Germs and Gibberish

So, I tried my hand at importing stuff from my COM 443 blog, Germs and Gibberish, over to my personal blog. So, all posts titled and tagged 'Germs and Gibberish' are my COM 443 thoughts. I realised that it may look very confusing and messy to the casual reader (not that I have many...) so just a heads up...

Germs and Gibberish: The final lap

As we approach the close of a hellish semester, it is always good to take a look back, and see how far we have come. First of all, to my fellow CheckMaters, the journey was tough, but you guys made it bearable, enjoyable even. Thanks for everything; the effort put into each and every project (Justin more so than anyone of us), the laughter, and more importantly, the friendship that each and every one of you have provided. Like what I said on my Facebook note, 'Thank you', these are bonds forged through fire and high water, and I wish for these bonds to always remain. Stay in touch!

So, a quick summary of how this semester went down. This whole experience brings to mind an analogy. While I was competitively training for the Army Half Marathon a couple of years back (I know I don't look like it now but I used to love running, until the Army Half Marathon...), strategy was paramount to the success of the team in such a gruelling race. Although I was part of Team B, the backup team, nevertheless I learnt a lot from that experience.

When planning the training schedule, one must make sure that training is a gradual process, slowly building up to the final goal. One cannot 'peak' too early, because that would mean that your form would be going downhill before the actual race and causing performance to drop. One cannot 'peak' too late; that would mean that the best race would not be ran during the actual race.

I feel that CheckMate has peaked too early; most of us are feeling burnt out and tired, and it is increasingly difficult to come up with ideas and execution with each assignment. This is the most evident in Assignment 5, where we did not perform as per normal. How 'fatal' that is stil remains to be seen.

Worn out.

At the same time, I can see other groups are also feeling the strain of the semester; like us, they perhaps peaked too early as well. However, I also see some groups raising their game just about now; this is their time, their peak. Only at the end of the semester would we know whether they peaked at the right time or too late.

However, with one more assignment to go, all is not lost for us. During the race, no matter whether you are at your best, or you missed your peak, there is something called 'hitting the wall'. That is the point when you feel you can't run anymore, and you feel like giving up. That is how we feel after Assignment 5. However, if one manages to push through this 'wall', they will experience what many term the 'second wind' or a 'runner's high' where one gets a fresh infusion of energy and strength, when one feels that anything is possible.

CheckMaters, I believe we are at that crucial point right now, and we only have to push ourselves just a little bit more, just grit our teeth and go forward, disregarding the past, and we will hit our 'second wind', our 'runners' high'. I don't want to end with a whimper, with a sense of defeat. I want to end with a bang, a bang that is befitting of the effort we put in so far. So, here's to our 'second wind', our 'runners' high'. Bring it on.

Germs and Gibberish: Soyjoy commercials

Here are a couple of TVCs for this brand of food bars (???) called Soyjoy. I thought that they were quite funny... on the first few views. Quite evidently, these bars are targeted at women. But still, I think the general population would get it. I think these are done by an agency in Singapore and I feel are some of the more creative TVCs seen on local TV.

This is the TVC that ran first, if I remember correctly.



Followed by this.

Germs and Gibberish: Creativity

Now, most of us who are in COM 443 would know creativity is very shy and elusive. One can take hours, or even days to think of something that barely resembles creativity. But when it comes, more often than not it comes in a flash, a flash of brilliance. That is why sometimes, I feel like kow-towing to people working as creatives. They have to come up with something fresh, engaging, interesting, tasteful and impactful day in and day out. As the saying goes, 'There are no longer any more original ideas.' I agree wholeheartedly, after trying to come up with creative ideas again and again for the past few weeks. However, I realised that sometimes, the most creative ideas are the most simple ideas. These websites have some interesting advertisements that made me go, 'Now, why didn't I think of that...' when I saw them. Also, quite a number of the advertisements are outdoor type advertising. Too bad Singapore is not really into outdoor advertising. Without further ado, enjoy: Here. And here.

