Red Alert

Holy crap.  I’m supposed to have a finished book and be job hunting in 6 weeks.  This is what the last $30K I’ve spent on education has been leading up to.  

*cue panic attack*

The CP+B schedule doesn’t leave a lot of time for blogging.

Which explains why I’ve been shamefully absent around here.

Two more weeks to soak in as much as I can, then I will promptly sleep a solid few days to make up for all I’ve missed in the last 3 months.

Maybe I missed the part where Coke became the new hot chocolate…

Check out this cool commercial:

I saw it before (don’t laugh) Twilight, and thought it was pretty cool.  Now, normally I loathe Walmart and everything they do (sorry, Martin Agency, it’s nothing personal), due mostly to the fact that the stores fill me with rage and utter disgust.  But that’s a whole other rant.  Anyway, the lyrics were all written by a dude over at Martin and I think the whole thing works really well.  It’s charming without being cheesy and makes me long for a pretty glass bottle of Coke…along with several random people and a catchy little ditty.

A well done collaborative effort between two monolithic corporations, I say.

Seducing the Boys Club

Found a fantastic book about being one of the few women in a male-dominated industry.  And by “found” I mostly mean “was recommended to me by my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Sheri Broyles” (thanks, Dr. B!).  It’s by Nina DiSesa (a copywriter), so on top of being both relevant and helpful, it’s also wonderfully fun to read.  Personally, I don’t anticipate putting several of her suggestions to use for many years, unless some agency wants to hire me on in a position of authority (god help them).  But, it’s full of great things to keep in mind when working with (and especially managing) men.

Now, I realize that I’ll get the requisite eye rolls from the peanut gallery (i.e. any of the guys from school who are still convinced that I’m just an angry feminist who wants to enslave men to do my bidding….wait, that doesn’t sound so bad…).  Where was I?  Oh yeah, the boys.  For some reason, most of the younger guys I know in the business or who will be in the next year or so seem completely oblivious to the fact that there isn’t much estrogen in your average creative department.  I know y’all are masters of cluelessness and all, but come on.  It’s a rough job that requires a thick skin, flexible schedule, and sense of humor when it comes to dealing with truckloads of testosterone.  I really admire Ms. DiSesa for what she’s put up with and how she reached such a high level by cleverly navigating the boys’ club.

And it’s not just about advertising (though, obviously, the anecdotes tend to revolve around pitches and deadlines), and the overarching themes can be put into practice in any industry where it’s hard for anyone with two x chromosomes to take the lead.

If you’re still skeptical, check out the website: http://www.seducingtheboysclub.com

Me Right Now…yesterday

Met a cool guy from Vimeo yesterday.  He gave us the skinny on what they do, how they run, and showed us some great videos that they record at their office.  I need to figure out how to get into a job like that…

They host all the great, fun, artsy, creative stuff that’s too good for YouTube, and their HD channel is really badass.  Anyway, to best demonstrate one of the popular video formats (Me Right Now), Blake made one in the Lowe board room with us.  Remember my face.  I’m going to be big. 🙂

 

http://vimeo.com/2428984

 

The only downside to Vimeo?  No embedded videos…

I’ll have some art for lunch

Happened across this stuff in typical advertising fashion (i.e. looking for photos to mock up some ideas for Gladware) and thought it was way too cool not to share.

Bento (according to Wikipedia): is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento is readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya^?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend considerable time and energy producing an appealing boxed lunch.

Bento can be very elaborately arranged. Contests are often held where homemakers can compete for the most aesthetically pleasing arrangements. The food is often decorated to look like people, animals, or characters and items such as flowers and plants. This style of elaborate bento is called kyaraben.

Cool, right?  Well, it gets even better!

These were all done by the amazing and talented Sakurako Kitso.  Her Flickr photostream is here.

“Saved by 0”, the Modern-day Mr. Whipple

Ok, so everyone who has ever cracked “Hey Whipple, Squeeze This” by the brilliant (and hilarious) Luke Sullivan, is familiar with the idea that not all good advertising is memorable and not all memorable advertising is good.

Case in point: Toyota’s Saved by 0 campaign.  Now, normally I love Toyota.  I drive a Toyota and the ‘Rolla has not failed me yet.  Admittedly, their advertising isn’t always the greatest, but it has never before instilled in me the temptation to set fire to my own vehicle in protest.  If you’ve been near a television in the last month or so, I’m sure you’ve been subjected to this abomination of a 30-second spot.  I would describe it, but I think I’ll let the horror speak for itself.

Awful, obnoxious and guaranteed to haunt you for hours.

AND I know it’s not just me, ’cause Time just wrote about it:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1860403,00.html

I had been hoping that with budgets being cut, the average ad might be improved by needing to attract more attention for the cost.  Maybe even start seeing some new, creative nontraditional.  It seems that was all in vain – because this crap is ACTUALLY WORKING!  C’mon, people, don’t encourage this sort of behavior.  Set the bar higher.  Don’t get sucked into the madness!  And maybe don’t set fire to your cars, either…you’ll never get a loan for a new one.

More good stuff from I Love Typography

Thought this was funny and super cute.

My thoughts exactly

P.S. My birthday is coming up and this poster would look great on one of my walls.  🙂

New work

Just embedded my latest/best work over at the My Work page.

 

Check it out.