I wish there was a better way to share this song. It comes on my itunes at work quite often because I haven’t yet got around to putting more music on my computer. Every time I hear it… I think damn, this is truly a song of our times. Then I just feel guilty to be in advertising:
Shout out out out : Forever Indebted:
Big debts.
You know they got me,
More than I got out
And every month I think I’ve finally hit the bottom
But they keep growing
And fucking growing
And every month I get in deeper
With my knowing.
Well, God damn!
How did this happen?
It’s not like I spend all my time spending, spending.
Well, God damn!
If I could get out,
Somehow I know I’d just go right back in.
All my friends
They’re in the same boat
They just can’t get out
But they keep working every day as if there’s hope
And that’s it
That’s how we’re living
And to boot, we’re still made to feel guilty
Well, God damn!
How did this happen?
It’s not like we spend all our time spending, spending.
Well, God damn!
If we could get out,
Somehow I know we’d just go right back in.
They say we have to learn to compromise
Stay inside our means and we’ll all be fine but
We’re surrounded by their credit lines
And their payment plans with interest, my oh my and
Why do you think they fucking advertise?
It’s cause we’ll make them rich
While they ruin our lives and
Like Jaycie Jayce in a conga line
I’m in an awkward place and I’m out of time.
And they only say you have to compromise
Once in you’re in too deep
And they own your life and
It’s no wonder that we’re all stressed out
When paying bills is always on our mind and
They say we have to learn to compromise
Stay inside our means and we’ll all be fine but
We’re surrounded by their credit lines
And their payment plans with interest, my oh my and
Why do you think they fucking advertise?
It’s cause we’ll make them rich
While they ruin our lives and
Like Jaycie Jayce in a conga line
I’m in an awkward place and I’m out of time.
Filed under: advertising, music, world | Leave a Comment
Tags: advertising, debt, music, recession, shout out out out
banner ad blues
Most designers I know hate doing banner ads. For a while, I tried really hard to make them interesting for myself by making truly interactive pieces of advertising. But there are a number of problems with banner ads. So many I don’t know where to begin. I was prompted this morning to write about this because I came across a Telus ad, at the bottom of a Globe & Mail article I was reading on the current election in Iran. This is what it looked like… exactly like this:
Um, is it just me, or does this not make sense. Ok, I see some sort of USB thingy sticking out of a Mac Laptop and some messaging “With the Telus Mobile Internet Key” and a button “Find out how”. I can sort of deduce that this is some product that connects my phone to my computer. But that’s about it. Why in the world would I click on this banner? Could you imagine this as a print ad? It would hardly get past the intern. I’m SURE that had I seen the entire animation this end frame might make more sense to me. But I notice this with a lot of designers when they design banner ads…. they assume that like a TV spot, someone will have just seen everything BEFORE this frame.
And the reality is, that’s rarely true.
So here are the problems with banners, in general:
- they are weird and small sizes meaning you can’t really get decent messaging and imagery in them at the same time
- which leads to the fact that we ANIMATE them to get in the whole idea
- which means that they annoy people when they are trying to read
- which means that in 15 seconds you better hope someone is looking at your ad and not reading anything
- which means that you basically have to sum up everything you just said in 5 frames again in the final frame and hope that it makes sense
- which leads to the idea of an interactive banner which teases the user into playing with it
- which then causes two problems:
a) some users feel they are “tricked” by banners and avoid any kind of interaction
b) clients are terrified that if a user doesn’t interact within a certain amount of time, their message is lost and their money was wasted (which ultimately leads to the whole thing being forced to animate and we are back at square one)
Sometimes I think that banners need to get bigger and become static. They need to follow the same approach as print. In magazines and newspapers we have huge full page and even double page ads. There is paid content. All the same stuff that is happening on the web. But we have to stop ANNOYING people while at the same time creating compelling advertising that is relevant to the content someone is engaged in. I know that banner ad sizes are changing… a new 300×600 is coming into the playing field for Canadian sites. I hope that soon we can abolish the 160×600 skyscraper and the 728×90 leaderboard and make large static ads that are beautiful, funny, engaging and that MAKE SENSE if a user just sees it’s resting state.
No offense to the person to made that ad… I’ve caught myself a few times, doing storyboards for banner ads, where I totally forget (for a second) the reality of the user experience.
Filed under: advertising, design | 2 Comments
Tags: advertising, banner ads, big box, design, leaderboard, mistakes, paid content, print, skyscraper, web design
yeah, yeah, yeah… oh yeah
I’m a huge fan of the new Yeah Yeah Yeah’s album “It’s Blitz” — for the first three weeks I had it, I couldn’t stop listening to it. Now when it’s in rotation on my ipod I get giddy every time a song comes on. There is not a single one on the album I would skip. Check it out. Karen O you are so cool.
Filed under: music | 1 Comment
Tags: it's blitz, karen o, music, pop rock, yeah yeah yeahs
we need umbrellas
Every now and then I get to my computer screen to find some bizarre thing Ben has been browsing and left open. Today it was 15 creative umbrellas. Timely given this god forsaken weather we’ve been having. Pictured above is the one I really liked (except it was from a banner ad I clicked on). Check out the others.
Filed under: design, fashion, made me smile | 2 Comments
Tags: accessories, banner ads, fashion, spring, umbrellas, websites
a new agency model
I’ve been struggling lately with trying to understand how digital is ever going truly integrate with the old advertising agency model. To be honest, most days I have no idea where I fit in. I know I have this highly specialized skill and with over 100 websites and countless banner ads, email newsletters, creative strategies, information architecture and even print and out door work under my belt. Even with all that I shudder thinking about how volatile this space is right now, and despite my experience, I have no idea where I’m going to end up. And for the most part, it seems no one else does either. The consumer is changing so fast these days, and the old way is just that. Old. You can’t reach the people you want to reach with a TV spot anymore. Like grandma said, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The digital, engaged, mulit-tasking consumer is everywhere… and often fast-forwarding through the commercials.
