What is going on with TV ads these days? I realize in advertising, it's important to look for new and innovative ideas. Still, there are tried and true tricks of the trade where applicable. Repetition, a catchy jingle, even humor. But when have we entered the era of shock value? Did I miss something?
What exactly is Listerine telling me about their product when I have to watch people making idiotic faces in the mirror with their cheeks all poofed out making all sorts of gross, squishy mouth sounds?
I find it particularly disgusting when I am plopped down in front of the television eating lunch, and in mid-bite having the distinct pleasure of listening to the sounds of someone sloshing liquid around and spitting it out. It's a bit akin to eating a turkey sandwich while listening to a joke about vomit. And has anyone else seen that Dannon commercial where the woman is standing in mid-aisle slurping down yogurt because it's so "irresistible"? Another winner. I actually try and change the channel if the remote is at hand.
Don't get me wrong, I've watched enough television in my life to be far from the faint of heart (or stomach). I just don't can't wrap my head around how shock-value in the most common advertising has become so effective? After all, it must be effective, or there wouldn’t be so many companies doing it. I'd love for someone to explain to me how featuring long armpit hair sells cell phones (Boost Mobile), or how lifting up a man's noise and drinking out of his face (Mentos; ad was yanked) is supposed to help sell candy?
Oh... and to the Brita Water people: Pouring water from a pitcher into a glass isn't representative of the sound of refreshment. It mostly just sounds like peeing.
Whatever happened to selling products and services based on quality and merit? I wonder what kinds of tactics we can expect to see in the upcoming year. Maybe companies will just come straight out and threaten your family. "Eat Burger King or we'll send a creepy mascot to come to your house and scare the hell out of your children!!"
Oh, wait. I guess they're already doing that now, too.
I really need to just break down and get a DVR.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Turkey Beer Potato Pie
I'm actually really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. I have alot to be thankful for, and I have food begging me to cook it in a delicious manner and consume much of it in celebration of some jerk thinking he discovered the 'new world'. I get to spend it with friends, cook the meal in my own home with people that will come with humor, delectibles, and a hand in the kitchen - the room I have the most fun in. Well, the second room...
Cooking a Thanksgiving meal is no small chore. Particuarly if you are cooking for even a third of who will actually eat a whole turkey. Still, if you like to go all out, you need to have al kinds of munchy things all day. There's the cheeses and meats, the crackers and spread, chips and dip, veggies, dumplings, deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, whatever. All while cooking the turkey, potatos (sometimes both sweet and regular), stuffing (if stovetop), gravy, buscuits, and so on.
And of course there's drinking. That is unless you're pregnant, an alcoholic, or just plain annoying and everyone keeps trying to hide the booze from you. Yes, that would be you, Uncle Insert Name Here.
Someone had to say it.
I do enjoy cooking, but it really is alot of work. With all the advancements in technology these days, why hasnt someone invented something lazier already? An all-in-one meal of sorts. Most of us just get a plate and mix it all up anyway, right? Gravy splashed all over everything, mopping up veggie and flesh alike with pilsbury goodness... ohhh yeahhh...
Why not a turkey beer potato pie? Get the whole thing done in one shot. Smother the thing with gravy and call it a big warm bowl o' Thanks. Mmmmm! Hey, dont knock the idea - I know you've tried a hot pocket or two in your lifetime, and those things are a LIE. But this - I really wonder why no one has thought of this before.
NASA guys could be chillin' out on the space station with thier little turkey beer potato pie pills and chase it with a shot of gravy. Or some pumpkin cranberry flavored cool whip. Yeah! And while thier "comrades" are swallowing thier vokda vegemite sushki pellets with a spork, the rest will be reveling in Delicious Flavor Valley, partying it up with the Mayor of Tastytown.
I mean, regular chicken pot pies are sometimes pretty good, right? But a pie that can send you to tryptophan heaven, give you a good buzz, and have 'potato' or 'pie' even in the name - how is this a bad thing???
