How an Earthquake ruined my sushi lunch! (little F*er)

Hello Kiddies!  As you know, I've been away.  Not because I don't love you but because my computer crashed and didn't return for 2weeks and I don't blog at work...as much as I'd love to!

Many of you, if not all of you, know that LA was hit by an earthquake.  Not sure if they refer to it as hit, like we say a hurricane hit the coast of Florida..blah, blah...but, to much surprise and disbelief it sure as hell did!! Right when I least expected.  It was quite the day at work today.

So, like the good little media assistant that I am, I was working on the excel spreadsheets from hell (they have multiple tabs with 2392838278392839 rows and columns each) and being new I'm still learning the tricks of the trade at RPA.  My planner was at my desk literally filling me with all these shortcuts and guidelines of how to set up hours worth of excel for a measly little pie chart (one of many).  While my head was spinning with information a good little shakey shake happened and I was like holy big mac truck probably just few by...bastards slow down!  Then...SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL...(literally) our building was swaying.  The second the shakes started my planner was like "fuck an earthquake," he's a cali native who survived the Northridge quake, and my first reaction was "must jump on planner."  So...I did...seriously jump out of my desk onto his arm and looked at him like he was a ghost while keeping myself from sharting my pants.  

I guess one of the safest spots to take cover is in a doorway or anywhere away from glass, windows and object that can fall and hit you.  We run to the doorway and damn, they're made out of GLASS! So again, I'm holding in any sort of "accident" by crossing my legs!  I guess at that point he realized going under our desks would've been the best choice but it was over by then.  All this stuff probably happened in about 15 seconds, but I swear it felt like minutes!!!  Crazy ass shit.  People came out of offices with hands over their mouths and the emergency teams were on their phones figuring out what to tell us.  It wasn't too hectic since most have been through many, but it was a bit scattered crazy!  The earthquake was said to have been a 5.8 and others say a 5.4.  The strongest in 10 years!   It was felt all the way to Las Vegas and Mexico!  And the big one is planned on hitting within 30 years.   I'll be gone by then hopefully!  (the last big one lasted 3 minutes!)

Here's where the story gets worse.  I MISSED A SCHEDULED SUSHI LUNCH!!! A friend and I planned awhile back to eat sushi for lunch today since we are both sushi whores!  Both of us aren't natives and were too freaked out to walk the block and a half to get there worried of the possibility of an aftershock mid walk over.  I also refrained from using the potty in fear of being alone for an aftershock and not knowing what the heck to do!

So, hours later, after much research, and tending to worried friends and family I get back to work and BAM we lose power.  So, the entire building starts to goof off and an hour later we were dismissed.  Today was kinda scary but quite the experience.  I'd have to say that though it was startling, it wasn't too bad.  You just never know how long they will last and how strong they will be.  In fact, we can have aftershocks for the following week!  Usually, we won't feel them, but in the past the "first one" could be a pre-quake.  

All in all, I'm getting the full California experience.  This was the biggest fear I had coming out here and I had hoped to be out before any hit, but LA had other plans for me!  All I have to say is damn that quake for ruining what was going to be an orgasmic lunch!  I'll be taking the stairs from now on...nooooo elevators for this girl!

We're #1...again!

This just in...

UF is named #1 party school by the Princeton Review! Add that the list of national titles! :)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5911816.html

Whoa! New Facebook Design!

For all you Facebook book addicts (don't look around, I'm talking to you). Facebook, in its endeavor to stay at the cusp of the digital world and social networking, has developed a redesign. Even as a cynic, I like it.



To check it out, log in as usual. Then point your browser to new.facebook.com

This is Legal Tender Alright!

So I was surfing YouTube like always, and came across these hidden camera pranks where the guy tries to pay for all kinds of purchases with pennies in NYC. The reactions are priceless. Enjoy.

Ponder this over a beer (or two)

Ok, I've left a lot of videos for you to watch in this post. There may be more things out here like this, but after coming across all of these, and forming some of my own opinions, I decided to post just based on these videos.

