Fear and Loathing on Madison Ave.

Fear and Loathing on Madison Avenue

So I have a confession... Lately, I've been a little worried about our future, based on how the advertising program at Ringling is going thus far. At first, being the guinea pigs was a great thing, but lately I feel like it is hard to ignore the repercussions that come with being the first. I personally find it a little upsetting that we are just now learning flash, in our JUNIOR YEAR! The fact of the matter is that the sophomores have already surpassed our skills in technology. I wish we would be doing more relevant assignments opposed to traditional branding techniques. A good foundation is important, yes. However we need a more vast experience when it comes to advertising because it is a big market in a cut throat world. I'm looking forward to a chance to create hoopla.

Anyway, read the article. It's somewhat related, I just mostly wanted to respond with how I was feeling about the program.
:]

Office Party! My 2006 Super Bowl Advert. Flashback

CareerBuilder - 2006 SuperBowl Commercial - The best video clips are here

With the 2011 Super Bowl coming up on Feb 6th, I thought I'd recap on one of my favorite ads I've seen come out of this decade. It's too hard to pick my favorite of all time, so I'll limit it to that.

This is a 2006 Superbowl advertisement for CareerBuilder featuring monkey office personnel (produced by the Cramer-Krasselt agency). The zoo like workplace is quite ridiculous and depicts how I'm sure a lot of blue collar America feels about their job and the idiots they have to put up with daily. All of this calamity and monkey partying to get to the final tag "a better job awaits." As part of that campaign, CareerBuilder teamed with a digital agency, (Oddcast) to introduce an e-mail service called "Monk-e-mail" which enables computer users to send messages featuring customized images of “talking” chimpanzees. I haven't checked it out yet, but I'm glad to see that this wasn't just another funny, one off Super Bowl ad.

QR Tagging Trials

Bosch Refrigerators have a series of print ads that include QR mobile tagging techniques. The ads depict an ancient creature (such as a dinosaur) packaged as a poultry or something. Apparently the code takes you right to the Bosch website, but only with the right application. In theory this is a good idea, however I feel like companies need to do something more interactive with a link. Taking a user who is that tech savy to a simple web page is sort of a slap in the face. There is no real reward for the viewer who figures out what to do with this eight bit box. I'm still waiting for that day, when this tag takes you to a fun game or cool splash page experience.

Also, here is a QR code I generated myself. It's super easy to just go to the website and make one yourself!

Agency party planning? AND PONIES??

So this is one of the sillier posts I've seen. The Canadian ad agency, John st. decided to make a parody 'disruption' video of sorts. The mission? Advertising agencies planning kid's birthday parties. With lines like "research shows that eight year old Chelsey likes the color pink, and ponies." I think I just about died when the "traditional techniques" (pin the tail on the pony) was thrown out.
So what is the message behind this birthday movement? Is it a message of how out of hand this industry is and how deep we have infiltrated the culture? Or is this simply a silly video to pass the time when procrastinating around the office? Many interpretations are out there. Personally, this reminds me of a video that our marketing professor made us watch about a year ago titled Consuming Children. A sick film, really. It did help open my eyes to what a glutinous monster marketing can be. I suppose this is slightly better because there were no Barbie logos anywhere to be seen.. Or maybe this video was worse because the J.B name was dropped.

I'm still left wondering why the mini pony at the end of the video wasn't pink... I guess dying a pony the color pink for Chelsey's eighth birthday party theme would be a little sick.