Onitsuka Tiger Shoes

I came across this little ad. I like it alot.

AHHHHH! I GOT HIT BY A JAVELIN!

Its been a long week. A fucking long week and its just starting. Our beloved copywriters had their hell semester last semester. Its the Art Directors turn now. Not only do we sit through the concepting stage, we are responsible for execution. Its a lot of work. Ive been at the beloved Brandcenter 9 hours a day for the last week and a half, and only now have I gotten work approved.

Is it the best? No.

Will it go in my book? No.

Why am I doing it then? Practice.

The work that gets rejected is publish ready in my opinion and the opinion of a lot of other people. Its good and looks good, but thats not what were looking for here. Were looking for great. I haven't seen great here, by any class. This isn't because of lack of talent, its simply that great is like getting hit by a javelin at the Olympics. It isn't going to happen as long as you're looking for it.

Staring deep into your partners eyes or a nine foot high white board for a week usually doesn't help but its what is done here. And believe me there are people that put way more than that in. I never thought I would work this hard.

I guess I'll keep my head down the next time I cross the field.

Boing Boing Boing!!

There were no teachers here to get an opinion of our work for Airborne. We thought we had a great idea and wanted someone to say "Yes. I love it." Only Mr. Mark Fenske was here. So we sighed and opened the door and asked for some help.

"I won't look at work from any other class."

Damn it.

The 20 minute conversation that followed was worth more than the help we were looking for.

"Do what you think is cool. If its a poster that people unfold and say 'Cool.' then thats the answer. No agency wants to see how you did on your car-wash assignment. They don't care. They just want things that are cool."

"I did an ad with an orange ball on a white background bouncing up and down going Boing Boing Boing as it hit. I ran that across eight pages. It was like 'What the fuck?' But it helped sell air and shoes for Nike."

"If you think your idea needs a 1/3 of a page plus another two. Do it. But only if its cool."

"You might have an ad and realize that 'This would totally work for another product. Yeah all I have to do is switch the logo and its perfect.' Would an agency know that you did that? No. All they know is that you know when you see a great ad."

So go do cool stuff.

Boing.

Boing.

Boing.

Havianas: Welcome Mat

BBDO NY made these limited edition mats for Havianas Sandals. The sandals are impervious to weather hence the mat idea. At least you know where your shoes will be if you forget.

What Brandcenter is about in two Pictures.

The way ads get made by everyone:



The way ads get made by Brandcenter students:


Pictures courtesy of Earl Cox. Chief Strategy Officer Martin Agency

Why Ford might never recover.

My beautiful 1994 Toyota was sick last week. More precisely ive avoided getting it state inspected. So i finally took it into the local Ford dealership, half because I want to save Detroit fifty dollars at a time, and half because they said it would take half an hour. The manager was really professional, and convinced me the car was in really good shape but needed some work that would let it last forever. Good sales pitch. I agreed.

Three days later I had my car back good as new. The manager once again was amazing and said bring it back in a week so I can check that the repairs would hold up. I was really impressed. They changed my mind about Ford.

A few days later Ford calls again asking about my car. I said it was doing great and I appreciated the repair manager and the work they did. He thanked me and immediately asked if I would be interested in a new car since mine was so "high mileage" and would I consider buying a Ford?

Good feeling gone Detroit.

You gave me great service with awesome employees, I even dropped 2K at your establishment. What makes you think I'll drop 40K for a truck with mudflaps when I drive 1.5 miles to school. That is why you can't sell a car to anyone in the world, you don't know your customer. Stop advertising, and go design a car I'd think about driving.

The early review of semester numero 2!

Its been a tough week. Not as tough as I expected but still a good kick to the butt. The new building is amazing and you can see pictures of it all over the other blogs so I'll save you the trouble of wading through repeat pics.

