Still in the process of working with my subvertisement, but I just wanted to post an advertisement that caught my attention. It stood out among all the other advertisements placed on Dundas Square.


















It's pretty neat. A ladder going down, making it look like someone climbed down the ladder to take a drink out of the glass bottle of Coke.

PeMA Take Two

I changed'er slightly. I had it saved as a pdf so this is a cropped screen capture.

Katrina

I settled on doing the World of Warcraft subvertisement, but I unfortunately have yet to get it done because I had another essay that was due today and a presentation that was yesterday.

Luckily, extensions were given to me until Friday night. There is a 1% deduction for every late day, I think? I'll double check that.

Seems as if today's the last day of class for this course. I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed the course and its content. There should be more courses like this available in the university.

Schiavi del Lusso

... here is my final remix ad. The headline reads "Slaves of Luxury", which accurately describes the conditions faced by the workers manufacturing luxury goods, and is also a subversion of the Marchesa name, which means noblewoman.

(My essay is on unethical labor practices in the luxury goods industry.)

I'm in Paris (working).
I went to Nanterre yesterday, where the May 1968 events began. Didn't find any inspiration for my paper though.
Flying back tonight, hopefully I can find inspiration for my paper on the plane ... eek.
-Kelly

Revision for Subvertisement

I am still totally stumped on redoing my subvertisement. I should be able to figure it out tonight though for sure, I seriously do not have enough time to be slacking off on this thing. The first subvertisement didn't go that well; it just did not have enough depth in it. It was simply a naked woman with oranges as breasts. That's all it was, plain and simple. Can't get anywhere with that kind of ad, especially when you have to write an 8-10 page essay on it.

I came up with two ideas. The first idea is with the video game, Warcraft.
What I planned to do is have the logo and image of the fictional Warcraft character. It was the game of the year back then, but instead of having the "Game of the Year" words on the box of the game, I would replace it with "Drug of the Year" or replace it altogether and put "It'll Fuck up Your Life" or something along those lines.
The second idea involves the Honda Civic vehicle.
The car has become notoriously infamous for having the reputation of being the most stolen car in North America. I want to think of something that would make fun of this product. Currently, I'm thinking of an image a Honda Civic without a door on the drivers side. Or possibly an image of a person in the process of breaking into the car.

Wish me luck. I wish myself luck, this is going to be toughhh.

By the way, great post about us complaining regarding our daily endeavors, Katrina. It kind of set me in a more appreciative mood after I read that. However, we're humans and we always have to find something to complain about. Nothing can be perfect in our lives.

Animals and Humans

I just finished reading an article for our final essay, and the different theories regarding the moral treatment of animals are really interesting. I think one of the things that is frustrating me about my topic is that the theories used for the discourse about whether vegetarianism as morally correct treatment of animals all kind of contradict themselves. For example, from a utilitarian perspective the article talks about how not killing animals, if the purpose would simply be for taste, is moral because it would allow for more utility than killing them. However, it also argues, that between a dog dying and a human dying, a human should be the one who lives because of the greater amount of utility. However, this is all reasoning from the perspective of humans because I am sure dogs would consider a living dog and a dead human to be of greater utility.

I don't know. I am of the opinion that humans are exceptional beings. And furthermore, that humans are meant to eat meat (just like other animals are meant to eat meat). I guess if people are going argue on behalf of the animals, I would like an example of a theory the consideration of animals equal to humans, but I still haven't seen one that doesn't demonstrate within itself that humans have greater entitlement.

I'm not anti-vegetarian, I'm just not vegetarian. If you have thoughts on this please comment. I like know other opinions.

That's interesting about the the vicious business cycle. It's kind of like you're saying it's all about perspective. I was just talking to someone about how the main things I complain about these days are schoolwork and missing my boyfriend who lives 2 1/2 hours away. So really, I only complain about struggles that result from being privileged. A statistic I've heard is that if you attain a university degree you are part of the "top 1%" of the world. On top of that, we go to the best university in Canada according to Maclean's. Having a boyfriend isn't that bad either - I would rather have him in my life than not. So really, who am I to complain, that the things that make my life better don't make my life perfect? I am not in the sex trade or starving, etc.

