Now this is a pretty nifty use of a corporate Twitter account. Smart Car’s Argentinian division has filled practically its entire Twitter stream — which is currently 456 tweets long — with ASCII art images that turn into a stop-action movie when you scroll through them.
Check it out for yourself: While on the @SmartArg Twitter page, hit the letter “J”, which is the hot key for scrolling to the next tweet. You’ll see a simple motion picture depicting a car driving down a street. You can also play it in reverse by pressing the “K” button. Most of the tweets were written in late March, but the account just seems to be catching some viral popularity right now. The ad was conceived by the Argentinian division of global ad agency BBDO, according to Fast Company.
In general, stop-action animation has enjoyed a moment in the sun on the web in recent days. Yesterday, Google’s homepage logo “doodle” was a low-fi animation of a horse, in honor of stop-action animal photography pioneer Eadweard Muybridge’s 182nd birthday.
It’s also worth noting that Twitter has become more friendly to corporate users in recent months with the addition of dedicated brand pages with extra perks such as new page design options and enhanced feed controls. The Smart Car Argentina account is certainly an ambitious example, but it is a good illustration (yuk yuk) of how brands can use Twitter to reach out to potential customers — and have a bit more fun doing it than they typically have with more traditional forms of media.