Screened Tees and Eating Babies

I really like this. It's a design for a child's screen print tee. I'm not entirely sure why. It makes me laugh, and it has a certain sadness to it at the same time. The monster is all alone and its snowing, not to mention he's wanted!
Screen tee's have become really popular. In most cases they make people walking billboards.
My old manager in chicago runs a website for offensive t-shirts that he finds so hilarious. I still can't get myself to laugh or understand this one...

One of his other favorites is...

Regardless of what message is displayed, screen tees give a lot of exposure to whatever it sports.
What would you do if you saw someone in a t-shirt that said "I eat babies"?
I saw a man at O'hare airport once, and his tshirt had a superman symbol that had been made to resemble a wheelchair handicapped symbol. My friend I was with got really offended by it.
This kind of extreme slightly twisted humor should probably be avoided in campaigns... never a good idea to offend your audience. But the people wearing the t's are just trying to spread their opinion and/or humor. And what the heck, we have that whole freedom of speech bit right?

Creativity in Cooking

Living in a townhouse this year, without a campus meal plan, I have begun to cook many of my meals. However, I have a very interesting selection of items in my fridge, freezer and cupboard. From this I've found I have to be very creative to make a good meal, even more creativity to make it appetizing.
I am impressed with chefs who can creative an unconventional dish. I once had a pasta dish containing only long macaroni noodles, olive oil, feta cheese and cinnamon. The combination was revolutionary. And I am a little proud of myself for choosing it as my entree.
I also looooove to watch the food channel's network challenges for extreme cakes, as well as Ace Of Cakes. I cannot believe the concepts they come up with. It is really hard to believe that its a cake at all. Take a look at this one, it won a wedding cake competition and $10,000. My favorite is when they have to represent disney characters. AMAZING

Watch your dogs! I'll watch ur dogs here!

So tailgating (or excuse me, boulevard-ing) today before the UTEP game, I was overwhelmed with the amount of people who brought dogs. What do they do with them before the game? With parking being such a huge issue I doubt they drove them home quickly. And I saw most dogs out and about up until people were heading over to the stadium. Do people only tailgate then so they can bring their dog home? I guess its not that big of a deal to only tailgate, that's what I did today.
I think it would be a profitable and helpful business to start a doggie daycare at the football games. Like how Ikea has childcare right at the entrance. Except u would pay maybe $20 to leave your dog. Why not?
We yell out like ball park hotdog men, "Watch your dogs! I'll watch ur dogs here!"

Calendars and Calculators

I've always been annoyed with our country's calendar. Why does the week start on a Sunday when it is considered part of the weekend? In Spanish countries, they have got this all straightened out and start the week on Monday.
Also, why do calendars and Calculators reverse the rows of their numbers? On calculators the number one starts in the bottom left corner. But on phones it is in the upper left. I don't understand a reason for this.
Any help?

Drive through and get your Dragon Bag

So sitting late night in the Creative Studio, I have become very hungry. And I've finally determined my craving to be chinese food. And it occurs to me... why is there not yet a drive through late night Chinese Food business? The closest we've come is Panda Express with making it a quick chinese meal... but I've never heard of a chinese drive through. And why not? We can get hamburgers, mexican, italian, pizza, coffee, fried chicken, alcohol, icecream and more through drive throughs... why not yet chinese!!? It could not be much more difficult, especially with how Panda Express has been able to make it such a quick yet very delicious process.

I think I'll go into business. Would you like to be my partner or investor? Someday soon we can be on The Big Idea being glorified for our entrepreneurship. think about it....

Intertextual Title

I hope that some find my blog title to be intertextual. I named it after the movie Batteries Not Included. Did your cranium make that vertical intertextual process?




Of course the general phrase of, "batteries not included" applies as well. I just felt the urge to clarify that I'm not being left out, so don't feel sorry for me! The idea is that although this blog is an idea blog where my thoughts go SPLAT on the web-page like a bug to a windshield on the highway, I myself do not come with the insights described. I ended up sloganizing my own blog title.

I remember watching Batteries Not Included when I was very young. Only scenes come to mind now. But I very vividly remember a man trying desperately to tile a floor, and something/someone always messed up his work. I think of this scenario whenever I've almost finished with a project and something trips me up.

