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WHOS BETTER? NEW OLD SPICE MAN OR OLD OLD SPICE MAN
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Seemingly picking up exactly where they left off, New Old Spice Guy Fabio is challenging the (original) Old Spice Guy to a duel on Twitter. While the tip-off was a rather obvious Promoted Tweet of Fabio Defeats Old Spice Guy?, the team behind Old Spice (Wieden + Kennedy, we presume) is back at it, with rapidly-generated YouTube video responses in which Fabio encourages fans to support #teamFabio, while the old Old Spice Guy haggles him from his own Twitter account. So far, Fabios got about 4,000 followers vs. Isiaiahs 129,000. Granted, the old Old Spice Guy has had some time to accrue them The personalized YouTube videos started to be shot and posted on Monday afternoon, while Fabios challenge was issued about 12 hours prior. Since then, the original Old Spice Man seems to have accepted Fabios challenge, inviting him to a Mano a Mano in El Bao duel on Tuesday, July 26th at 12PM EST.

So essentially, were seeing a full-on, (branded) social media duel unfold across Twitter and YouTube (at the very least) people are being called out directly on both platforms, dates and times are being announced, and sites and videos are going up in a real-time, but coordinated fashion. But we wonder what else the team has up their sleeves as fun as this is, the Twitter-driven personalized videos have now been done by Old Spice. So whats next for Fabio and Isiaiah? Well keep our eyes on the duel and will be curious to know how engagement and sales results compare to the last campaign. Issue 1, 2011 powered by

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ECOHOLS: ALCOHOL BRAND PACKAGING WITH TETRA PAKS

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Designer, Jrn Beyer aka Jrn, based in Dsseldorf, Germany has revamped the packaging of major spirit brands, to see if peoples product decisions would be affected by replacing their signature glass bottles with Tetra Paks. The resulting series called Ecohols displays the labels of Jack Daniels, Absolut Vodka and Jgermeister on ordinary beverage cartons. What remains of the brand, is it just about the name, its contents, or the total package?

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WOULD YOU GIVE UP THE INTERNET FOR A MILLION DOLLARS?

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This is not a silly question since the number of Internet users worldwide has surpassed two billion and with so many having seamlessly integrated the web into everyday life, it may be tough to quantify how much its exactly worth to an individual. But, the free market group, Fund for American Studies gave it a shot, asking passersby, Would you give up the internet for a million dollars? To prove how vital new technology is to the economy, host Michelle Fields poses the question and so does Southern Methodist University professor, Michael Cox to his students, but both found few takers of the proposal. Beyond giving up the internet, the video questions how much people are willing to pay for new devices. In the past, computers cost millions of dollars, cell phones cost thousands, and cameras cost hundreds, but their prices have fallen drastically due to competition to create the best, most cost-efficient products. The video also explains a free market system, where the wealthy buy new products first at their peak prices. After glitches are ironed out and production costs are lowered, the products gradually become affordable to a much wider audience. The takeaway in regards to the value of the internet, as professor Michael Cox says, What the market has done is created a tremendous gap between worth how much you pay for it and cost. The video ends with the following statement: In some ways, maybe were all millionaires and billionaires, if we have something thats worth so much to us something that lets us do so much. So think about it, how much is all of that worth to you, you might just be richer than you realize. A good point since the goal of innovation is to make everyones lives much better.

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DISCOVER BANKSY STREET ART WITH NEW LOCATION APP

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Fans of Banksy can always search for his work online, but a much more gratifying way of viewing his work is to view it as as it was intended: on the streets. BanksyLocations, a new iPhone app aims to do just that, by offering a personal tour of all his street art. The app takes your current location and finds Banksy pieces nearest you via dropping a pin on a map, then gives directions for a first-hand visual encounter. For at home viewing, The Banksy-Locations app also features videos by and about Banksy along with a gallery of all the his street art and installations along with information about each. Banksy news is regularly updated with new artwork tracked once it appears. This pretty comprehensive app for the Banksy fan is another great way of finding his art.

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THE POWER OF LOVE: A SCULPTURE IN 350,000 POST-ITS

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Melissa Power of Love, a new shoe collection by Melissa Gallery recently launched. To inaugurate the event, the brand created a stop motion video using 350,000 Post-Its. People were invited to write notes of love on the pieces of paper adn submit them.

It took 25 animators 5 months to complete the massive multicolored mural on the front of the Melissa Gallery building.

