*AmongMany

I don’t usually get too caught up in industry events and awards, but this time it’s for a teacher who helped shape my career. (And it doesn’t hurt that I have work being displayed either.) The Art Directors Club is celebrating the second year of its Grandmasters awards by distinguishing four professors who have helped to shape the newcomers to our industry over the years. The four people being honored this year are:

Deborah Morrison, University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications
Tom Ockerse, Rhode Island School of Design
Hank Richardson, The Portfolio Center
Ron Seichrist, Miami Ad School

Each professor asked a few of their former students (I had Deb Morrison at UT Austin before she moved on to Oregon) to submit samples of their professional work to be displayed at the ADC gallery. I was fortunate enough to be asked by Deb to include a bit of my work in support of her teachings. If you make it to the opening, keep an eye out for the truTV work from POKE NY.

The award presentation and reception is being held on Monday, November 16 from 6-8pm at the ADC.

Learning new vocabulary terms is important for all of us. I mean, how else could we possibly maintain an eloquent repertoire of colloquialisms to share with our brethren during times of conversational bonding? But - as we all recall from out S.A.T. days, learning new vocabulary terms is also one of the more boring things we can dedicate our time to. Or at least it was until now. There’s a new site in town that’s aiming to change that: TheFuckingWordOfTheDay.com.

They take the same lofty words that you’d want to learn elsewhere, and put them in a context that will stick with the perverted, raunchy sense of humor that we’ve all grown accustomed to maintaining these days (after all, is “fuck” really that offensive anymore?). Here’s a perfect example in their own words:

Let’s say you’re trying to learn the word assiduous.

Here’s the example sentence that dictionary.com gives:

But he was a man who by assiduous reading, through his devotion to literature, had become the quintessential successful gentleman, a man who could hold his own with the most cultivated companions.

and here’s The Fucking Word of the Day’s:

He was crippled by her assiduous dedication to the blow-job she was performing on him.

Now, which one do you think you’ll remember in ten minutes?

Summertime’s fast approaching, and we all know what that means…time for all the agencies to hunt down free labor (*cough – I mean interns - *cough). If you’re a student or a fresh-outa-schooler and you’re lookin’ to get your hands dirty with some work that will catapault your brain (and your book) forward, then look no further! We’ve got some kick-ass ideas that we’re looking for help creating, as well as some awesome clients who we’ve convinced to do fun stuff!

What we’re not: your usual, microsite/banner shop that crunches everything through the conveyor belts and pops it out the other side with no thought. What we are: a small, smart, nimble, digitally savvy crew who love to make the world of the interwebs a better place to live and breathe. Sound like something that’s up your alley? Check out the detailz at PokeNewYork.com!

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to most simply as Dr. Seuss, was born on March 2, 1904 (and, unfortunately, passed away on September 21, 1991). In honor of his work, March 2nd is being celebrated as Read Across America Day - or more simply put, Dr. Seuss Day!

The National Education Association annually sponsors Read Across America. Now in its twelfth year, the program focuses on motivating children to read, in addition to helping them master basic skills. The nationwide reading celebration takes place each year on or near March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

One of my personal favorite authors - I still have my collection of Dr. Seuss books that was painstakingly collected by my mother as I was growing up - I’ve been known to spout random quotes from a few choice works.

If you want to learn more about Dr. Seuss, check out his Wikipedia entry. And have a look at all the chatter on Twitter today!

I’ve “borrowed” this image from the blog of Deborah Morrison, one of two who inspired me during my education into this crazy business. When I had her as a professor/coach/creative coaxer, Deb was the head of the advertising program at UT Austin. Ever-inspiring, she had an inane-yet-profound statement that always served to put things into perspective for me. Perhaps the one that stands out the most to me, not because it was life-changing or even game-changing, but rather because it hearkened back to everything that I’d learned as an acting student throughout my undergraduate studies, was:

It’s not about what it’s about.

You’d be amazed at the parallels that one can draw between preparing a character for the stage and trying to create an ad if you have the right kind of leadership coercing you to be creative. Deborah has since moved on to head the ad program at the University of Oregon (if any of you Oregon students happen upon this, take advantage of every moment you spend in a classroom with Deb!).