I'll go one by one. First, you've got the "Speed Dressing" spot for JC Penney...err...it says JC Penney in the commercial. But they never approved it. But it won a bronze at Cannes. Big backlash. JC Penney agency Saatchi & Saatchi said they didn't do it (and anyone else who's familiar w/ this story, correct me if i'm wrong), and put the blame on the production house, Epoch. Yet throughout all of this, it seems Jacques Penet has been getting an awful lot of free press. And, honestly, this spot is 14732 times better than the new campaign that they did give the OK to.

After that, there are two spots for Heineken. When they hit the web, Heineken denied any knowledge of it and claimed to have nothing to do with it. They're pretty outlandish, so of course they wouldn't want to say they were complicit in it. Many suspected that they let it go through with a blind eye to it. Turns out, despite the production quality, these were made by some students. Read the full article here, though only part of it's in English. These have had some nice viral success. Say what you will about the effectiveness of viral, but Heineken didn't spend a dime on this, and are getting free publicity out of it.

And last, a spot "from" Guinness. I could go asking around at work, but I'm sure nobody will eagerly speak up to say they did it. My guess is this is either student work or just a fan, though I could be completely wrong. Hopefully more details will come soon.











The purpose for bringing these to light is this: all of these are examples of companies' brands being used in advertising for which they didn't pay. I doubt JC Penney will agree to pay for the production that went into "Speed Dressing." Heineken had nothing to do with "Blowjob" and "Suicide." And the Guinness one was, to my knowledge at this point, done without anything to do with Diageo footing the bill.

This brings about a slough of questions, all of which I ask people to give their opinions in the comments:

Is this the beginning of a trend of more and more people creating their own "advertisements," either for schoolwork or as a hobby? The technology is easily within reach for many, many more people to do so today than ever before. Could the free publicity out of user-generated advertising result in advertisers spending less with the real agencies if this continues unabated?

On a different note, is it ok for an agency to create something against the will of or unbeknownst to the client? What if it's guaranteed to be award-winning? What if it proves more fruitful for the advertiser, via awards or publicity? What if the agency is willing to foot the bill (CP+B has been known to do that) if the client wants nothing to do with it? After all, winning a prestigious award can help an agency's reputation and bring in new business.

If you think any more questions come out of this, feel free to ask them, too.

Think We Should Take the Valentine's Day Ad Soc Fundraiser to the Next Level this year?

Someecards.com x BustedTees

When it launched back in April of last year, Someecards turned sentiment on its head with satirical salutations juxtaposed with old-fashioned artwork. Since then, it’s quietly become the procrastination tool of choice; TIME even included it in their list of top 50 websites. Their cards give voice to the mundane, taboo, and timely. Suddenly, not getting an iPhone or thinking it would be awkward if you didn’t like Heath Ledger’s performance in the Dark Knight is card-worthy.
Now, thanks to a match made in humor heaven, you can sport them offline. A new someecards line of Busted Tees includes sloganed shirts for $12 such as “If I were ever to shoot you, it would just be in the leg,” and “I have no STDs.” Conversation starters, at the very least.

T-Shirts by someecards.com

[from PSFK]

I went on the site and they have tons of new ones. Including- 'I'd love to contact you with my new iPhone but it pretty much makes the need for relationships obsolete' =)

Here's my favorite one.

Innocentive’s Open Innovation

Here's a novel idea; if you have a problem, ask everyone.

With 145,000+ Solvers in 175 Countries solving problems for 40 Industry Disciplines, Innocentive is the most brilliant idea I've seen in a while. With the backing of many wealthy research organizations, they are offering $5,000 - $1,000,000 in prizes for chosen solutions.

I hope it takes off, the world could learn a thing or two.

Here's the NYTimes feature.

Found on PSFK

Just Do It

So the 'Just Do It" campaign is celebrating its 20th year (that makes me feel old). I've always been a pretty big Nike fan, as far as some clothes and sneakers go, and their soccer advertising. I came across this powerful spot on Creativity, for the Olympics, celebrating the 'Just Do It' spirit.



