Tangents

So, after bloggywogging my way through 3rd year of Creative Advertising at Lincoln, I have now been back home in Scotland for a whole month! Hope you're not feeling too neglected, and actually quite a lot has happened!

Firstly, I got a 2:1 as my final grade which I was very happy with! I think a little bit of extra grind at the end bumped me up as I'd been climbing the 2:2 ranks throughout the year, also helped by my dissertation.

And then, well, it all changed! I was offered a job working for my dad in his PR business, which for now is just great. It's also useful to feel stable, as I have the life-changing experience of giving birth to my first child to look forward to in the new year!

While I have been less concerned with my Advertising work in the last month, I do intend to continue updating my book (before I forget all the wonderful lessons Lincoln taught me!) and when finances, life, and everything are a bit more stable I will still get out there and try for a few placements!

Till then, it's learning how to be a good mummy!

Ruby

Ad Life Lesson No.1 - The importance of context.

The End

Uni's done!

Wow. Well. It's all been a bit hectic really, so sorry for my lack of posting.

You can get a quick tour of the last few months here and I will catch you all up in not-too-long (say, after D&AD New Blood).

Oh yes, come see myself and many fellow lincoln 2010 graduates at New Blood, Truman Brewery, Brick Lane LDN from Thursday 24th- Mon 28th!


Rubes x

Scandals of the Near Future.

1. Goldengate. The price of gold will drop after it is revealed that a sensible MP is rarer and therefore more valuable. MPs will start to vanish from the streets and reappear in ransom videos by Somalian drug lords. No-one will pay the ransom.

2. Kissinggate. A top BNP consultant will get caught kissing a picture of Hitler. They will say they dropped grilled cheese and were trying to eat it off. No-one will believe them.

3. Garethgate. Gareth will say something stupid and everyone will be outraged, for at least 5 minutes.

4. Margate. Someone will notice that Mars Bars have been slowly shrinking over the last 10 years, even as their price increases. A riot will be held in front of Mars HQ and the CEO will throw himself from a window.

5. Colgate. A Spanish man will arrive outside an international airport. He will find that in his luggage is a cabbage he didn't know he had. The police will discover a bomb inside the cabbage and will order the entire crop of Spanish cols be culled.

6. Agrigate. Farmers will riot after they are told they must provide beehives on their farm. The mess will be solved by a small girl who teaches the farmers how 'bees are people too' and they should care for them, otherwise they're fucked out of a job because nothing will grow.

7. Gategate. Some prick in the government will decide it's time the Scottish right-of-way laws are revoked. All gates will be forced to wear a yellow star to depict that they are no longer open to the public. In protest, rather than remove the stars, people will steal the gates and burn them in the dead of night.


Rubes x

*heart*

Noel is like a puppy. Phil is like Santa. Both infinitely loveable! *hearts*

Rubes x

Leonard doesn't do Advertising...

Many people have told me recently, and in the past, that Leonard Cohen is a God amongst writers. Maybe it's a student thing, or you know, parents passing on their student wisdom of the ages...

So off I went and picked up a book, Beautiful Losers, "...A religio-sexual epic of incomparable beauty," according to the back cover. Actually, it was on my bookcase with a marker in it. And since the marker was a bank statement of mine from 2005, I guess I already tried to read it, forgot, and now must begin again.

Not sure I understand much more of it than I did at 17... in fact I'm probably slightly more offended by it. Drug-addled ravings of someone clearly so in love with hating himself that he got famous from it. There's barely a plot. It seems like three books, which accidentally got shuffled together with a few odd diary pages and ramblings. It's not a real story! Ok, I'm sure it was 'groundbreaking' style back in the 60s. It should have stayed there.

Sorry Cohen fans... perhaps that's a bit harsh. I mean, how many books have I written? Yeah, none. So I can't talk really! And perhaps it's just this one book. Or even just the first half of it. I did feel like throwing it from a car window. But he does have a way with words, and so I persevere. After all, I read The Silmarillion. No way is a mere 239 pages of self-appreciating emo wank going to stop me.

And this passage in particular caught my eye. Because in reading it, just about every emotion I've ever had reading a book, came out. I hated the metaphors used in it. But I loved the idea that is expressed by them. I thought it was both true and false. It repulsed me. It made me laugh. It repulsed me that it made me laugh. It made me roll my eyes - Oh come on! It made me hate something that I normally love. It made me think he was even more in love with his own cleverness, but equally, maybe he deserved to be. And now, I'm not really sure what to think. About anything. But I do quite like his flair for making the ordinary sound so dramatic. How many people have said advertising is a bad influence on children? How many have said it like this?

From Beautiful Losers (1966) by Leonard Cohen.

Help!