The reason I’ve grabbed this particular photo is the title at the top of the board. See, when I was a student of Deborah’s, the discussion still revolved around “Art Directors” and “Copywriters” forming creative teams to make things happen. It was a mentality that I wasn’t in a place to argue with at the time, despite continually questioning the dynamic and my place within it. See, I spent my entire “ad school career” bouncing between the two (or covering both aspects for various projects). So I was both surprised and delighted to note that her current classroom discussions are taking into account something further, especially given that part of my current title (if you force someone to name one, and depending who you ask) is “creative strategist” - a role that I like to describe as encompassing the most fun parts the old “creative team” dynamic.

So bravo for keeping things forward-facing Deb! Your students are lucky - hopefully they realize it early enough to take full advantage!

Just beyond awesome! The potential for education (and toys) is sitting right there at your fingertips!

From TED:

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables — cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Learn more at David’s site.

Well first of all, obviously here at *AmongMany we do care, a little. I was asked to look into this Motrin Mom’s debacle after seeing the ad on youTube. I read the comments, I watched the responses, I look at the twitter backlash, the websites devoted to slandering Motring, and the Motrin Response Apology:

And what’s my take on this all? Am I personally offended? No. Do I think Motrin deserves to be boycotted for making this ad? No. Do I find it distasteful? Eh, no. And that led me to think… who made this ad? How did it get greenlit. I know I have tried to do much more distasteful things and was met time and time again with –’ but we might offend old people,’ ‘what about all the people who are bowlegged,’ ‘but some people are afraid of pigeons.’

Anyway this train of thought led me to wonder, who made this ad?
Some would argue, there is no way this ad was made by a mother. Maybe the person was young, and thought they were being clever. Or maybe some man, who hated how his wife was always wearing the stupid sling and complaining about her back, sent his wife to go see a chiropracter, who she fell in love with and then subsequently left him, wrote the ad. Who knows. But more importantly:

Can you tell if an ad is made by a man or a woman?

Remember this pregnancy test ad?

I remember the first time I saw it I thought, there is NO WAY that ad was created by a woman. I could envision two dudes, sitting in their office being handed this pregnancy testing brief and freaking out. They would begin by exchanging stories about girls they were with, and then they’d focus back down on the brief. They’d read all these impressive stats on the accuracy of the test and then they’d learn you PEE on it. They’d chuckle and then BAM. Technology you pee on, an ad is born, with a man stamp of approval.

A few weeks ago I came across this site called GenderAnalyzer.

It claims to have the ability to analyze your website using the text-classifier uClassify that “has been trained on 2000 blogs written by men and women.”

When I had it scan my personal blog, it predicted I was a man. FAIL.

I had a friend in school who claimed he could always tell the gender. Sweet, sensitive, hand-written, borderline-kinda-maybe funny — it was by a girl. He was a jerk (chicks do love hand-written type).

So back to this Motrin ad. Who made it? Could a female be as insensitive as the blogs make them out to be? Wouldn’t she recognize with all her maternal instinct that holding a baby in a trendy sling was meant to increase the bond between mother & child and look trendy at the same time? I don’t know. When I watch the ad I don’t hear a woman the same way I do when I hear Kashi ads.

What do you think? Can you tell the gender of an ad?

One of my favorite writers is Paul Arden, author of Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite and It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be. The books challenge everything, from ideas to thinking, and are the most inspirational pieces of literature I have ever read. I have read hundreds, maybe even thousands of blogs, but it wasn’t until I came across Dave Trott’s Blog that I was immediately reminded of the late Paul Arden. Dave Trott, CD at CST Advertising, fills the void left after Mr. Arden’s passing with his unique anecdotes and advice for young up and comers in the industry. I recommend anyone clamoring for some daily inspiration or words of wisdom to bookmark or subscribe to the blog.

In my first post I mentioned a few good reads that included ihaveanidea or American Copywriter. Additionally, don’t forget to take a glance at Ad Age, AdWeek, or Creativity Online, especially when it comes to the interactive front of advertising. Lastly, anyone interested in a more in-depth analysis about the business and ideas, I recommend reading the books Ogilvy on Advertising, Purple Cow, Hey Whipple, Squeeze This or anything by George Lois. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to stay relevant and keep up with popular culture, read the Gawkers, Perez Hiltons, and a gem I recently came upon, Magnificent Bastard. And watch Saturday Night Live, it’s pure hilarity.

