CAB Grads Keep The "Planet in Focus"

Images from Slava Yedlin

If you've been in and around the Greater Toronto Area over the last month or so, you may have seen these ads for the Planet in Focus Film Festival. What makes this campaign significant to me is that it was developed by my friends and fellow Seneca Creative Advertising alumi. Much respect goes out to Slava Yedlin, Christine Porto, Victoria Morozova, Francesco Fiore, Steven Tran, Cole and "Leader of the New" Keely Powell for a great campaign and for earning the opportunity to make power moves straight out of college!

Image from Stephanie Harrison

How did they land this awesome opportunity? A few months ago, Cundari gave our class a chance to create campaigns for Planet in Focus and Slava Vodka. They put a lot of hard work into it (as did every other group assigned to Planet in Focus) but their team, known back then as BGE (Best Group Ever) wowed Cundari and the client enough to land the job.

I was proud back then for them having won the pitch and even moreso now that their all of their hard work has been realized into a full campaign. I wish them, the rest of my fellow alumni and all of the up-and-coming advertisers much success moving forward!

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Do You Enjoy The Go?

Image from Brackiswater

(I'm going to try and write this with as few toilet jokes as possible)

If you're looking for your first or next corporate blogging gig, Charmin might have the job for you. Well, Charmin is looking for people to handle their business while you "handle your business" (sorry, I couldn't help it). They're looking for 5 bloggers to staff Times Square bathrooms and blog about it. Tryouts for this position are at the New York Hilton at 53rd Street and 6th Avenue. If you're planning on doing it, don't forget to bring your resume, a photo as well as an explanation for why you "enjoy the go".

As bizarre as this may seem, I think it would be hilarious to have this on your resume. It also pays handsomely. At $10,000 for 5 weeks of work, that's almost an insane amount of money to for the work they're asking you to do. If you're planning on going for this, good luck!


Original story from Ad Age

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Warfare In Your Hand

Hitting the Internet today from John Mayer is the world's first augmented reality music video. While most of the augmented reality experiences I have tried out don't really expand beyond short animations, this one depicts John Mayer performing the entire song with video elements and changing backgrounds. Check it out HERE.

The idea of an augmented reality music video is really cool. As a final product, it does demonstrate some potential for the future if augmented reality, but not without highlighting a few of the technology's current weaknesses.

I think due to limitations of the technology, it doesn't look all that great visually. Usually these executions feature only animated 3D renderings. Because they used video, John Mayer is a bit flat and pixelated. Also, there are only two fairly generic backgrounds that switch in and out. If this were an actual music video, it would be slammed for being one of the ugliest and cheesy videos of all time.

As an augmented reality piece however, it's an exciting new step and a proof of concept for something more than what it currently is. It was a weird sensation to be "holding" John Mayer in my hands. I look forward to seeing how creative minds push this technology.

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Did You Just Make Love?

I am a huge fan of Google Maps because of the many ways it can be used and integrated into other technology. Some of its uses are really convenient, such as finding the closest parking lot in your downtown core, to more voyeuristic purposes just for the heck of it.

The application I'm about to blog about definitely falls into the latter category, as I Just Made Love is well, fairly self explanatory.

Using Google Maps, a user can place a marker down on a map to indicate where they just made love, then leave a description, whether your experience was indoor or outdoor, the sexual orientation of the two involved, positions performed and a few other juicy details.

The creepy voyeur in me wants to click on every single one of these and read the details behind every hookup. That could take some time, as there are over 35,000 markers worldwide to date.

Neat idea. However, I don't see this catching on as the next big thing. I'm fairly certain that 99.9% of these markers are fake, and even then the comments people leave are pretty boring. The other major issue I see is that this could lead to some creepers using this information for who knows what.

Next time you make love, will you be dropping a marker on Google Maps?

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The End of Blogger Payola

Image from Taxpayers Against Fraud

Remember the old days of radio payola? Or heck, even the more recent days of radio payola? To this day, people still question on a regular basis the legitimacy of the songs they hear on the radio. Having worked in the radio business for a number of years, I can't say I've personally seen it happen, but heard the skeptics on a regular basis. While I haven't heard the same type of criticism and cynicism aimed towards bloggers, the Federal Trade Commission nonetheless have taken major steps towards curbing blogger Payola.

Is it too late for me to tell you how AMAZING the Sham-Wow is? I'll be right back, right after I...make a deposit :P

All jokes aside, Ad Age does a pretty good job outlining the consequences and reasoning for the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on bloggers getting paid to say nice things about products or services without full disclosure. At $11,000 per violation, that's a whole lot of money to lose as an individual blogger. However, is that enough to curb a major corporation from rolling the dice?

Nevertheless, I think it's a good move on the FTC is taking steps to curbing such shady tactics online.

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Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

While my blog has been fairly stagnant for the last little while, it's not because of a lack of effort. Okay, I probably could put in a bit more effort, but I've been busy with a number of personal and professional projects, such as the book I'm putting together for myself, working on career stuff and...being a rock star?

I have mentioned in the past that I dabbled in music. In my free time over these last few weeks, I've decided to learn the bass guitar. I'm having a lot of fun with it and even performed live at my local street party. Anybody looking for a drummer or bassist for next year's Battle of the Ad Bands in New York?

My other big "excuse" for not updating as frequently as I used to is, I've been busy getting career stuff together. In fact, I got a new job and am officially starting Monday! I'm really excited for a chance to live the dream of aspiring ad people everywhere.

If you still follow my blog, thank you for your support! I'll do my best in the coming weeks to make it up to you!

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