I posted a while ago about wanting a Honda Big Ruckus, well I found a community of owners of the regular Ruckus at Totalruckus.com, asked a bunch of questions and learned about what is capable with the thing and decided to go with the small one. I love it, and I’ve already dumped way too much into fixing it up the way I like.

So here’s just a quick picture of it, and I actually did a post about getting around NYC on a scooter for the Galison/Mudpuppy blog, The Galiwag. I will have a more detailed post about my new addiction another day.

Another funny ad. The great thing about this is that although it is so simple, and low budget it manages to engage the viewer while still being humorous. I won’t ruin it, but I was actually proud of myself when I got the number right only to end up laughing at myself at the end.

This is another British ad, made to bring awareness to the safety of cyclists, after a whole day of driving my scooter around Manhattan, I think we could use a few ads here as well for bikers in general.

One of my favorite ads, though I may have posted it before. I think I only saw it once on TV, but every couple of months I get the urge to watch it again. The song in the ad, by the way, is by Mint Royale, an electronica duo turned solo act based out of Manchester, England.

Completed a redesign for The Galiwag, the less formal web presense for Galison/Mudpuppy Press, a paper gifts company based in midtown Manhattan. The whole idea was to just make it more fun and less corporate, so I used the Mudpuppy character Galison uses for its children’s line as the logo and the post divider while introducing more playful colors and gradients to the site.

It’s easy to get used to seeing ads in the context of which laundry detergent, pet food or fast food restaurant you should prefer, but there are often times when advertisements mean much more. They can be used to educate, warn, make light or terrorize us on a particular topic, and to me, that is when they can truly become powerful in a way that commercial advertising can rarely touch.

The above ad is one of three, found via Adverbox, created by Amnesty International in protest of the olympic games taking place in China, due to the reported mistreatment of social and political workers there. We all saw the commotion that followed the Olympic torch around, though the effectiveness of those displays is arguable. Are these any more so? Judge for yourself.