Panasonic's press event for the launch of their "Living in HD" initiative here in NYC today was so creepy, it could have given David Lynch nightmares. The whole thing is the kickoff of a giant PR stunt, whereby the company plans to give away $20,000 in digital gear to as many as 100 American families, so that they can film themselves "living in HD" for the whole world to see, fist online, and then in a documentary overseen by "acclaimed" film director Brett Ratner, who we can "thank" for movies like X-Men 3 and the Rush Hour franchise, which is soon to become a trilogy.

The real fun though, was in the ridiculousness of the press event itself. Upon walking in off the street, I was greeted by a surrealist, somewhat tasteless, Technicolor nightmare. A pair of squabbling "siblings" (read actors pushing 30) stood, in white face-makeup, behind a large curtain with an image of a Leave it to Beaver-era idealized home printed on it. Trust me when I tell you that the actors were white enough without the makeup.

The press check-in booth was disguised as a lemonade stand, complete with a fake hand-written sign. The only thing they didn't do was print one of the letters backwards. The whole time waiting before the event, theme music from various old television shows played in the background. The Munsters theme, which played at least twice, seemed to resonate well with the whole odd ambiance.

The idea here, as best I could piece it together, is that if you're not "living in HD," then you're living in the black-and-white past. But once we headed inside, where plasma TVs were even on the floors of the seating area, the family scene acted out in front of us on the stage was nothing if not colorful. Generic nuclear family model 2-B proceeded to get way too excited over the ability to view their pics on their Panasonic plasma, just by inserting their SD card into the TV. And don't even ask the "son" about watching a movie on BluRay, or his head might just explode.

The fun went downhill from there as various Panasonic executives, a couple of hopefully well-paid college professors, and, of course, Brett Ratner, all talked their talk about how HD Tech is going to bring families back together, stop global warming and generally make the world a better place. This kind of HD salvation can be yours for, according to the Panasonic VP at the event, as little as $3,000. The revolution will, apparently, be monetized.

After all the HD hullabaloo, I got a chance to check out a lot of Panasonic's plasma televisions, and the good news is almost all the models look pretty good pumping HD content. The pair of massive 103-inch displays though, were proof positive that after a certain size, even 1080p can look kinda bad. Luckily though, almost none of us will ever be able to afford such a mammoth television, let alone the addition we'd have to build to house it in.

Thanks Panasonic, for making this the most surreal day I've had in quite some time. If you'd like your family's life flipped upside down, and turned into a PR reality documentary, you can register at livinginhd.com and maybe get $20,000 in Panasonic product. As long as they don't send along the white-faced "kids" to live with you, it might be worth it.

Oh, and Brett Ratner said that if he had one of the 103-inch plasma televisions in his home, he'd "never leave the house." Anyone care to start a collection for a (very) good cause?

Post by Matt Safford