Don't Be Afraid to Aim High

So here's my official rejection email from the marketing team for the Dallas Mavericks. My buddy Leon was surprised that I even applied because he said he wouldn't even have the confidence to try. It's not about confidence. It's about going after what you want. 

Long ago, back as a senior in high school, my advertising design teacher talked about when her son was going job hunting for a graphic design position. He applied starting at the most prestigious ad agency in Dallas and landed the job. When you aim high, you have a chance of actually starting out with a great job without having to climb from the bottom. Plus, it's not like your chances of getting hired somewhere decreases just because you were rejected somewhere else. I'm taking the tactic of applying at the most prestigious places first and moving down to the least prestigious. Rejected by the Mavs? Fine. Let's see if the Richards Group will take me. If not, there's still Reynolds and Reynolds. Worst case scenario is that I'd be stuck making brochure templates for printing shops. Let's hope I never have to apply for a job at that level. 

That being said, I will accept my rejection with a smile. Why? I've managed to impress a senior designer AND he gave me good tips. His advice actually does make sense, though. I use too much sans-serif fonts in my design and don't branch out into other typefaces. Adding logos to my portfolio is going to be tricky, but I can try. I'm not sure about going to portfolio school, though. I don't even know any portfolio schools nor am I really sure what is the definition of a portfolio school. I tried Googling it and all I got was stuff like the Art Institute and I cannot afford that. What to do...

Movie Marketing: You're Doing It Right

For those of you who don't know, Disney and Pixar have created a sequel to Monsters Inc. called Monsters University. The movie isn't set to come out until June 2013, but the Disney company has already worked on marketing it. There was already a lot of hype about the trailers that were released, but now Disney and Pixar have added something else to their marketing scheme: a website for Monsters University. Now I'm not just talking about the movie. The companies have created a university website complete with information about professors, alumni, and even financial aid. There's even a store where you can buy actual Monsters University merchandise. I believe that  Disney and Pixar have raised the bar for movie marketing. The site is already viral. This is one of the reasons why my ultimate goal is to work for Disney. Their advertising creatives are top notch. I really, really hope I get to be part of their team one day. Until then, I gotta start small. Hooray for being a server at Studio Movie Grill.

To see the Monsters University site, click the link below:
http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/index.html

To see the Monsters University trailer, click the link below:
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/monsters-university/trailers/monsters-university-teaser-trailer-29717274.html

South Korean Coca Cola Campaign and Other Ways to Happiness

So here is a Coca Cola campaign set up in South Korea. For those who don't know, the guys featured on the machine are part of a boy band called 2PM. This was a really cute and interesting idea. Dance for your Coke. If you didn't notice, many of the people had smiles on their faces while they interacted with the machine. The concept behind this machine isn't new for Coke. For a while now, Coca Cola has always tried to associate their brand with happiness. Coke has created several campaigns internationally to go with their happiness theme. Here's a couple of more:

Do you guys feel that Coca Cola's advertising strategy is effective? Would Americans buy into the idea of the dance vending machine? I know that some of the YouTube comments joke that Americans would be too lazy to dance for their coke, but come on. I'm pretty sure that someone would try it because it's such a novel idea. I know I would.

Click the link below to see more of the Coke Happiness campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL35A497C9C1B48A4E

Samsung's Newest Jab at Apple

And this is why I love studying advertising. Not that I hate Apple or anything. I actually own an iPod touch and am planning to get a Macbook Pro after I graduate. It's just amazing to see what these advertisers can come up with. And the girl with the hoop earrings at 1:07 was on the PBS show Cyberchase as a girl named Bianca. Haha. How weirddd.

You gotta love these Apple loyalists, too.

Samsung Galaxy SII, S III and S IV

According to Laptop Magazine, the Samsung Galaxy S III broke records when it was launched in May with over 20 million units sold within the first 100 days of availability. That's a lot more than when the Galaxy S II was released. Honestly, I wouldn't mind getting a Galaxy S III over the new iPhone 5. I mean, it has a bigger screen and looks very sleek. There's also that feature that lets you watch videos while doing other things. That's pretty nifty. I know that Tien really wants one, and he's still rather bummed about the fact that his dad has one instead of him. Plus, the advertising done for the Galaxy series recently has been pretty awesome and effective.

If you haven't seen it, Samsung released an ad for the S II that basically pokes fun at the iPhone fandom with their waiting in line for hours or maybe even days for a new release.

I'm not trying to bash on Apple cuz they did at one point have a very good run of innovative releases. However, I think that they're really starting to run out of ideas for the iPhone. So what does Apple do instead? They decide to target Samsung and file suit about patents. Apple is now targeting the Samsung Note and the Samsung Galaxy S III. I feel like this is getting ridiculous and that Apple is just behaving childishly just because the Note and Galaxy S III are doing so well. Pfft. I don't know. 

Now on to the news that I've heard about the S IV: it's going to be bigger. The new model is expected to be on shelves by March of next year and is said to come with a 5-inch screen. That's 1up from the iPhone 5. Samsung is still working to include their flexible screen technology which was something that was supposed to show up in this year's devices but production problems have prevented that from happening. In the new Galaxy, Samsung also hopes to include a new processor that they created instead of using the Qualcomm chips found is some of the Galaxy S III variants. 

Disney Dream Portraits

Here are Annie Lebovitz's newest photos for her Disney Dream Portraits collection.  These photos have already been out about a month now and I just found them. This time the photographs feature Russell Brand as Captain Hook and Jack Black, Jason Segel, and Will Ferrell as the hitchhiking ghosts from the Haunted Mansion. Seriously, I love Annie's work. My favorite image is probably the one where Scarlett Johansson is Cinderella. I also enjoy watching the process.

You can check out behind-the-scenes shots here.

Obviously, there's going to be some heavy Photoshop going on, but the end product is still fantastic. For those of you who don't know where you can find these pictures, you can probably see them in some magazines. These portraits were designed for print advertising for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. What do you guys think of these portraits?