We could start doing this with tons of other things. Cheese ravioli spaghetti meatball lasagna. Chicken fried salsbury porkchop steak. Shrimp fried salmon sushi crab rice wontons! Or even green bean eggplant brussel sprout everything-else-I-friggin-hate macaroni cassarole.
We already have places serving horrible things mushed into "one". Pizza Hut had the I-cant-make-lasagne pizza, KFC had the chicken cheese vomit bowl, and Mc Donalds has the Mc Rib. And listen, if there are folks that delightfully consume the Mc Rib - something I am convinced is made of edible plastic polymers with pickles and sauce - then why not Turkey Beer Potato Pie?
This year, I endevor to try making a turkey beer potato pie with my leftovers to perfected by next year. If I am successful, I naturally plan to top this accomplishment with a cranberry pumpkin stuffing cream jello green bean buscuit, of course.
I dont want anyone left out.
Cooking a Thanksgiving meal is no small chore. Particuarly if you are cooking for even a third of who will actually eat a whole turkey. Still, if you like to go all out, you need to have al kinds of munchy things all day. There's the cheeses and meats, the crackers and spread, chips and dip, veggies, dumplings, deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail, whatever. All while cooking the turkey, potatos (sometimes both sweet and regular), stuffing (if stovetop), gravy, buscuits, and so on.
And of course there's drinking. That is unless you're pregnant, an alcoholic, or just plain annoying and everyone keeps trying to hide the booze from you. Yes, that would be you, Uncle Insert Name Here.
Someone had to say it.
I do enjoy cooking, but it really is alot of work. With all the advancements in technology these days, why hasnt someone invented something lazier already? An all-in-one meal of sorts. Most of us just get a plate and mix it all up anyway, right? Gravy splashed all over everything, mopping up veggie and flesh alike with pilsbury goodness... ohhh yeahhh...
Why not a turkey beer potato pie? Get the whole thing done in one shot. Smother the thing with gravy and call it a big warm bowl o' Thanks. Mmmmm! Hey, dont knock the idea - I know you've tried a hot pocket or two in your lifetime, and those things are a LIE. But this - I really wonder why no one has thought of this before.
NASA guys could be chillin' out on the space station with thier little turkey beer potato pie pills and chase it with a shot of gravy. Or some pumpkin cranberry flavored cool whip. Yeah! And while thier "comrades" are swallowing thier vokda vegemite sushki pellets with a spork, the rest will be reveling in Delicious Flavor Valley, partying it up with the Mayor of Tastytown.
I mean, regular chicken pot pies are sometimes pretty good, right? But a pie that can send you to tryptophan heaven, give you a good buzz, and have 'potato' or 'pie' even in the name - how is this a bad thing???
We could start doing this with tons of other things. Cheese ravioli spaghetti meatball lasagna. Chicken fried salsbury porkchop steak. Shrimp fried salmon sushi crab rice wontons! Or even green bean eggplant brussel sprout everything-else-I-friggin-hate macaroni cassarole.
We already have places serving horrible things mushed into "one". Pizza Hut had the I-cant-make-lasagne pizza, KFC had the chicken cheese vomit bowl, and Mc Donalds has the Mc Rib. And listen, if there are folks that delightfully consume the Mc Rib - something I am convinced is made of edible plastic polymers with pickles and sauce - then why not Turkey Beer Potato Pie?
This year, I endevor to try making a turkey beer potato pie with my leftovers to perfected by next year. If I am successful, I naturally plan to top this accomplishment with a cranberry pumpkin stuffing cream jello green bean buscuit, of course.
I dont want anyone left out.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Damned Grizzly Bears
There are certain things I love about this time of year. How the trees turn colors and get naked, watching my neighbors struggle with enormous piles of leaves with a thin, tangled wreck of a rake they should have replaced years prior.