Dot Draw

When I was around the age of a kindergardener, my favorite pass time is what I liked to call dot-drawing. I would take a piece of paper, close my eyes, and stab dots wherever my pencil would land. Then I would connect the dots (eyes open of course) and form from that shape whatever I could. I remember one in particular was a large man reaching up and over to scratch the upper part of his back. It think thats pretty clever. I don't think today I would come up with that concept, and run with it none the less. Of course there were also birds and witches and all the sort. But it was so neat to develop a random blob shape and see what could emerge from it.
This reminds me of the amount of unsuppressed creativity children have as we talked about in class.

intertextual tv ad

Assignment: Upload/ Embed a TV ad to your blog and discuss the intertextual connections that it presents for you. Identify vertical/horizontal/tertiary texts as applicable.
I searched long and far for this spot!
I found horizontal intertextuality because it reminds me of the movie Transformers how the cars transform into a large robot. It also reminds me of the Beastie Boy's Music Video from the robot dancing in the city. The robot seemed to be doing an exact replica of the way John Travolta danced in Saturday Night Fever.

Where have all the pillows come from?

So here's an idea about how/why the pillows appeared in the lecture hall for our Intro Ad Creativity class.

4 people were misbehaving. one at each corner of the lecture rows. Team at the top is Team Argon dressed in ripped tied die and cowboy boots, Team Billy Goat Gruffs at the Bottom. Goal: To smother the person above/below you with green slime shot from a giant super soaker. It turns out team Billy Goat Gruffs won (good old gravity), but they both left a huge mess! The chairs at the end of each row were permanently smothered in green glob (much like that of slime from the old Nickelodeon TV shows). To hide the remains of their battle, they went to the local thrift store and took up every last pillow then returned to the scene of the crime where they swiftly affixed them with Mary's pointe shoe sewing kit. They plan to return one year later and sew on a few buttons to commemorate the anniversary.

Sisters from the same mister! (and misses too)

My sister is a very important person in my life. She is only 3 years my elder and we have gone through the same path growing up. On that path, we have each tripped at different places and the sunshine came through the tree tops at completely different points, but we made the journey one after the other. We grew up sharing a room and during those early years we rarely got along. Then her senior year in high school, I joined her at Culver (our boarding prep school) and we finally clicked. Its interesting for me to see where we have lead ourselves. She just graduated from Columbia College majoring in photography. Here is some of my favorite work of hers.







She graduated this summer then picked up an internship at Ogilvy.. She has since been hired as a Junior Engineer Flash Developer. Her description of her work place sounds fantastic. It has the modern attributes of a more conducive work environment that we've talked about in my Ad class (not to mention a never ending supply of Ben & Jerry's in their cafeteria). Her boyfriend works for a small company right now, but is applying at Leo Burnett Chicago (how cool huh?).

I recently realized how my sister, my mother, and I have all ended up pursuing a career in the same field. My mother's first profession was working with an Ad Agency for many years, where she met my father. My sister now works on web ad banners for Dove and the likes. Her *potential* husband is also in the works of working at a highly regarded firm. And now I am pursing a degree in creative advertising through Method. Maybe one day I'll be working alongside my sister... even shooting her the creative ideas.

heres the whole damn fam. myself, my brother, father, mother, sister's bf, and my sister!

brother, sister, me

Originally I planned focusing on business as my degree. But I have seen learned that I would not be able to personally fulfilled without a creative outlet (as I have posted about before). So here we go!

A Mental Morph

I'm not sure what this is.
It makes me think of how fast your emotions change in response to something, or through a flowing thought. One thing makes you cringe, but then it reminds you of something you are on edge about, and so on. I think of it as a graphic representation of our unexpressed mental emotions, flowing and morphing into the next.

Doodle on Dude

Do you ever doodle in your notes? I love to abstract doodle. Some people claim that doodling helps them concentrate. That is not the case for me however. I get engrossed in my doodles. Every new press of the ink must contribute in a needed fashion to the image.
Every shift that I work at Jimmy John's I doodle something different to signify that the cup belongs to me. Over the summer I would ask my coworkers what they saw in the abstract shape. One brought about a different response from everyone. They saw a speaker, a jelly fish, wind blowing through an open door, a potted vine plant, and a sneeze.

Of course when it is football season, the subject matter tends to be less abstract... here is my cup from Sunday's shift. DAA BEARS

Creative Outlets

I thought I would share some of my photography. Through high school it was one of my creative outlets. I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of it. Most of these photos are from a project I did focusing on the creative space. Others are portraits, and some are from Chicago. Plus, there is one of me with 5 sets of arms!!! Way to go light tricks....!
Here is a link to all the photos I scanned and uploaded, please excuse the condition of some. They've become a bit scratched and dusty. But don't worry either, the best prints are still safe at home.
http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee52/CarynNotIncluded/

Creative outlets are very important to me. Oddly enough, I tend to dabble with strange expressions to somehow keeps me sane. One of the most difficult changes I've had to go through to transition to college is losing dance as a focus in my life. I've danced since I was only 5 years old. I've been trained in nearly every style you could name, all except tap. I won every award fathomable for dancers in HS. But I was definitely not built to dance as a profession. However, I would choreograph as a profession in a heart beat. But, its very difficult to get the proper credentials without majoring in dance.
So now my creative outlet will be focused on creative advertising. I look forward to the journey.

