Mi Air Charge & things that made last week

Mi Air Charge

Mi Air Charge is a smartphone controlled air purifier by Xiaomi. The ad promotes it as being an essential item in a dystopian austere bachelor pad. I am not sure why the Mi Air Charge was controlled by an app, except to sell more It reminded me of a product advert specified and designed for the engineers that likely worked on the product.

Dyson has done similarly sparse interiors in its ads, but they usually cast a couple or family.

Bob Ross paintings

Anyone who has watched TV in the middle of the night has likely come across the TV series of Bob Ross painting landscapes. For each show that he did, there were three paintings. Bob Ross’ paintings have never come up in auction. They were given to friends and the rest held in an archive by the company that carries his name.

Uniqlo Japan AIRism advert

Uniqlo set a high standard for adverts and creativity. This particular example for its AIRism casual wear is notable for its natural portrayal of a Japanese lesbian couple. Usually Japanese advert portray the struggles that the LGBTQ community face. Whereas this normalises its protagonists with a slice of life approach.

https://youtu.be/PsfpCd0TAxU

Luther Vandross would have been 70 last week

On April 19, the Google Doodle celebrated Luther Vandross’ 70th birthday with a new animated video to accompany his track Never Too Much. The animation was done for Google by Sam Bass.

And here is the original video from 1981. I love the way the video intercuts film that they shot on the street into the track. The song was recorded using a Studer A800 multitrack recorder.

The Mercedes Benz 500E was inspired by AMG’s efforts with the Hammer and increased competition from the likes of Lexus. This video gives a good guide to the car, including clarifying that Porsche helped in the assembly but its not a Porsche sedan.