And even though it's getting to be colder, I'm not yet sick of it entirely. There's something to be said for a crisp, bright day in the middle of the afternoon with the sun peaking out of some corner of the sky, taunting you with memories from a few short months ago when it actually reminded you of it's role in warming the Earth. No more iced-coffees in the morning, that's for sure.
Tomorrow I am getting my "bio" done for Blue541. Picture and everything. The collegue in charge of writing it asked for my resume and if there was anything I'd like to add for personal details. If I'd like to say anything about my family, what affiliations I have in the community, my hobbies, etc. I thought about it, and being put on the spot figured out I am really pretty boring. So I emailed him this:
"I am a 31 year old, single, struggling professional who lives alone with my cat. My interests include drinking and my dislikes include grizzly bears and fire."
The troubling thing is, the people I work with have an offbeat sense of humor - and I can't say I would be entirely suprised if some of that actually went into print. Ironically, if it does, I'd probably stay there forever.
I'm not entirely new to my line of work in this new setting - however, over the last few days of being glued to the internet, I have been doing alot more research in the field. I am quickly discovering that my lack of a social life allows me to daydream less and focus far more on actual work. I have also reaffirmed the fact that I am a bonefide genius. So friends, even though I am a hopeless geek - at least you can say you knew me when ;)
And even though it's getting to be colder, I'm not yet sick of it entirely. There's something to be said for a crisp, bright day in the middle of the afternoon with the sun peaking out of some corner of the sky, taunting you with memories from a few short months ago when it actually reminded you of it's role in warming the Earth. No more iced-coffees in the morning, that's for sure.
Tomorrow I am getting my "bio" done for Blue541. Picture and everything. The collegue in charge of writing it asked for my resume and if there was anything I'd like to add for personal details. If I'd like to say anything about my family, what affiliations I have in the community, my hobbies, etc. I thought about it, and being put on the spot figured out I am really pretty boring. So I emailed him this:
"I am a 31 year old, single, struggling professional who lives alone with my cat. My interests include drinking and my dislikes include grizzly bears and fire."
The troubling thing is, the people I work with have an offbeat sense of humor - and I can't say I would be entirely suprised if some of that actually went into print. Ironically, if it does, I'd probably stay there forever.
I'm not entirely new to my line of work in this new setting - however, over the last few days of being glued to the internet, I have been doing alot more research in the field. I am quickly discovering that my lack of a social life allows me to daydream less and focus far more on actual work. I have also reaffirmed the fact that I am a bonefide genius. So friends, even though I am a hopeless geek - at least you can say you knew me when ;)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Do it Right, Do it Well
Before going onstage, I tell my musician friends, "play like you mean it".
I tend to use the same philosophy for everything I do. Playin', eatin', dancin', singin', fightin', lovin'... you name it. Working is no exception.
Today I arrived at my first day at my new job at Blue541 and it went very well. The people are super great. There's one gal there I like straight away named Morgan who reminds me of my sister a little bit, only she's a snappier dresser (sorry Jen haha - love you). It's nice when people go out of their way to be friendly to you, and in an office enviornment, one dosent often see that in women (particularly if you are one).
Nearly everyone went out of their way to welcome me and it gave me a really positive feeling coming into work today. It's always the first couple of weeks of getting oriented and aclaimated with where equipment is, the processes and formalities, and everyone's different personalities and whatnot that can be a bit overwhelming. But needless to say, I was pretty comfortable today and I jumped in my prep-work and research with both feet.
What a relief! Not only have I found a job after only a few months... but with all of the great perks of a five-minute commute, a rather lax dress code, and an office that is neither a cubicle or an ice tray, I have the benefit of working with some incredibly talented and cool folks as well. Take away the commute and having to do the job of 4 people and that was just about my last job.
I have a feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.The money thing dosent hurt, either.
Maiden Voyage
This is my first blog on this thing. I am testing this both for marketing purposes for work, but also testing it for myself since I am pretty sick of posting things in multiple spots... more at eleven...
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