-Christian Larson

Now (March 21st, 2012) this song is #1 on iTunes top charts. Music and ads are now working hand-in-hand for each other. A popular, likable song can catch attention, influence viewers, and bring familiarity to the commercial. A commercial that introduces a new song can be seen as “on top of their stuff” since they know good music before it is popular, create recognition of the brand when the song is heard, and increase sales for a music artist. Websites like Squidoo.com can help you find the song name and artist from the commercials. Youtube will sometimes hold the information in the text below the video as well.

As my roommate and I drove to the store together, I showed her a new song I had downloaded. Mid-song she said, “Oh, I know this song. It’s from that Internet Explorer commercial.” I hadn’t seen the commercial yet but I had discovered it off of iTunes top charts list where it was listed as #36. My guess is that the Internet Explorer commercial inspired people to find the song and download it off iTunes, increasing its rankings on the top charts. In this interaction, both the brand and the artist win. It’s weird to see that happen nowadays but hooray! Music makes the world a better place!

Photo by: Dan Morrison

Take a leap of faith, depend on others, but most importantly give others reasons to depend on you.

]]> http://laurenaloos.com/2012/03/04/25-one-small-step-for-the-acrobat-one-giant-leap-for-her-career/feed/ 0 lloos GoDucks Acrobatics&Tumbling http://laurenaloos.com/2012/02/29/24-listen-up/ http://laurenaloos.com/2012/02/29/24-listen-up/#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2012 06:29:14 +0000 lloos http://laurenaloos.com/?p=236 ]]> by Lauren Loos

In case you missed it, this is Creative Strategy Winter 2012. This is a collection of important quotes to live by from highly intelligent professionals that gave their time to enhance our education. The quotes are color coordinated with the professional that said it. Thank you to all these amazing people: Deborah Morrison(UO), Dan Wieden(Wieden+Kennedy), Scott Bedbury(Brandstream), Rachel Hom(72andSunny), Kelly Meyers(Code and Theory), Bruce Mau(BMD), Doug Zanger(Ad Week), Jon Steel(WPP Fellowship), John Cage, Marcelino Alvarez(Wieden+Kennedy), and Katie Brennan(COMMON).

Basically, brands are always doing.

A great example of this is Red Bull and their Launchpad. The project begins with people submitting a 30 second video to the Launchpad site that explains an idea they want to see happen; “Here’s a chance to do what has never been done before. Make it big. Make it bold. Make it before someone else does.” The uploaded video clips will go through voting to see which idea will be brought to life.

The project idea lives up to their motto, “Red Bull Gives You Wings.” Finally Red Bull has left the cartoon campaign of old men with wings flying around the screen chugging the energy drinks. Their new campaign, Launchpad, is more realistic and focuses on inspiring athletes and doing the impossible. With the Launchpad project idea, Red Bull tells you they can make your dream come true whether it’s on a court or something impossible you want to see happen.

Here is one of the Red Bull commercials off their new campaign.

(Song – “Outro” by M83)

The campaign has definitely changed my outlook on their brand for the better.

I may not drink Red Bull but I feel this brand has given me some wings.

“This infographic showcases some studies on just how dangerous—and costly—sacrificing sleep can be, and it concludes with some facts on how you can try and improve your sleep quality if it’s something you struggle with.”

On that note, goodnight.

Now before your palms start to sweat and you stop reading due to the uncomfortable topic of race, relax. I’m just thinking out loud. While sitting in my Comparative Literature class my Professor brought up a quote from one of his students of another class. The quotation was something like “Tiger Woods is the perfect example of the future ethnicity of the world.”  This idea hit me like I had just been introduced to a talking dog, confused but intrigued. The student’s thoughts were that the unity of all ethnic groups will eventually lead to a universal race. Tiger Woods was the perfect example being his race half Asian (one-quarter Chinese and one-quarter Thai), one-quarter African-American, one-eighth Native American, and one-eighth Dutch. On the Oprah show he referred to his ethnicity as “Cablinasian.“

Courtesy of Hunger

This idea of Tiger Woods got me thinking, is a universal race really possible? And is it possible in our world’s future?  We have made drastic changes in society in a short amount of time with civil rights and multiracial advocacy. Yes, anything is possible but will we really abolish all racial issues and become universal? Only time will tell.

A world of a billion Tiger Woods running around, hmm scary?…or sexy?

(“Pears Soap- now with such a soothing lather, you won’t notice that your baby has gotten into a horrible accident!”)

- Special thanks to RetroComedy.com and Leon Watson, Mail Online.

It’s crazy to think that these ads were acceptable in society at one point. I would love to somehow be a fly on the wall during these time periods and observe society’s reaction to these ads first-hand. Well, at least we learn from our mistakes.

Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks’ unexpected talent, has been hitting headlines, search engines, YouTube replays, and sports gossip across the country for the past couple weeks creating “Linsanity.” Most of the talk had been positive until Lin had an unsuccessful game on Friday, February 17th when the Knicks lost to the Hornets 85-89. Lin’s 9 turnovers led to an unacceptable headline made by an ESPN editor reading: “Chink in the Armor.” Antonio Federico, the editor behind the offensive headline, was fired Sunday just hours after the headline was discovered.

The sad part about this racial remark is that it wasn’t ESPNs first time using the word in their stories headlines. They had been called out about using related offensive language during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing on a story about the US basketball team. Point is, learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. And always edit, edit and EDIT!

In Brazil only 5% of Brazilians speak English. Ogilvy Brazil decided to do something to promote the education of English for kids in Brazil. At an English-language school called Red Balloon, Ogilvy got the kids to creatively use English. Ogilvy asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grow up. Ogilvy helped translate the responses into English and created a personal kids business card for each. The point was to show that all dreams begin with English. The kids were so proud of their colorful and fun cards that they shared them with friends, families and neighbors. It created a “workforce of 12,000 kids.”

I saw this ad while stumbling through The Ads of the World and it reminded me of the advice from Carson York in my Creative Strategy class. Carson explained the importance of companies doing good for the world and how it’s not about covering up mistakes but about building brand equity and leverage ahead of time in case mistakes happen. Carson says you must back up the company’s mission statement with action that benefits many people, more than just the initial parties involved.  Ogilvy changed the lives and goals of many children in Brazil by providing a base to start dreaming about their future with the influence of the English-language.