Bad Writing Reflection

I think the message that Vernon Lott has behind the documentary Bad Writing is an awareness of traditional writing dying off. Books and magazine articles are all being moved to digital outlets like Kindle or iPad. From what I remember, Lott thinks that contemporary poetry should take a turn towards the humorous side, similar to Prairie Home Companion, to get a different crowed. I personally would listen to more poetry if it were styled after this sort of silly situational humor; most of what I hear is not exactly something I would consider self deprecating... Other than this specific note in the film, my memory is hazed as to his stance on where the future of writing traditionally is headed.

The most important lesson I gathered from the film is that it's okay to suck at writing when you're starting. Before it was stated in the movie, I was noticing the age of most of these great novelists; Writing interesting, relevant content requires some life experience. Kids my age tend to think that they've experienced everything, which is just not true. There may be some significant experiences in such a short life, but not enough to truly write something great.

"Writers who are just effortlessly fluent are less likely to use obstacles, like mistakes, to grow and become more interesting." I really love this thought as well. It's very inspiring because when it comes to copywriting, I feel like I make a million mistakes every time. Vivian (my copywriting prof.) has helped me realize that I don't need to be a machine when it comes to writing headlines. It's okay if it takes me some time to craft the sentences I need for advertising.

My only hope is that I'm not over the age of 30 before I start improving my writing. :]

New Nokia Typeface!

The world's largest phone-maker has unveiled a new font dubbed Nokia Pure for mobile and digital environments. I guess the whole idea behind this new typeface is to create a feeling of fluid motion. The font is a sans serif that is actually quite nice and overall convey a "moving forward" attitude.

The brand is definitely on the cutting edge of foreign phones and other technologies, I just don't really see why they are jumping on the bandwagon of redesigns. Based on the trends so far this year, this redesign will undoubtedly fail. The brand is globally recognizable and it is going to be very difficult to change people's perceptions of something they are familiar with. Then again, no one but designers care that much about typography, so perhaps the change will go unnoticed.

Here's a little comparison so you can see the "moving forward" fluidity in the type.



Opposed to their old font:



The new font will come in three weights: Light, Regular and Bold. These are designed to deliver "pin sharp" legibility on screens. Supposedly, this font will be implemented on billboards and other forms of marketing by later this year. I guess we'll see how this one goes... Good Luck!

Be Remarkable

This is one of the best TED talks I've watched, and it's the first about marketing. Seth Godin, marketing guru is an entrepreneur and blogger who talks about marketing ideas in the new, digital age. Seth talks about how even sliced bread failed horribly upon it's release into the market place. He goes onto say that "the riskiest thing you can do now, is be safe." Make something remarkable, and sell it to the right people;
market to the Otaku. Otaku is a Japanese word referring to a group of people, the geeks if you will, who are obsessed with a certain thing. Market to those who are avid, but most importantly those who are listening, and have them tell their friends. Do this instead of trying to make a product that is meant for everybody. If it's very good, it's bad. The lack of "friction" when it comes to a product/idea isn't what is going to get it talked about.
The ideas in his presentation are remarkable and seemingly obvious.. I see this exact thing happen through a friend at home in Orlando, Pat. He is always ahead of the curve, months ahead. By the time he tells me about a certain thing, and I've had time to forget about it, that idea has taken off with the public. I don't know where he finds this stuff, but he will be the one I go to when I'm looking for an innovative advertising/marketing tactic in the future. :)

Super Cute Dramamine Ads

JWT in Venezuela produced these three print ads. They seem to have a lot of haters on ads of the world, but I think that they are eye catching, and they get the message across. These appear to be some of the first advertising specific pieces from Igor Bastidas (illustrator). Here is a link to his blog. I am a fan of the style and will likely use a similar art direction in the future. :]

Two Great Ads that Never Were

Hope everyone from Ringling had a great spring break!
I just wanted to have a fun post for this week. I wanted to visit the fabulous writing of Matt Groening in some Simpson's phony advertisements from the show.



The first phony ad is for Canyonero: "The truck with four wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats 35." Even though these are silly, I feel that it is valuable inspiration all the same. I recall Bill Paxton saying that it's very important to know the classics. I feel that the classics for advertising can be anything from Plato, to the Simpsons.



And this second ad is of course, from Ren and Stimpy. The Log is perhaps one of the most well known, fake toys to kids who grew up with this cartoon. Taking the classic 1960's Slinky song, John Kricfalus somehow managed to turn out an even more successful brand song... Sort of.

I hope you were entertained by these videos, that's all I had intended from this week's blog post. I personally love them! :]

Queer Beer!

(This entry is not intended to offend.)


Manerva, a Mexican brewery has produced the very first "queer beer!" Packaged in purple, this citrus flavored beverage is only being sold in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos for now, but it's sure to spread fast. "The 'artisan honey-ales' are made with organic honey and malt, giving them an orange flavor, which the brewer believes appeals to gay communities."(adfreak.com)

Personally, I think the coolest feature is not the specific marketing, but the clever packaging. The belly band on the bottle (which has lots of gay symbolism) is designed to double as a bracelet! Although I'm still thinking that marketers just wanted people to wear the plastic band based solely on the pride factor; I doubt that it's anything other than paper meant to last past the sweat of your beer bottle. If this is for real, I would buy this official 'queer beer' just for the novelty of the packaging design.