When intoxicated by alcohol it’s easy to make decisions based on the reality you hold at that moment. The drink responsibly adverts we’ve all seen feature people who think they’re super-heroes falling from scaffolding and drunk drivers making their first, and last, kill.

What may be overlooked by some, if not most, are the dangers of un-registered minicabs. This video promoting Cabwise, an initiative from Transport for London, shows that there’s more to lose than just your mobile phone.

The Cabwise system allows you to text for information on the three nearest registered cab companies to you.

When you’re heading home from your office parties this Christmas, make sure you don’t use an unregistered minicab to cut your queuing time.

Poor Em didn’t realise her boyfriend was on holiday or, rather, hadn’t listened when her boyfriend told her he was off to go backpack around Europe for a fortnight.

Is it just me who thinks, with a bit of fine tuning, this would make a fantastic viral campaign for a mobile phone company? Maybe something to do with roaming charges?

Lesson # 3: Always know your better half’s email password to prevent similar embarrassment yourself

Like colour or super-cool special characters in MSN names, the need to be different has spanned social media since its not-so-humble beginnings. Now, Ben and Jerry’s are turning social networking on its head- literally.

A new application for Facebook allows users to turn their statuses 180 degrees and display it upside down.

It’s a simple idea they’re using to promote their new Flipped Out sundaes range.

Keep an eye out for upside down text across all social media. @Mashable have already been promoting their coverage of the story with upside down tweets.

If there is an online water cooler, this will be on the agenda for discussion for at least a few days.

A fantastically simple idea with some absolutely mind-blowing results- Google deserve big pats on the back for their Chrome logo competition.

This one video got a special mention on the Google blog from all the submissions and it’s easy to see why.

The two videos for this campaign work simultaneously and are subtle. To the casual viewer, this is intended to be true footage. Looking closer, who’s filming it? And how does the guy, supposedly filming on his mobile phone, manage to get into his own shot?

Either way, very cleverly done. Watch out at the end of this first video to glimpse HTC Hero very quickly on the back of the bus. Effective? We think so.

The decision of a two-pronged attack on the video campaign is clever, allowing for a second wave of viral publicity once the first video has died down. Incidentally, that first video was one of the most popular on YouTube this week.

There’s also a MySpace page that sets everything up and gives it a more genuine edge- taking away the commercial aspect and hoping to further engage with the relatively young target audience.

Do MySpacers and urban free runners want a HTC smartphone though?

Time named their 'Person of the Year' as you, based on the surge in Web 2.0 and User Generated Content

Everywhere seems to be coming around to the web 2.0 way of thinking. Consumers are fast  becoming creators of the promotional content they would normally be sold.

Lots of marketing experts, particularly those in Public Relations, will be the first to profess the importance of two-way communication in business. The idea that consumers would want to actively take part in this communication is a desire, I imagine, that is rarely fulfilled.

But this is rapidly changing. User generated content seems to be turning two-way communication model on its head as consumers take the reins and create the adverts.

Though not always fantastic, UGC is helping all kinds of brands and companies connect in a whole new way with their audiences.

But is this fair? Is it right that companies with millions of pounds to spend on advertising should exploit eager brand followers by getting free content from them? Are organisations benefiting from the online community a little too much?

Walkers recently took the idea of user generated content to the next level, inviting consumers to do them a ‘flavour’ and invent a packet of crisps. Walkers generously gave the each of the six finalists £10,000 and the winner, Builder’s Breakfast, bagged £50,000 for its inventor and 1% of the revenue of the product for the rest of their lives.

There are indubitable advantages for both companies and consumers with talent.

Talented brand-buyers are able to showcase their creations on a huge scale and live their deserved 15 minutes. Whether or not the scales are equally balanced on the side of the company, however, is debatable.

Render your ThinkPad laptop useless against thieves

If you’ve ever had anything stolen from you, you’ll know, no matter how much you previously treasured the item, you’d rather it were destroyed.

Google was one of the first ‘good news’ crime-fighting stories that came about through new technology available to average citizens, now SMS Kill Switch will hopefully conjour up a few more.

The Kill Switch, from Lenovo, is downloadable and works with ThinkPad laptops. If your laptop’s been stolen all you have to do is send an SMS message from a mobile phone that you’ve already registered to the software. Once the “kill” message is received by the laptop it sends back a confirmation message and shuts itself down- only returning to normal once the correct passphrase is entered.

The SMS Kill Switch means that, if your laptop is stolen, you can effectively render it useless to thieves- if only we could do that for everything.

Neil Buchanon would always spend five minutes putting together a huge picture with flags or salt and various bits and bobs just lying around the immediate area. Until it was revealed at the end, viewers were relatively clueless as to what the finished product would be.

PSP have tapped into that in their latest viral campaign (featured above) and created their own ‘Big Art Attack’. As our protagonist builds up his picture, remain perplexed until the final few seconds when it is revealed- fantastic.

What’s more, if you’ve got a PSP, or are planning on getting one, you can win a whole bundle of stuff by creating your whole world.

Sony are definitely going for a portable media centre that is proving its success across the teenage spectrum.