famous television character, "Everybody lies".
How would we market differently if were to operate in an ecosystem where everybody did in fact, lie?
Disclaimer: I don't believe that we lie all that pervasively on a regular basis. As a society, we generally interact with a fair degree of decency, fairness and mutual understanding/respect.
Yet when when there is no accountability, when there is no recourse, when we are operating from behind the shadows of our computers, everything changes.
Men often present as women in Second Life. YouTube comments seem to be authored almost entirely by the mentally unstable. MySpacers are "friends" with complete strangers. And all too often, social leaders (both religious and political) are exposed for leading dual lives online.
In a medium where users can become, act, or experience anything their hearts desire, it is understandable that many will experiment with alternatives/fantasys to their real-world lives. The appeal of the escape into the anonymity of digital media is often quite strong.
Which raises the question, how does this alternative reality impact our "real" reality? How should marketers approach the digital divide?
Interactive/clickable video sounds great... in theory.
Advertisers dream of the day when their products will clickable in-stream. As a user, I would enjoy the ability to purchase background music or a film soundtracks from within the video viewing experience.
As an experience designer, how would you layer in this interaction? How would you notify consumers of a clickable asset without intruding on the user experience? When does notification become interruption? When does interruption become invasive?
I don't have an answer, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Here are a few examples of what I've seen to date:
Which is the best solution? I really don't know. But I have a feeling that we are not yet where we're going to be.