Hope.Act.Change.

Got forwarded this amazing site (amazing because it was created in a week) from a friend who works at Syrup.

“This website is a place where people can come together to be a part of something bigger than themselves. People are able to submit their photos (and eventually videos and words) to the site and become a part of our “collective video”; a digitally rendered mosaic super-imposed on the Yes We Can Song video. This is the first in a planned series of data visualizations that will explore human collective intelligence and collaboration in an effort to bring about change – in this case, the course of American politics.

This has been an unbelievable project to say the least: a song written and  recorded by multiple major recording artists, musicians and actors in 1 day; a video concepted, shot and produced 3 days and posted to the web, garnering nearly 30 million views in one week! …and finally a bleeding-edge website conceived, designed, programmed by Syrup and posted live on the web in 1 week.”

Blah, blah, blah. Whatever. Not really into the subject matter, but the concept’s definitely different and the creative’s fabulous (wouldn’t say bleeding edge but WTF do I know).

Will Have No Trouble Finding Work

Not me, dummy. I’m having a terrible time with that. Apparently, no one needs a snarky bitch like me in their agency. I can be nice, really. Not often, but occasionally. This guy, Errol Schwartz, a senior in the New Media Design program at the Rochester Institute of Technology, will have agencies chomping at the bit to hire him. Check out his portfolio. Very nice everything. Needs a proofreader, but what good creative spells well anyway?

(via The FWA)

On The Same Wavelength

I was just thinking that I haven’t seen an article from Doug in Advertising Age in a while and one appears today (Doug..what happened to Jeff Goldblum and the dump truck??). He finally gave away the prizes for the “Can the Corporatespeak” contest – I really wanted that Red Lobster gift certificate. So while Doug was posting his article, I was sitting in a client creative presentation listening to our ECD wax poetic about his genius “ideations”. In the first 2 minutes he uttered, “engenders”, “nuances”, “lyrical form”, “richness of the human experience” and “transcendent mindset”. Please. The sad thing is the clients ate it up. Can someone get me a thesaurus for Christmas?

I’ve Got Nothing

I think I’ve lost the creative juice this week. Maybe it’s because I haven’t drank enough. In fact, I’m positive that’s it. Take a look at this annual report that a Croatian agency (Bruketa & Zinić) did for one of their clients who’s a food company. The client has to open it and bake it in the oven for the temperature sensitive ink to show up. This would never even enter my mind. Which is why I’m client-side and not creative.

 (via advertising/design goodness)

It’s All Been Done Before

As witnessed with the Sony Bravia debacle this week, most creative always has it’s roots somewhere else. And usually in another campaign. I saw this segment on Derren Brown’s show a few weeks ago (poor Saatchi guys..I feel a little bad for them), but FishNChimps has gloriously posted it. Make sure you watch until the end (it’s long..be forewarned) when Derren shows how he did it, and you’ll see how your creative is categorically influenced by your environment. Which is why everything our shop does looks like an Xbox game or AKQA’s last campaign. Kidding. Kind of.

Clients Who Don’t Listen

I really thought I’d have nothing to post about today until I got an email from Frat Boy. He says he doesn’t like the logos we did for them (they were fabulous) and they decided to make their own. I clicked to open the attachment while at the same time squeezing my eyes shut in anticipatory horror. It couldn’t have been worse. It looked like one of those airbrushed t-shirts stupid people buy at touristy beach shops. With beveling. And a drop shadow. And multi-colored gradients. HA! I’m laughing but I also want to vomit.

I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours

LOVE this site that features the creative departments of various agencies. I was just talking to one of our art directors yesterday about our upcoming office move and he was thinking of hiring a truck to move his area’s various accouterments, which include 3 unicorn posters and a collection of rubber ducks. My favorite photo on Ad To The Bone so far is the one below from Wieden + Kennedy in Portland. I wish I still had a soul to sell – I sold mine a long time ago for a ball gag and a grilled cheese sandwich.

Ouch.

Mountain Dew just shot out of my nose when I read the following email from my frat boy client:

“What is an estimated spend for a rich media banner? $150 a banner? And for a $100,000 a month in online ad spend, how many banner creatives would we need? 50? 75? 250? 500? ”

I love this guy.

I Want Candy

Need a sugar rush after the analytics meeting which I just left – BORING! All I have is a piece of Laffy Taffy in the bottom of my handbag that is half-stuck to my camera. If I could just meet a man like the one in this spot by TheMill/TBWA/Chiat/Day for Skittles, I would be a happy girl!  Very nice digital and set work.

Genius Email Advertising

I want to know who came up with this brilliant piece of spam.  I want to hire them.  I don’t know what “soft” is supposed to mean in the context of the graphic for erectile dysfunction drugs.  I mean, I think I do…

Everyone Loves A Dominatrix

I know I do. Everything in moderation. Clever ad for Terra by DDB for online parental controls.  Problem is, I was told that photo of me was going to be “private”.

(via BannerBlog)

Smack, Smack, Smack

Everybody’s talking smack today at the office and I’ve about had it – I so wish that lady down the hall would turn up her Yanni so I could calm down. I needed a same day turnaround for a comp change and the creatives basically told me they were too busy and to push back on the client. The change was this: change the words “Contest Starts 7/15/07” to “Sweepstakes Begins June 15th” and change a button from green to red. Yeah, that takes more than a day. So what did I do? I opened Illustrator and made the change myself, boarded up the comp and then got reamed by the art director for not “keeping creative with the creatives”. Eff off, jackass.

Maybe I’m not really mad. Maybe I’m having an epileptic seizure from this Audi expandable-on-rollover banner I just saw on BannerBlog. I love it though – definitely will get attention on the page. Great job by DoubleYou in Barcelona. Check out their site, too – very clever.