Geeks Need Advertising Love Too

We watch, we react, and then we form an impression; this is the whole point of advertising. But in this new age of advertising overload, it seems harder and harder to retain anything you see out there.. point being, how do you stand out from all the clutter these days??

Over across the pond they've recently come up with some pretty awesome ways to stand out and turn advertising into one memorable experience.

The Lightsaber of Zeus
To mark the release of "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" on Blu-ray, the famous London BT Tower was transformed into the World's Largest Lightsaber. Now, coming from someone who watched the original trilogy about 50 times and may or may not still have all of his Star Wars action figures locked away in his closet, this is one of the coolest things I have ever seen as a fan of Star Wars or as a person on this planet. Personally, I think whoever realized that the BT Tower looked like a Lightsaber handle was a complete genius because if there was any way to grab the attention of every person in sight of the London skyline, this was it..



There to kick off the event was Anthony Daniels, otherwise known as C-3PO, who launched the release by pressing a massive power switch that was following with the classic roar of the Lightsaber ignition. Then, the state-of-the-art lighting projected a beam of light 200m into the air from the top of the 189m tower. More than 60 4,500W lights (standing 1.3 m high and each weighing 124kg) combined to produce a parallel blue ray of light.

Off in the distance, platoons of cosplay Stormtroopers and one very convincing Darth Vader gathered with fans for photo ops to keep the celebration going. You've seen the cliché shots of people holding up the Leaning Tower of Piza or pinching the point at the top of the Taj Mahal, but holding a giant Lightsaber from off in the distance has to take the cake on this one; even though Darth Vader's Lightsaber was red.. what's up with that??

The Wizarding World of.. Hong Kong?
Over across the other pond, Hong Kong advertisers transformed the Times Square Mall on Lantau Island into a little taste of the Harry Potter experience as part of the promotion for the summer release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I was actually in Hong Kong to see this exhibit in person (I didn't go just to see it mind you), but it was pretty spectacular nonetheless. The HK Metro stops right under the mall, which was perfectly fitting for the fact that the famous Platform 9 3/4 along with the Hogwarts Express was parked right outside of the Station. Then you walk into the mall, which has a big open area in the center and quite fitting for the replica of the Wizard shopping district of Diagon Alley..



Did you wanna get your own wand? Ollivander's had you covered. Maybe you could pick up a copy of the Daily Prophet to read up on your Magical news stories. Books? Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore, was there too. Even a Pet-shop to buy your own fake pet owl! I'm not much of a Harry Potter reader myself, but this definitely grabbed my interest and I actually felt like a child for the short time I spent exploring this little exhibit. The movie soundtrack was even playing through the corridors and you actually felt like you were in this magical world.

In terms of advertising; this was a home run. I can't think of a better way to attract people to watch the movie than putting the viewer in the movie themselves! I'm sure even non-fans went and bought a ticket after getting a taste of this little wonderland, I know I did..

Vacation or Vocation: The Road after College

What's up peeps, the start of a new semester means the start of a brand new Ad Intern here at BG, which means you all can officially refer to me as AdIntern1! (just trying to keep it original). It might be the start of the school year for us college students but its my last semester at USD and finally that time to start having those nightmarish thoughts about what in the world am I supposed to do with my life as a college grad; work, travel, nothing, military, CONVENT?!? The conflict that most young people have is whether it's worth dedicating the rest of their lives to a career in order to satisfy the life they want around them, or doing something out of the box and satisfying the life they want within.
Here is what I decided..

The Dilemma: A Successful Career takes TIME.. No Time for Travel
In the last four and a half years of college, you wouldn't believe how many times I've heard the phrase "It's so hard to get jobs in this economy" and "these days the job market is SO competitive for recent grads".. it's depressing and I don't like it. It's obvious that these phrases are grilled into our heads in order to motivate us to work harder and do more to stand out, but it leaves you with the bad taste that maybe life is going to be an endless competition to get the best job and continue to try hard to stay ahead of the game. Unfortunately, I totally get it. Bad economy means that every incoming grad is desperate for the best job they can get and if they don't then they settle for something less. The more grads settling for lower positions, the harder it is to prove that you deserve to be at the top. But how do you differentiate yourself enough to get that dream job?? Sure, you can get lots of work experience by interning (aka what I'm doing right now) and getting good grades, maybe even involving yourself in a club or two, but then you finally land the job before you graduate and your life transforms into a 40 hour work week and so on.

It may happen or it may not; but I don't want to look back one day and say "I should have seen more of the world back when I had TIME."

