B.S. in Advertising

Day: One Hundred and Eighty Nine

Photo taken on Sunday, February 6, 2011 at Jenn & Mike's Super Bowl XLV party hosted at Aunt Linda's house in Wantagh, NY at 808pm. (Great party guys! The food was delicious and don't worry, there was plenty to eat, I think I'm still full. Thanks for having us over for the game!)

This may come as a shock to those of you who have come over from Life's Adventures but I am about to review the Super Bowl ads and NOT make bitter jokes about them like I did in 2007 and 2008. Here we goooooo!

At first I am thinking that the only brands that purchase airtime are Bud Light, Doritos, and Pepsi but then some other real good gems pop in there and make me smile like the one where the guy is like, "I wanna sleep with her, I wanna sleep with her, I wanna sleep with her, I want her Pepsi Max, I want her Pepsi Max-" oh... uh...well I like the one with the product placement in the medieval movie of all...Bud Light...oh...er...how about the one with the dying plants and fish but the Doritos bring them back to...

Okay, okay, I'll behave! All joking aside, here are my top three picks for the night:

Second Runner Up: NFL "Best Fans Ever"
This is a really cool idea and they did a fantastic job of substituting in all those jerseys and NFL gear into the shows. Not sure if you noticed how well it flows too but it may take two watchings to catch it since the first time you're probably absorbed into pointing out all the shows to your friends, like how you try and pick out the voices in We Are The World (wait you don't do that? Just Kim and I do?). Though I love the fact it ends on South Park!

First Runner Up: Doritos "Crash the Super Bowl"
I am totally picking this one because of the pug and the 2 seconds he takes to crash the door into the man who has annoyed me for the past 28 seconds.

This is also something I would train Sirius to do.

Top pick: Volkswagen "The Force"

I am not picking it solely for the fact I fully endorse cosplaying but because of the child actor and his ability to sell you without revealing his face. When the father presses the button from inside and the car comes to life, he reels around in shock, looking around as if to say, "did you see that?!" only to find no one there to witness his Jedi Mind Trick. I just fall in love with his body movements, his determination in his hands as he tries to sway his dog, the defeated sigh when the doll stares back at him limply, and how he brushes off his father when he tries to greet him. The kid just steals my heart. I'm thinking he reminds me of a certain animated nephew of mine...

Oh and hey advertisers? Enough with the 1984 references. We all "get" it.

(Sorry, couldn't resist another jab.)

Aang

Day: One Hundred and Eighty Two

Photo taken on Sunday, January 30, 2011 in the bathroom at 702pm. (It is perfectly okay to laugh at my awful attempt at making myself bald. I must STRESS I went to school for copywriting not art direction, though one could argue the writing skills as well. Should I get my money back?)

I highly recommend Avatar: The Last Airbender (the series not the movie since I have not seen that yet) to anyone, especially adults. The first half of Book One is a little silly and slow to get momentum going but when it picks up it will suck you in, trust me. The story is rich with wisdom and the valuable lessons it teaches the viewers are ones we might have forgotten through the years.

One of the episodes that really speaks to me today centers around Uncle Iroh (Steve's favorite character). He spends the entire 23 minutes walking around the city of Ba Sing Se helping others in need with a smile on his face only for us to learn that this is a very hard day for him. At the end he is honoring his son that he lost in battle.

I find myself wanting to be more like Uncle Iroh every day. No matter how hard of a time he is enduring, it did not stop him from moving forward and projecting warmth on others instead of his sorrow. I hope that I can be more like him, pushing aside my negativity and focusing on the happiness that I can find in the present moment, even if it is a rough moment.

But most likely I'll just end up like Sokka (my favorite), the bumbly, sarcastic average joe.

"You've had a good first day of training."
"I have? But I thought I messed up every single thing we worked on."
"You messed things up in a very special way."

Lie To Me, Love

Day: One Hundred and Seventy

Photo taken on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 in the dining room at 739pm.

I have finally hit the point in my self portrait project where it is time to start playing with the image. I have wanted to do this for awhile but I could not find my Photoshop 7 disk until today (for some reason it was residing in a pile of CDs to be burned into iTunes). Once I load the program onto Miles I begin to play around, changing the shape, distorting the image, just all around fun stuff until I hit a brick wall. I want to do an ode to Cal Lightman (since I'm a little bit in love with him...okay...A LOT a bit) but I have forgotten how to blur the background. Luckily, I have Mai, one of my hockey and advertising friends from college, just a text away. I pose the question and she calls me immediately, talking me through my different options. As we chat away about her awesome job in the creative industry, Steve tools around with the picture and by the end of the conversation he has accomplished the above effect. I owe Mai and Steve for my selfer today; thanks for helping me out! Great job guys! ^_\

I have been toying with this idea for awhile so it means a lot to me to finally get it out there. I think I really like Lie to Me because the one thing I don't really do is lie. I would be the worst person that Cal could interrogate. I like how he will phrase the same question ten different ways until the person bursts into tears and admits to killing their daughter. Though with me it would be like:

SHOW STARTS

"Did you burn those patients' charts? Didja? Didja set fire to the medical records room? Was it you? You burned all those files in that room, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Did you-ah...oh."

CREDITS