Charlie Brown and his weekend-working friends could have used some help from Mother. Their recent take on the holidays has been getting all sorts of attention.

They channeled the Nigerian scammer emails that promise big dollars in exchange for personal information, sending out a similar message to a few hundred people. They promised $10,000 to the first person who emailed back with their name and bank information. One person responded, leading to this video and sizable charitable donation:

Enjoy this creative approach and have a safe and happy holiday season.

The Product

It goes without saying that the I.D. Case from Case-mate is ultra-slim, adding minimal bulk to your iPhone (added bulk is why I have resisted an iPhone case for so long). But the really ingenious feature is the slot on the back, which will hold 2 credit card sized items. This could be your debit card and your I.D., business cards, cash, etc., making it perfect for any number of scenarios where you might opt to go sans wallet/purse. Check out this video of the product designers (Alex is a Savannah College of Art & Design alum) talking about how they arrived at the final prototype.

The Promotion

The second element of this success story is the promotion, both online and offline. Case-mate did a really good job of identifying a target audience for promoting the initial roll-out of the I.D. Case. The product holds immediate appeal to people who wish to carry as few items as possible when they go out. (Ladies, the little black dress rarely has pockets, does it?) There’s even a funny little website called The Complicators which profiles nefarious characters from the bar scene. Check out this footage of the brand’s field agents assuming the role of the Decomplicators as they give away free samples of the I.D. Case at the Sunset Strip Music Festival.

Projection on Buildings from NuFormer Digital Media on Vimeo.

James Cameron’s Avatar has put 3D back in the news and most people usually only associate the term with bad monster movies from the 1950’s and 60’s when the fad pretty much died out except for the occasional Jaws 3D (not to mention you had to wear those silly red and blue paper glasses to enjoy the show).

The group NuFormer Digital Media from the Netherlands takes the idea of 3D out of the multi-plex and projects on the real world with some astonishing results. The above video shows off some pretty incredible 3D video animation projected on buildings and the video below is from the recent climate conference in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen - The Time Is Now from NuFormer Digital Media on Vimeo.

The Flyer’s Collection is a hilarious fake product line from JetBlue Airways created for those “unfortunate times” when its customers have to fly with the Other Guys. It includes items such as the Knee Jockey, the Full Body Compression Garment, and the Seat Back Beeper. The collection lives on a custom tab on JetBlue’s Facebook fanpage and is a great example of funny, engaging content that allows people to connect with the JetBlue brand at an emotional level.

The styrofoam cup is designed, to the chagrin of environmentalists, to be thrown away. Cheeming Boey sees styrofoam cups as a grand and cheap canvas for his art.

“The styrofoam cup itself represents the pop culture we live in, and in some ways, is the epitome of 21st century technology.”

One day Boey decided to draw a picture using a ballpoint pen on a styrofoam coffee cup (he’s since graduated to using a Sharpie - which Sharpie is very happy with). It was a very good idea. Since then he’s drawn on hundreds of cups and his cup drawings are sold for hundreds of dollars. While Boey can usually crank out a piece of work in a matter of hours he has spent up to three months working on one cup idea.

Your contribution can end child labor.

Fast drying cement.

When you use a mobile while you drive, your head is somewhere else.

Always use protection.

Stop Killer.

You can lose more than your patience.

See more over at TechieBlogger.

We’re all too familiar with horror stories from iPhone developers who have endured long waits for an app approval, often in the dark for much of the process. That’s why this approach from some folks in Sweden caught our eye.

When SVT, Sweden’s largest TV station, recently submitted an app to Apple, they decided to create a campaign around getting it approved. The campaign launched earlier today with all kinds of tactics to catch Apple’s attention and ultimately get Steve Jobs to say “Ja” (”Yes” for you Anglophiles) to the SVT Play app.

A Dear Steve Jobs website has been created with plenty of ways for people to help convince Apple to approve the app: voting, sharing info via Twitter and Facebook, and uploading a YouTube video. The campaign has also taken a group of Swedes to Apple headquarters where they’re demonstrating in support of the app.

It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for the campaign to resonate with Apple and whether it will influence the approval process. This stunt is also about something bigger though, an approval process that is clearly in need of some work.

Who knew data sets could look so cool? What used to live on spreadsheets or as pie charts and graphs has been taken to another level by Barcelona and Lisbon based Bestiario.

They are “dedicated to data visualization and to the creation of spaces for the collective creation of knowledge…making the complex comprehensible.”

We combine art and science to design and create interactive information spaces. We have developed a powerful framework based on graph theory, topological algorithms, physical models, and geometrical and geographical representations to provide the optimum solutions to our customers.

No matter. It still looks great and there are some very interesting links on their site. For instance, for a little diversion get chased around your desktop by some creepy tetrapods.

It would be brilliant to see The Salvation Army incorporate something like this into some of its major markets. Notice how the smiles (and the donations) multiplied once the bell chorus started?

The difference between one bell and the bell chours is worth noting. One guy constantly ringing a bell is borderline annoying, as it simply adds to the everyday noise we have learned to filter out. The multi-bell chorus creates something beautiful that makes people stop, listen, and feel something.

Never underestimate the power of emotion as a motivational force.