Pee-wee Herman is back, but he’s not on your TV. The irreverent character is currently performing live on Broadway in The Pee-wee Herman Show and Herman World Inc. has developed a free app for iPhone and iPod Touch, Pee-wee PBC+, to promote the event.
Taking its cues from vintage photo booths, Pee-wee PBC+ creates four-image photo strips out of existing images or from live images taken with your device’s camera. The screen provides a countdown to taking each photo and you can easily switch between your front and back camera on iPhone 4.
After taking or selecting your photos, users can add iconic Pee-wee imagery and backgrounds from the Broadway set to the photos. A multitude (actually, 23) of resizable overlays is available—but for a price. Only two images are included for free and Mr. Herman isn’t one of them. Instead, users are offered the iconic bowtie or Pterri to add to their photos, unless they purchase the 99-cent add-on pack, which includes Pee-wee, his suit, Chairry, Clocky and the like.
Considering that the app puts a relatively large “The Pee-wee Herman Show” icon across the top of your first photo, this is blatantly an advertising app, and I don’t think users should be expected to pay to be advertised to. Worse, the app is downright unstable, crashing on many occasions during my relatively brief tests (there’s just not a lot here, folks—aside from the photo booth, the only other content is show and ticketing information).