The song is "All These Things That I've Done" by the Killers. It's a very interesting choice of song because it is clearly referencing war - "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier," and the Olympic committee is praying that there is no terrorism impending at the games since they decided to let China host.

But the good thing that Nike portrays in the ad is culture. It is not just about Americans, it's about all races, and all sports competing, whether it is for your team, your country, or just yourself.

Visa has been advertising their card with the campaign slogan, "Go World" also taking the worldly, instead of American approach.

Who ISN'T blogging these days?

Working in Social Media, I realize sometimes that when I start to talk about a lot of things that I do at work, I must backtrack a bit and give some explanations as not everyone is as well acquainted as I am about the internets.

The funny thing is that I have found myself explaining things like RSS feeds, blogs (oh yes, blogs) and blooean searches to people who are my age. So many people assume that someone who was raised with a computer will instantly know everything about the internet (as if everyone born after 1980 was genetically programmed to understand how to upload a YouTube video). In reality, a lot of younger people use the internet at its most basic level since they don't really have any reason to go deeper.

The internet has always had a lot of information, but only recently have we been able to utilize it and properly catalog it to the point where the information can get to the right people at the right time. A great YouTube video called Teaching the Machine demonstrates more eloquently how the 'Machine' has learned from us constantly feeding it data through clicks or mash-ups.

And yet, we add so much data to the internet every day (even if a lot of it is just a bunch of really dumb crap.) Flickr maps, Yahoo Pipes, Tweets, blogs -- the internet has evolved from a linear dialog (someone makes a web site, you view the web site) to a much more winding process (someone posts, someone reads, someone comments, someone links, someone remixes, etc.)

But, this all comes at a price: the internet isn't unlimited after all. Some even think that the internet might run out of space soon.

Oh well. I'm sure there are some things they could maybe get rid of out there?

It's Not Very Good... and PETA is Mad

So I saw this TV spot from Verizon about LG's new Dare phone. As soon as I saw it I thought, "That wasn't very good." Being a former intern on the AT&T account, I still have this innate sense to check out wireless phone advertising and size it up against whatever AT&T is doing. I can't help it. Usually I'm pretty entertained by Verizon's stuff but this one was weird.

Made by McCann Erickson, New York (Verizon's agency), this commercial shows a guy jumping a fence to retrieve his phone guarded by pitbulls. It isn't very realistic. No one I know would risk their well-being for their phone.... (well I take that back.... if my iPhone was being guarded by dogs I might try to put up a fight.) I'm not sure why they thought this positioning would work. Did they think a name like "Dare" and this type of advertising would make every dare devil, x-game enthusiast flock to their local Verizon retailer? Doesn't make much sense. Not very edgy or cool.

Now, a couple weeks after seeing the spot, I see this article on Ad Age: "Verizon Pit-Bull Ad Unleashes Flurry of Complaints." Apparently not only do I not care for it, but PETA, the ASPCA and dozens of pet-related websites, have posted petitions and message boards on the Web protesting the ad with slogans like "Can They Hear Us Now?" Clever.

These pet-friendly organizations are mad becasue these commercials depict that it is ok to chain dogs and to have guard dogs. "Pit bulls are not guard dogs and they were never meant to be guard dogs," Mary Harwelik, founder of The Real Pit Bull (an advocacy organization). Then the article gets into Michael Vick's dog-fighting debacle.

To check out the full article on Ad Age click here.

Even though they are gettiing criticism, Verizon isn't going to pull the spot. Apparently these ads were "designed to be over-the-top, to break through the clutter and get the message across." Whatever that message is, I don't get it.

Also related with animal cruelty, check out CREATIVITY'S TOP 5 Episode 24. If you thought Sarah McLaughlin's Humane Society commercials were bad, check out #4. These commercials kill me! Im a huge animal lover. It will make you get out of your seat and race to a shelter. Or at least you'll want to.

Still waiting to hear a definite thumbs up from Atlanta. They did tell me I'm one of the top two candidates though! I'll know by the end of the week. The suspense is killing me! Agh.

Jfran