• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 10, 2015

For some holiday fun, Durham and New York City-based McKinney has developed Jolly, the first wearable that tracks how often you smile. Introducing and explaining the product in a video, Creative Director John Benedict, who sports a most epic beard himself, said, "We've become comfortable with technology reading our most intimate biometrics and we thought how can we take that intimacy and use that as outward spiraling connecting tissue to improve humanity and the world in general." 

The Jolly beard, part of the agency's "Hacky Holidays" fun, is affixed to the face, monitors expressions and tracks them on a mobile app. Users can see their "smile metrics" in real time. Oh and if the app detects the user isn't smiling enough, it will deliver a prompt...in the form of a mild electronic shock. 

If anyone goes to far as clicking on the "Request A Demo" link thinking they can get their hands on their own shock inducing Jolly beard, disclaimer reads, "Also, due to what might be a very long queue, we cannot guarantee that a request made here or in any form in any medium will necessarily result in an appointment. 

If you are so inclined, you can check it out all right here.  

For its holiday follies, McKinney didn't stop at creating the Jolly beard. They also have provided a collection of suggested hacks which can help get you through the holiday season. The Wee Pee Tree would play music and dispense a treat when peed upon by the family pet thereby training the pet not to pee on the actual Christmas tree. 

Perhaps suggesting a new business model for Uber, the agency suggests the Roaming Mistletoe, a fleet of mistletoe delivery men and women available to show up, kiss you under the mistletoe and disappear never to be seen again which allows the kissee to avoid any unwanted expectations or awkwardness that can come with a kiss. 

And to just how ugly a holiday sweater is, The Ugly Tree would take on the form of a broach which uses facial recognition that collects grimace data of onlookers, quantifying how ugly the sweater is.