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.