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# A Fusion of Facebook, Advertising, and Design Redefines the Creepy Birthday Hug
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-fusion-of-facebook-advertising-and-design-redefine-the-creepy-birthday-hug/
- Published: 2013-07-11T16:43:19.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:34:59.000Z
- Description: In what can be optimistically described as a case of something lost in cultural translation, Brazil's Outback Steakhouse franchise had their American-owned ad agency design an anthropomorphized chair that "hugs" you when you are wished a happy birthday via Facebook. Yes, This is The Way We Live Toda
- Author: Mostafa Heddaya
- Tags: Opinion, Advertising, Design, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

![Screen Shot 2013-07-11 at 12.03.15 PM](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/screen-shot-2013-07-11-at-12-03-15-pm.png)

(screenshot via YouTube)

In what can be optimistically described as a case of something lost in cultural translation, Brazil’s Outback Steakhouse franchise had [their American-owned ad agency ](http://www.lewlaratbwa.com.br/?ref=hyperallergic.com)design an anthropomorphized chair that “hugs” you when you are wished a happy birthday via Facebook. Yes, This is The Way We Live Today (or, rather, *Esta é a maneira como vivemos hoje*).

The video produced to advertise the new chair, which will apparently be installed in Outback Steakhouses throughout Brazil, is a remarkable feat of people acting nonplussed — amused, even — by the fact that they are sitting in an armchair at Outback Steakhouse, an armchair which happens to caress them with creepy mechanized arms, white-gloved and shriveled as if they were attached to some Mickey Mousoid gremlin or an auctioneer from Hades. The spot features a bunch of smiling twentysomethings doing cool Brazilian things, like being [saudade](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade?ref=hyperallergic.com), “Liking” each other on Facebook, getting [datamined by American spooks](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/09/us-usa-security-latinamerica-idUSBRE9680Z320130709?ref=hyperallergic.com), wearing Abercrombie and Fitch™, and eating whatever it is people eat at Outback Steakhouse, perhaps the 3,000-calorie[ Bloomin’ Onion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blooming%5Fonion?ref=hyperallergic.com)®, I don’t know.