ummm… yeah, what is Scion City?

There it is, a fresh post, a mysterious text about what Hamlet cannot divulge and how involved he was, and a link, which he hopes we check out for ourselves.

Well, people, it’s an ad. Scion is a car brand sold in the US by Toyota. Sure, it’s a machinima, it has a certain cool for those who are into this kind of stuff, but in the end, it serves to sell cars. And the author of it all is our own Hamlet.

Comments are off on this one - we are to sit, watch and swallow our words. And so I cannot tell him how cheap and outdated I think the concept of this ad is (desert, explorers, treasure in the sand… try an IMDb search on that concept… yawn), how well executed it is (granted), how uninterested I however am to see the rest of it, but above all, how amazed I am to see Hamlet point me to an ad as if it’s the most exciting new thing since cherry coke - without telling me that what I am about to watch is an ad. For a car, I might add, I cannot even buy here in Europe.

So what is Scion City? It’s a new way to flog cars, and a not-so-new way to score hits on a website. Yay, yay. Next time I’ll double-check the status bar of the browser before I click on anything, Hamlet.

Repubblica Wants To See You Both

On the website of one of the main Italian national newspapers I found the following article (translated):

Real Life and Second Life

Here Is My Avatar

Rome - The 3D metaverse that was created in 2003 by the Californian company Linden Lab, populated by millions of users, gives everyone the possibility to live in a digital world with a new face and a different look.

But how are we different in this our second life? Send us a picture of yourself and your avatar (with respective names) and, if you want, some words about yourself.

A selection of pictures will then be published on Repubblica.it and in the [printed Friday supplement] “Venerdì”.

Send to iniziative@repubblica.it

Trust the ever fashion conscious and technology savvy Italians to start an initiative like that! I must say that I don’t think that sending a few words in anything but Italian makes any sense, but you could try. I am certainly going to send in my RL/SL mixed picture!