Though I hesitate to criticize, there are some things I just don't like about the new Vaseline campaign.As a former media planner for Vaseline in Thailand, I would say Vaseline once focused on the skin health benefits and did a good job in discriminating itself among the competitors as healthy body care product. So the tonality of communication was straight-to-the-point and very functional but still kept a feminine element. In the recent campaign titled “Your skin is amazing,” speaks about healthy skin in a different way. The creative work is brilliant and enhances the strategy with great execution. But I feel that Vaseline campaign is too similar to Dove campaign in a few ways.
As a consumer, I think Vaseline is a simple, affordable product. I feel that Vaseline is trying to educate and convince me about their skin mission statement by telling me that moisturizing my skin when dry is not enough. Taking care of skin is a long-term regime and a thousand ways can disrupt your soft skin. But my Mom won’t understand what they are talking about. The majority of consumers still focus on problem solving and that’s Vaseline job to convert consumers to be more proactive to their skin.As an advertising student who loves to explore new things, I browsed the website and found out that Vaseline paid 5 celebrities to endorse the brand and be a part of skin visions activity. The only one I like belongs to Dave Navarro, a guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s addiction. I love the insight saying “My skin is my canvas…my tattoos represent a time in my life….” I hope this quote is real.
Every morning (well, not really) i saw people drinking Red Bull to refresh themselves from drowsiness and fatigue. It is obvious that when you got many tasks to finish in one night or one day to survive the Adcenter, Red Bull is on the top list. For me I rarely drink it because I am distracted by Skittles. Skittles give me glucose to stay awake at night. I have been addicted to Skittles for 2 months. I bought a lot of Skittles presently. Now I realize that i need to stay away from that small round fruit chews. I don't want to feel the rainbow anymore. My addiction was getting worse last week because one night i woke up at 4am. and i grabbed my rainbow candy and put them in my mouth. That's was too much. I want to quit Skittling.
We are officially done for the first semester at the Adcenter. It's a moment that i had craved for since November. I did some good jobs and fair jobs or bad works but i know i am improving myself. The first 15 weeks taught me a lot not only advertising business and planning but also social interaction and team working.
I learned many things here from the scratch. I learned more about American's brands. I learned how to put myself toward and pull myself out of trouble. I learned to work with people and their personalities. I learn to embrace failure and imperfection and learn to cherish myself with victory and pride. I maximize and utilize my positivity for this school.
Next, It's time for myself. I want to do many things i could not do it during the school. I bought some books and magazines. I am planning my trip to New York and DC. I am thinking about building my portfolio and blogging more.
The next semester at the Adcenter will be fun and exciting. We will move to the new building, located a couple blocks away from my place. and Bye bye 1313 Main Street.
Something I wanna do in the US before I leave (to answer Jordan's question)
- Going to NYC - Going to the MoMA - Visiting friends in California - Sipping Malibu cocktail on the beach - Meeting with my blog friends - Stepping into the US advertising business - Being an ordinary and silly tourist and having fun with sightseeing around this country - Making Adcenter's friends happier and better - Walking with Jordan Childs in the park at night + Christmas decorations (We actually did this and had a good time together, haha)
My first semester at the Adcenter is going to end soon. It doesn't mean that i am not busy now - we still have big presentations awaiting. Yesterday, I realized that studying at the Adcenter. I need to find a balance between "quality" and "quantity."
Quantity without quality is bad. Quality without quantity is bad too. No one can tell you how much quality you should have or how many quantity you should acquire even Rick Boyko or David Ogilvy. To find it, you need to spend your life through it. You will find out many ideas that you crunch are not good and at the same time, you want to do the best in everything but you don't have time.
We have been taught that "Good enough is not enough." It's a juxtaposition between "quality" and "quantity." When we are knackered and tired, we want to say "enough," one of my classmates told us that "Good enough is plenty." It's very hilarious. The photo is from Johnny Blood via Flickr
Two or three weeks ago, i was invited to Pre-Potluck Thanksgiving party at my Adcenter friend's place. I was thinking about what to bring and it was hard for me because I am not good at cooking at all. Then i decided to do Jello Shots. I had 2 recipes - one is strawberry jello with Vodka and lime jello with Malibu. It turned out great and i really love them and ended up eating them too much and dealing with intoxication. On that night I put myself joining my first scavenger hunt game with some Adcenter friends. I ate raw egg, stole 5 pumpkins, and bought Vagisil. It was such a fun experience. Thanks to my friends for spicing up my life.
I am an ordinary person who really enjoy signing in and signing out "Facebook" website. I love it because it keeps me getting in touch with my friends at VCU Adcenter, Thailand, New York, UK, and etc. Facebook is clean and delicate for me.
Recently, Leah Pearlman - the product manager of Facebook ads posted an information about Facebook new advertising solution. I love what's not changing but what is changing....
You now have a way to connect with products, businesses, bands, celebrities and more on Facebook.
Ads should be getting more relevant and more meaningful to you.
You now have the option to share actions you take on other sites with your friends on Facebook.
I don't like them but it sounds better than "Myspace-Era." I feel good that i won't associate with irrelevant ads. Here is an example of Facebook Axe ad. Some posted something good about Axe while some posted something bad. It's reality. I hope Axe's brand manager keeps reading his/her facebook ad.
At VCU Adcenter, we have the Adcenter Quote Wall near the computer lab. Here are some nice quotes...
"Oh my God, I got rejected by match.com" Holly H. "I would taste test my product but it's the boy scouts" Leslie B. "It's sad when one person goes to Costco to get a ream of bananas." Charlie H. "Someone art directed that cupcake!" Slate D. "He hates us...Do you think we could get a group discount on assisted suicide." anonymous "The average stomach of a cocker spaniel can hold up to 12 balloons of heroin." Erica P.