And then I found R/GA’s video on their agency model. And suddenly it all started to make sense. Check it out
Filed under: advertising | 1 Comment
say hooray! for peanut butter
Well it is finally live. After months of pouring my heart into a site for Kraft Peanut Butter, you can now go to spreadthefeeling.ca to make your very own peanut butter art and send it to your friends! How fun is THAT? Plus, for a short period of time, you can send a bear hug (go to bear hug events) and if you send a bear hug, Kraft will donate a jar of peanut butter to your local food bank.
This has been one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on… I am so proud of it and the team who worked with me on it. Great work everyone, and please go check out this site… there’s a lot you can do to make your own art… great for kids too. :)
Filed under: advertising, design, food, made me smile | 1 Comment
Tags: art, bear hug, catherine baird, charity, donation, draftfcb, flash, fun, kraft, peanut butter, playful
You must see “The Cove”
When I was sixteen I used to post up flyers around school with an image of an elephant with a target pointed directly at it’s forehead. Underneath it read a quote by Ghandi – “The greatness of a people can be measured by how well it treats it’s animals.” I used to carry this poster wherever I went. I was a vegetarian. I used baking soda and vinegar to clean long before eco-products where even something people talked about. I was an activist if ever there existed one; writing letters to animal welfare organizations, trying to figure out how to get myself over to Africa to feed orphaned elephants, trying to learn Swahili, going to lectures by Jane Goodall and Biruté Gladikas.
Then I went to university, got overwhelmed in my science course at U of T and dropped out of zoology. I went into art, and then for some reason I ceased to have a voice, a cause, a reason. My artwork came out of myself, I stopped preaching, became bored of my own broken record, and started eating meat again.
After watching “The Cove“, I began to wonder again what happened to that part of me. Where did that dynamite go? This documentary covers the awful and unnecessary destruction of dolphins in Japan. For no other reason than exploiting them in entertainment shows, these beautiful and intelligent animals are herded, selected from and then subsequently massacred. The problem is, their meat is not even suitable for human consumption. The high content of mercury makes them dangerous for us to eat. So why do a select number of fishermen slaughter thousands of dolphins each year? Because of a misguided idea that dolphins are “pests” destroying their fishing catches. I encourage everyone to try to see this documentary as soon as they can.
I think most of us have it and I think we CAN affect change in so many ways. The primary way is to be an activist consumer. It’s so important that the decisions we make as consumers affects every company. And we must support sustainable practices.
STOP GOING TO SHOWS THAT EXPLOIT DOLPHINS AND WHALES. This means, Marine Land, Sea World and probably Canada’s Wonderland. We must stop the trade of these beautiful creatures.
EAT SUSTAINABLY. Think before you eat (and buy).
Please read more and spread the word about this documentary and this problem. I know there are so many issues in the world today that it’s hard to get behind just one. But I think this is the trick. Be strong about one issue, not weak about many and eventually we can affect real change.
Get even more info here.
Filed under: food, inspiring, world | 1 Comment
Tags: activism, catherine baird, consumer, documentary, dolphin, dolphin killing, environment, exploitation, fishing, flipper, industry, japan, justice, marine land, marineland, sea world, seaworld, the cove
The Bell Jar
I suppose the only one benefit to being sick is that I actually can get some reading done. Having been holed up with my chronic bronchitus again for over a week I’ve had no choice but to finish off Murakami and move on to Plath (given that I don’t have a TV).
About one year ago, I impulsively bought “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath, for no reason I can remember, but have shelved it as a result of Paris, new job, new boyfriend and too much work. But I’m halfway through, and I’m only sorry to know that there were no more books written after this one. It is an incredible book. It is so raw and honest, and feels so familiar. I liken it to the work of my favourite, J.D Salinger. I’m not sure if any literary scholar would do the same but their styles and genre of writing seem so similar to me.
I’ve already starting dog earing pages, where paragraphs have stunned me with their honest brilliance.
—-
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green-fig in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and off-beat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quiet make out.
I saw myself sitting at the crotch of this fig-tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest…”
—-
Being sick and reading are the two things that make me realize I’m not really doing what I want to do. And I might not always be able to do it. So I damn well better start.
Filed under: beautiful, books | 2 Comments
Tags: beautiful, books, bronchitus, catherine baird, jd salinger, murakami, not doing what i really want to do in my life, sick, sylvia plath, the bell jar, tired
ripped jean skirts never die
I love Gisele’s look… casual but so sexy. I’m brain dead this week/weekend – with too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do it. So I’m doing brain dead things like looking at celebrity fashion. Still. It’s fun.
Filed under: fashion | 3 Comments
Tags: brain dead, catherine baird, fashion, gisele, ripped jean skirt
creative genius is not dead
I believe that some entities do care about what they do, but my experience is of late has been that people are ready and willing to accept mediocrity as long as it meets the abstract deadline. On days when I’m most frustrated, I turn to TED, get inspired and think, thank god the world is greater than how it looks from my perspective. Check out Elizabeth Gilbert’s talk on creative genius.
Filed under: art, beautiful, inspiring, made me smile, world | 1 Comment
Tags: art, catherine baird, creativity, eat pray love, elizabeth gilbert, genius, inspiration, writing
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