I think the vicious cycle actually has a lot to do with humans believing they are entitled to the things they want! If we don't get what we want we complain and work to get that, and when what we wanted isn't perfect we complain even more. Humans need to find satisfaction in things other than wants, and think less of their desires for more.

Also, in regards to your blurb about exploitation, I just wanted to make a comment about slaves and masters. I agree that the slave trade (the British or American one) was awful. Clear examples of disregarding the value of a human. But even within slave-master relationships there this does not have to be the case. Although understanding the value of a human will probably lead people to release slaves. When a slave is bound to a master, perhaps because the slave owes a debt he/she cannot pay, a master can treat a slave respectfully while he/she fulfills the duties of a slave. And a slave can respect a master as a caring employer. This is actually discussed in the Bible (Ephesians 5). My point in saying this is that it is not the nature of a relationship that dictates how we treat people. Individuals decide whether they want to take advantage of other people. In my opinion, the only way to correct individuals is to correct their individual attitudes, not change societal structure. I think one problem that people run into when they try to change the world is they underestimate how much change needs to start internally.

figure this

I've got this stuff down
(Randy Harris tried to kill me with it last term, unsuccessfully)
Maybe I will get better than a 1 on the quiz this week? ha.

Chalking in Toronto

Cossette chalks one up for Santa Claus

November 14, 2008 | Marketing Magazine

Torontonians have reserved seating along the city’s sidewalks when Santa Claus comes to town this Sunday, thanks to a chalk art campaign from Cossette Communication-Marketing.

The agency took to the sidewalks in anticipation of the city’s annual Santa Claus Parade, placing chalk outlines of lawnchairs and the message, “Lawnchair Parking Only,” at key points along the parade route.

The agency wanted to do something that was more intrusive than traditional media, said Dave Douglass, creative director at Cossette.

“There are a lot of people in the neighbourhood that walk that way [the parade route] every day...so we were trying to get people where they live,” he said.

The campaign is supported by wild postings in high-traffic areas along the parade route. The Santa Claus Parade ads show a glass of milk and cookies on a city sidewalk, a stocking draped over a bicycle parking space and a poster with the headline: “He sees you when you’re cheering.”

“The Santa Claus Parade is a great Toronto tradition that comes alive on the city’s downtown streets, so it seemed appropriate to use those same streets as a medium to promote the event,” added the campaign’s art director, Josh Day, in a release.

A viscious business cycle

by Kelly McGregor

The dispersion of wealth around the world has, obviously, created a great segregation of the social classes. The beginnings of a revolution are underway in the U.S., but this won't have the global impact needed to reform Chinese labor practices.

However, it's important to ask - is having a job, even if it is a grossly underpaid job in poor working conditions, better than having no job at all? Is having a leaky roof overhead better than having no roof at all? Perhaps the working conditions are horrendous compared to the state-of-the-art computing technology I am using as I gaze out my office window over a little man-made lake, but perhaps their job conditions are better than the alternatives available to them?

Every nation started somewhere. Naomi Klein can criticize all she wants, but there was once underpaid, slave labor going on in the neighborhood where she lives (or at least says she lives at the time No Logo was published). People recognized they deserved to be treated better, rose up and fought for better and better working conditions, and eventually became so greedy that they are currently putting Detroit's Big 3 out of business.

If China (or any underdeveloped nation) can develop a compromise, building an environment that allows it's people live comfortably and happily without leading to a culture that continuously wants more, they may be able to avoid this viscous business cycle.

Unfortunately, it appears to be too late for China, as cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai move more towards a North American mentality every day. Once Chinese workers experience this inevitable movement, perhaps Nikes will next be manufactured in the deserts of Africa.