And this is my quote "I don't use Tupperware, I use bamboo box."
Last Saturday, I went to the party and drew something nice on Joey's wall.
Do I love Italian food? Yes! Do I love ice cream? Yes!
Since I have been in Richmond, VA for a couple of months, I know where my favorite ice cream is. But i am still looking for a nice Italian restaurant. How about the fusion of ice cream and Italian food? Maybe?? Let me introduce Spaghetti Ice Cream maker. Spaghetti ice cream is a fun look-a-like that you will love to make and eat. This post is not paid by advertiser. I just feel it's really fun.
I knew I had not blogged for a long time. The best excuse is "I had to practice singing for American Idol." Anyway, while some people here at VCU Adcenter were busy with liquid protein, Burt's Bees, Dyson, etc., my heart was in Dubai. I was wondering how the advertising industry in Middle East will be like until I did some research on it. No surprise that people in Middle East are like the rest of the world.
They don't trust advertisements. They expose to online media and email. They need to control the media. Viral marketing is more popular than other form of advertising.
So far, the Middle East market is growing and more interesting. There were two creatives from Arabian Gulf Advertising that won the Cannes Lion Young Creatives 2007. One of them was interviewed by local press and said "The world is just beginning to identify the UAE as a melting pot of global ideas and creativity."
How about Bangkok? We did a good job last two years but nothing solid happened locally. I guess we overlook the young generations and have no basic foundation. We are so busy with global glory but do nothing with our industry in Thailand. It's lame. For example, Dubai Media City - a media hub in the region where all media-related businesses thrive together. DMC creates a world-class environment for every kind of media business, which broadly includes media and marketing services, printing and publishing, music, film, new media, leisure and entertainment, broadcasting and information agencies.
And Dubai Studio City - they facilitate the creation and development of an environment and world-class infrastructure to foster the growth of television, film, and music industries in the region.
Dubai Lynx Advertising Awards - This is an ad that won the award. (Karate class for kids by Grey Worldwide) Peace in the middle east.
It is a great honor for me having my blog, A Closet on this niche rank called "Advertising Young Minds - The top27 blogs of people under 27" I was so surprised and stunned by the fact. Thanks Daniel M. at AdStructure blog for his creation. The ranking is witty and awesome. See the full details here.
While people are enjoying Apple iPhone and knock off price news, there are many people considering to buy iClone phone as well. Meizu Minione M8 phone is manufactured in China and it look like iPhone. See the news in details from CNet Asia.
I am amazed by how technology is easily copied. And it comes fast. It made me realize that being different and innovative are not easy at all. iPhone is not cool anymore.
Anything from Japan is always cute and adorable. Copet is an example. Copet are polygon animal characters designed and illustrated by Seijiro Kubo. Some of his works were engaged in AIWA advertising in Japan. We also can do Copet paper crafts from their website. Copet is a polygon zoo.
First of all, I went to Great Clips last Friday for haircut. It's only $11. I don't like my haircut at all and service is terrible. I was disappointed. I will pay more for better thing. Last week, my roommate witnessed and suspected one criminal and many cops paid us a visit at 2.00am. I hate this situation. Two parties in a roll....i love it.It's my birthday on last Sunday...it's sad because i had to do my assignments and team project all day long. Pity me.
The next 4 days I have to come up and present about my God and my relationship with God. Yesterday, I thought of God all day. It will be very interesting assignment for me. That's why we call it, creative thinking class.
I am aware that tonight Britney Spears was in the MTV Video Music Awards at Las Vegas and performed her new song, Gimme more. As far as i know from reading an article from Washington post, MTV want to improve their viewership that has been continuously dropped since 2004.
It doesn't work for me at least. Watching Britney back in music industry is not my call. This is my favorite part of this piece of reading, "The "awards" part of the show usually is overshadowed by the performances and the chance that something outrageous will happen, like same-sex kisses or naughty utterances. The lack of excitement in recent years, amid a government crackdown in media decency, has been blamed for the slide in ratings."
Deconstruction is meaningful to me. I often de-construct things in my life and make something new. Even doing some homeworks at VCU Adcenter (Oh gosh, why i just can't stop writing about Adcenter) I need to de-construct my life stories and arrange them for better presentation. For me, deconstruction is really helpful in looking things in many perspectives.
that's why i posted many de-construction arts here. This one is another example of my inspiration, Adidas Deconstructed by Yoshiaki Kaihatsu. I found here.
The most boring package in the US., i guess. I need it by the way to survive 60 weeks at VCU Adcenter. And Redbull will be my second weapon. Now, I am working on point-of-view statement for GAP, three self-portraits, colonial village, unethical ads analysis, and more readings.
Though I hesitate to criticize, there are some things I just don't like about the new Vaseline campaign. As a former media planner for Vaseline in Thailand, I would say Vaseline once focused on the skin health benefits and did a good job in discriminating itself among the competitors as healthy body care product. So the tonality of communication was straight-to-the-point and very functional but still kept a feminine element. In the recent campaign titled “Your skin is amazing,” speaks about healthy skin in a different way. The creative work is brilliant and enhances the strategy with great execution. But I feel that Vaseline campaign is too similar to Dove campaign in a few ways. 
As an advertising student who loves to explore new things, I browsed the website and found out that Vaseline paid 5 celebrities to endorse the brand and be a part of skin visions activity. The only one I like belongs to Dave Navarro, a guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s addiction. I love the insight saying “My skin is my canvas…my tattoos represent a time in my life….” I hope this quote is real. 