The problem is that insecurity we have of being left behind in this cookie cutter road; go to school, get a job, start a family, die. If we actually gave ourselves the time to go explore what's out there, we may not get the job because applying to a job as "unemployed" is very different to applying to a job as a "student".. right? The scary employers might look at us as lazy for taking some time to ourselves before dedicating our lives to them.. right? I don't think so.

The World is Too Small.. and Life is Too Short
Between traveling with my family, studying abroad twice, and interning abroad for a summer.. I've been to roughly 40 countries around the world, and yet I still feel like I've only grazed the tip of the ice burg. Through travel we learn humility, we become multi-cultured, and we have the ability to comprehend just how small the world really is and how beautiful the people who live in it are. We live in a globalizing world and the more that time goes by, the more connected we all become. Simply put: if an employee decides to look down on the fact that you took some time to see the world before joining their organization, then it may just be time to find a new place to work.

Rough It and Do Good.. It's Good for the Soul
One thing I've learned from traveling is that it doesn't matter if you are in the Amazon, on a Safari in Africa, or deep in rural China.. you've gotta rough it. The sweatier, the dirtier, the more disgusting the food is, and the more uncomfortable you are.. then the more amazing the experience will be. A Hilton hotel gives you NO insight on what the culture of a country is, or what any of the people living there are like. Staying at a gross hostel.. you see a different side. It's something real, and it's worth doing. Going to China doesn't mean seeing the Great Wall. It means staying in a village and getting to know what day to day life is like somewhere far from where you know. Of course, you can't rough it forever. the older we get, the more difficult it becomes to make all of those hikes and sleepless nights and long days with little food; but as a young person we can. We can take it. We can endure these experiences, and they could very well define who we become.

Now, at what point in our lives do we have enough time to travel without the responsibility of a job and are perfectly capable of roughing it here and there without getting into too much trouble..? RIGHT NOW

I think that if you have never traveled on a large scale before then now is the best possible time to open your horizons and see what's out there.. and if you have already traveled and you think it's time to get a job because you already got enough worldly experience: WRONG. Then you have the perfect chance to do even more; go live somewhere, volunteer, do non-profit, give back to the world for a few months before you dedicate the rest of your life to yourself. There are problems in the world that no one will ever hear of and mostly because they aren't encouraged to learn about them first hand. Think about it: looking back and saying to yourself "I remember those months I spent volunteering in Africa after college" sounds a lot more interesting than someone who wishes they had done something like it. Yes, I could probably get a job to start right after I graduate; but taking a puny little fraction of my life to keep the adventure going, I couldn't imagine a better way to start it all.

So there you have it peeps. My advice: GO TRAVEL. Go see new things, meet new people, do something for someone else and in the end it will be the best thing you did for yourself in the first place.

So come December, look out world, I'm on my way.

BG University: What I've Debunked Since Graduation

Hey everyone, this is my first blog post as the Graphics Intern here at Bailey Gardiner! I knew that working would be different than my four years as a Graphic Design major at SDSU, but I wasn’t positive about how it would actually differ. I’d like to share some of my previous misconceptions and what I’ve learned so far from my time here.

College is the peak of learning

Sure I learned the elements of design and useful skills in school, but I’ve learned so much in just six months at Bailey Gardiner. In college I would sometimes work in Photoshop or Illustrator in roundabout ways, but since I’ve been here, I’ve learned to create much more efficiently. From “aha!” moments using the pen tool, to the diligent management of layers, the learning never ceases. This is one of my favorite aspects of working here, that I’m constantly forced to learn how to do things that I’ve never encountered before. Whether I’m learning it from Google, asking a coworker, or just poking around in a file someone in the creative team has worked on, I’m always eager to gain knowledge of new methods.

Clients are just like teachers.
Nope, they’re not. They’re similar in that we are attempting to please them with the work we present, but they are vastly different in other respects. We were essentially paying teachers to help us become better designers and get a degree, but clients are paying to help their business. It doesn’t matter if I really like the color blue: if I can’t defend how it’s going to benefit the client, I’m going to use the color they want.

