It was very interesting to see the U.S. Army had an elaborate booth at SXSW Interactive — much more detailed than Sony’s. Especially in light of what I learned while being on the vlog monetization panel, where the very cool Nate Pagel discussed how the U.S. military refuses to have their ads paired with independent online content.
Also perplexing was the Army’s booth schwag — squeezy foam grenades the exact size of real ones. The guys in the booth joked that they had foam grenade wars at the office sometimes, and I almost wanted to bring one home to Mark. Until I realized I’d never get it on the plane, nor would I even want to be mistaken walking down the street with one in my hand. I picked one up and was immediately faced with the dilemma of throwing it away. Imagine trying to toss one into a trash can in Boston…