Four men followed Edith. Damn every one of them. I can't blame them. The village was behind them, filled with families and business. These men had watched her for years. French Canadian schoolbooks do not encourage respect for the Indians. Some part of the Canadian Catholic mind is not certain of the Church's victory over the Medicine Man. No wonder the forests of Quebec are mutilated and sold to America. Magic trees sawed with a crucifix. Murder the saplings. Bittersweet is the cunt of a thirteen-year-old. O Tongue of the Nation! Why don't you speak for yourself. Can't you see what is behind all this teen-age advertising? Is it only money? What does 'wooing the teen-age market' really mean? Eh? Look at all the thirteen-year-old legs on the floor spread in front of the tv screen. Its it only to sell them cereals and cosmetics? Madison Avenue is thronged with hummingbirds who want to drink from those barely haired crevices. Woo them, woo them, suited writers of commercial poems. Dying America wants a thirteen-year-old Absihag to warm its bed. Men who shave want little girls to ravish but sell them high heels instead. The sexual Hit Parade is written by fathers who shave. O suffering child-lust offices of the business world, I feel your blue-balled pain everywhere! There is a thirteen-year-old blonde lying on the back seat of a parked car, one nyloned toe playing with the armrest ashtray, the other foot on the rich interior carpet, dimples on her cheeks and only a hint of innocent acne, and her garter belt is correctly uncomfortable: far away roam the moon and a few police flashlights: her Beethoven panties are damp from the Prom. She alone of all the world believes that fucking is holy, dirty, and beautiful. And who is this making his way through the bushes? It is her Chemistry Teacher, who smiled all night as she danced with the football star because it is the foam rubber of his car that she lies dreaming upon. Charity begins alone, F. used to say. Many long nights have taught me that the Chemistry Teacher is not merely a sneak. He loves youth truly. Advertising courts lovely things. Nobody wants to make life hell. In the hardest hard sell exists a thirsty love-torn hummingbird.

Noooo not the Butterflies!!

Quite a fun wee stunt for Qualcomm.


Only trouble is, you have to have a brain cell or two to get that they're 
advertising some snazzy new kind of screen. I'm not sure how many of
the people who watch it will have those brain cells. It could turn out to
be another thing that advertising folks love and no-one else gets. 


But still it's quite funny!

8 weeks to go!

As a single (loner, loser, hermit, whatever) on our course I get to choose 7 out of 11 of our briefs to have in my final show book. (Haha, the teams have to supply everything!) Add some bits from competitions and it comes to a total 13. This is supposedly to help me keep up to date with how I'm progressing... And you guys too of course. Will tick them off as I go along.

Also, as I finish them, I will add them to my online portfolio for your delectation. (Apart from competition work, the rules won't let me. At least not until the judging process is over.)

1.Cow & Gate - redo entirely. Done.****

2. Heinz Twisted Fiery Chilli Ketchup - done.****

3. Non-word Lager - done done done already. (Well, as much as it ever will be.)****

4. Mr. Sheen - done. ****

5. Pantene - done. **** maybe TV ads to go with... let's see how much time I have! Done. ****

6. GOLD - ditched.

7. St. Marks - ditched.

8. Play.com - Hmm. Possibly redo. Computerise. REDO. Done.****

9. Harry Ramsden's - done. ****

10. Get kids to eat their 5 Fruit and Veg a day - ditched.

11. Heinz Beanz and pork sausages - ditched.

12. D&AD - done.****

13. YCN Feel Good Drinks - done.****

14. YCN Why Let Drink Decide - done. possibly expand media.

15. Superbrief Thursday 1 of 4 briefs - Betfred is... Ok i suppose :/

16. 2000 word essay on engaging with the industry - nearly done. Done.****

17. Self-Promo video - (OH FUCK. Just ignore it till it goes away. Ok, not really, I'll get on with that too.) refine concept, storyboard, shoot and edit. Nearly Done.

I really have quite a lot to do. See you on the other side...
As a graduate! Woopa!

Rubes x

Passive Aggressive

Maybe I'm a little late catching on to things. I've heard of the book, but had no idea there was also a blog for Passive Aggressive Notes!

I (heart) This site. Possibly because I too am a touch PA. Possibly just cos its frick'en hilarious!

Ok, the last one I actually stole from someone's Twitter feed (it was around SXSW, whatever that is...)

But I think it fits pretty well into passive-aggressiveness.

Enjoy :)
Rubes x

Well Red Bull definitely know their audience...

Awesome. The Bull man is going to deliver me (and my neighbours, unless I get there first mwahaha) Red Bull! Like a Milkman! But with Caffieeeeeeene!

I LOVE original DM solutions. I LOVE the timing on this. I am so in need of Red Bull right now. They totally knew that. Red Bull loves me back! And so I love it even more. Great technique from the kings who give you wings.

Envelope front cover: Intriguing and yet clearly Red Bull (Oops. Photo cut off the can shot and 'Red Bull Gives You Wiiings' line in bottom right corner). Good enough reason to open it, without the inviting heavy/off-centre weight of whatever's inside.

Retrieved from inside and built in 2 seconds, ready to return to the doorstep: A little milk-bottle-holder. But for Red Bull. Shweeeeeet.

And Step 3: some instructions on how to (I assume) get some free Red Bull goodies!

My only slight upset is that they seem to think they can replace tea. Well, sorry Red Bull, that just ain't gonna happen!

Will update you all tomorrow on what my goodies are!

Rubes x