On Being Positive

First of all, thank you so much to Geoff Grimble from DDB for taking the time to present your take on marketing for my Marketing Communications class on Wednesday. The presentation was fun, engaging, and informative! Also, thanks for reminding my friend and I to attend the Advertising Club of Edmonton's student event yesterday- it was a good time and I met a lot of professionals with plenty of great industry advice.

Geoff's rules for being a great marketer:

1. Be positive
2. Be generous
3. Be social
4. Be unique

All of these seem fairly straightforward right? Not so fast! Being positive in public interest marketing is actually really hard. If you're focusing on getting people to wear seat belts, for instance, you'll likely come out with the same sorts of things that people always come up with, like this graphic ad:

OR you could think outside the box and go for something positive, like the Embrace Life Campaign

Both are good ads, but which one of them are you more likely to shut off halfway through, or avoid watching?

How about an ad making people think about how they should use public transit in order to help the environment? Sure, you could tell them about all the damage and pollution that is going on in the world, but big overarching problems tend to make people feel overwhelmed and think "how can I make a difference anyway?".

So then we have the Bussen er Cool ad:

If that didn't make you smile, you don't have a single funny bone in your body.

Isn't it nice to watch a public interest ad that actually makes you smile???

Then there's anti-smoking campaigns. Actually, believe it or not you could make them positive! They don't all have to look like this:

Or, take a look at this campaign by the Hearth and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon:

At Quittersunite.com, people are encouraged to post videos about their "Smoke Free Lifestyle", outlining how they live their lives with $300 extra per month. It's positive, and focuses on the saved money and enhance lifestyle that quitting can offer people.

Try being positive!

On Tilt shift Edmonton

Pixelens Photography. For full size go here.

On Gangnam Style

Heyyyy sexy lady! Op-op-op-op Oppa Gangnam Style!

If you haven't seen this hilarious, mega popular South Korean pop video, featuring invisible horses and dancing in buses yet, here's my gift for you:

Although, if you haven't seen it, where have you been?? It has over 220 million hits as we speak.

It's even on the radio here now, which has to be a first (non English music on the mainstream radio in NORTH AMERICA?!).

I'm really happy that it made it mainstream, because Nicki Minaj is starting to make my ears bleed. 

And why are we so insular with our media anyway? Why are foreign movies only shown in tiny hipster theaters? Or maybe it's just our universal hate for subtitles when dubbed versions aren't available. My parents recently tried to watch Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with their friends, only to find they'd accidentally rented the Swedish version. It wasn't worth it to read the subtitles- "so much work!!", so they played cards instead. (But Mom, this one's worth the reading...)

Not only is this a great leap for foreign media, but it's an indicator of how far we've come bringing viral into the "traditional" world. Psy (the artist from above), was even on Saturday Night Live this week :)

He danced out from behind a wall in a Lids store (for some reason). I'd show the video here too, but all the ones I seem to find "can't be shown in my region". Bah

On Andrej Pejic Modelling Bras

I love Andrej Pejic, fashion's top crossdressing supermodel. Say what you will about him being the runway's perpetual media stunt- I love him. Not only is he incredibly brave for doing what he's doing, but he's gorgeous. And his build is absolutely perfect for high fashion (considering that all the clothes are made to fit 5"11 models with no hips or chest whatsoever). Whether it's a good thing that a slender man fits the womanswear model body type better than the women is up for debate of course.

zfashionblog.com

Now... (Drumroll please)... Andrej is modelling super push up bras! Dutch retailer HEMA may have struck gold with this campaign idea. Not only is he a beautiful model, but featuring a man in a bra has really started a buzz about the ad in the advertising and fashion communties. Also isn't it clever saying that these push up bras are so effective that they even give a man a bust?? I wonder how these ads would have fared here in North America though... I'm not sure consumers would have been quite as accepting.

On The Beauty of City Design

I love love love picturesque old cities. I love small winding roads and cobblestone. I love uncertain, unplanned meandering rows of houses. I love asymmetry. I love curved and crooked alleys.

The robotic straight grid design of new North American cities is grating on me. Urban planning can be beautiful.

Fortress Bourtange, the Netherlands
Built to be ultimately defensible by cannonballs. The corners and perpendicular walls meant that each wall was covered by fire from the walls next to it.
Also, the star design is amazingly gorgeous.

Bern, Switzerland
Can't you imagine yourself there, walking down the street in the dying sunlight? The way that the rows of houses flow organically, mimicking the shape of the river.... I want to go there so badly!

Mont Saint Michel, France

More of a commune than a city I suppose, with a whopping 42 inhabitants. But I couldn't help but include it here. The way that the 11th century monastery rises above everything... it proves that beautiful design isn't just about the lines of the streets, but about having a wonderful skyline and view as well

I'll continue to add to this beautiful city design list :)

On the Dolphin Jetpack

Before I get back to serious blogging, I'd really like to show you all the Dolphin Jetpack, the coolest thing that I have seen in a long time. I mean, look at it! All I can think about when I watched this video was Iron Man.

And it's only $6600! I mean that's a sizable chunk for a student, but for something like this that's amazing!

On Pancake Pillows!!!

Check out these pancake pillows!! They look so fluffy and fun. I want a stack of them in every corner of the house. You can find them at Unica Home. Mind you, at $600 each, maybe I'd be better off trying to make them myself...