I had originally planned to write my first post on Brands Among Many about college advertising curriculum and their lack of professional resources. I emphasized how colleges are out of touch and a 4.0 GPA coupled with leadership positions doesn’t guarantee you anything on the creative side of advertising and by anything, I mean a job. I also pointed out that there are vast differences between a business or engineering major and an advertising major.

In advertising, agencies don’t seek out interns, which explain why out of the hundreds of companies at a career fair you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single ad agency present. In addition, most of the advertising internships are unpaid- other majors wouldn’t even think of an unpaid internship. Lastly, schools offer loads of professional resources to help prepare students for every major, that is, except advertising. We have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into and truth be told, the college chapter of AAF only prepares us so much.

Aside from all these pitfalls, colleges offer an experience essential for art directors and writers. In the midst of homework or studying, I often hear students ask, “When will I use this in life?”  If you’re a political science or english major, you’ll probably never need math. If you’re a business major, you’ll probably never need science. And if you’re an engineering major, you’ll probably never need humanities. In advertising, a well-rounded college education creates not only a large wealth of knowledge, but life changing experiences you can pull from when creating a campaign.

To excel in this industry, the best thing a college student can do is live it up. Go out to party on a Tuesday to see what type of people actually party on a Tuesday. Meet international exchange students and try things that wouldn’t normally interest you like a root beer pong tournament hosted by the fundamentalist Christians. Try that weird Korean restaurant named, Emo’s and go to the obscure foreign film playing down the road. Break rules, do illegal things, (I’m talking about stealing a road sign or something, not exposing your genitals) and play Edward Fortyhands. Take an astrology class, a yoga class, and attempt to take a chemistry class. I hate to sound like I’m preaching here, but step outside your comfort zone.

All this stuff is going to be beneficial. Heck, you can write about your cool experiences in your resume or portfolio. Anything to show you have been around the block gives you a leg up, plus it doesn’t even have to be advertising related. As long as you present your experiences in a creative way that shows off some chops, you’ve got a piece for your portfolio. These experiences will be essential when you’re interviewing and when you have to relate to the, oh so important, target market. It may even help you land a job with W + K via WK 12, an experiment disguised as an ad school, which recently accepted twelve grad students based on their unique experiences and backgrounds, not necessarily their skills. If all else fails and none of that helps you, at least you have a bunch of cool stories to tell people while you bag their groceries.

I kid, of course, so here are some pieces of advice to keep in mind if you find yourself at any generic university as an advertising major:

• Read advertising blogs. ihaveanidea, adfreak, and American Copywriter are all good starting points
• See what kind of ads are out there at Creativity-Online or Ads of the World
• If you’re a writer- write! You’re life should consist of writing, reading, and watching movies all the time. Learn how people communicate.
• If you’re an artist, draw/paint/sketch/sculpt all the time.
• Want an internship? Send out letters/e-mails to ad agencies. Attach your art work, writing samples, or resume. Tell them who you are and why you would benefit the agency. If they don’t respond, call them up, ask to speak to the creative director (figure out his or her name first!) and give them the lowdown.
• If you’re new to the ad world, check if your school has an AAF chapter or see if your school has any professors who worked or work in the industry.  Ask to meet with them and pick their brain.
• Take any advice at your own discretion. When it comes to this business, there are no right and wrongs. I do think, however, it’s essential to practice art direction or writing, otherwise it’s a free for all.
• As I have said before- do cool shit and write or draw about it and if it’s awesome put it in your portfolio. Then, when someone takes the time to look at your work and asks about it, you will have a great story to tell.
• Lastly, remember advertising isn’t like any other industry. If you end up getting an M.I.P. don’t plead innocent and have to deal with random breathalyzer tests for three months, probation for a year, and expensive tickets. Just take the guilty charge, pay the ticket, and continue to party like it never happened. As far as I’m concerned, if an agency won’t hire me because I have an M.I.P. (not saying I do) on my record, I don’t want to work there.
• For more information, make the jump and watch.