Let me Borrow that Top

If you have not yet exposed yourself to the wonderful videos of Kelly, you are definitely missing out. Kelly has forever changed my pronunciation of "bitch". 'Her' videos might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they sure tickle my fancy... catchy too. Text Message Break Up, Shoes, and Let me Borrow that top have taken young adults by storm. The other day I actually saw a guy wearing a t-shirt with Kelly's face on it. Even better, he was a 17ish year old boy wearing skinny skinny jeans and a hairstyle even more styled and layered than my own. However, I find that Kelly's muffins is a bit under par to her other contributions.

In terms of YouTube stars, Kelly is definitely not a one hit wonder. The videos actually play off of current topics that seem a bit absurd in our culture. I'm really sad to say I've actually experienced a text message break up. :( So much of our communication nowadays is through small technological channels. I absolutely detest people who try to have conversations through text messages. If it requires more than 2 replies, that transaction should be made over the phone or even email!!! I feel there there needs to be a TRUTH campaign about the proper use of phones. With so many cell phone carriers making unlimited texting easily available and affordable, the poor communication is only going to grow. What are we too expect with communication practices in the future?

But don't let it get you down. Just watch some more Kelly!

Hold on spot

I found this tv spot the other day. Its new for a Cadbury's campaign. The first time I watched it, the first minute I thought... now is the pay off really going to be worth this wait? And indeed it was. But I'm not sure I would wait it out if I was browsing through television.

The slogan of "a glass and a half full of joy" is the only correlation to the product. I personally don't know the Cadbury's brand well enough to make such a lose connection for the whole 1 min 30 sec commercial. If it was more established as a staple for chocolate buyers I would have felt more comfortable taking this creative risk. None the less, I'm glad the advertisers made this spot and took that risk... its a very entertaining commercial. I don't know that I would be more prone to purchasing Cadbury's now, but I might recognize it more.

Flat Buns and a half assed remake

This tv spot for the 'Flat Bun' burger is being edited for its use of a racy teacher. After many complaints about the gyrating teacher and her male students rapping about her body, the ad is going to be edited. It seems the creative message doesn't rely on the teacher, and the company admits to just missing their mark.

"The ad was intended to be humorous and irreverent," Brad Haley, CKE's executive vice president of marketing, said Wednesday. "Since it seemed to be missing the mark with too many people, it justified making a change."

This ad personally didn't phase me, but I did not enjoy it at first view either. More of an "uhh. okay" reaction and just slightly entertained. It seemed to be a "cheap shot" using the teacher. But the song is clever with the grade of butt minus for anatomy class, and I also like the use of Flat Buns for brass knuckles. I respect the decision to recut the spot since it was more of a creative mistake then just sending a controversial message for the product. They just used a sexy teacher to have a sexy teacher, not to have any direct statements about the product. So with the negative uproar, it might actually be smart to remake the video since they missed their target.

BUT..... here's the remake.... do you think they actually did much? All I can notice is she doesn't distinguish herself as a teacher as much in this cut by removing the "okay class" line followed by her climbing the desk. But I do see and extra shot of her butt with her caressing it. So.... where's the big change? any improvement at all?

Well it's SPROUT time

Incase you were wondering, I do indeed work at Jimmy John's. It can be an enlightening place, really. It can also be the biggest pain in my ass ever... but either way I do enjoy tasty sandwiches todos los dias.
So, running the line the other day (whipping out freaky fast subs) we ran out of alfalfa sprouts. Naturally, I restocked the cold table.
Sprouts come in a plastic box and compressed into a little block. I noted how they were indeed "bricks of sprouts." I wondered, wouldn't it be cool to make an igloo of sprouts? How odd would that be... wonderfully odd. I posed the question to my coworker (Gustavo), and he didn't understand my vision, sadly.
This image has stuck with me since, and I keep playing around with where it can go further. I see an animation of sprouts, building things then turing into another (somewhat of the flow of the Target ads). An igloo of sprouts into a hill that sprouts flowers and further sprouts a slogan... about sprouting something. Perhaps sprout over kill, but we'll let the idea simmer for a bit.

On a side note, I always also get a personal kick out of costumers that request not to have brussel sprouts on their subs... DUH, how gross would that be?

hmm, I like this idea of sprout. Perhaps It will be my mind map center.