Shivers

These weeks, the electricity company Enel presents a TV ad with the motto l’energia che ti ascolta - energy which listens to you. One of the two or three similar clips has sent a shiver down my spine, the first time I watched it. Not because of the choice of music - I think it’s rather outrageous to use the Velvet Underground’s beautiful Sunday Morning with it’s sombre overtones in an ad - but because of the little girl appearing seven seconds after the start. You may or you may not agree with me, but to me she looks a lot like my avatar. Just compare this screenshot with the banner above my blog:

Suddenly Sunday Morning gets a whole new meaning. Watch out, the world’s behind you…

You can watch the full clip on YouTube.

Also on YouTube, the full Velvet Underground song.

ps - Ignore the WordPress idiocy of “possibly related posts”. It’s a load of crap, I didn’t ask for it, it doesn’t work and there seems to be no way to switch it off. Windows98 revisited…

Mixed Reality With A Twist

This one is for Torley.

Tateru Nino gives us a weekly overview of how mixed reality sites - real world corporate sites in Second Life - are doing. But how about metaverse reality creeping into real life? Is it me or are we seeing more people flying around in ads these days? Here are two examples, taken from YouTube:

Canon EOS 400D commercial - note the punchline!

Dutch insurance company RVS commercial. That lovely song is Come Wander With Me by Jeff Alexander, sung by Julie London.

It’s far too little to speak of a trend yet, but keep your eyes open. I wouldn’t be surprised if especially the Canon people have been inspired by Second Life.