The Holistic Approach.

"People's use of the internet is an extension of who they are offline. The interests they pursue offline will be what they seek online as well. Marketers should approach online consumers from a holistic approach. Instead of thinking of just eyeballs looking at a computer screen, marketers need to understand the complete individual they're targeting. What do they like to do offline? What gets them jazzed? How do they look for information? What kind of media do they like?"

Jackie Rousseau-Anderson - Forrester Analyst


via an AdAge article about a survey of American consumers showing Internet use leveling out.

It's what I think advertising should be, an attack on all fronts if you will. Although attacking makes it sound a little more morbid than I'd like. You catch my drift.

Here are two of my favorite ads right now. One is the extended Microsoft Bing! commercial; they show it at movie theaters prior to the film. (And don't think Bing is that great, but their ads are.)




The second is from the 'Go Forth' Levi's campaign. Levi's is a classic brand, and I've always loved their advertising. Bring back the blue jean 'craze'! I mean. Jeans are something today that are ingrained into all style. You can wear them in SO many situations. Dark, light (in any variant of wash!), short, long, ragged, holy, fringed, skinny, wide leg, etc, etc... That said-- who doesn't sell jeans these days? Levi's needs something to set them out as not only a brand of jeans, but THE brand. Maybe not over designer jeans, but Today's American's jean company. I think this campaign is a big step toward that, influencing the youth. Yet, does the lack of mainstream popularity hold some sort of mystery to the brand? I don't see why they aren't more popular. This campaign makes me want a pair.



Levi Strauss leads the apparel industry in trademark infringement cases-- it's amazing what you can find online http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=registration&entry=1139254

EDIT: I found this Adage Article while still surfing around for details on the campaign. Read the comments, I think it's amusing that the target audience commenters really did enjoy the concept, while industry naysayers and the older generations of agency workers believe it's crap. Guess we'll see.

Falling Hard

A lot of my college and high school friends have begun the typical post-college "let's all get married" summer. I know I don't have any desire to get married in any near future, but after countless weddings and showers and drunken receptions-- I feel...conflicted.

Ideally I want to build up my career, settle in my own place, and be by myself completely before I meet the person I want to marry. Even if I were to meet this person tomorrow, I'd want to wait for stability.

But then I was thinking-- I've been in relationships, good and bad, and never once even wanted to be with any of them long enough to consider marriage. People I know met their significant other in high school or college and are so sure marriage is the next and only step that they don't even have to verbalize it--you can read it in their faces.

I've never felt that at all for someone. Are we as single women with a college degree heading out into the working world supposed to believe that there is something wrong with us if we don't have a "ring by spring"?

Even the person I'm dating now-- we barely know each other and have dated for a little bit.

A lot of people say, if you don't meet someone in college, chances of meeting someone afterward get slimmer by the year. So I find myself thinking-- What if this is as good as it's going to get?





Today I am a little girl again. Do I only think I know myself and what I want?

Or is it me trying to harden to the idea of what many might see as failure?

Take Good Notes

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I intern at this ad agency, and so far it's not as interesting as I thought (and WAS SO SURE) it was going to be. I know everyone has to pay their dues and be the intern that prints lunch menus for the office and makes copies for a while, but wow. I would love a real task.

I get to spend a fair amount of time doing 'research' on the Internet.

It feels weird for me to have moved back in with my parents. It's only temporary-- until I can secure a real paying job, but temporary is about all I can stand. I really miss being in West Texas.

I was watching The Tonight Show with Conan. Coco, if you will, last night. It was, as expected hilarious. During the show I saw a the new GM commercial, and I have to say I'm impressed. If there was ever a commercial to offer hope for something that may or may not survive--this ad did it.

I'm Back

That's right. After two months or more of blogging silence, I realized that I was sharing a little more information with my friends that ideal. I'm sure they don't mind listening to me tell the fascinating narrative that is my life, but I like to keep up the mystery.

