If you’re truly living the good life, you want your sandwiches to be fresh, right? What else could you ask for? Sandwhich saver? More like Life saver.

– Thanks to Brian for the photo.

Apple’s announced a new format and authoring software for it’s textbook platform on the iPad. Ever since the Switch campaign they’ve been using skateboarding in advertising and marketing pieces for iPods, iPhones and now the iPad via iBooks textbooks. The still is from a video piece on their education web site. The skate footage is only a few seconds buried in a lengthy video, so it’s not really worth watching unless of course you want to learn more about the tablet computer that will one day rule your life. I am not trolling for a free iPad from Apple, because what I really need is a new Mac Mini. Come guys, you’re worth more than Exxon now, how about a product giveaway/review on Skate and Annoy? We are crushing the middle age Extreme!™ demographic here.

I was never a fan of Alf, so I’m not sure of the significance (or meaning) of the phrase “Yo Luck!” as seen on this sure to be musty smelling Alf shirt. Since he rides a skateboard on his own skateboard, it’s not much of a surprise to see him riding another skateboard on a t-shirt.

Well who am I argue? I’d have to translate it first. The A-side title needs no translation – Get Rad (With the right protection). Sounds like a description of a dorm room poster for safe sex, but no, it’s almost as titillating. Nothing excites an adolescent more than a pullout poster extolling the virtues of hard plastic shells and tender, soft foam. This poster is courtesy of the Dutch organization known as the (translated) Consumer & Safety Foundation, circa 1989 or 1990, judging by that Nicky Guerrero mask model.

– Thanks to Matthijs for the scans.

Download Spotify and the disk image opens up with a little skateboard on it, at least on a Mac it does. Or at leastit did for MC, because it didn’t for me. But they do have the image on the download page after you register. Seems like a somewhat interesting service. Another music cloud, but I like the ability to collaborate on playlists, plus they’ve got hooks into Facebook so good luck Google Plus. On second thought, they have nothing to worry about. I downloaded it and installed it. It was embarassing to find out how many of my (actual) friends were already on it via the Facebook hook. The only thing worse was the fact that I couldn’t get a single damned track to play, not even their welcome-to-the-service playlist. Sheesh.

I can’t remember where I found this, you know, besides tonight when I moved a dresser and found it covered in dust bunnies. It must have been a kids magazine because it has the word “advertisement” at the top of the page. I’m not sure what other type of magazine would find the content confusing. No point in clicking through, unless you need a footnote for your thesis on exactly where cartoon characters, skateboards and food packaging intersect. 25% less fun, 100% more sugar!

Last year’s promo must have been a hit, becasue they upped it from the first 2000 to the first 5000 fans in the park who got a free Portland Timbers skateboard. I have to tell you I thought our mayor was a bit looney pushing for a major league soccer team in our town. I hold soccer in about as much entertainment esteem as the Onion does, and I figured it would flop, but boy was I wrong. Games are regularly sold out and the fans are rabid. I heard last year’s board was not really the same size as an actual skateboard, more like a toy hand board. I’m still a little bit confused by this cross promotion. Makes about as much sense as a skateboarder printed on a frisbee, or Air Grip brand flying disk as it were. But damn it all if I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon and go see a game, cause I do. Update: Well this post is pretty funny in retrospect, as 5 years later I am now a huge Timbers nerd. So much so that I actually travelled to Columbus Ohio to watch them win the MLS Cup.

[Photo: Portland Timbers] – Thanks to Greg for the tip.

Transformers. More like less than meets the eye. Near as I can tell, the Access creative agency comes up with ideas… and then? They’ve got a ton of marketing/promotional projects online, but it doesn’t appear that any of them have actually come to fruition. Keep dreaming, young dreamers. One of their projects is a fancy series of miniramps with two giant Transformer robots overlooking them:

It’s the kind of event and setting that gets talked about, blogged about and written about – not just in skating circles but in the channels used by the general movie going public.

Well they got that right. We’re talking about it and it doesn’t even exist. Check it out at Access.

– Thanks to MC for the tip.

“There are times when you need car insurance.” And then there are times when you need to get some new blood in your marketing department, Clal Insurance in Israel does.

– Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip.

Rio is the name of an animated movie that, near as I can tell from the previews they are showing on TV, has no plot other than the fact that a bunch of cheeky animals are hanging out together in Brazil. The movie doesn’t open until this weekend, but that hasn’t stopped 20th Century Fox from hooking up with McDonalds for a Happy Meal Promo. Finding out when the movie opens led me to another trailer where I learned the bird can’t fly, and he rides a skateboard in the movie.