"Coca Cola tastes different in a white can."
First things first… I, like most people, like funny ads. Old Spice just does them very well. As a genre of commercials, advertising manliness to men is like shooting fish in a barrel. I give Old Spice a 3 out of 5 for this commercial. It’s nothing special, the target is easy, but it is on brand and still funny. I approve.
Alcohol commercials are a blank canvas. The brief must have said something to the effect of, “Make a commercial that appeals to men. Must contain logo and product somewhere in the commercial.” When I first saw this, I couldn’t stop laughing; I only hold purses for two people, my mother and my grandmother. I will say, the layout of these spots are striking similar to the Bundaberg rum commercials. While the Bundaberg commercials have a far greater production value, certain elements remain the same. The elements are: A) A man B) an action that is expected to be performed C) a group of “exceptional” men by which the man is judged. The man always succeeds in the end.
-owenblk
It’s Friday. This is how I’m feelin’…
-owenblk
Great work from Leo Burnett’s Hallmark team. this encapsulates the entire process of sending a card - from writing it to receiving it; there’s joy in both. Take it from a person who’s written a lot of letters to my partner overseas.
-owenblk
Life is written in your clothes.
Stories are written in books. Life is written in your clothes. No matter how superficial people may say fashion and clothes are, they have to admit that everyone creates a personal attachment to their clothes. You may have the one hat you never leave the house without; the little black dress that fits just right when you want to feel sexy for a special occasion; the boots that make you feel awesome; those jeans that were with you every moment of your drunken night; that coat that kept you warm the night your were locked out of your apartment; the crew neck t-shirt that always winds up on your girlfriend; or the hoodie you wear when you want to just relax and go invisible. We even get frustrated with our clothes. We ask them, “Why don’t you just iron yourself?”… “Why were you playing in spaghetti?”… “You used to fit me, do you think I’m getting fat?”. Clothes have souls. Albeit not a human soul, a different kind of soul, but a soul none the less.
Red Line Jeans
It was an early Sunday morning and I was wearing my favorite and first pair of $100 jeans (I’m not gonna lie, it was a continuation of Saturday night). I fell asleep on the Red Line. When I woke up someone had had razored my left pocket and stole my wallet, leaving nothing but a gash running north to south on my pocket. “Welcome to Chicago”. I loved them so much I had my tailor restitch them with a solid red strip about an inch thick. I get more compliments on my jeans now and the only thing that’s different is a red line over the pocket. If I had to take one item to represent Chicago for me, those would be the jeans.
Deconstructed Denim
My old jeans: 5 belt loops. Two back pockets, a zipper, a leather Levi Strauss patch, red Levi’s tag, two inside pockets, four straight pieces of denim, two piece of denim that attach the zipper, 6 rivettes, stitching and one little pocket for holding money/lighters/condoms/notes/keys/etc.
Life is written in your clothes.
-owenblk
Headphones vs. Earbuds
If you listen to music, go ahead and break out your wallet for a decent set of over-the-ear headphones. Period. Listening to music with earbuds isn’t really listening at all… it’s just hearing. Sure, you can hear the lyrics and the tune, but you lose all of the latitude in your music. Earbuds will never be able to reproduce the music the way it was meant to be heard because they can’t give you any bass; you need space and air displacement to get bass, that’s why over the ear headphones are so massive.
I wear the Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD headphones ($229)… Yeah… $229 isn’t a joke, but once you actually heard the depth in your music you’ll know it’s worth it; you will rediscover all of your music over again. Not only that, when you’re on an 8 hour flight to the U.K., they drown out babies incredibly well. You don’t have to buy Beats to enjoy your music; there are much cheaper sets. I like Beats because they’re sexy, but that’s another post for another time.
There will always be a place for earbuds (i.e. gym), just don’t let them be your only portal into the world of music… especially with the production that goes into music nowadays… Just listen to this.
-owenblk
Bad Advertising.
Money. Time. Effort. It takes the same amount of each whether making a good ad or a bad one. Everyone knows when an ad sucks… you just don’t really know how bad it sucks until you’re with your family watching it during the Superbowl. Whenever I see a bad ad I think, someone spent time on market research. Someone bought the media. Another person concepted the idea. A team of account people presented the idea to the client… said client bought the work. When I see a bad ad, I know that could be me any day.
- owenblk
