Harvey Nichols, I love you.

Another brilliant campaign for Harvey Nichols. The most important law of attraction. Great clothes.

What would you do….for a $1200 dollar pair of shoes?

As I page through the many fashion magazines packed with items that are mere mirages, you become numb to the bland photo of a model wearing the next best thing.
One high-end retailer speaks to its guests and their passion for fashion. Harvey Nichols is an amazing store with high-end fashions from around the world. Their customers not only drool over the spreads in Vogue, but live it everyday. No matter what the cost.
So what lengths would you go to in order to shop there? I would definitely consider the examples in the ads in order to support fashion as art and vise-versa.
Browse the fashion mags to see what everyone is lusting over this season, and then ask yourself are you passionate enough to make sacrifices to fulfill your obsession? Or are you just a dreamer?

Back to the Surface

Hello all,
I know that my accumulated readership is now at an all-time low because of my lengthy absence. An update as to what diverted my attention, I was hired on as an Associate Copywriter at Target. I’m thoroughly enjoying my many responsibilities at work, and have been focusing on getting into the swing of things at Target.
Now that I feel like I’m juggling my workload well and have become more accustom to my role within the brand, I’ve recently had a new outlook on my role as author of this blog.
I need to fulfill my end of the bargain and post more often than never. So here’s my promise to do the research, post on my findings while keeping you mildly entertained.
Here’s a thought I came across today that I found interesting. It was about the “fear of boredom.” Here’s to never missing a beat and never finding that there’s nothing else to learn or discover. When you’ve admitted you’re bored, then maybe you are the one that is boring?
Cheers.

It takes a period of bad work to become great.

Ira Glass, the host of This American Life, has a great video about his experiences, and everyone’s experiences, when they first start out their career. Listen and don’t worry, it’s normal.

I just had an idea that I want to talk about..

Here’s my idea. I think cities should hang birdhouses on telephone poles to invite the beauty of nature into the city. My friend Abbi Allen came up with a name, and now I’m going to start an initiative called Guerilla Birdhouses. I’m going to create a website, build birdhouses and map all of the birdhouses that have been hung up.  Let nature and the city happily co-exist. I’m going to have to figure out city/state regulations about this idea. If it’s do-able it will be a great project.

Just a quick google search, a group does this in NYC. Mine will be strictly a MPLS initiative.

Look for my next posting about research and findings about putting this idea into action.

Lady Dior: The story unfolds on Twitter.

Dior is now utilizing twitter as a teaser for a campaign for Lady Dior. Follow Lady Dior as each tweet is a clue to the unraveling of a mysterious story about the life of Lady Dior. It’s interesting to see how brands are utilizing twitter to connect with their comsumers. Are many high-fashion, couture-strutting women on twitter? I know many who dream, one of them being myself. Possibly the reason for such a dreamy, mysterious film/site? Tomorrow the clues are revealed on the website.

Skintervention: A creative memory, re-created.

Going through my morning routine, which includes checking Creativity Online for inspiration, I stumble upon a blog for Jergens skin care. A piece of blog-vertising as I like to call it. For a short while I was fortunate enough to work on advertising for a skin-care line. The client wanted to release new product lines. Of course, the best way to do that is……..drumroll…….print! Print is great, don’t get me wrong. But when I came across this blog, I can remember the days brainstorming in my cube and thinking let’s create a tool a.k.a. blog, to allow women to learn and converse about their skin care regiments.

I think Jergen’s ability to embrace their audience and create an outlet for women to interact, learn about their skin and about the product is forward thinking. You know, building brand awareness and affinity. Let your audience talk about your product! Learn about your product! Put yourself out there! Skintervention.ca is a great resource and example of enabling and embracing an ongoing conversation about your lotion. In this case, taking on tanning as an issue and promoting a safe-way to have a healthy, sexy glow. I’ve never tanned, by choice, in my life since I’m as pale as Jim Gaffigan. I love brands that I can talk to! Customer service people! a.k.a. Twitter, blogs…nice work Jergens. I hope the agency I work for doesn’t shy away from ideas such as this. First steps can be big leaps. Don’t look back.

I guess I should buy some coffee for home…

I never liked coffee, but now I know how some of my friends, who do like coffee, met their significant others. It’s a good tip for all you single men out there, and ladies, watch out for it.

Client: Mellow Birds Coffee
Agency: Work Club
Copywriter: Ben Mooge,
Sally Skinner,
Lucy-Anne Roynayne
Art Director: Simon Whybray,
Jade Tomlin
Agency Producer: James Turnham,
Karen Slade
Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Stephen Pearson
Editorial Company: Whitehouse
Editor: Alaster Jordan
Post Production: Prime Focus
Audio Post: Factory Sound

Bob Gruen: Amazing Work. Amazing Life.

I went to hear Bob Gruen speak about his work last week at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul. I don’t know why, but I’m insanely attracted to men who are beyond creative, especially when their work is related to music or the music industry. The man who I admire with a weird passion is Mick Jagger, who I think is someone with more ambition and has more “cool” in his fingertips than most people have within their whole beings.
Hearing Bob talk about his experiences and how his passion for photography and the evolution of music just oozes from his work & life, was a first-hand look into the life of a true artist. What an amazing story to have been a part of John Lennon’s life & the underground music scene in NYC. He said he was always drawn to the music of Bob Dylan, the New York Dolls and other artists whose music carried a profound message.
The best story he told was when he was taking photos at a Dylan concert, where they apparently didn’t authorize photos. Bob published a photo from that show, and ran into Dylan later on. Dylan was pissed that he published an unauthorized photo and was telling Gruen he was going to kick his ass. Gruen said, it was like meeting God and him telling you he wanted to kill you. I thought that was great.
One part of Gruen’s talk was about how he had to photograph tons of bands for different record labels that no one had ever heard of, and no one probably ever would. As a young person who is waiting for that chance to start their career as a professional, it was inspiring to hear Gruen’s struggle and the reality of finding your own within any business. It isn’t always great in the beginning, but if the passion is there, it can take you anywhere.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

“See the Opportunity” is a new Firefox plug-in developed by Leo Burnett’s Lisbon office.

In order to bring a little more love into a world where more and more people are being pronounced unemployed, and our entire economy is tanking, the prescription for happiness is one dose of this downloadable elixir. The plug-in removes the word “crisis” from web pages viewed in Firefox and replaces it with the word “opportunity.” “We want to help make the world a better place and that is an opportunity for sure,” says Chacho Puebla, Leo Burnett’s executive creative director

Giving you a daily dose of a sweeter world, where things have never been better, far before you can remember. Thanks Leo!