In this week’s Our Take we check out some road awareness campaigns focusing on texting while driving and helmet safety awareness. Zelda is the latest character in the gaming industry to put a kink in players’ armour. In fashion news, AR mirrors are the new rage and what does a world where Crocs and Minecraft collide look like?
Everyone wants to **** Zelda
(and we don’t mean four-star reviews)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally dropped, and the reaction from gamers is that it’s the best Zelda yet. The buzz about the release is so great it has even reached Pornhub.
The porn site reveals that the searches for ‘Zelda’ have grown massively. Leading up to the release, the search term was 357% more popular, and that number shot up to 399% on the 12th of May, when the game was launched.
There’s an old internet meme that states “Rule 34: if it exists, there’s porn of it. No exceptions”, and sad to say, Zelda is a prime example of this. Back in 2019, when the Nintendo Switch was released, searches for Zelda on YouPorn website went up by 164%. At the same time, Pornhub data reveals that Zelda had surpassed Lara Croft as the most searched for video game character.
There’s been so much effort put into making game-culture more inclusive, and getting rid of the hyper-sexualised representation of women in games. Yet this is where we are now. Zelda porn. Seriously?
Stopping people in their tracks
This week an old campaign video re-circulated online showing unsuspecting cinema goers get quite the shock as they took their eyes off the screen. Despite the ad going live almost ten years ago, texting while driving is still an issue and this awareness piece literally hits home.
Often times human impact stories really connect with viewers and in the instance of Helmet man of India, it’s the selflessness and generosity that resonates. Raghvendra Singh has been travelling across India’s highways and byways handing out free helmets to help prevent road deaths. Following the death of a good friend of his, he set out to make a difference by handing out free helmets to those not wearing them as well as undertaking awareness camps in schools.
Important, impactful and inspirational, these are both great examples of driving awareness.
MirrAR, MirrAR on the wall
Bringing a whole new meaning to window shopping, fashion brand Coach has partnered with Augmented Reality company Zero10 to create an AR try-on storefront window to showcase their popular Tabby bag collection.
This Mirror technology gives shoppers the option to virtually try on clothing and all shoppers need to do is select the pieces they wish to try on, stand in front of the mirror and strike a pose. The revolutionary technology uses 3D body tracking, multiclass segmentation, and cloth simulation to make the clothes appear realistic.
In the realm of online shopping, Zyler, a new virtual fitting technology whose mission is to make photorealistic fashion try-on the default way of shopping for clothes, allows online shoppers to enter measurements such as weight and height, and upload selfies so they can virtually fashion items of clothing.
This level-up in both in-store and online shopping may very well change the way we shop over the years to come and will certainly appeal to Gen Zers who have become accustomed to convenience. Is it fitting to say that the days of harshly, unflatteringly lit changing rooms will soon be behind us? How long will it be before you can pop into Penneys for the essentials and virtually try on some bits you absolutely don’t need?
What A Croc!
Crocs are the marmite of footwear. Those who love them swear by them and those don’t, avoid them as they were walking barefoot over hot coals. But there’s no denying that Croc’s openness to exploring new and interesting marketing ideas has delivered some pretty big wins over the years.
This time, they’ve entered the world of AR and Minecraft which ties in a limited edition Minecraft shoe that wearers can decorate with the game’s signature “creeper”, and of course players can deck out their MineCraft avatars with a matching set. They’ve also released two custom MineCraft games “Crocs Creator”, where players can tap into their creative side by building Minecraft creations through the AR overlay, and, “Crocs Crossing”, a more challenging game where players navigate their way through a lava-surrounded maze.
We’re sure the hardcore croc-o-philes out there – kids, and maybe adults too, are gonna love this. But many anti-croc-ists, would argue that the shoes are all best retired to a virtual world.
SPOTLIGHT ON THE BLIND SPOT
This week, we were struck by a campaign that seeks to shed light on something that a lot of people don’t see every day.
South Africa grapples with a significant road safety challenge, with an average of 40 lives lost each day on its roads, resulting in over 14,000 deaths annually.
Coinciding with Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, Volkswagen South Africa launched its ‘Blind Spot’ campaign.
Using a remarkable paint called “Black 3.0.” which almost completely absorbs light and removes all definition, Volkswagen created “invisible” life-size installations, positioning them in Volkswagen dealerships and public locations..
The objects in the installations are practically invisible, blending seamlessly with the darkness created by Black 3.0. However, by scanning the installations using an Augmented Reality (AR) filter, or changing their vantage point, onlookers see the true objects before them – cyclists and motorbikes – that were hidden in the blind spot.
The campaign promotes Volkswagen’s commitment to road safety and demonstrates its innovative IQ-Drive feature, a sophisticated radar system that scans the side and rear of the vehicle and alerts drivers to potential hazards that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Simple. Affecting. Lifesaving.
Check out the campaign video here.