Germs and Gibberish: 13/10/09 In times like this

Only in times of adversity does one see the depth of character, the fighting spirit, all the things that make us human and individuals.

Melodramatic, I know, but this is somewhat I am feeling right now. We talked about highs and lows while doing our print advertisement assignment in class today and so now, I will try to organize my thoughts into something coherent.

First of all, I can't say that I am all that pleased with the grade we received. While it doesn't really bother me much that we are close to or even at the bottom of the class this time round, I felt that we were somewhat more deserving of a better grade, all things considered.

While I do concede that our execution left much to be desired, with the blurry photo and the 'dirty' knife and the drip of 'disgusting' blood, I felt that given the restrictions that we had in terms of lighting, time restrictions, and the fear of imposing and asking too much of people who had a job to do other than posing for our pictures, we did a more than acceptable job. That said, I know nothing we say now could change our score, and honestly, that's not my main concern right now. I just feel that the grade did not reflect the painstaking effort that we all put into this advertisement.

I understand, however, that at the end of the day, execution is everything. Like what was mentioned in class by Professor Armstrong, some groups stuck to safer graphics and it paid dividends for them. We took a risk and it didn't pan out as well as we hoped it would. But all things considered, I am proud of the advertisement, it being not our initial creative concept and that we had to work with what we had. But still, a painful lesson here: Effort does not equal results.

Something that I am even more proud of, however, is the cohesiveness and camaraderie that I sense within our team. Working with this bunch of people, although things could get testy at times, I can say from the bottom of my heart that at the end of the day, there is unity. I daresay that we are one of the top, if not top, groups in terms of unity. And that's saying something.

One lesson learnt from this whole experience that will probably stick with me for the rest of my life is that we should not try to wear hats that are too big for our heads. Ideas, creative concepts, the big picture is all fine and dandy if we were God and had unlimited resources, but we aren't. Looking at the other teams' work, I realised that it's not about the effort, nor the creative concept, but it's about working with what you have, and within reasonable boundaries. That, perhaps, was the downfall of our team this time round; we bit off more than we could chew. As the mantra goes (this is supposedly my life's motto), 'Keep it simple, stupid.'

One thing that I have to apologise to my teammates publicly is that I feel that I have to shoulder a large portion of the blame for insisting that we go with our initial concept without developing a backup plan. In the end, this led to us scrambling and wasting precious time trying to fit a concept into our resources, instead of the other way around. If we had a backup plan, maybe our execution would have been better, much better.

So to my teammates out there, now that we are already midway through this module, if you have any dissenting opinions or comments, please feel free to speak out. In fact, you have to speak out. If not, we are handicapped for the lack of an opinion that has value. That said, as mature people working together, I hope that we all understand that dissent doesn't mean dislike, and that we can take criticisms and not have our relationships harmed.

Not this:

With all that said and done, I believe that this setback will be more of a stepping stone, rather than a tombstone for CheckMate. I feel fired up for the next assignment, and I can't wait to deliver a counterpunch the other teams after taking such a hit. Yes, it is on. You better be sure it is on. But as with any counterattack, it may not work out. But still, I am ready for a fight, and that's what I am going to give, and that's what the other teams are going to get. Figuratively of course. Or not.

Germs and Gibberish: 02/10/09 Simplicity

Today's class session for COM 443 has opened my eyes up to how subjective advertising can be, as expected of an art, or at the most an imprecise science. As the adage goes, 'Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder' and in advertising, I couldn't agree more. For something, in this context advertising, to evoke a response from us, there has to come together multiple factors that will precisely touch something in us, be it an emotion or a nerve.