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10 START-UPS TO WATCH: COMMON X PSFK

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Recently, we wrote about a new initiative, COMMON Pitch, that solicited pitches for new community projects that foster social good. On August 19, in Boulder, Colorado the top ten winning applicants will get their time on stage to present their ideas to a live and virtual crowd of peers, industry leaders, and venture capitalists. Votes will determine winners, who have the chance to fund their ideas to make them a reality.

SunSaluter Eden Full

The Bell Light Marius Andresen & Kristian Bye

Ritual Chocolate Robbie Stout & Anna Davies

Eco-Town Chris Davies

Meeps Mat Ranauro

Beta Shower Valli Lakshmanan & Rob Murphy

Mediacause Eric Facas

Quinn Popcorn Kristy Lewis & Coulter Lewise

Book Swap Teo Bazgu & Avni Chinoy

Art gizmo Nicholas Dunbar

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NEW HOTEL BOOKING APP PROPOSES NAUGHTY ACTIVITIES

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Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a new app that not only helps you book a hotel room, but encourages naughty behavior in the bedroom (akin to the popular movie that stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). The app features functions that offer tips for sexy routines, cocktail-mixing, and even customizable email templates that you can send to your employer, explaining why youre not at the office.

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IS DRINKING WATER OVERRATED?

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Over the last few weeks, those who visited the British Medical Journals website might have noticed an advert for a new public health initiative, Hydration for Health. It is sponsored by Danonewhich owns the Evian, Volvic and Badoit bottled water brandsand urges healthcare professionals to encourage people to drink more water, claiming that evidence is increasing that even mild dehydration plays a role in the development of various diseases. Margaret McCartney, a GP and columnist, saw these adverts and complained about it, writing an article for the BMJ (who admitted we hadnt followed our own guidelines. The advertisement bypassed our editorial checks) about the lack of evidenceand citing the shortcomings of many studiesthat people should be drinking more water. I prefer to get my health information from unbiased sources rather than people with vested interests, she says. The idea that we should drink eight glasses of water a day is expounded, among others, by the NHS Choices website. This is not only nonsense, writes McCartney, but thoroughly debunked nonsense. But you can see the drive to get people to drink more water in other places, too. In the Royal College of Nursings hydration toolkit, its best practice guidance produced, incidentally, in conjunction with Water UK, which works on behalf of the water industryit makes the sensational claim that by drinking water you will also be helping to protect yourself against three of the biggest killer cancers [bowel, breast and prostate]. Much further down the report, and far less noticeable, it states, the benefits of good hydration to protect against cancer have not been well studied and the current findings are considered to be inconclusive. Many of us have been led to believe that the more we drink, the healthier we will be. At the weekend, in his column for the Sunday Times, Dominic Lawson outed his sister Nigella as an aquaholic, drinking several litres a day. Several newspapers followed this up this week by interviewing women who drank excessive amounts of water thinking they were doing themselves goodone, Joanne Jarvis, interviewed by the Daily Mail, was hospitalised after drinking 11 litres over four hours. READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE AT LINK.PSFK.COM/WATER

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FAVEOUS AGGREGATES YOUR ONLINE FAVORITES

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With so much information to consume online, it is often hard, if not impossible, to read, watch, or listen to everything wed like to. So we like, star and bookmark things on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, hoping well remember to check it out later. Enter Faveous, an upcoming web service by 18-year-old French entrepreneur, Arthur Monnet. Faveous aggregates all the items youve noted on Twitter, Google Reader, Youtube, Dailymotion and Facebook, so you can look at them all in one place. While Faveous is still in a closed beta stage, internet users who would like to know more about the service can get a sneak peek online tour here.

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PRODUCT OF THE WEEK: PAUL SMITHS DOT PRESS COFFEE MAKER FOR STELTON
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Paul Smith has designed some new products for his latest partnership with Stelton. This Dot Press coffee maker and mug will be available in the Autumn collection. They feature a quirky mix of colors and materials. The coffee maker is made out of synthetic material with a stainless steel handle and the mugs are porcelain upholstered with synthetic material. The coffee maker comes in black, purple or brown and you can mix-and-match the colors of the mugs.

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NEED TO KNOW VOL.1

PSFK has partnered with Bing to help our readers kick off a well-informed weekend. Each Saturday, our newsletter subscribers will be receiving an e-newsletter along with a printable pdf, that captures the top news of the week. Whether new products, services, or ways of living, this newsletter will keep you abreast of all the things you need to know.

www.psfk.com/need-to-know

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