We've started working with copywriters which has been great to finally get someone who can better articulate what I've been trying to stumble through. The only down side to this is Koz. This is the Art Directors first foray with him. Lets just say that if he was anything else he'd be a sailor, or a professional swearer. He's tough for sure, but his system works. Wayne Gibson definitely lets him rant and rave while smirking and smiling in the back, gotta love the good cop bad cop routine.

The first class for Kelly O'Keefe and Earl Cox was fantastic. They are two extremely talented and successful advertising professionals. Their speech was amazing and really made me excited about the career path. They beleive that advertising is changing and we will be the first to really experience it in its new form.

This could mean writing a short movie, a circus, print, radio, pie throwing contest, skeeball, Mexican soap opera, or whatever is needed to really get a message out there. Their passion for what they do and for us is infectous, and its hard not to get excited.

Well I thought id post a little since ive been a ghost here, but will be back more regularly, I hope.

This man either has terets or hates Rick Boyko.

Found this little article on George Parkers AdScam about the new Brandcenter, the building, and Rick Boyko and the process it took to get the new logo and website. I suggest everyone read it because it comes just short of calling Rick a douche bag. Ill give him one thing, his ability to use "sausage factory" in this article is masterful.

Article here.

The Afterlife of Cellphones

What happens when you toss your phone away? Most people go back to their carrier and give it to them to recycle or hope that they do. Well unfortunately most carriers don't. This article from NY Times gives a great story of what happens to yourcell phones once you get rid of them.

It also has a link to this site Greenphone.com. A company that will cut you a check for your old phone, and refurbishes it and sells it in the second hand market. Apparently each used phone has about one dollar of gold and copper in it which can be extracted by smelting your phone. Its amazing to see companies get wildly profitable from our waste, especially our electronics.

Catching up with the gossip.

Ive been spending the last couple days catching up on all the blogs I read to see whats happened in the last month. Surprisingly it has been a slow month in the blog world. However after Droga5 won agency of the year, much to the shock of the blog world, due to the rumors of firings and lack of clients.

In response to this AdFreak conducted a survey to find the most over rated agency. Crispin Porter and Bogusky overwhelmingly won. There seems to be alot of hate over CPB. Here are a few comment highlights:

"yes they win a ton of business, but they also lose most of it a little while later. I am sure a lot of students want to work there, who else would put up with their terrible pay.( geniune sweat shop) and their work is a reflection of that. Student ideas with better than average production values."

"I think Crispin's a really strange agency. They're both brilliant and horrible at the same time."

"Crispin does great work for the male who just hit, or just got out of puberty. I think that's the people who work in that agency anyway. Anyways, advertising is overrated. I can't wait for ad agencies to die."

And so it continues on and on. In reality this debate can never be won. I've met some people that have interned at CPB and loved it, some hated it, some would rather be telemarketers than work there. But in the end their good work outweighs the bad, they win clients and people are desperate to work for them. Sounds like a winning formula to me and I'd work for them in a beat.

Semster 2 Begins

After nearly a month I have returned. A month was a long time to wait and I have to admit Im ready to get started. We have a new building to live in now and a new name. I am no longer a Adcenter student but am now a Brandcenter student.

I don't think I will ever call myself a Brandcenter student so I count myself as the last class to do so, but I do understand the change behind it. We are training people to be brand stewards instead of simply ad monkeys. The name will gain more respect from the industry but internally I doubt it makes much change.

This semester will be lighter in class load but now I understand that classload is mostly outside class time while class time is reviewed for criticism and review instead of learning. After a semester here Ive realized that grades and class time are less important that time in groups and one on one meetings with teachers.

This semester will be hectic. Internships are around the corner. Im undecided whether to use VCU as my medium to that or find my own through merit alone instead of the Brandcenter name. Either way I will be working somewhere come May. The class load might be lighter but the time spent outside will be more intense, and to be honest hopefully without Don Just I'll have some time to go and explore the East Coast before I graduate. Sorry Donny.

I did well the last semester but the saying here goes:

Brandcenter doesn't start until Semester 2.

Wish me luck. Here we go.