Tacking an LCD onto the exterior of a USB flash drive is nothing new, but CoMo Gadget's CM-1022 is upping the ante by allowing users to customize what's pictured on the screen. This less-than-attractive device is helped out by the ability to upload a logo or picture onto the built-in screen, which then flashes to get "maximum exposure" for marketers. Additionally, there's room for 4GB of mind-numbing press releases, Java games, or one-time use coupons, and considering that the display is reportedly solar-powered, a dab of sun should keep the flashing going 'til the wee hours of the night. No signs of a pricetag just yet, but unless you've got advertising on the brain, we'd steer clear of this one.

[Via EverythingUSB]

Dutch Umbrella -- a startup focusing its efforts in and around the city of brotherly love -- is looking to take the idea of courtesy umbrella rentals to a new level by incorporating RFID tags and marketers. Currently, the firm has landed eight partners that will toss logos on the stark white umbrellas and utilize the tantalizing tracking information that gets recorded each time a rainy day encourages patrons to grab some cover. Merchants are required to pony up $100 per month in order to receive the marketing intelligence, and can then use it to determine where umbrella carriers go once the downpour begins in order to better position future ads. Unfortunately, we tend to hear that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but there's probably not much truth to that.

[Via DailyWireless]

Although this certainly won't go down as the first attempt to integrate cellphones into discrete marketing, Japan's largest online shopping mall operator is apparently taking advantage of the country's oh-so-superior handsets and offering up tantalizing "promotional videos" for consumers who snap pictures of ads. Rakuten is reportedly set to hand out thousands of pilot issues of a magazine, Zero90, in hopes that mobile-wielding readers will snap photos of certain articles in exchange for a free commercial intellectually stimulating media clip. While this sounds an awful lot like QR codes, the actual technology used in the pages isn't mentioned, but we do know that Japan-based Clementec is behind it -- and you thought print media had too many plugs as is.

[Via Physorg]

It's no secret that cellphone manufacturers and carriers alike are getting quite crafty with their marketing approaches, but Symbian went straight for the low-blow with its Boo-Hoo campaign. Frankly, the site (and more specifically, the Boo-Hoo For You video) slams the Western smartphone for not being as "technically capable" as the Symbian phones overseas, but we're not quite sure we're following all the slighting. Aside from being a bit weirded out by a talking Pac-man lookalike and a hump-backed eraser, we're not so sure that Big Brother being right there on your cellphone at all times is actually a perk. Additionally, e-wallets and cellphone-based ticketing aren't exactly Symbian exclusives, and having the nerve to actually flaunt an "aroma phone" just about nixes any and all credibility this wacky cartoon had left. Nevertheless, we're sure this here promo was intended less for informative purposes and more for water-cooler jabbing, so click on through to see what the fuss is all about. [Warning: Psychedelic video could induce epilepsy]

[Via S60, thanks Stefan C.]

Although robots haven't stolen sign-toting jobs from weather-braving Americans just yet, it looks like those street corner consignment gigs could be vanishing in Osaka. Due to a curious loophole in Japanese law, owners of adult entertainment clubs and information kiosks are now crafting robo-touts to solicit business from interested consumers, as it's illegal for a human to do the same. The handsome bots proudly hoist "Ask Me!" signs that attract passerbyers eyes, and apparently, direct any takers to the appropriate human source of information. Of course, these directing gurus could certainly branch out into less dodgy lines of work, but considering that the pictured servant underwent a ¥500,000 ($4,209) makeover just to look the part, these humanoids should probably be reserved for the most lucrative of chores.

[Via PinkTentacle]

The age of Big Brother everywhere is certainly upon us, and while we've seen (or at least heard of) tracking devices being implanted in the most unusual of places, it looks like Xerox is hoping to join the devilish fray. In an attempt to craft a demographic extractor to garner marketing dollars galore, a recently filed patent application spells out a system that utilizes software (and potentially hardware) to map users to "centroid vectors" which would determine a person's age, sex, and other "private" information simply based on their website visits. Interestingly, test cases are reportedly showing a respectable "75-percent accuracy rate" so long as a "sufficient number of pages were visited." Still, we can't imagine any tracing technology would be lawfully allowed behind the backs of law-abiding citizens (right?), but considering that even your TiVo has the potential to sell your soul to lucrative ad agencies, we wouldn't put it past 'em.

[Via ArsTechnica]

Even diehard fans of gas guzzling motorcars making entirely too many left turns in succession know that its about more than just the racing, and AT&T is apparently fairly hot and bothered that its mega marketing bucks aren't resulting in a new paint job. The #31 car, which owned by Richard Childress Racing and driven by Jeff Burton, has been sponsored by Cingular for about six years, but as we all know, AT&T (and its blue sphere) are calling the shots now. Unfortunately, Nextel (you know, the folks who sponsor NASCAR) has been less than snappy in addressing the change in logos, and now AT&T is dropping a lawsuit on NASCAR in an attempt to hasten the change. Typically, we would seriously question the sanity of a driver refusing to abide by the wishes of its primary source of funding, but when you're cruising in second place (and a good bit of winnings), you roll however you please.

