Silicon Valley: Not Hotdog App

The marketing around HBO’s comedy series Silicon Valley was all about recreating show elements in the real, digital world. In Season 4, HBO upped the ante from corporate websites and blogs — we built an app.

In the series, the character Jian-Yang develops a hot dog-distinguishing technology. HBO created the app for fans on iOS and Android under Jian-Yang’s company name “SeeFood Technologies.” Despite the hilarious premise, Not Hotdog has serious programming in the backend. The app was developed using open-source AI technology, and was trained on over 150,000 images to accurately distinguish whether objects are “hot dogs” or “not hot dogs.” 

Role: Lead Creative Producer on the app build, built project roadmap and managed cross-disciplinary stakeholders. Liaised with engineering teams and the Apple and Google Play teams for app launch.

Award Recognition

Emmy Nomination | Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media Within A Scripted Program (2018)
Webby Winner | Webby People's Voice Award in Advertising, Media, & PR: Best Use of Machine Learning (2018)
Clio Silver | Apps (2018)