Off of hiatus?

Looks like I'm back.

A month or so ago my laptop died and I've been out of commission ever since! I have spent every night at school busy doing work and trying to get some sleep too. I've been buried underneath PR proposals, magazine projects and writing narration for a fishing lesson website. Huh? Yeah I know. I'll let you know where you can hear one of my narrations!

Anyways, I now am a brand new owner of a brand new laptop.

So, I've declared my major for next year. I am now officially an advertising major as of August of this year, Creative Communications, Red River College. I look forward to venturing and immersing myself further into the world of advertising and I will let you know how I progress.

Now to the post. Something that has really been bugging me is what people think are "good ads" nowadays. When you think of a "good ad" you think of funny. That's what everyone thinks now. Superbowl ads are the best. Funny office ads are the best. Well, I guess I'm generalizing but the only ones people seem to remember are the ones that make them laugh.

Is this a positive thing? Yes. Only if the person can remember what the product is. Some ads try to be so offbeat and different that their message gets lost in between the flash and glam. People might say it fits because they're trying to make the brand "fun"'. I think this is too general. You can slap 'fun' on anything. Sweeping, driving, eating or even indigestion. But fun can't be the only point, it can't be the only 'big idea'.

I'm not saying everyone thinks the only ads that are good are funny, but most. It seems like the mentality in the industry now is to hit home with the shorter attention spanned public that can't focus on one thing for more than 15 seconds. I guess that's where we're headed though. We have access to so many things, we never have to wait to be amused because we're just one click away from something that might hold our interest a little more.

I read a couple Ogilvy books recently, all of which were written way back when all my school instructors had hair and inspiration in their eyes (hah). It seems to me, back then, everything was copy heavy. You were writing engaging and alluring copy to take the reader in. People were doing sales pitches in paper. I romanticized this way of creating ads and tried to do it myself. Every peer I showed always said "too copy heavy" or "that's a nice picture". No one actually bothered to read the copy. No one wanted to give time to let me sell to them.

This is when I became pseudo-depressed. Was I learning nothing? Was everything I read non-relatable to this day and age? Well no. You need to know the history of thing. Find out what worked, what didn't, and how we got to this point. But yes, you can't stay back in that time of suits, womanizing and the time where the Marlboro cowboy was king. For some of my magazine ads, I decided to go for short, sweet and funny. And guess what, people laughed, people said it was great.

I guess what I learned was that you have to write different for different people. Maybe I'll always be in love with the days of yore but I don't mind making people laugh either.

MC