I've graduated from Texas Tech University, at the worst time to graduate from college EVER. But it's not all moving back in the with the parents, endless job searching and binge eating because I am afraid I'll never have a real self-supported lifestyle! I actually am doing an internship at an Ad agency in Uptown Dallas right now. I really really hope it turns into a full time job at some point in the future. Why? Because I have a 5 year plan.

I've been trying to cultivate my photography business, but have yet to make any real money because all of the people I take out for sessions are engaged friends.
Another huge disadvantage to leaving the blogging world for a while? I've really fallen out of touch with the vast amount of information the Internet has to offer

anyway. wtf. gtg.

Relax.

I realized I was doing so well about posting and then I turned around and almost a month has passed since my last post! Ridiculous! Spring break and midterms haven't helped any, but I've finally found a few minutes to sit down and get something out.

This week is my Spring Break. B and I went to ATx for the week and drove to the DFw yesterday. I can honestly say that I enjoyed my trip. Austin was great, SXSW was in full swing and I had my fair share of the hippies. (I'm not rude; my best girl friends from high school are what most would call hippies, although they deny it.)

The best thing about road trips-- all of the inside jokes you make with the person/persons you travel with. I don't want to forget the things we made up:

-Social Dresses. This became our term for any and every girl in and around Austin wearing a dress that cut well above their knees, and usually well below the neck. The dress more often than not was made of cotton in funky colors and prints. The sluttier the dress the more "social" it was. 

-Hunting and eating horses. Funny and I have no idea why. We just talked about hunting some down and consuming them. 

- "We need more lemon pledge" This is from a Family Guy episode-- talking in this voice throughout the trip was mandatory. We were staying in a Red Roof Inn (which has become some sort of tradition apparently) and the woman cleaning our rooms talked this way. Yes, we might go to hell. 

- Any and every reference to UT losing to Tech this past football season

- Weirdies vs. Normies. It's a battle for the city, the capital, the world. These were how we classified the excessive amount of people congregating in Austin. You were either a weirdie or a normie depending on appearance, attitude and accessories. 

I know there were more but I'll have to edit and update this entry later. 

It is going to be very tragic for me when I have to leave this man. I know he cares for me and I know we'll still be in touch, but I am terrified of how horrible it will feel when I move away. He could care less about it, I know that. 

Something else vacation makes me realize-- I don't mind being away from technology and media. The two things that mean most to my career?!?! I didn't have television, movies, Internet, news, advertising, Facebook, email, text messaging or anything for a whole week and I absolutely loved it. We were outside, walking around, breathing wonderfully fresh air, exploring. We were able to talk, and lay around and joke, and be completely lazy in general. This scares me a little, and then I think maybe that's what a vacation is, getting away from EVERYTHING. Even though I love media and technology. The downside is being WAY behind when you return to reality. 

Advantages.

Let me tell you why the internet is one of the most amazing things to happen to humanity.

When my mother was my age, if you wanted to know something instantly, something obscure-- do you use the traditional media??? Think about it. It's the progress of communication. Writing letters that were delivered on horseback, reading huge volumes of books in the library, the postal service, mail traveling on boats...etc. You have newspapers, television, magazines, and telephones with which to get your information. BUT the Internet. Is. Instant. (Same goes for cell phones).

I was watching a rerun of Conan O'Brien tonight, and Seth Green was one of the guests.
He was telling one of those lame boring celebrity anecdotes. I guess that's all they do on late shows, that and promote their newest project. Anyway he was telling about an encounter with Jack White, and said that JW asked him "aren't you the cha-ching guy?"

I thought to myself, "hmma...what is that from?"

Unable to place it, I youtubed it and came up with this;




Wow. haha. Regardless of the serious hilarity here, my point.

I'm able to find out anything about any one, any event, any location, ANYTHING instantly!! Vast amounts of knowledge, at my fingertips. THRILLING.

One More Thing:

I absolutely hate the "25 things you don't know about me" note that facebook has been circulating. My roommate and I hate it so much, she posted a funny link to an article that was written ridiculing the chain note.

BUT the new thing: is. so. cute. to me. But I refuse to post it on FB. Yeah. I'm a snob. 

 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.