HAAS PARTY

How to put your book together and hopefully not fail out of advertising school

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:41:00 +0000

I'm just finishing up my first portfolio for school, it's due on Thursday. We've been told in our class that the first portfolio is always garbage, and when I look at mine I sort of feel that way.

I feel good about the fact that I can see that some of my ads aren't very good, but I'm troubled by the fact that I can't quite make them work. It hasn't quite clicked yet.

My semester's over on Friday. I might put up some of what ends up in my portfolio then.

Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:39:00 +0000

"The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it's corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I'll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no's you've said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say."

"Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy."

--Dave Eggers, from an interview.

About the second quote, that is not how I personally feel about music/movie/art/theatre/et cetera critics in general, it is only a perfect description of my own reasons for not wanting to be a critic anymore.

For very good examples of intelligent, thoughtful criticism, I suggest you read my friend Michael Hingston's reviews.

Haas Radio

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Preoccupied

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:44:00 +0000

We're entering our last two and a half weeks of the first semester, so I've been pretty busy for a while now. Yeah. Don't have much more to say about that. Clearly I should be a copywriter.

Here's an old photo instead of a yarn about advertising.

Roller coaster of love is a song

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:11:00 +0000

Our teachers frequently stress to us that advertising isn't a business for the faint of heart; you have to be able to deal with rejection. And while that's something I'm accustomed to in my personal life (*rim shot*), it's been weird to experience it day in, day out at school.

One day a teacher tells you they like a campaign you've done and you feel like you know exactly what you're doing, the next they say something as simple as "I don't get it" and then you feel like you're wasting a year of your time and thousands of dollars training for the wrong career path.

Then you have another good day and refuse to believe that you could ever fail again.

Royal Crown

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:55:00 +0000

I'm working on a campaign for RC Cola right now, and in researching the brand I stumbled upon this gem of a commercial:

Vancouver still thinks it can host the Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:08:00 +0000

I just came across this article on the CBC's website about a Vancouver couple who are trying to rent out their home for the 2010 Olympics. The story goes on to to say that thousands of people want to rent their houses but are finding no takers. Essentially, Vancouverites are asking for too much money.

I lived in Vancouver for over 4 years, and I have lost count of the amount of people who used to rag on Toronto for it being full of rude, arrogant, greedy people who are always in a hurry. (I should also like to add that a number of these complainers had never actually been to Toronto.)

While I won't argue that some Torontonians are greedy I will say that if we were to host the Olympics, we would not be clamoring to rent out our homes. We would be too busy telling people to stay the fuck out of our city.

"That's a nice thought"

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:26:00 +0000

I've been spending the majority of my time thinking over the past week or so, trying to get out of what one of our instructors, Jane, calls "the 10 hour garbage can" for a number of different campaigns.

Normally I just like to pretend that means I can spend 10 hours thinking up very dirty ideas.

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:56:00 +0000

One thing that a few of my teachers are really stressing to us is the importance of immersing yourself in culture. I'm hoping that watching Mad Men and looking at a lot of photography websites is good enough.

Speaking of the latter, Tim Barber has relaunched his Haas-recommended website Tiny Vices.

Sometimes it feels like strategizing is akin to plotting

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:57:00 +0000

I think it's a sign that I'm headed down the right career path when I am working on creating on an in depth creative work plan for an ad campaign for my class, when only the ad campaign itself was assigned.

Our teachers do tell us to write a strategy anyway, but I'm not sure the expect a 4 pager every time. I find getting into the heads of consumers pretty interesting. I guess all those years of talking to myself are finally going to pay off.

Headphones

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:27:00 +0000

I hope one day I get to work on an account for ear bud headphones, if only so I can write this tagline: "Guaranteed to not work as advertised."

This is based on my experiences of buying a pair only to discover that "sound blocking" more often means "excessive letting in of sound."

If only the store had carried my preferred brand in a colour other than teenage pink. (That's a real shade.)

Aging

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:03:00 +0000

Another photo from Heist, Belgium. Taken in June of this year.

Off-Strategy: Nike Poster

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Another from my Mac apps class.

Another Vancouver Olympic debacle before they've even started

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:48:00 +0000

The medals for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were unveiled today.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure they look like someone just backed over them with a car.

Ghastly music

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Some of you may know this already, but Ryan "Breaker High" Gosling is in a band called Dead Man's Bones and they just released a self-titled debut album with assistance from a children's choir in Los Angeles.

It's surprisingly good.

Off-Strategy: InDesign

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:35:00 +0000

One of the classes I'm taking is about learning all of the Adobe CS4 programs, and for our most recent assignment we had to make a concert poster.

Here's mine:

Quotes Out of Context: CNN

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:40:00 +0000

This evening on CNN:

"Our person of interest tonight is David Alan Grier."

"Larry King Live is up next, he's going to be talking about ground beef."

Really

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Yes mam, the Mac's cashier would obviously prefer you pay for your $2 lottery ticket with pennies as opposed to the toonie you have in your hand.