We learnt from the textbook that one of the first things that advertising has to do is to cut through all the tasteless clutter that is surrounding us in our everyday lives, like overly muscular men in bikini briefs posing to showcase his house (and more likely his 'masculinity'), to 'energy' drinks which basically give you a sugar rush trying to draw attention by attempting to be cheeky and naughty. Gee. But has advertising become mere attention seeking? I hope that the person who coined the phrase, 'All publicity is good publicity', be condemned to an eternity of watching a loop of attention seeking antics from people or organizations.

A saying goes, 'Simplicity is indeed often the sign of truth and the criterion for beauty.' Well said, well said indeed. I am pretty sure that this applies to advertising as well. All too often, we see advertising trying to do too much and in the end, the message that was supposed to be brought across is distorted or even lost in the sea of the so-called creativity. But often, in chasing after the holy grail of advertising, creativity, one forgets the basic foundational rule, simplicity.

However, simplicity doesn't mean boring, or conventional, or simplistic. Albert Einstein said that 'everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.' I find that we, as human, have a tendency to try to make things as complicated as we possibly can, perhaps to discourage other intelligent life forms from understanding us?

Leonardo da Vinci said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and words truer have never been spoken. I remember that in Professor Armstrong's media effects class, I was asked what was my life philosophy. Although it didn't come out right at that time and people found me weird, I stated that I try to live my life as simple as possible. I try to take a more utilitarian approach to life by trying to get things that are well made and lasting so that I can reduce clutter. I am by no means an ascetic; I am still tossed about by the tempestuous waves of fashion and trends.

But I try to keep things as simple as possible. And I hope that this philosophy will carry into the way I approach our COM 443 assignments. I acknowledge that I have a tendency to try to cram as much things as possible into a 'space' and that sometimes doesn't work out so well, perhaps due to this little thing called information overload.

Anyway, back to advertising. For me, what will really catch my attention, besides skimpily dressed beautiful women (I said catch my attention, I did not say for me to find it well done), and great layout, and graphics, and creative concept, is the copy. Of course, nice pictures and all those emotional, touchy feely stuff affects me too but the copy is the icing on the cake for me. The copy, essentially, is the wording of the advertisement. Being a word person, I appreciate the precise use of words to convey something, the elegant turn of phrase, the humorous word play, the clever build up and punchline, the unexpected phrasing. For me, the copy is the deal clincher, the knockout punch that seals the deal.

But to others, different components of advertisements would be what they look out for and to them, that is what makes a good advertisement. One man's meat could be another man's poison, so to each his/her own. You may find someone's idea of a great advertisement not to your liking, but remember, you are just one person. If the advertisement managed to get circulated around, there are definitely more than one person who liked it enough to risk finances on it. Either that or companies just have blind monkeys randomly tossing darts at proposals to decide which concept gets done next (Hey, blind monkeys need to eat too, no?).

With that, I leave you with hopefully, thoughts about advertising, and definitely, a picture of a cute monkey.

Germs and Gibberish: First post

The beginning and the end. The head and the tail. The jellybean and the unfortunate false tooth. All these represents what I am feeling (well, except the last one; had to draw your attention somehow, no?). I am into my first month of a new semester, and at the same time heading into the last two months of my undergraduate experience. Yes, in a little less than one-quarters of a year, I could potentially say goodbye to my carefree, footloose, wind-in-the-hair, prancing-about-in-a-field student life. Or I could further my studies.

This?

Or more of this?

No matter.

I am not here to talk about my future plans and goals and whatnot. I am here to record my experience in a very 'interesting' module that I am taking right now for the benefit of the rest of Mankind. And also to get a grade on this. That module is COM 443 - Advertising Principles and Techniques, facilitated by none other than Professor Bob Armstrong.

I have to say that everyone of us have heard stories, passed down from generation to generation (actually, just one or two batches before us) about this module, and the style that Professor Armstrong adopts (read: dog massacre-and-butcher-and-then-noisily-rip-apart-the-meat-and-eat dog). So, it is with the slightest bit of trepidation that we signed up for the class; some less willingly because they have to fulfil their communication module electives, while others more willingly because they are just masochistic.

