Career Builder

One of these days I'll give you a long diatribe of words and senseless commentary. Till then, I present you with another audio visual aid.

This ad to me is captivating. I can't explain it any other way. My brain is constantly slapped into a state of confusion and massaged into relaxation over and over throughout its sixty seconds. It creates a pleasurable sensation that goes by the name of "great ad."





Reminds me of a great Career Builder ad done by a friend.

A guide to creativity.

Granted, there's no real formula. But I found this interesting enough (perhaps, visually) to post.

Time for some holiday cheer.

Your agency do this?

Mine does.

Yes, I know.

You've seen this before. But it's worth re-watching.

It might be seen as a tad cynical. Maybe even depressing.

But what I see is a career with the ability to make fun of itself.

And to me, that's the best kind of career you can have.

Polotic

I found this over on that cool ad blog, makinads. You haven't heard of it? Oh, man.

Anyway. He's tried hard over there at makinads to keep Washington off of his blog, but as you can see from my erratic posting, I try to keep everything on mine.

Check this out. It's an Obama-supporter ad for sure. But it's so simple. It's just like a power point linked to pages within itself. But the lines sort of drum up a someecards familiarity that makes me smile while simultaneously thinking "how dumb."

I like.

The Revolution Will Not be Televised

Brotha

All shook up.

Making an everyday experience unique again AND joining it with a coherent message?

Nothing short of brilliance.

Not embedded for a reason. Click the picture to link or here.

VA my home.

Too good to not hit apple+C on the embedded.

Look how far we've come

At my agency, we have this horrid meeting at 8am every Monday where we announce our goings-on for the week. The upside is that sometimes, somebody compiles a reel of their favorite spots/favorite videos/favorite___. Then they play it before our meeting.

Sometimes the reels have a theme. Sometimes they don't. This morning's did.

It was basically a look back on some supreme examples of advertising circa 1952. And after we had a good laugh at them, the owner of our agency said "Just think of how people will laugh at your work 50 years from now."

Touche. Toooo. Shay.

Time to learn how to do this:

Animated typography.

Why is it so fascinating to watch words dance?
More here.

I hate water drinkers.

You know the kind. They walk around swinging their Nalgene bottles like a new religion.

I’m terribly sorry if you’re one of them. I do realize that, despite the ridiculous nature of carrying water around from meeting to meeting in an office environment, a healthy 8 glasses a day is a good religion to follow.

But when I head to the break room to grab a steaming Styrofoam cup of coffee, I don’t want you in there.

Because when I reach for that Styrofoam cup, you reach for one too. And instead of filling it to the brim with crushed, roasted, chocolate beans from some Columbian plant harvested by Starbucks, you fill yours with crisp, bubbling water from the jug perched atop that insidious looking fountain.

And with every sip of my black coffee, I blacken my soul. For I am not as pious as you, Water Drinker.

And that’s why I hate you.

While we're on the topic of POP

What is this you ask?

Well, it's quite simple.

It's a 3 dimensional, miniature replica of a cereal box that juts out into my face on the cereal isle.

Curiously stupid.

But it got my attention.

The name of the "NEW!" cereal was also curiously stupid. Because it's not so much a new name as much as it is a qualifier to distinguish itself from another familiar cereal. And, of course, by that I mean "Honey Bunches of Oats." There's no honey. There's no oats. Just bunches!

And it's tone is almost like it's jeering the other cereal. Like "I can do what you do with JUST bunches! Beat that."

I can't recall any other product ever that has named itself almost in spite of another product within the SAME category made by the SAME parent company. If you can see in the lower part of the picture H.B.O.O. is right beneath it's new brother. Brilliance.

(Also, I felt the inherent need to apologize for my recent lapse in posting, but then I realized I wasn't really sorry. But I do intend to make up for it. Both for the lack of posting and for the not feeling sorry about it.)

Speaking of packaging.

I guess it's not bad to say ones' various brand names are a "family" - but when the word "family", "pack", and "beer" come too close together, you might be saying something different altogether.

Johnny: "Look Mom! Let's get the family pack!"
Mom: "Good thinking, son. It's always smart to save on the essentials! Let's get two. We all know how your sister's a booze-hound."
Johnny: "Gee, Mom. You're the best!"

Things I wish clients knew_1.doc

Just because you SAY "stylish" doesn't mean people will believe that it actually is.

Especially, if it's not.


(Can you spot all the client mandated jargon in this packaging?)

Direct Response TV

You might have to make one of these some day. Think about it.

(by the way...roll lavishly in the opening line of this one. In fact, bathe in it. I did and it was quite enjoyable.)

Baseball, Conan/1864-style

Conan exploits a crazy take on an old sport with an advertising reference to boot.


Conan O'Brien 1864 Baseball
by Youpinadi

Yearbook Yourself

I'm not sure the details surrounding this microsite (shudder - "microsite" - ugh), but it seems a few malls of significance throughout the country have hopped onto this idea of "fashion through the years."

1. Upload a picture of yourself (the dumber, the better)
2. Work your mug into one of several previously formatted headshots from yearbooks.
3. Laugh
4. Hopefully click on one of the various brand links within the page.

It provides me entertainment and a means by which to waste a few minutes. It's not overly branded. And I think it makes sense.

I like it.

Something should go here

This was at a Texas Tech basketball game last year. They're ages 6-8.

Do something else.

Like this guy.




He's a creative at my agency. And a country singer.
I can look him up on iTunes and buy his songs.
A strange dynamic, yes.
But cool? Absolutely.

Or this guy.



Another creative at my agency.
He wrote a children's book about a little doggy.
I can find him in Barnes & Noble.

Me?
I'm into Rubik's cubes.
I have yet to figure a way to earn $ with them.
But it's comin'.
I can feel it.