Off-Strategy: The Ads I Wish I Could Make

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:57:00 +0000

Probably the most enjoyable part of advertising is coming up with an idea for an ad. It takes a while to sort through all of the bad ideas, but sometimes there are some you know are bad but would love to use anyway.

Even if, like the one below, they make no sense and do not relate to the advertising strategy.

Where are they now?

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:13:00 +0000

Do you ever stop and wonder what ever happened to Prevail of the Canadian hip hop group Swollen Members?

Well, if for some reason you do, wonder no more:

He's posing for stock photos on Getty Images.

For the love of God, someone please buy some of their albums.

As much as I like Mad Men, Don Draper is a dick

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:41:00 +0000

At the beginning of September I started taking a post grad program in Advertising Copywriting at Humber College here in Toronto. I've been pretty busy with schoolwork so I haven't had that much time to tend to this ol' thing, but throughout the next 7-8 months of the course I plan on posting various updates about my progress.

I doubt I'll be putting up any of the ads I write, definitely not any of the ones I've done so far, but I'll try to post other things that I come across in the process.

For now I'll leave you with the Apple ad that virtually every person in advertising has a boner for:

Really

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:22:00 +0000

I feel that if you are buying 1-8 of the largest items in the grocery store, you are going against the spirit of the express checkout lane.

Liveblogging the 2009 MTV VMAs

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:36:00 +0000

8:25: I’m 25 minutes late in covering the red carpet. In other words, mere seconds ago I had a life.

8:26: Taylor Swift just gave a laugh so fake I almost stopped being creeped out by how wide her eyes are. Almost.

8:29: Judging by how nervous Justin Bieber is standing beside P. Diddy, I think he just met his first real live black person. (Usher doesn’t count.)

8:30: Whoever this douche VJ is, he just sassed some other douche off his “platform.” It’s a lose-lose situation.

8:45: Jermaine Jackson looks really happy. I wonder if him feeling that way combined with his brother being dead and him all of the sudden being back on MTV is just a coincidence.

8:46: What the fuck is Fefe Dobson doing at something associated with MTV? Isn't she Canadian.

8:50: Much Music has Devin Saltondick telling viewers we won't believe what they have planned for the Michael Jackson tribute. I'm pretty sure he is saying that because he doesn't know.

8:54: I accidentally changed the channel to an episode of Brooke Knows Best where Linda Hogan was crying. Great, now I'm going to have to do this blind.

8:55: Another guy tried to get all up in the douche VJ's shit while he was interviewing Beyonce. To be fair, the VJ wouldn't let go of her hand when she tried to walk away.

8:58: Good news guys, the other douche VJ on the red carpet just gave the award for Best Video That Should Have Won A Moonman. It was "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys. I bet Adam Yauch feels so much better now.

9:00: Madonna just walked up to the mic and said "Michael Jackson." This is a great tribute.

9:04: Wait, what? Now she's talking about a lynch mob. Is the tribute a lynching of Joe Jackson?

9:07: Oh my god, you guys, it's a bunch of no name dancers dancing to a video of "Thriller" in the background. And here I was worried that MTV hadn't put a lot of thought into this.

9:11: It looks like Janet Jackson forgot she's not supposed to lipsync to Michael's lyrics. So long as her boob still pops out I'll forgive her.

9:22: There Shakira goes again, pretending she speaks English.

9:24: Kanye West makes Taylor Swift cry and he gets booed?

9:39: Taylor Swift is really proving Kanye wrong by performing on a subway car and having her audio track delay while she lipsyncs.

9:49: It's time to play "Spot The Penis." (Lady Gaga is performing.)

9:52: See, she is a woman. That's menstrual blood she's smothering herself in.

10:03: Nellie Furtado is Spanish now? I thought she was Canadian. You can't be both.

10:05: Megan Fox just paused for applause that didn't come. I guess this audience has already seen Jennifer's Body.

10:17: Hear that? They've been working on the sequel to Twilight for months. Life must be hard for actors.

10:22: Beyonce is proving Kanye right. You know, bouncy cleavage and such.

10:30: It's getting close to my bedtime, I really hope Justin Bieber has already been tucked in.

10:51: Nothing like a tribute to a dead DJ being cut short for commercial.

11:00: Also nothing like me giving up on liveblogging this show because I'm tired and I want to go to bed.

This might have been a bad idea

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:35:00 +0000

For some reason, I decided that it would be a good idea to enter the 3-Day Novel Contest over this Labour Day weekend. It started on Midnight on Friday and ends at Midnight on Monday.

With about 29 hours left, I've written 40 pages and thousands upon thousands of words. I doubt I'm going to finish any kind of coherent story before the end, but maybe it means I'll finally be able to avoid procrastination in the future.

Wolfe Island

noreply@blogger.com (warren) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:48:00 +0000

I've been busy doing life stuff. Here are some photos I took last weekend. I used my new Lensbaby muse model.