Longevity of Ad Careers

In my advertising class, my professor has brought in many people to speak to the class about being in advertising. These people speak about what it takes to make it in advertising and they discuss how they get to where they are and what they do now. Im extremely interested in what they do now and some of their jobs are awesome. What I am mostly concerned about is how they got there. Most of the people that came into class were not ad majors when they were in my position. They were some other major and then fell into advertising somehow. Also, it seemed none of the people who spoke had kept the same job since college. Almost all of them have moved companies and switched their jobs completely. This concerns me mainly because I am taking a different route and I am not a big proponent of change. I like to know what I am doing in the future. Long story short, I dislike uncertainty and there seems to be a lot of it in advertising.

Kool Aid Man

Everyone knows the Kool-Aid Man. He was in many commercials running through wall and yelling "Oh Yeah!". The Kool Aid Man has been around for 59 years. That's a long time especially for product mascots. Kool-AId has decided recently to change the personality of the character in the commercials. It has gone from no personality, to having one. Kool Aid felt like their mascot had to be known more by the consumers. This represents a huge marketing decision for Kool Aid. This is a risky choice but I think its the right one. It is very tough to change the image of your brand. This one is especially tough because its been around so long. I applaud Kool Aid for doing this and we will see how it goes from here.

Kim Jong Un

Advertising will always be linked to popular culture and current events. Something that has been talked about recently has been North Korea and their dictator Kim Jong Un. North Korea has threatened to fire missiles at the United States and other places and many people are worried, upset, etc. A New York City gymnasium has decided to poke fun at the whole situation and advertise directly to the dictator. The ad claims that Jong Un should go to the gym because exercise makes you happy and happy people won't shoot missiles. Obviously this advertisement has gotten some publicity because its just a billboard in New York and I am writing about it. This just shows that advertising is controversial and revolves around current events.

This is Sportscenter

ESPN is know for airing a series of commercials known as "This is Sportscenter". In these commercials, ESPN puts sports news anchors and athletes in an office setting. The point of the commercials is to get people to watch Sportscenter. The other reason is the comedy. These commercials are known as some of the funniest commercials of all time. The situational humor combined with the relativity of superstar athletes is a deadly combination. The most recent commercial targets the famous New York Yankee pinstripe uniforms and how pinstripes are slimming. It is one of their best ones ever in my opinion. Commercials like these are why I would like to go into advertising.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NpH73ZIOyS0

Reflecting and Researching

I've written a lot about the field of advertising this semester and I have learned many things. I have learned more about advertising than I thought I would this semester and it was not even for an advertising class. I've blogged twice a week and what I have noticed is that I am learning more and more every post. I learned a lot of things but three things stick out in my mind. The first is that creativity is vital to any person in the business of advertising. Coming up with original ideas is the backbone of the industry. Another thing I learned is that advertising is a very large field. It is not just the advertisements you see on TV. A lot more goes into it than that. Lastly, I learned how much the industry can be changed by current events. Most of my open blog posts had to do with current events and how they related to advertising.
This semester I have also learned a few things about myself as a writer and researcher. I learned that I should not procrastinate when it comes to researching because it is a long process that takes a lot of work and dedication. I also learned that blogging is completely different from the essays I am used to writing. I'm used to long essays with concrete structure. The blogs were nothing like that. Finally, I learned that revision is the most important part of writing.
Some things I still dont know about advertising are:
1. What's a good starting salary?
2. Is it true that it is harder to have a long career in advertising than in other fields?
3. What is the best way to get a job in advertising after college?

Hands-On Experience

Since I am an advertising major, there is not a lot that you can "practice" to be successful. It's more about being creative and spontaneous. Since I am only a freshman and job shadowing would be extremely hard to set up, I decided to take a different route. I did an exercise that my professor suggested and created and set up a marketing plan for a backpack. Obviously this was just an activity but it helped me learn a lot about creativity. I had to find a target market so I could figure out what to gear my advertisements towards. This is a lot like writing towards an audience which we do all the time in class. After picking a target market, I had to design my backpack. I had to pick a color, material and features. All of these had to be related to my target market. Some of the other things I had to do were, pick where i would be advertising, pick how and where I would distribute and sell the backpack, and I had to pick a price. All of these steps were very helpful in me learning what I had to do to create a product and advertise it.

Noting Cultural Assumptions

A movie that I just recently watched has many cultural assumptions about the field of marketing and more specifically advertising. The movie is called Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and it stars Steve Martin. He plays an advertising executive trying to find a marketing image for cosmetics and ends up taking too long and he has to rush to the airport to get home. He was in New York for business and needs to fly home to Chicago. He runs into another man trying to get to Chicago and the movie is about their misadventures on the way back to Chicago.
This movie makes multiple assumptions about someone who works in advertising. The movie portrays Steve Martin as being an arrogant, stuck up businessman who didnt really care for many people besides himself. The movie makes it seem that advertising is much more impersonal than it really is. They also make the character have some anger issues but this just may be because nothing is going his way.

Super Bowl Controversial Ads

The biggest platform for advertising is the Super Bowl in early February. This is where companies pay millions of dollars to have a thirty-second slot to sell their product or idea. It seems in recent years that it has been a competition to see which brand has the most memorable commercial.

