So let mercy come

[What I’ve Done – Linkin Park]

Today, Annie and Jen did their presentation for Understanding Australian Media, and since their topic was advertising, their group activity was to get everyone to design a billboard ad for a made up brand of chocolate called Ganache, and two groups had to make it super sexual and stereotypical, while the other two had to be innovative and family friendly.

I was in the super sexual group – yerp – and I was with Mai, Brian and Lisa, all of whom I’ve known for longer than this semester, at the least. We weren’t sure of what to do, so ultimately we drew something along the lines of cream being slathered onto these two little pieces of chocolate that looked like the heaving bosoms of a young maiden.

It was quite awkward to draw, especially when I was drawing the cream being poured, and Brian was sitting next to me hissing “yeah draw it, draw it good” to weird me out.

Anyway, unnoticed to us, we’d actually managed to draw something else even more crude. Let’s just say that the picture was structured to have two spherical shapes down the bottom, and in between these spherical shapes stood a longer looking shape.

I don’t think our chocolate would sell.

Ganache – let it come all over you: Mai and I co-wrote this slogan.

Alex.

You And Me, And A Bottle Of Wine

[Save Tonight – Eagle Eye Cherry]

Actually wrote another uni post. Wow. Been a bit droughty lately.

I haven’t written in ages which isn’t a good thing but I wasn’t sure what to write for last week. Neither, for this week, but I suppose I can just see what flows?

First of all, I have to say that despite not quite getting the whole semiotic deal (might have to go back to – ahem start – the reading for this week), I really like analysing the ads. I mean, we see hundred of ads everyday, from posters to tiny small ones (like just the brand name). But we do ever really think about why that caught our eye, or made us want to get it?

In the tute today, my group was analysing the random Berkowitz sofa ad I found. I mean, on the surface it’s this woman sitting on this nice recliner with a remote control looking off side, but as we went deeper into it, we realized that just the simple fact that’s it’s a middle aged woman with a wedding ring appeals immediately to a certain middle aged married female demography.

So I thought about all the other ads that we see. The ones that means nothing to me weren’t designed to appeal to me. They featured older looking people, of a different gender maybe, doing things that I don’t have an interest in doing like sailing or playing with their kids. I don’t look at twice at those, but perhaps someone wanting to have a happy family, or interested in sailing (or looking like they’re the kind to go sailing) would look at the ad.

What attracts me would be a new game, or a new phone, items of entertainment (not a fan of fashion) which promises not only entertainment but that image of me being awesome with that new game/phone. So the ads are usually of people looking awesome with that phone, or screenshots of the game that teases out my wishes for immersion in a fictionl world. That wouldn’t really appeal older people unless they want to look young and hip, or they always liked games. For example, my mom and dad don’t care about what kind of phone they use as long as they are useable (or, in mom’s case, it takes only a few buttons to call me). Games mean nothing to them other than sounds, noises, and are associated with children stuff.

The next time you find yourself looking twice at an ad, I say wonder: “wait, why did I look at this twice?” I know it sounds nerdy but it never ceases to astound me how the simple matter of a good choice in font can make a difference between a kickass ad and a forgotten picture.

Alex.

Alex.

What I’ve Done

So let mercy come
And wash away…
What I’ve done…

I’ve gone and imported this blog onto my notes on Facebook. So the traffic should get a bit busier, I hope. I made it so that you can read my post, but to comment you’d have to come here. Ingenius, no?

By the way, that was “What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park.

In other news, we got our new internet installed finally, 1 and a half months late. We’re now with Telstra Bigpond. It comes with a wireless thing so when we get a new computer and when I get a laptop I can totally just use the internet from my room. How awesome!

And, Dom had gone get himself tested for swine flu. Results in a few days. Hope he doesn’t have it, the poor bugger.

That’s all for now.

Alex.

P.S. Catherine I really really do love you for what you wrote.

Attention and Chopping Music

When Sneakerologist aka Cheryl commented on my Summer Project which I only put up for about a day, I decided that I want to shamelessly advertise my blog so that more people read it, and so I get famous-er, so maybe one day someone would notice me and say “Oh my god you’re De Fluffe!”

Not that that many people use WordPress anyway…not the people that I know. They’re still being sucked in by Facebook. Diee…

Of course that leaves me the dilemma. If too many strangers end up reading this I can’t exactly be personal, or blog about my day-to-day life. I mean, my life isn’t that much fun unless you’re talking about those “real life” kind of stuff.

The second part is chopping music. Today we made dumplings again (Bee, speaking of which, can I have that container back some time?) and I chopped up a lot of Chinese cabbage but I had my iPod in and I realized that Reclusion by Anberlin and Viva la Vida by Coldplay were good chopping music. I’m helping to cook a lot more, and I am oh-so-close to making a meal for myself.

Right now I’m on

tedmosbyisajerk.blogspot.com

If you watch How I Met Your Mother, I think you might get it. There’s even a 20 minute song that goes with the site. It’s hilarious and long…and has this really bad singer but I think that was irony. Some lyrics include “die Ted Mosby die” “I love you, I love you, I hate you, I hate you so bad”  “I I I I I hate you, you you you you should die.” “I love you I HATE YOU I love you I HATE YOU I love..you..HATE YOU..lo-lo-love you, hate you, I ha-ha-hate you and I hope you break down and die. And if you don’t, I’ll kill you, I I I’ll kill you over breakfast, I’ve done it before, but that’s another song (that’s another song) that’s another song (that’s another song) I’ll tell you about it another time (oooooooh, that’s another song)”

It goes on for 20 whole minutes…

Anyway, do go on that site for some fun.

De Fluffe, Out.

P.S. Tomorrow, results come in! Wooooot! Haha