I have a confession to make, that I was expecting my last semester here in UB/SIM to be at a more, how do I put it, relaxed pace. But now, being one-thirds of the way in, I can say that out of all the semesters I have been in the UB/SIM program, this semester is potentially the toughest semester I have taken.

And guess what? After a month taking this module, I hope that I am not jinxing it when I say that this experience hasn't been what we were expecting, mainly because it is worse. No, I jest. It has not been dog eat dog as of yet, more along the lines of dog bite dog. I just hope that we will start losing our teeth before we lose our limbs, vital organs or our heads. Honestly, with nary a hint of brown-nosing, I really think that this is an experience that I will treasure, not for the head knowledge gained. That would be forgotten in an instant. But rather, it will be treasured for the life lessons learnt, and the whole experience.

But, thus far, it has been a beneficial and eye-opening experience for me. One of Professor Armstrong's aims was to simulate the environment of the advertising industry as much as possible and already I have learnt something; that if the advertising industry were really like this, there is a 99.99999999% chance that I WILL NOT enter this industry. I value my life and sanity too much.

Nevertheless, there are many things that I've learnt that has nothing to do with advertising but useful life skills, which in my book is equally if not more important. First of all, I discovered that I have the stamina for working long, long hours without needing any coffee. But on a more serious note, contrary to my public self, I am not an extrovert. I don't find it easy to make friends and/or work with people I am not familiar with. I try to avoid foreign situations as much as possible, preferring to remain in my comfort zone. Not good for growth, I know, but good for people like me who enjoy emulating a turtle. So, I really think that COM 443 is causing me to wake up to the realities of life and understand that in life, I have to deal with uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations. And so far, I have realised that in actual fact, things are often not as bad as we imagine.

After randomly assigning us to groups, a wise man told us in the first few weeks of class, 'You don't have like everyone, but you have to work with them.' I already know that I am not the easiest person to work with, because sometimes I may be too demanding. But I think that I am not all that difficult to work with because I temper that abrasive side of me with my natural charisma and charm (which by the way, costs me $100 per person I choose to 'exercise' those qualities on). But this module has shown me that good teams are difficult to form and even more difficult to keep together.

Looking around, I thank my lucky stars that I am where I am right now. My team-mates are generally great to work with and I am enjoying their company. That said, there are still differences among us that we have to iron out but at the very least, we are all making the effort. And that is reason enough to move beyond merely working with my team-mates to liking them. I am grateful, in that regard, that we were randomly assigned to groups, because these are a bunch of people I feel that I can have friendships with and I do hope they feel the same about me. So, to my team-mates who may be reading, before I step on any of your toes even more, please know that it is nothing personal, it's just work.

Anyway, I really sympathize those who are good students unlucky enough to be assigned to groups with people whose attitudes seriously, for the lack of a better word, stink. It stinks so bad that even being in a different group from them, one can smell the reek. This sort of thing makes me realise that truly, it is one's attitude that determines one's altitude. How far can a person make it with a lousy attitude? Not far. Even if he or she starts at the top, he or she will not be able to stay long. People say that you win some and you lose some. While at times, winning and losing is dependent on one's self, this whole observation made me realise that no matter how much effort you put in, sometimes victory or failure rests on the shoulders of the people you are surrounded with. And really, at the end of the day, life sometimes can be unfair. But oh well, c'est la vie.

Looking at how much we have done thus far, and how much more we have ahead, I reckon that this module will be both more challenging and yet more fulfilling that most modules taken thus far. Somehow, it seems ironic to be taking a module that is so demanding in my final semester when I expected to be able to kick back and relax just a tiny bit. Also the same time, I do think that this is a befitting end as well to the whole UB/SIM experience; having an enriching and thought provoking module to gird myself up for the travails of life beyond school. I believe at the end of it all, I can look back and say that I came here, to UB/SIM, not expecting much but I leave with a lot.