This year there were a few controversial ads that caught some people's attention. These ads were seen by some as racy and offensive. However, the advertising firms described it as good publicity. The firms feel like if the commercial isn't attention grabbing, then no one will talk about it. Many people prior to the Super Bowl complained to the companies making the commercials that they were too offensive and shouldn't be shown to such a large audience. 

The two commercials most talked about are by car companies. Mercedes and VW both put out controversial ads. Volkswagen did one that some people would say is offensive to Jamaicans. Mercedes put a polarizing supermodel in their commercial that was seen as racy. Both the public and the companies have valid reasons to have the commercial aired or not, but in the end, money controls everything.

Artifact Find

The cultural artifact that I found for advertising happens to be a person. This person is arguably the most influential person in advertising history and was named as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century. This person is Leo Burnett. Burnett was an advertising executive and a Michigan native. He was one of the most creative people to have ever lived. He created cultural icons such as the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, and Tony the Tiger. He was a main contributor to the creative revolution of the 1960's.
If anyone's accomplishments could teach you about advertising, it would be Leo Burnett's. He revolutionized advertising with his memorable yet simple advertising. He showed how advertising is an every day occurrence and he created countless household names. He also founded his own advertising firm which was extremely successful and had respectable core values such as employee longevity. His main focus was creating ads that represented American values and that goes a long way.

Kellogg Center Chocolate Party

Over the weekend I attended the 23rd annual MSU Museum Chocolate Party Benefit at the Kellogg Center. What is basically was, was a bunch of businesses and students displaying their chocolate creations. Although this isn't directly related to advertising, there definitely was a lot of advertising present. Most of the advertising I saw was signs for businesses that make chocolate related goods such as bakeries and sweets stores. The event lasted two hours and I don't think I've ever been so full. The main event of the afternoon was a contest to see which business or student had the best chocolate creation. This really got names of businesses out there and is a great form of advertising. Also, the entire event was for a good cause because all of the proceeds went to the MSU Museum's.

Advertising Interview

I was not able to schedule an interview with a person who works in the advertising businesses this week. The person I contacted could not schedule a time to meet this week but agreed to a later interview. Since I could not conduct the interview, I assembled a list of questions that I would've asked.

1. How do you start your writing process?
2. How did you decide to go into advertising?
3. How long did it take to get to where you are?
4. What do you have to write?
5 Could you describe your writing process?
6. Do you like your job?
7. If you were back in college, would you still choose to be an advertising major?

I'll be interviewing this person later this week and I will put the results in an open blog post.

Oscar Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius had both of his legs amputated when he was eleven months old. He is world famous for running in the 2012 Olympic Games in London with two prosthetic legs. He is South African and runs the 400 m. He has a very inspirational story and also had a key role in Nike's advertisings campaigns. There is a poster ad of Pistorius that says "I am the bullet in the chamber". This refers to him shooting out of the starting blocks like a gun. There was also a television ad ran in 2008 featuring him lining up at the starting blocks. While he is lining up, there are sounds playing of a gun being loaded. The point of the commercial was to say that your body is a weapon. As of today, these ads are in very bad taste.
Oscar Pistorius was arrested today for the murder of his girlfriend. The girlfriend was killed with a gun. Pistorius is the only suspect as of now and he has been linked to domestic violence before. Nike cannot help but be embarrassed and regretful that they ran two ads featuring Pistorius that both had gun related themes. Obviously they couldn't have predicted this but it surely is an odd coincidence.

Is Cartoon Character Advertising Making American Kids Fat?

I found an article written back in 2008 by a man named Roosevelt Pitt. He writes about advertising in relation to food. In this article he writes about how cartoon characters often advertise food that is unhealthy for kids.
 He explains how children love cartoons and are attracted to flashy colors and animation. This makes them want the food that their favorite character is advertising. Very often though, this food is unhealthy. Pitt's audience in this article is the parents of children who eat these unhealthy foods and also advertisers that run these ads with the cartoons. He claims that this is a major part of childhood obesity and that both parties should stop giving this unhealthy food to children. The purpose of this article is to inform the public about this trend of childhood obesity and one of its causes. It is a rather short article that mostly emphasizes on healthy diets for children.
His delivery was very hard-hitting in this article because he shows the seriousness of childhood obesity and implores parents to buy healthier food. The style of his writing was very elegant with educated word choice and very good sentence structure.

http://www.naturalnews.com/024398_child_children_advertising.html

Gangnam Style Baby

This week I looked very hard to learn something new about advertising. While I was looking I stumbled across an ad that has been running in the United Kingdom. This ad was very funny and clever and it caught my eye immediately.
The ad was for electronic cigarettes. These cigarettes are supposed to replace the regular harmful cigarettes. The ad starts off with a family gathering and there is a very young baby accompanied by many adults. One of the adults leaves to smoke a regular cigarette and they miss something amazing. While the adult is gone, the baby suddenly learns to walk and dance as it does the internationally famous gangnam style dance. The whole family is stunned and speechless as the baby stops dancing. Just at the same moment, the adult who was smoking the cigarette reenters the room. He notices every mouth in the room agape and asks "What did I miss?".
The point of the ad was to show all the things you could miss by smoking cigarettes regularly. Instead they offer electronic cigarettes which are less harmful and you can smoke indoors. This was an amazing commercial and I'm very glad I found it. Coming from a family with a number of smokers in it, I could really relate to this ad.


