Congratulations, you’ve made it through another week. Your reward: another batch of RJS Friday Fun Links!

Target made news this week with an interesting New York Times report about their behavioral marketing strategy. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the column was the example they used to show how in-depth their analysis has become. Basically, Target has a statistical formula that can identify pregnant women often before the expecting mother has even announced the impending birth. In fact, an angry father recently stormed into a Minneapolis Target store demanding why his teenage daughter was receiving coupons for baby clothes and cribs. The store manager apologized and then called the residence a few days later to apologize again. This time though, it wasn’t the store manager apologizing:

“On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”

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I don’t know about you, but I thought the Super Bowl was fairly boring this year (until the final 5 minutes). Big plays were few and far between and most of the commercials were duds. At least your RJS Friday Fun Links are never dull!

Speaking of which, big companies spend big money to air commercials to millions of people watching the game. The risk of course is when your ad flops and you’ve just flushed $3 million+ down the drain. So why not follow Old Milwaukee’s route?

The American brewery featured a 30-second spot in the country’s second smallest TV market – North Platte, Nebraska. The ad is simple, endorsed by Will Ferrell and produced significantly more social media buzz than national spots from Cadillac, CareerBuilder and others. As Bloomberg Businessweek accurately states, “Old Milwaukee spent $1,500 to broadcast a Super Bowl spot that’s generated more social media buzz than rivals’ $3 million commercials.” Old Milwaukee has been showcasing this unique campaign in other small cities as well, with humorous Will Ferrell commercials running in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Terra Haute, Indiana and Davenport, Iowa.

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In honor of the big game on Sunday, we’re spicing up our RJS Friday Fun Links with a little Super Bowl flavor.

Let’s first take a look at Sports Illustrated’s list of “The 10 Best Super Bowls.” My personal favorite is XLII, when the New York Giants stunned the previously undefeated New England Patriots with a final-minute score to win the game 17-14. And who could possibly forget this phenomenal catch by David Tyree?

For many viewers who don’t have a stake in the game, Super Bowl commercials are their ticket for tuning in. Forbes wrote today that a 30-second spot costs a record-breaking $3.5 million dollars! In honor of those companies hoping to win the gamble of creating an iconic ad, here’s AOL’s list of the “7 Best Super Bowl Commercials Ever Aired.”

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This batch of RJS Friday Fun Links focuses on some cool technology on the horizon … and perhaps the worst singer since William Hung.

General Motors is researching a cool project they call “Windows of Opportunity.”  The basic idea is that backseat passengers often get bored, so why not provide them with interactive entertainment via car windows. Receiving help from students at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel, four applications have been created thus far:

Otto, an animated character projected over passing scenery that responds to real-time car performance, weather and landscape. With Otto, passengers can learn about their environment in fun, playful ways.

Foofu, an app that allows passengers to create, explore and discover through finger drawing on window steam.

Spindow, an app that provides its users a peek into other users’ windows around the globe in real time.

Pond, an app that allows passengers to stream and share music with other cars on the road, downloads favorite tracks, and share messages with other passengers on the road.

Perhaps someday in the future, this technology will become reality!

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Brrrr! I hope you’re reading this post all bundled up with a fire crackling and a mug of hot cocoa steaming up your glasses (wishful thinking?). Enjoy this week’s RJS Friday Fun Links!

If you’re looking for some winter fun, perhaps a little sledding is in line for the weekend. Just follow this innovative crow’s lead.

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I don’t know about you, but this week was rather long. Clearly the holiday hangover is over and its back to the grind with a vengeance. Reward your hard work with a few RJS Friday Fun Links!

As a marketing professional, I always enjoy seeing the creative concepts other companies and agencies develop. Unfortunately, it seems for every great campaign, there are a dozen terrible ones. Today’s marketing failure comes from North Dakota’s tourism department. Clearly going for a young, metropolitan, boundless entertainment vibe, the fairly simple concept was instead presented as an “offensively sleazy and desperately uncool” mistake.

If you’re looking to change your diet in 2012, I’m sure eating organic is probably on your list. While this is a worthy change to any diet, the cost associated with purchasing fresh produce is often exorbitant. This helpful article from PBS shares “the dirty dozen” fruits and vegetables that should be purchased organically and “the clean fifteen” that are safe to consume in non-organic form.

Finally, The Daily Beast released their list of the most anticipated films of 2012. It looks like an impressive crop, highlighted by The Hunger Games, The Avengers, Rock of Ages, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit and The Great Gatsby, among others.

Happy New Year and happy first Friday of 2012!

