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?"

And the sorry saps are...

Remember how I said we would find out our client for the year? Well, I didn't lie.

Berns & Black Salon on Main street will be the ad majors' big client for this school year. They don't have a website (something to consider in our campaigns) but here's their Facebook group: SNIP SNIP SNIP

We will be getting to know them better as well as finding out what kind of style they prefer. Style? Get it? We learned today that they want to attract RRC students, and if you are willing to get a cut from one of their beauty students, you'll be able to get your hair cut for cheap (USP?).

As we learn more information, I'll update you on any advancements and cool aspects about them. Also, I've been thinking of getting a haircut. If knowing the ins and outs of your client is a major step in the advertising process, might as well get a haircut from them while I'm at it!

"Hey, try this one. All the cool cats get it."

Oh, hello.

Now that school is back in session, I guess it would be a good a time as ever to start this blog back up. Get my mind thinking about the things it should be thinking about and get my creative sauces running.

I am now officially an advertising major and will be working under the wings of Kenton Larsen, along with my fellow ad men/women.

I'm actually quite astounded by the amount of traffic this blog got during its first go, seeing about 200 views each week. But, when the posts started getting scarce, so did the amount of people that dropped by. Let's get those number back up, shall we? By the way, I have been getting a lot of random comments that are all in chinese. To whoever is doing that, stop. I'm Korean, okay? Or at least write in english please. I also wouldn't recommend clicking on any links that they post.

So, I'll be doing the usual analysis of things I've seen and think are cool in the ad world, as well as updating you on school projects. Tomorrow, we will be learning who our client is for the year. We, along with the PR students, will be separated into groups to create campaigns for a local business. After the big pitch, the client will pick one of the proposals and spit on the others. Exciting.

This is what I did this summer:



See you soon! Visit back often! Tell your friends!

The one about 'The Office'

I don't watch a lot of TV because I don't find watching the same episodes over and over again on every channel that much fun. The only shows that I really do follow are LOST, Californication, and now recently The Office:



If you watch this show, you will know who Pam, played by Jenna Fischer, is. Now, every time I watch the show on Peachtree TV, an American network, this commercial comes on EVERY break:


(Sorry, the quality of this video isn't that great)

Also, I never see this commercial on any other time. There's obviously some rationale as to why this is and what great rationale it is.

The simple fact is: "You can't NOT like Pam". She's the office sweetheart, Jim's wife, and not Michael Scott. Viewers trust her and side with her almost all the time. So, when she appears again right after she's just been on, those feelings towards her are still present. You still trust her and you still think she has the best intentions at heart.

The simple fact is: "You can't NOT like Pam". When she starts talking about Proactiv and all its benefits, you just think she wants to share this fantastic product with you. WOW, what a purely altruistic action! Thanks, Pam! And with this, you go and buy barrels of it. Hopefully by purchasing this, you can now have clear beautiful skin like Pam and be as good as a human that she is. At least I do...

Nice tactic Proactiv. Nice.

BooTube

What do you do on a beautiful summer day, when you have no work, no cares, no stress, and all the free time in the world? Go check out funny videos on YouTube of course! Why spend time in the great outdoors and enjoy your life, when you can enjoy the shenanigans of other people all around the world!

Good thing all we've been getting for the past week is rain, so I have an excuse to stay in and watch videos like THESE.

Some of you might have noticed that the interface and layout of YouTube has changed a bit. Oh well, things change, we'll get used to it (Personally, I don't like it). But the biggest change is the homepage. The warm welcoming homepage and offers you suggestions of what you might like to watch, has turned into this:



Do you see it? Instead of that basket of goodies that you expect to see when the page pops up, you are punched in the face with a big fat ad. GREAT, now I have to scroll down to see my video suggestions. That's a half-second of time that I have to waste to ignore the ad, but once I do that, it won't bug me anymore! Right? Right?

Now, maybe I wanted to check out one of my favorite actors on Letterman that I missed the night before. Let's say I type Meryl Streep in the search box, and the first result is the one I'm looking for. Perfect! All I need to do is wait for the video to load up and then I sit back and enjoy Ms. Streep's wisdom.

Wait. What?



I panic. Where did this come from? I try and stop the video by clicking the two parallel lines in the bottom left hand corner. NO LUCK! It's locked me out! The only option is that I close the browser so I don't have to watch the ad, but, MERYL, I endure the ad, and wait for the countdown at the bottom to reach zero.

At last, the video I've been looking for! I watch. It finishes. I am content. Wait. What? No, no, no! Not again. I haven't even clicked anything but it starts to play another ad. Madness! They are persistent, evil, and invincible.

I am defeated.

I came onto YouTube to watch Meryl Streep and I had to pay for it with seeing three ads. Two of which were forced upon me with relatively no choice but to watch or close the page.

Before YouTube was a haven of amusement. No strings attached enjoyment that was free to bask in. Now, we must pay with our time. As meek as their inconveniences may be, they have changed our relationship with YouTube.

We're pretty good at tuning out ads on radio and TV though, right? What's one more medium to learn to ignore.