Photo Courtesy of Huffington Post

Did anyone ever really think that wearing a visor sprouting faux hair would hide a man’s baldness? Or that a putting green to flank one’s toilet would be a wise investment? Or that $300 earrings made of real human hair would ever be “in”? Well, someone must have, because all of these products—wisely or otherwise—have at some point in their predictably short lives made it to market.

For more of the world’s silliest products invented for women, click here; for those created for men, click here. Also among our favorites: the chest hair toupee, men’s brassiere, and “Booty Pop” backside inserts. Oh, what a world.

According to a study published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2006, approximately 50% of all emails are incorrectly interpreted by their intended receiver. “Why,” you ask? Apparently, because of the sender’s tone. Despite my qualms with accepting such seemingly precise data regarding the imprecise act of subjective interpretation, I find the study’s conclusion—and the company aiming to bring it to the public’s attention—intriguing. There’s no denying that we’ve all read an email or text message that’s caught us off guard with a questionable tone, and there’s no denying that messages we’ve sent ourselves have been received in the same manner. After all, the written word is subject to interpretation in a way far unlike the oral one. Enter ToneCheck.

The latest of a string of communications solutions developed by Lymbix, ToneCheck touts itself as an “emotional spell-check” that “helps end users improve the clarity of their communication.” It gauges words and phrases against several levels of “connotative feeling,” provides feedback, and thus helps to identify whether the receiver of that message will interpret it in the manner that the sender intended. Skeptical? So are we. But it’s free and easy to download, so if you’ve got Microsoft Outlook—which the product requires you use—then give it a shot. And let us know what you think. We’d love hate like be interested to learn.

Ordered a pizza in DC lately? If so, you may have been on the receiving end of a recruitment effort from the Transportation Safety Administration. Strewn with the tagline, “A career where x-ray vision and federal benefits come standard,” the pizza boxes advertise employment opportunities for security officers at Washington-Dulles International and Reagan National Airports.

So is the TSA desperate for security officers? Or just thinking—quite literally—outside the box? Either way, they’re far from the first to push the boundaries of the advertising industry. Below are a few of our favorite from around the world.

Constructed in Bangkok, Thailand, this giant comb touts the message, “Tangles? Switch to Rejoice Conditioners,” on behalf of Procter & Gamble’s international line of hair products.

Folgers was onto something when it noticed the steam from the perfectly circular manholes of New York City could look remarkably like the top of a hot cup of coffee with a dab of paint and the right slogan. Reading, “Hey, City That Never Sleeps. Wake up. -from Folgers,” the ads are both clever and adeptly targeted at once.

Think you can bend like that? Y-Plus Yoga Center in Shanghai, China distributed these limber ads at a juice bar near its downtown studio.

And finally, the guerilla campaign for heartburn medicine Pepto-Bismol makes our list with its laundromat locations and to-the-point tagline: “No matter what you throw in your stomach, Pink’s got you covered.”

Have your own favorite ad? Let’s see it! We love to see power lines as strands of hair, manholes as cups of coffee, straws as flexible men and women, and laundry machines as rumbling tummies. Isn’t it wonderful how an advertisement can transform the way you see the world?

Surprise! A recent study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research found that people do, in fact, adore Facebook. A whopping 39 percent of the 1,605 women surveyed last month were even self-proclaimed Facebook “addicts”! Though the numbers only tell us what we already feared to be true, they deserve (and demand) at least a quick gasp of genuine awe. Let’s see if the following stats can squeeze one out of you:

• 34 percent of women age 18-34 make Facebook the first thing they do when they wake up—BEFORE brushing their teeth or going to the bathroom (!)
• 21 percent check Facebook in the middle of the night
• 49 percent believe it’s okay to keep tabs on a significant other by having access to his online accounts
• 50 percent think it’s okay with be Facebook friends with a complete stranger
• 57 percent say they talk to people online more than face-to-face

Needless to say, Facebook is everywhere. Which is neither an inherently positive or negative—but checking Facebook before brushing your teeth? C’mon ladies, let’s squeeze a little you time (physical, not virtual you!) into your morning routine.

For Mashable’s write-up of the study’s findings, click here.

Think last week’s LeBron James press conference was a little over-the-top? That an hour of airtime devoted solely to “the decision” was about forty-five minutes too much? Or perhaps you think it was tactically genius PR for both the ball player and his new team? Either way, there’s no arguing that James’ announcement will go down as one of the more memorable in sports history. (For a quick video recap of its delivery, click here.)

Friday’s Wall Street Journal has even taken the liberty of conjuring up a “look back at some of sports’ recent gather-round-the-TV moments” to rank LeBron amongst the best (or worst, I suppose) of them. The top five: Michael Jordan’s ’93 first retirement announcement, Magic Johnson’s ’91 diagnosis with HIV, Wayne Gretzkey’s unusual third-person delivery of his 1988 trade from the Oilers to the Kings, Kobe Bryant’s proclamation of innocence in a 2003 sexual assault case, and my personal favorite, Brett Favre’s series of retirement announcements in 2008 and ’09. Click here to read the full article. And let us know what you think!

Let’s face it: no one can please everyone. Sooner or later, your company is bound to fall short of someone’s expectations, and sooner or later, that person is bound to use the internet to express his or her disappointment. But when it happens (which it will), what should you do? The trick is to turn a rant into a rave.

Take Marriott, for example, who saw a customer’s angry tweet about one of its rooms as an opportunity to wow him. Forty-seven-year-old Paul Horan was staying at the Orlando Marriott World Center for a conference, and after situating himself in a room with a view of air conditioning ducts, tweeted his disappointment. Front-desk employee Zachary Long saw Mr. Horan’s comments while searching Twitter for hotel tags, and “went into damage-control mode,” a Wall Street Journal article says. Mr. Long had a note of apology for the unsatisfactory room sent to Mr. Horan and offered to have him upgraded the next day. Needless to say, Mr. Horan was blown away, and Marriott’s superior customer service during the incident transformed his rant into a rave.

Now not every company has the ability or even the manpower to monitor the online realm for mentions of its name 24 hours a day, but every company does have the option to react when it happens upon such information. So look at each rant as another opportunity to amaze, and watch as customer loyalty begins to soar.

No surprise here: a study released by the Pew Research Center last month found that comedic videos have officially become the most-watched type of online video.

Fifty percent of respondents to the survey watched funny videos online—up from 31 percent in 2007— while 43 percent of adults claimed to watch news videos (compared with 37 percent in the earlier survey). Could America’s weakened economy drive internet users to find relief in humorous videos? Or keep them from watching potentially upsetting (but nonetheless factual) news videos? Or is the demographic of online-video-viewers simply younger than in years past and thus more likely to view comedy over current events? The survey failed to address or indicate the driving factors behind the shift, but the possibilities are endless.

“Not surprisingly [the study] found that viewership of all types of videos online is rising, along with the spread of high-speed Internet connections and the increasing availability of better content online,” a Wall Street Journal blog says on the matter. “Seven in 10 Internet users [now] watch video online.”

And I, myself, am one of those seven. “Surprised Kitty ” just doesn’t get old.