OPI Remix

After doing a bit of research, I discovered that there aren't any real dangers or negative health side effects when using nail polish so I decided to go with the approach to encourage the audience that they don't really need to use nail polish and I am trying to promote natural beauty...Let me know what you think.

PeTA/PeMA

The next is mocking PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) promotions - particularly the commercial that says "Animals are People too".

Sorry to all vegetarians in the class. I want to make fun of you guys. It was just the easiest social statement to make.

NIKE/Sweatshop

Original:








New:

This is going to be a waste of blog post space.
But.. I can't help but laugh at the photo, Kelly.

AHAHAHHAHAHA!

Anyway, here's mine. Were we not supposed to add words to our subvertisement?

Marchesa Remix

by Kelly McGregor

I have also been having difficulty applying a subverting technique to my ads ... well not so much coming up with ideas, just coming up with an idea that I am happy with.

But, here is what I have. As my original ads were very simple, using the 'say it without words' technique, i have done the same here. But I don't know how the theories we have studied really apply to this, so the essay is going to be difficult to write.

Freshly Squeezed

I came up with a few ideas to subvertise, but I couldn't get settled with one of them.
However, after more careful thinking, I came up with the conclusion that sex jokes capture people's attention. With Tropicana, I thought about the different ways in that sex can be related to orange juice, or the company itself.

It would be difficult to come up with something fresh without anything to build up on, so I took existing catch phrases that already existed from Tropicana and decided to work things from there. I took "Freshly Squeezed" as one of their catch phrases and decided to revolve a sex joke around it.

Freshly Squeezed.
Sex.

I think most of you know where I'm going with this.

Pomegrante Campaign

After completing our GRFF campaign assignment I have been keeping my eyes open for a campaign using the ambigious marketing technique but was unable to find one...until now =)

I stumbled across this article in the Globe and Mail about a website advertising a non-existent phone which eventually leads people to the website about Nova Scotia...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081110.wnsad1110/BNStory/National/home

I didn't think that a province like Nova Scotia would use this marketing style but I guess that is what makes it even more effective...and also their media coverage probably draws in even more attention to their site.

Here is a link to their site..its really neat but a little slow...check it out:
http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

Worth Jamming

On my drive back into town this evening I was listening a news radio show which was discussing the sponsorship of alcohol companies at Nascar.
The caller to the show was talking about his struggle with alcoholism and how he was disappointed at the companies like Jack Daniels who are sponsoring Nascar drivers.

He went on to discuss that tobacco companies have been banned as sponsors because of the influences on younger Nascar fans, however he pointed out that instead of tobacco sponsors, now the cars were driving around with huge logos of Jack Daniels and other alcohol companies.

After reading Klein's chapter on Cultural Jamming and also thinking about how to remix my posters, I have started to become aware of the dangers which certain advertising may have on the younger audiences. As the target market for Jack Daniel could well be the average Nascar fan...what does this brand convey to a younger boy or girl who enjoys watching the race and his/her favourite driver just so happens to be plaster with Jack Daniels....Drink Jack and Drive Real Fast!
A scarier thought for me is...what if these alchol companies are actually trying to target the younger audiences into drinking?

Any ideas?

Hey guys I find that my posters are really hard to think up a social statement for. I'm posting them for feedback. I may have to focus on a different product!

No Logo layout

by Kelly McGregor

Below is my layout for a section of Naomi Klein's No Logo. It is a two-page magazine spread.

Nike/Starbucks

I'm having problems posting images on this blog for some reason on my laptop. I'll try to post these images when I have a chance to get on another computer.

We were supposed to take a paragraph from Klein's article and make it into a design like you would see in a magazine. I chose to do a paragraph that talked about Starbucks and Nike. I'll get the image up tomorrow when I get the chance.

EyeC.ca chalking

Here's the pictures I took of our chalking efforts ...