For this week’s batch of Friday Fun Links, we are going to share some fun commercials we don’t see here in the United States. The British Arrows Awards “recognise and reward the best television, online, outdoor and cinema commercials made by British advertising agencies and production companies.” Each December at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the award-winning commercials are aired to sold-out audiences. Why you ask? Because unlike American commercials, the creativity and humor found in these British ads are off the charts! Both myself and our accounts receivable specialist, Jenn, viewed this year’s nominees and recently sat down to discuss our favorites. Here’s our top four followed by the British Arrows “Best Television Commercial of the Year.”

“Yo Vall-ey” rap / Yeo Valley Organic
For BBH, by Flynn Productions, directed by Julian Lutz

“Dogs Home” / Thinkbox
For The Red Brick Road, by Rattling Stick, directed by Andy McLeod

“Catch” / Magners Cider
For The Red Brick Road, by Stink, directed by Ivan Zacharias

“David Shane” / Doritos
For Abbot Mead Vickers BBDO

“Welcome Back” / T-Mobile (Grand Prize Winner)
For Saatchi & Saatchi, by Smuggler, directed by Henry-Alex Rubin

It’s Friday and you know what that means … another installment of RJS Friday Fun Links!

We’re currently building out a new website for our RJS Security consulting and product line. While doing some research the other day, I came across a great slideshow of “What the World’s Biggest Websites Looked Like at Launch.” Amazon’s initial look from 1995 is perhaps most shocking, but my personal favorite is the New York Times from 1996.

What do Minnesotan’s daydream about when the snow falls and the cold weather strikes? Basically running around outside without 25 pounds of fleece, fur and polyester. Right now, I’m daydreaming about Golf Digest’s list of “America’s 75 Toughest Golf Courses.” As the article warns, “These are the courses that haunt golfers’ nightmares. Approach them with caution and play them at your peril.” I think I’d trade a snapped-in-half driver right now for 80 degrees and palm trees!

The American Film Institute released their 10 best movies and TV shows of 2011. Bridesmaids, The Help, Moneyball and the upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo highlight the movie list, while favorites Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Modern Family and Parks & Recreation make the television list. Any big snubs?

If the relatives are in town and you’re looking for a fancy feast, check out OpenTable’s “Diners’ Choice Top 100 Restaurants.” The list of winners includes eateries in 34 states and Washington D.C. Looks like I have a road trip to plan!

Tis the season to be jolly! How’s the holiday shopping going? This week’s installment of RJS Friday Fun Links has a few gift ideas for you.

If you’re looking for stocking stuffers, Esquire has a great list of “Gifts Under $25 That Don’t Suck.” After perusing the list, I can verify they do indeed… not suck. Some of my favorites are the $8 coffee mug warmer, $21 mini-wood pallet coasters and the $7 fridge monkey.

If books are more your thing, this was a great year for fiction and non-fiction. National Public Radio has their lists of top mysteries, cook books, children’s books, fiction, etc. and the New York Times recently published their list of the 10 Best Books of 2011. Two books that show up on both of these lists that I’ve heard good things about are The Tiger’s Wife and The Art of Fielding.

If you’re a fan of travel and adventure, why not visit the incredibly unique Snow Village in Quebec, Canada? A replica of Montreal made of ice and snow, the Snow Village includes an Ice Hotel, igloos, a restaurant and bar, a convention center and a chapel for couples looking for a one-of-a-kind wedding.

Finally, document your holiday memories with the “iPhone App of the Year.” Instagram, an easy to use photo-sharing application, allows you to take pictures, apply neat Polaroid-like filters and easily share your creations on all the prominent social networks.

It’s hard to believe we’ve already turned our calendars to December. Hopefully these RJS Friday Fun Links will keep you inside a bit longer instead of out in the cold!

Who didn’t grow up drawing stick men? This fun website allows you to become a kid once again, but adds a fun animated concept as well. Once you draw your stick man or stick woman with your mouse, he or she comes to life and you now help your stick person fight a dragon, put out a fire and escape sharks.

And if you weren’t drawing stick people as a kid, perhaps you were playing with toy trains. Check out the video of “Miniatur Wunderland” located in Hamburg, Germany. This extraordinary creation is the largest toy train set (12,000 meters of track) in the world and took 500,000 hours to create. Not only do trains travel through realistic cities like New York and Las Vegas, but thousands of miniature people move about and there is even an incredible automated airport. It’s really quite brilliant!

If you’re a music fan, you’ll probably enjoy Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. According to our resident music expert Joel, the list does a great job of identifying a truly accurate and deserving top 10, which includes such luminaries as Eddie Van Halen, B.B. King and Jimmy Page.

We finish off this week’s links with poor Kyle Orton. With all the Tim Tebow hype, Orton never really had a chance in Denver despite achieving moderate success. Orton was unceremoniously dumped recently and this spoof is his “farewell to the Broncos.”