You do the work, send it to the client, and it’s done.
The process of creating here is much more involved than I anticipated. Work passes by numerous pairs of eyes, internally in our office and externally with the client. It’d be a disaster if the Traffic Manager and Coordinators didn’t keep us organized. Job bags with CSRs and print outs circulate through the office, where coworkers initial and mark changes, then it’s sent back to the Creative Team to make the revisions. This process is repeated before it’s ever sent or presented to the client, who then has more adjustments. This series of steps is repeated a few times before the final piece is approved and can move to production. This differs greatly from school, where we completed all revisions as students, and teachers made comments which were much more vague and discretionary. When we turned in work to be graded, we never really knew what grade we’d receive. Conversely, when you finish work with a client, you know they are pleased with it or they wouldn’t have signed off on its production. Sometimes getting to this point is a challenge, but it’s always rewarding to see something you’ve worked on come to fruition.

People at work will be boring compared to people at school.
The office, at least here at BG, is actually more laid back than most of my classes were. I feel lucky to be here, which is home to a ping-pong table, a hula-hoop and an office full of awesome people. My coworkers find a way to balance being productive with actually enjoying their time spent here. We spend more time at work than anywhere else, spend more time with our coworkers than anyone else: it’d be miserable if nobody talked or laughed or played music for the office to enjoy. I’ve met some of the coolest, funniest people here. Although two of the greatest ones recently left (miss you, Ashley and Michael!), there is rarely a shortage of camaraderie here at BG.

Marketing a Fallen Athlete

When Lebron James entered the NBA he did it with a 13 million dollar contract from the Cavs and a 93 million dollar contract from Nike. Obviously Nike, with no rules on how much they could pay him, believed that his once in a lifetime talent combined with his charisma would leave them with a marketing monster. Fast forward 7 years and Lebron, for lack of a better term, made a big whoopsies.

Nike was not new to marketing for a fallen athlete and has in their past created many redemptive advertisements that attempted to restore an image. In the following four commercials, Nike stuck to a theme of individuality while adding a personal twist for each athlete.

Charles Barkley: "I'm Not a Role Model" Ad

This was the original villain ad. Charles didn't really make a big mistake. He was only guilty of being Charles Barkley and saying loud outlandish things that people tended to wag their fingers at. This reputation for not caring about what he said led to criticisms that he was a poor role model. Nike capitalized on this and made a commercial where Charles bluntly stated that he was in fact not a role model. Nike emphasized that Charles was a cavalier and individual, whose job was to play basketball, and that Charles was very good at his job. The ad was simple, strong, and effective.

Kobe Bryant "Hate Me" Ad

Living in Southern California makes it really easy to dislike Kobe Bryant. If I run away to another country and lose contact with everyone it's probably because a Laker fan drove me insane. In 2003 when Kobe was accused of rape he had a lot more hatred to deal with. The case was settled, but an already embattled Bryant needed to make a mark for Nike and himself. In his commercial, Nike emphasized Kobe's legendary work ethic and his obvious success as a basketball player. Kobe speaks directly to his "haters" and leaves them having acknowledged that its his success that breeds the hatred.

Tiger Woods "Earl and Tiger" Ad

Unless you are an alien or an infant you probably heard that Tiger Woods had a tough go at it recently. Nike, who had hung their hat on his consistent marketability, needed to push forward in order to restore his brand. Where the previous two commercials highlighted the athlete's workmanlike attitudes and successes, Nike painted a picture of Tiger as a man, not a golfer, who needed to reflect. They didn't make the past go away but instead showed Tiger attempting to harness what he had done so that he could become a better person. The ad received its fair share of criticism, especially for using the voice of Tiger's deceased father, but it garnered at ton of attention and paved the road back for Tiger's public perception.

Lebron James "What Should I Do" Ad

I am one of approximately six Lebron James supporters outside of the city of Miami. When Nike took this ad public I was amped. It's a very well made commercial and it addressed many of the issues people had with him. Looking back on it now, I realize that Nike missed big time, and the ad fed the fire of the people that turned on Lebron. Instead of sticking with a theme of showing Lebron as a basketball player, he became a caricature of a tragic hero. Lebron asked us a rhetorical question that we had answers to. We knew that the way he did what he did was wrong, and by asking us what he should do facetiously he was putting down our intelligence. Like the Charles and Kobe ads, in his ad Lebron should have been playing basketball and not feeling sorry for himself. Nike sure got a lot of attention, but the commercial became the cherry on top of the poop sundae that Lebron James made that summer.

Subliminal Advertising

It has always been obvious to me that psychology is a major part of advertising, but until this past semester none of my classes had really delved into the intricacies and relations between the two. My social psychology professor spent a class period on the subject, and nothing surprised me until he got to the subject of subliminal messaging. It turns out that shockingly, subliminal messaging does, to a certain extent, work.