Link to the ad ------> http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lrSavppUj1k

Questions About Advertising

1.What is the definition of advertising?
2. What degree is necessary for an advertising major?
3. What is a good starting job for an ad major?
4. What would be the starting pay of that job?
5. Do you always work with big firms?
6. What are the departments in an ad agency?
7. Who was a main innovator of modern advertising?
8. When was the first television ad?
9. How old is advertising?
10. How big is the industry?

The textbook I found was "Advertising: Principles and Practice". It only answered a few of my questions but its still an informative textbook. The first tv ad was in 1941. There are hints about advertising in the old testament. The definition of advertising is the activity or profession of producing ads for commercial products or services.
These are the only answers I could find in the online version of the text. It was a very informative textbook and maybe I will use it in my time here at MSU.

Advertising Memoir

Today I came across a memoir that was written by Jack Cashill. It was titled "Advertising Works". This was a narrative about how he used his skills as an advertiser to sell his house in Kansas City.
Cashill decided not to use a realtor to sell his house when the story took place 15 years ago. He took advice from a friend and decided to sell it himself. At first it didn't work and his friend discouraged him from being himself by convincing him that his ideas were in "bad taste". The house didn't sell for 6 weeks and it was time for Cashill's family to move. What he decides to do it create a unique trail of signs leading to his house to promote the sale of his house. The signs rhymed when read in chronological order and this attracted many people to the house. On top of that, a news team covered the story and put it on their newscast. Cashill ended up selling the house for a very good price.
Cashill might not have been able to sell the house if it wasn't for advertising. He really showed how bad a situation could be without advertising and how good a situation can become if advertising is introduced. This memoir was very interesting and the narrative elements he used kept me enticed throughout the story.

http://www.cashill.com/memoir/advertising_works.htm

Visa Predicts Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the biggest game of them all. It has far more viewers than any other event on television. This makes it a huge target for advertising. Each year everyone tries to have a superior commercial that is memorable and will sell their product.
It seems this year that VISA was a little ahead of the curve. With the Super Bowl getting closer, people have noticed the similarities between the teams in it and Visa's preseason commercials. The two teams in this year's Super Bowl are the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49'ers. Visa ran an ad campaign at the beginning of the season that advertised getting a chance to meet players and coaches in the NFL if you won their contest. Interesting enough, the two teams they used for their commercials were the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49'ers. Is this mere coincidence? I suppose. However, I find this very interesting from an advertising standpoint. It shows the connections between a credit card commercial and sports that many people enjoy.
Whether they just got lucky or if they really did know who would be in the Super Bowl, it is very impressive of Visa. A company who just two years ago ran a Superbowl campaign that flopped. But that's a different story. I learned something about advertising when I stumbled across this random fact. I learned that sometimes advertising is hit or miss, but when you hit it, good things can happen.

Learning the Language

One of the most popular television shows now a days is called Mad Men. It is a show on AMC that depicts the life of a creative director at an advertising agency based in New York City in the 1960's. The show somewhat gives advertising a bad reputation because of the many radical themes. Some of these themes include sexism, racism, and homophobia. This is because of society and cuilture also being quite radical during that time.

Because the show takes place in the 19690's, some of the words that they use may have a different meaning today or would be used in different context. Most of the words in the show in relation to advertising are normal words that would be used in an office such as secretary or executive or co-worker. Whats really different is the choice of words that don't have relations to advertising. A lot of these words have to do with the times in which they were said. Words like housewife and chain smoker are used a lot in this series. This is because smoking was more prevalent in the 60's and a lot of women did not have jobs because of the gender gap in the working industry. Another word used a lot is "boy". A lot of the men in this show use that word to address a man that is younger and inferior to them.

I wouldn't say this show accurately represents advertising today. Mostly because it doesn't take place in the present. This is why a lot of the word choice is not the same as it would be today. The present is a lot more conservative with what is said. This show is quite the opposite.

About Me

Writing has never been one of my strong suits but I wouldn’t call it a weakness of mine. My feelings on writing vary in the topic in which I’m writing about. For instance, if I am writing a research paper on something that doesn’t interest me, there is a greater chance it will be harder for me to write and it might not reach the length requirement. I have always struggled with length requirements because I’m not a fan of elaborating. I prefer something short and concise that gets to the point quickly. I do not enjoy writing enough to do it outside of class in my free time, but I do realize writing is a major part of school and life. My obvious goal for this class is to get a 4.0, but also another goal of mine is to become a better writer for the future. 

I would like to take these skills and apply them to the field of advertising. I would also like to educate other people on what advertising can offer. It's a very intriguing and misunderstood profession. Through these blog posts I plan to explore into the world of advertising to learn the ins and outs of the business. I've always been interested by advertisements on television, on signs, and more. I'm just excited to learn more about it.