Svedka Vodka wants to know if you're Bot or Not by using their online application to transform a picture of yourself into a “3-D Avatar Party Bot.” If you do, let me know how it turns out, because my abundant facial hair disqualifies me from participating. Svedka's idea is hardly new—having consumers build stylized avatars of themselves was hip a year or two ago—but the reasoning behind it is something out of a Philip K. Dick novel. According to Chief Marketing Officer Marina Hahn, bot-building “offers a personal, interactive and fun way to turn today’s party animals into future party machines” in a culture where online photo sharing is commonplace. This has to be the first time we've heard someone attempt to capitalize on the public's innate desire to turn themselves into Blade Runner-esque replicants, and Hahn's confidence is such that we think it might actually work. Or it could fizzle out like every other avatar marketing gimmick when people find out that, once built, wacky avatars aren't good for much. But if Svedka leverages this into raising an actual robot army, look back on this post as fair warning.
—Posted by David Kiefaber