Check out this old George Bush campaign advertisement. On the surface, it seems fairly straightforward, but after watching it one time go back and press 8 repeatedly. The Bush crew decided that when the word bureaucrat flashed onto the screen in reference to Al Gore, the word "rat" would be emphasized for a split second. They believed that the viewer would subconsciously think of Al Gore as a rat after seeing this. Turn out, despite what we may have thought, they may have been onto something, but only if the rest of the commercial was effective in priming the viewer to think of rats, or more likely Al Gore, in a negative light.

In a 2001 study at Waterloo college researchers performed three experiments surrounding the idea of subliminal messaging. In each of the experiments the researchers checked to see that the students were unaware that there was subliminal messaging. In the first study researchers wanted to see if priming individuals subliminally would effect behavior when there was motivation surrounding a task. They did this by getting the participants thirsty and flashing thirst related subliminal messages on a computer screen. The results (graph below) show that thirsty individuals who received subliminal messages drank more water than thirsty individuals who were not shown subliminal messages and non-thirsty individuals who received the subliminal cues. If people were shown subliminal cues and motivated to drink water they drank more than those that did not receive the cues and were not thirsty. Motivation + Subliminal message= behavior.

In the second experiment, researchers tested whether the persuasiveness of an advertisement could grow with a subliminal message. They followed the template of the last experiment for the most part, but showed the participants two ads for very similar energy drinks. One energy drink had subliminal messages that emphasized how thirst quenching the drink was, while the other drink used subliminal messages with words referencing how many electrolytes it had. At the conclusion of the experiment participants who were thirsty and got the subliminal primes were more likely to choose the drink with the subliminal cues emphasizing thirst than the other drink. This was not the case for thirsty individuals who were not subliminally primed as well as non thirsty individuals who were, as they chose the two drinks equally.

The third study looked to see if the results carried over for something other than thirst. Researchers primed participants subliminally by flashing a sad face on the computer screen and then showed them an advertisement for a CD that wold hypothetically make them happier. Individuals who were primed with the sad face were more likely to believe the CD would be effective in raising happiness, probably because the subliminal message had put them in a sad mood subconsciously and they needed the attitude raising effects of the CD.

Based on these findings, the Bush ad should have worked, but only for people who were already motivated to find Al Gore's flaws or think of him as a rat. It is scary to think that our subconscious can be toyed with to a certain extent by advertisers, but if nothing else there results show that the worst thing that will happen is we will confirm or act on our original disposition.

Interactive Advertising

This past year something wonderful happened in my life: the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. The Giants are by far my favorite sports team and have given me headaches since I was very young when they kept finding new creative ways to lose. Their championship gave me a huge boost and sense of joy that I haven't experienced in my lifetime surrounding sports.

The one player that probably most benefited from the championship is Brian Wilson. His combination of a ferocious fastball and even more ferocious beard has made him excessively marketable. Major League Baseball used his growing persona and began a marketing campaign surrounding him and his beard. Fans are able to go to a web page where they can click on sections of his beard and watch a short video of what happens at that section. I spent 35 minutes one night clicking on the different sections and laughing my tail off at the imaginative happenings that take place within Brian's beard.

This style of interactive advertising has been utilized more and more lately as advertisers find new ways to grab consumers attention. Below are a few of my favorites that I have seen.

Tipp-EX

In this hilarious interactive you-tube video Tipp-EX allows the viewer to choose interactions between a bear and a hunter. Type in "eats" and "marries" for a good laugh.

Johnny Cash Project

This website won the Webby award for best use of online media. On the sight the user is able to get creative with some portraits and submit them to the sight. The portraits are used later in an online mu sic video for the song. The first video they made was pretty cool.

Sharon's Sale

Really cool ad. Cannes film festival asked people to submit videos to bring attention to a world cause. In this entry you can move your mouse over the items in the video to see the prices. One of the things for sale holds some shock value.

Welcome to Foodie Friday!

Happy Friday kids!

Welcome to the first installment of our new series, "Foodie Fridays." You should know that we take food very seriously here in the intern corral - after all our blog is called feed the interns, right?


Today for lunch we ventured down to our favorite lunch spot and San Diego gem, Mexican Fiesta... where the food is appetizing and ambiance is questionable. On a scale of 1 to Mexican deliciousness, the interns give it two thumbs up. If it had a legitimate Facebook page, we would "like" it.

Our dishes of choice:

Alessa and Robin - bean, cheese and rice burritos
Michael - chicken burrito (which "tastes like it was barbecued)
Ashley - California burrito

Next time you're in Little Italy, check it out! See you next Friday.