These days, whenever a brand has a great idea for using Facebook, one thing often seems to get in the way: Facebook. Today's case in point is automaker Smart USA's "Tag Your Own Adventure," which uses Facebook photo galleries to tell an interactive story about an alien invasion. Fans scroll through the photos like a flipbook, then tag themselves to choose how the next chapter should begin. It's a fun idea and a nice follow-up to Smart Argentina's Twitter flipbook promotion. But "Tag Your Own Adventure" also suffers from technical hiccups beyond the brand's control. For example, load screens between photos really break the flow of the flipbook, which has led Smart to include this awkward piece of advice: "For the smoothest ride, run through the album twice." Even the biggest Smart fan might be reluctant to browse through a 196-photo gallery twice just to make it work the way it should. Also, tagging your pick for the outcome requires Liking the page and then (for me at least) closing the photo browser and reopening it just to get access to the "Tag Photo" option. Give Smart credit for coming up with a clever idea for Facebook photo content. It's just a shame the premise and the payoff don't quite match up.

Ikea is on a roll. On the heels of its groovy banner ad, which fit 2,800 clickable products into a 300-by-250-pixel box, the Swedish furniture retailer is now set to revolutionize the home-theater system. So it claims, anyway. The video below, put together by Swedish ad agency Forsman & Bedenfors, introduces Uppleva, a new range of products that integrate TVs and sound systems into Ikea furniture. The spot itself is clean, crisp and amusing, especially in its light parody of traditional product demonstrations. (The spokeswoman's solution to not being able to catch the remote without looking is a great little moment.) Visually, the furniture looks streamlined in stylish Ikea fashion. As for the technology itself—there's little to go on. Ikea isn't saying much about the HDTV specs. It feels kind of '60s, actually, to have media equipment integrated into pieces of furniture. But as long as you don't have to assemble the TV itself, there'll surely be a big market for the new line. Uppleva will be available in Stockholm, Milan, Paris, Gdansk and Berlin in June; in all of stores in Sweden, Italy, France, Poland, Denmark, Spain, Norway and Portugal this fall; and in more countries next spring.