Granted, we've seen some fairly bizarre methods of promoting one's product, and while Microsoft's Zune hasn't exactly been tagged with controversial propaganda or flashy automobile campaigns just yet, all that changed in a New York minute. According to reports from Hell Square residents in lower Manhattan, a California-tagged, Zune-branded SUV rolled through Ludlow Street during the "wee hours of February 25th," but rather than handing out flyers to the night-owls still roaming, the vehicle decided to test out its "competition grade stereo system" in a densely populated neighborhood. Dubbed an "egregious display of noise terrorism," the 3:00AM blasting from a (presumably Microsoft owned) Toyota FJ Cruiser didn't garner the positive attention that the firm was apparently hoping for, and consequently, quite a few residents of the area are now flaming mad and demanding restitution. Honestly, we've no problem with a little viral marketing every now and then, but blowing out the 'hood on a Sunday morning probably takes things a bit too far, and if you're interested in catching a video of the blasting in action, be sure to hit the read link and await an official apology that will probably never surface.

If you were forced to be photographed by airplanes soaring over your homeland in a jovial time of celebration, would you rather Gates & Co. have the negatives, or the future dominator of planet Earth? Aussies will have the option to make their choice on January 26th, as both Microsoft and Google have separately announced flyovers to occur on Australia Day in which high-resolution photographs will be snapped. Microsoft's motive is one with cultural and artsy underpinnings, as the company hopes to arrange individuals in order to form objects, scenes, and colored patterns from above, while Google seeks to cover more of the country for use in Google Maps and is encouraging individuals to distinguish themselves to get a free ride right into its mapping software. So if you're a Down Under native, or you just so happen to be hanging out in Centennial or Moore Park on Friday morning, toss up an Engadget poster, will ya?

While devices such as the GameBoy and original Atari are more like slivers of history than gadgets of days past, Sony's Walkman has also become transcendent through time, and one of the fellows who helped put it on the map has sadly passed away. Choromatsu, the "meditating monkey" who starred in a Sony spot that eventually won best commercial in the late 1980s, died this past Sunday after living for 29 years. The monkey was famous for his various performances around Japan, and happily retired in 1990 to live out the latter half of his life with his 41 year old "human partner in performances," Goro Murasaki. While Sony's recent marketing attempts have been somewhat intriguing and less subtle than the firm would've hoped, this critter could probably convince anyone that owning a Walkman is a soul-soothing experience, so if you missed his performance back in 1987/88, be sure to click on through for the ad in its entirety.

[Via TokyoMango]

It's not terribly uncommon to see a manufacturer try to push a product (or platform) into every crevice of your life, and it seems that Texas Instruments is diverting quite sharply from its calculatorish ways of old and making an aggressive push to get that DLP logo slapped on everything you own. While we've seen (literally) the diminutive Microvision display do its thang here at CES, TI is hoping to steal that thunder away by talking up its forthcoming palm-sized DLP projectors. The "fully featured" Pocket Projectors, which are co-developed by OMAP, would weigh "less than one pound," use the .55 DLP chip, and could purportedly connect to handsets or PDAs to beam up that big(ger) screen imagery for a crowd to see. Unfortunately for TI, these devices are not (at least initially) supposed to be integrated units, which could easily get overlooked if those built-in alternatives can muster acceptable quality. Additionally, TI is hoping to get that DLP logo stamped on your brain even when you visit the cinema, as the company now has its technology in 3,000 theaters worldwide and is frequently throwing logo-clad splash screens onto the canvas during pre-show advertisements. So if you wonder why you're strangely drawn to the DLP sets during your next HDTV shopping trip, trust us, it's not the mirrors, it's the marketing.

[Via AboutProjectors]

Although Microsoft has patented an advertising "gotcha" to insert fresh plugs into previously recorded shows, Visible World and OpenTV are taking targeted advertising to a whole new level. While the systems have been trialed for some time now, Visible World's variable ad system will hit the mainstream when Wendy's commercials on Fox Sports' NFL broadcasts feature raccoons that seemingly know what just happened on the field. The 'coons will bust out comments about how boring the scoreless match is, how crazy that touchdown pass was, or how miserable that shirtless guy in the front row must be in the below-freezing weather. Eventually, both firms hope to focus ads right down to individual households, claiming that "dog-related advertisements" would show up primarily in dog-owning households, and that Ford commercials could be specifically shown to compete with local / regional competition in a given area. Still, for those programs that we can stand to watch later, we doubt a slightly clever advertisement will keep our fingers off the FF button, but at least this stuff makes those live broadcasts a bit less painstaking.