Greetings from the Windy City

I. Hate. PCs. My computer just decided to restart halfway through me posting. Some update nonsense. I'm so angry! And jealous of all you with your new Macs! But I'll start over, then. And I'm ctrl+C-ing every 3 seconds this time.

SO...here I am. A wizard! Yay. I practically begged Sean to let me on here because whether you all know it or not, I've been stalking you for the past couple weeks. And I'd feel a lot less creepy if I was actually a contributor. I'm actually the only subscriber, I think. Kind of pathetic, I know. But I've just now discovered the beauty that is FeedDemon..so I went a little crazy and am subscribed to over 40 blogs. I didn't read them for ONE busy day at work and the next day I was attacked. Anyway, back on track: You guys will appreciate me being on here once you're missing UF and Ad Society next year and I can tell you the funny stories about Suthy, etc.

Yea, so work. I'm interning at Energy BBDO in Chicago. It's got about 200 people and it's on 3 floors of the historic Wrigley building, right on Michigan Ave in the middle of everything. I'm right across the street from the Chicago tribune building, the radio station headquarters, and NBC. There's all these sculptures and a clocktower, with various guitarists and sax players and puppet shows entertaining the tourists every day.

My supervisor is Mary, the account exec on the Wrigley global account. She's really fun and young. Very into it. The account director is Oliver. He's from Germany and has a very quirky sense of humor. He's also very smart, and likes to give me pop quizzes randomly. The other day he called me into his office and asked my favorite brand. The next day he asked me what the difference between a brand and a product is. Once he made me draw out the BBDO BrandCore set-up and the pyramid. I like it--he keeps me on my toes.

I'm really excited to work on the global acct because the team is in charge of doing advertising strategy consulting for all Wrigley's brands, everywhere. It's really cool to see the creative that gets produced everywhere and the differences and similarities. One of the things our team is supposed to do is make sure that each brand still conveys a consistent personality around the globe. Anyway--things I'm really excited about at work. (And the list is going to be long because as you all might know it doesn't take much to get me excited) 1

1. The info center, which is basically the secondary research dept. They have tons of books and magazines and subscriptions to databases. And they said any question we have-any info we want to know they can try to find for us. This is so cool to me because last semester I spent ALL semester doing this research myself. Spending hours and hours on all kinds of databases building up info on a brand and its consumers and it's ad plans and expenditures. The fact that now someone does that for me-awesome!

2. My office. A real office with a window overlooking the river. It's crazy! I share it with one other intern. Going along with that, my e-mail address and my extension on my phone. And my ID to get me in the building. I'm not gunna lie--these things all make me feel cool. And if you think that's silly, then you're already jaded! :)

3. Free stuff: Like the bag and pen and clipboard and notepads that we got. And water bottles and keychains! And of course--GUM. Mints. Neverending amounts. I will have fresh breath forever.

4. The office atmosphere. Like most ad agencies, it's fun. There's an xbox 360, fooz ball table, 'wellness center.' There are hoola hoops hanging on the wall and a popcorn machine. There's a giant cow that's dressed as a tourist and chalkboard and bulletin board walls where people put their ideas. There are flyers everywhere that are advertising tube top Tuesdays (?) and the Foozball championship game. You can also book a massage or manicure. Yay.

5. WhizBang. It's the production studio. Besides the fact that they let people come in a record music (wish I had the talent to), I've discovered a room filled with every DVD of life...including TV series. And I've been told to just take whatever I want as long as I return it. YES.

So I've already pretty much finished my two intial projects...the presentation I have to give in August is done, including what I'm saying word for word. Can't tell you much about it...sorry. But I did do it on InDesign and it looks great. I have the entire creative suite on my computer which is endless amounts of fun to play with. And the other project on new media trends and current effective/awesome advertising is all done..with some room to add anything new that might come up. That one's really cool cuz all I do is go through a shitload of blogs and youtube. And I find stuff that's impressive or creating a lot of buzz and I put it into a powerpoint and then I have to present how that's relevant to Wrigley. It's basically just an inspiration piece to show them that they can expand beyond TV and print.

Then I'm doing a project with the other interns to raise awareness of cheerfororbit.com and to get people to submit videos for the contest on there. Other than that I'm involved in preparing for the quarterly global update, an all day meeting..and some brainstorming sessions--I learn a lot from those meetings and they let me contribute. And it's cool cuz here they bring account people, planners, and creatives together to brainstorm. Which is the exact type of place I want to work at.

Ok well this is already waaay too long so I'll write more at a later date. Miss all of you guys a lot! Let's get NiMo and Burch on here.