Men men men men, manly men men men!" "Men men men men, manly men, oo hoo hoo, hoo hoo, oo.

Has anyone else noticed the increase in manly men ads. It’s like the guy with the burly voice and strong presence is becoming the mascot for every brand out there. Among the many there is the Most Interesting Man in the World for Dos Equis; The Man Your Man Could Smell Like for Red Spice and; Mayhem, the guy from the Allstate commercial. While they do create a great buzz and comical relief amongst the viewers, what about the ones that just plain suck?!

I love Red Spice, Dos Equis, and Allstate from their original ingenuity but to all the other brands out there who are jumping on the bandwagon for the sake of being cool, we see right through your wannabe schemes and it’s not working. In fact, you’re actually doing yourself a disservice.

Yeah , I’m talking to you Dr. Pepper . It looks like you had to send something to the press in less than ten minutes so you decided to copy every other great idea but change up the delivery.

The Round Up Recap:

The Good:

    The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

The Bad:

    Dr. Pepper

The Downright Annoying:
    I hope such a thing like this does not exist.

The Makings of a Great Commercial

Racially ambiguous young urban adults doing noble things with their other peers while attending events in cities with high rising towers and unique hole-in-the-walls. Not to mention everyone, although has the savings of a newly graduated college student, can afford worn in clothes with posh price tags.

————

Racially ambiguous young urban adults √

In the company of peers√

 Attending events in the city √

Expensively cheap clothes √

            Budweiser, you did well.

Is This Real Life?

I ordered my cap, gown, and tassel months ago but today was the first time I tried it on. Eleven days are all that stand between me and the other side and I have not yet come to realize that college will soon be over (Blame it on my terrible ability to deal with loss and closure).

On June 18th 2012 at 12pm I will be graduating from the University of Oregon’s Journalism and Communications Program with a concentration in Adverting at the age of 20. I think I spent the entirety of my college education trying to avoid discussing and explaining my age. However, thinking about the weeks that lie ahead, I have recently changed my mind about that choice.

I am a strong believer that God allows things to happen for a reason. It is with that that I say with all the pride, honor, and humility, I am twenty! (My brother and I had started primary school early, in addition that, we moved around a lot as children). Sometimes I find myself thinking how different life would have been had we not started early and contemplating the what ifs. What if I had never started when I did, would I still have met all these amazing people in college? All that time I failed to realize that hypothetical is called hypothetical for a reason - IT’S NOT REAL. I did end up meeting some pretty awesome kids during my four years here.

Forget Disney Land, THIS is where all the magic happens. JCOMM Commencement 2012



May Maelstrom: Brand Book Creator

22. I would say I stumbled onto this guy by happenstance but I truly believe everything happens for a reason. His name is Scott Spooner and his work… it’s beyond phenomenal. The work that he brings to the table in addition to the other creatives (and I don’t actually mean creatives as in the job title but actual CREATIVE people) he has collaborated with, it makes for some pretty dynamic stuff.

I want to do more things like this. Create books like this that are inspirational, provoking, and funny. I know that there are a lot of components and different positions that go into making books like this but is it possible to have a career that encompasses all of those elements. I wish to create copies, take photos, design layouts, pick and choose fonts - basically I want to do it all.  However, Matt Sanders’ line from yesterday really got me thinking. He said: “I know I’m good at everything but what am I really great at.”   So that begs the question, WHAT AM I GREAT AT?! I find it highly impossible for me to be in all the areas that come together to make Brand books so I need to stick to one. I don’t say impossible because of my lack of capabilities but because I know that in order for things to be great, one needs to share the glory. Other people need to be involved in it too.

With that said, what do I need to do to get to where this guy is?  Ironically enough, John Russel (more on him in a later post) came into talk today and told me exactly that.

- I need to build my resume (I feel disgusted that I have yet to update it ever since I made the switch from Marketing to Advertising)

-Connections Connections Connections - Luckily, I have not gone all 4 years without meeting some incredible people. Not just business owners and “important” people but anyone that can teach me something, which is basically everyone.

-Do projects - I’m currently doing 3 side projects but I need to invest more time into them to make them presentable. I feel like through that I maybe grow some skills in the area of multitasking.

-Be BOLD  - People tend to think I’m bold because I tend to be loud at times but I am tired of being that way. I want to be known for having a strong presence during times of silence too. I also want to grow more of a backbone.  I often get that confused for being rude so I tend to shy away from being bold altogether. Once I figure out a nice balance between the two maybe then I can be bold.

-Go to events - Where do people like copywriters, designer and creatives socialize for business?

- LinkedIn - self-explanatory

-Internship - No matter the time or place, some company is always looking for an worker. Go out there and find something. I just need to remember that it’s okay to start from the bottom. Russel started out as a mail man BEFORE email hit big, now look at him.

-Spurratic - You can go to a meeting prepared but outside of that time, what are you?  Once I have my resume ready and my portfolio is decent, I need to make business cards. Ones that I can pop out at a moment’s notice and hand to the person. I don’t want to be forgettable.

-Work my glutius maximus off. It will get tiring to do things over and over but you just gotta. You’ll thank yourself in the end.

So there you I have it. In order to get to this position, I need to take these steps and apply them to the field of copy writing.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TYy_3786bo?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

19. Why does this Facebook generated campaign work and others don’t?

You cannot just hand someone a product or a service that you think is really cool and expect it to grow like wildfire. If you do, you already made the first mistake. A lot of companies think that if they create a twitter, Facebook, or some sort of online presence that all the users will just automatically flock to them. Businesses that flourish in the social media world are doing more than just putting their product in cyber space for all to see, they are executing it in such a way that makes the public turn, watch, and tune in.

The reason why I believe this campaign for IKEA worked well with Facebook is because they are the ones who made the first move towards user interaction. Most ads that I see on Facebook are pretty boring and mundane so it takes a special thing to make me want to click on the link. In the case of IKEA, they created a profile that was personal and then used the photos from there to generate more frequency. The users that were on the IKEA page a lot of the  time then went out to spread it to their friends and family. If you have not found this out by now, people are more likely to listen to you, buy things, and trust you if they are close to you or believe you are coming from good intentions.

That is why this campaign worked, because Ikea gained trust and then let the people take over.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)