My Friends Wear Diapers

Not really, but now that I think about it, if they did, they probably wouldn't tell me anyways.

YouTube is "rolling in the coin" these days by selling ad space everywhere and anywhere on their site and in their videos. Do you remember the time where we could watch funny cat videos free of charge without pop ups or whatnots? Ah, the good ol' days. No matter, I'm sure we've all already learned how to ignore these ads completely.

I can't even do that yet!

I have a friend who lives in New Zealand and we'll chat over Skype or send the occasion letter over the Pacific. We're both musicians, though we like quite different kinds of music, and we enjoying sending each other videos or tracks of each other playing whenever we can find the time to.

She sent me a link to a video she posted on YouTube of her covering a song by a band that I don't care too much for (no offense, Emma! it's still quite good!). As I was watching it, a nice little ad popped up from the bottom of a screen.

YouTube InVideo ads, if they were groundhogs.

Annoyed, I slammed by finger on the touch pad and slid it across the ice smooth surface to close the ad. All of a sudden, I burst out laughing. Before I clicked the ad into oblivion, I had just noticed what it said:

Click for a bigger image (heh.)

Her face in this screenshot captures what her actual face would have looked like if she knew.

InVideo ads can be bought on YouTube videos, the price depending how long your animation is (if you have one at all), how frequently you want it to run and how big it is. When you buy this space, you are also allowed to track who has seen it, how many times it's been clicked etc.

The way that they circulte the ads is simply by audience targeting. By demographic, content and interest-bsed targeting, they can send out ads that will reach the audience the product fits. Good for the companies, but not so great for unsuspecting victims like my friend here.

Other than InVideo ads, you can also buy Companion Display ads (the ones that appear beside the video), Flash Video ads (the ones you actually have to let play before the video even starts), or the Masthead ads that take up half of the entire YouTube homepage.

As new technologies come out, ad folk will learn to infiltrate them like the silent assassins they are. There's no escaping from us. That's something you can Depend on.

Tastes like...

I was over at a friend's place over the weekend and the inevitable debate between Sprite and 7UP occurred. One friend said they liked one over the other because one was less fizzy, or one was too sugary and that's why they preferred it.

It looks like they're kissing.

They asked my what my take on the issue was and I had an answer right away. But, before I opened my mouth, I had to think about my answer to check if it made sense or not. With blank eyes pointed in my direction, I took a deep breath and filled the silence.

Me: "Ummm, I don't know Sprite..."

Him: "Well, why?"

Her: "No! 7UP is way better! It tastes much more citrusy than Sprite"

Me: "Yeah, I guess it does. But I don't know, I can't even describe what Sprite tastes like. I know it's supposed to be citrusy like 7UP but to me, it kinda tastes like, well, sporty."

Them: What?

I know, 'sporty' isn't really an adjective used to describe taste, but it was the first one that came to mind. Why is that?

Branding. The fact that I associate it with an activity rather than taste really shows how it has been placed in my mind and been given a specific spot on my mental shelf. Coca-Cola Company - 1, Me - 0. When I think about the advertising each drink has done, the stand out campaign for me is the LeBron James Sprite ads such as this one here:

This string of ads were playing 2 or 3 years ago, but I still remember them because they were played frequently and there were always new ones every so often. But, when I try to think of some 7UP ads, none seem to come to mind.

Marketing, positioning, the 4 P's and branding are all important to a product or company. It helps set you aside from the rest of the competition and can make you seem different when, in actuality, you are the same product with relatively no differences other than the colour of your label.

Maybe it just happened to be that whenever a 7UP spot was on, I was away from the TV. Or, maybe they just didn't interest me enough to make me pay attention. But as it stands right now, 7UP is just the plain old cousin, from down state, of the cool athletic Sprite soft drink who plays basketball, has two girlfriends and probably smokes Marlboros, because smoking those make you cool. Right?

D'Oh! They did it to me again.

One week, one man

and one iPad.

Today marks my one week anniversary with my iPad. Here are the good, the bad, and the ridiculously good looking:

1) It's more useful than I originally thought. It's precise, convenient and flashy, so you look cool.

2) Other than the endless myriad of games you can play during a speech, a date, or driving, there are apps for almost anything, for whatever your interests are. My colleague Jeremy Giacomin recently downloaded a Harry Potter app. He and I no longer work together.

3) I still don't know if I would buy one with my own money, but it's definitely worth grabbing for a discount, or in my case, for free.

4) It's still not as versatile as my MacBook, so MacBook wins.

5) I hate pigs.

I spent too much time of that week with this.

iPad or iFad?

Hello all!

I am currently speaking to you from the future. Actually? Well, no. But I am writing this blog entry from my newly acquired iPad that all advertising majors in Creative Communications at Red River College got today! I was fortunate enough to be the first one in my group of two to get it for the first week. We have 16 ad majors, but alas only eight iPads. So, we were assigned in groups of two and are going to be switching back and forth from week to week. Our faithful leader, Kenton Larsen, pleaded to the Program Innovation Fund last summer and his prayers were answered.

So, I bet you're wondering how I'm liking the iPad so far!

Well, first off, before getting it this morning, I would have never thought to buy one. I saw it as impractical, hard to use, and just a flashy new toy for tech geeks and rich folk to buy. Have my opinions changed after my first day?

Yes and no.

I'm really quite enjoying myself and the time I've had to discover the ins and outs of it. It's very versatile and easy to use. The interface is the same as the iPod touch and probably the iPhone as well, though I've never used the latter. The biggest surprise to me so far is how well the keyboard works. Before trying it, I saw the touch screen keyboard as its biggest flaw, but after the first couple shaky and awkward minutes, I got used to it. Now I find myself typing just as fast a I can on a regular keyboard. In fact, maybe even faster! Wow!

I'm sure it gets easier with more practice but right now I find myself having to spend a lot of time looking for the punctuation marks as you need to go to a separate keyboard than the alphabetical one.

I haven't had much time to check out the apps as of yet, but I will investigate further and let you know. Embarrassingly enough though I did download the free Angry Birds app and play the entire demo in one sitting.

Oh, I just discovered something. It's actually not too hard to place your cursor in-between letters and highlight specific things. The touch screen has really good sensitivity and accuracy.

So I've blabbered on the positives, how about negatives? Well, I'm not going to list any right now. I'm sure if I did, they would just be things I could fix after playing with the iPad for a couple more days.

As for right now, the iPad has impressed me and changed my views about it. Check back later in the week and I'll tell you my impression after our first date. We're going to Olive Garden.

"Hey, I'm kind of broke. Try and fill up on breadsticks, okay?"