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Web Nuggets: Adidas fans use Death Star to declare war on Japan

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    • CommentAuthorSteadyUP
    • CommentTimeJun 24th 2010 edited
     (8460.1)
    Okay, bear with me here...

    Adidas has been working on some new Star Wars merchandising thing. As a viral marketing tease, they developed some program that allows people to use geo-detection and Facebook Connect, two things I don't entirely understand, to "target" their friends' houses with the Death Star, resulting in an Adidas logo-shaped crater superimposed over their location on Google Earth.

    How could that possibly be misconstrued, you ask? I'll let this article explain the rest.
    As it turns out, the geo-detection system in Japan traces many IP addresses back to a large central server--a server that was located right next to the emperor of Japan's palace. Barbour's Death Star app had spent the night blasting away at the palace--a promo trick totally lost in translation. Soon, Adidas's customer service center was inundated with calls from confused Japanese citizens.
    So, yeah, it appears that mysterious claims of laser bombardment of foreign heads of state may not be the best form of viral marketing.

    But on the other hand - hey, look! TIE Fighter shoes!

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