We're taught early in life that it's not nice to play tricks on people, but what about when that trick turns into something great? When some nefarious pranksters duped the small town of Bethel, AK into thinking that a Taco Bell was opening for the 6,500 residents, the actual company saw a brilliant opportunity. Executives caught wind of the excitement, and later dismay, of the faux announcement and organized an effort dubbed "Operation Alaska" to airlift 10,000 of their (now famous) Doritos Locos Tacos to the hungry denizens of Bethel. The event was a major success, and proved to be a great way to build brand advocates in a town where their crunchy tacos aren't available for over 350 miles.

Taco Bell is making 2012 their year with a revamped Twitter campaign, real-time listening and action (they started selling Doritos Locos at a store from a customer's tweeted request), and a new image based around their slogan "Live Más." If things keep up with the buzz they've garnered from their partnership with Doritos, only good things are ahead for the nation's favorite taco haven.

The effect of social media is a powerful, transformative beast. Situations that would have gone unnoticed ten years ago are now at the forefront of our everyday lives, and most would agree that that’s not a bad thing. In the past week we’ve seen some amazingly hilarious and genuinely touching examples of how the Internet is connecting people from all walks of life for causes big or small.

The first has a real sense of humor. When Matthew Inman from the famous cartoon site The Oatmeal was delivered a cease and desist letter from FunnyJunk.com for pointing out on his site that they stole his cartoons, most people would expect him to settle to make it go away. The Oatmeal, for people who aren’t avid fans, just doesn’t work like that though. Inman’s impeccable sense of humor is what keeps his fans coming back, and he seemed damned to succumb to an aggregation site’s absurd request for $20,000 in settlement money for content he had created in the first place.

To spite the people behind the allegations, Inman used his artistic skills and smarts to find a way to get the word out and make an example of the situation. Operation BearLove Good, Cancer Bad was launched on Indiegogo on June 11th with the following premise:

“I'm trying to raise $20k to donate half to the National Wildlife Federation (for the bears), and half to the American Cancer Society (because cancer is shitty).”

Father’s Day is this Sunday and, if you’re like most of us, work can take a toll on the time you get to spend shopping. This year I shopped for my father via the gift-giving site Wantful, which allows users to create a booklet of items chosen by you that you think your recipient would like. It’s extremely helpful when you get to the point where the friend/family member in your life “has everything,” and the last thing you want to do is get them another tie, pair of socks, or bath robe.

Wantful works for a variety of reasons. First of all, it has an amazing user experience, which guides you seamlessly through the entire gifting process. Second, the variety of products is a surefire way to get your loved one something they’ll like and use. Finally, Wantful offers a digital as well as physical experience of their booklets. Since Sunday is this weekend, the digital copy of Wantful’s booklet of gifts is a great last-minute way of saying “I love you” without making a stop at Wal-Mart for yet another $50 gift certificate to the neighborhood Chili’s.

Let’s dive in.

Wantful does a great job of keeping things light and simple by making it all about the products and the person you're buying for. Besides highlighting the most major upcoming holiday, Wantful keeps tabs on general holidays/occasions in the bar below each month. Once...

Keeping tabs on all of the delicious recipes you encounter online can be quite the pain. While there are sites like KeepRecipes that allow you to store links, Foodily is much more of a community experience not unlike Twitter where you follow "taste makers" (key influencers, chefs, etc) and can "fave" recipes that tickle your tummy bone.

Signing up for Foodily is a breeze. Once you've created your username and password you're able to pick the people you'd like to follow. Foodily suggests famous chefs, brands, and bloggers but you're welcome to invite friends and search for ones who might already be active on the site.

It even allows you to port over your recipes that you have already catalogued on Pinterest.

The experience starts with a simple search function. Two bars let you find what you're looking for while allowing you to remove any unwanted ingredients.

The food industry might be one of the most obvious places in the world today where nature can be unnatural. We buy packaged fruit juices made from concentrate, vegetables that are genetically modified, and packaged goods that, more often than not, contain a plethora of additives that we have no notion of how to pronounce.

Indeed, if there’s anywhere that nature is unnatural, it’s in what we eat, which is why this little experiment from Brazilian creative agency AGE Isobar is so fascinating. When tasked with the concern that not enough consumers knew that their product was the all-natural juice they crave, Camp and AGE Isobar set out together to make an impression.

Their process was simple, but the results were attention grabbing.