I grew up a Baltimore Orioles fan. I still wish the O's well, and root for them almost all of the time. Almost. When they are playing the Washington Nationals, I have a conflict of interest that always finally sides with DC. My love for all sports in DC is too great to go against them when Baltimore comes to town.
Growing up an O's fan (and having a mother from upstate New York who cheered on the Mets as a child), there is one team that I have always hated in baseball. That would be the New York Yankees. Not only are they a rival of the O's in the same AL East division, but there was one moment in the rivalry where things somehow went the Yankees way, and I fumed for months.
Jeffrey Maier is a name I'll never forget. He was the 12-year-old kid who gave the Yankees a home run and the momentum against the O's the last time the O's made the playoffs in 1996. He took what would have been a caught ball for the 3rd out of the 6th inning and pulled it with his glove over the fence into the front row of right field. None of the umps saw it (conspiracy), and a 2-run homer was given to the Yankees. The Yanks went on to win the game and the series, and Jeffrey Maier got to be on David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Good Morning America. Ridiculous.
However, I now won't have as bad a taste in my mouth when someone mentions the Yankees. This is because their owner, George Steinbrenner, has put some of the loads of money he has to good use. Steinbrenner announced today that the Yankees will donate $1 million to the Virginia Tech Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund! They will also play a charity exhibition game at Virginia Tech sometime in 2008!
This reminds us of what is really important in life. As an avid sports fan, I sometimes get too excited and think that a loss is the end of the world. Anyone who has ever been in the stands with me at Lane Stadium after a Hokie loss can attest to that. But possibly the only positive thing that a tragedy like 4/16/07 can bring about is a sense of perspective.
A loss in sports is not the end of the world. It's a loss in sports. That's it. Because of a rivalry, I have cursed the Yankees my whole life. Not to say that I'm a Yankee-supporter now, but I am a Yankee-respecter. Along with all of the other rivals that supported Virginia Tech after the tragedy (West Virginia University, Miami University, the University of Virginia, etc.), the Yankees put aside sports for a second and looked at the big picture.
To the New York Yankees, I say thank you from all of Hokie Nation.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Fear of Restraint
Our commencement speaker last week was Keith Reinhard, the head of DDB Worldwide. He was incredibly entertaining and gave an amazingly honest and inspirational speech that hit home with a bunch of 20 somethings who had just finished the Adcenter.
The part that hit home the most for me was when he talked about "the fear of restraint." He told us that we, as advertisers, have the power to influence the world and shape its culture. There will always be the chance to make a campaign that says something trivial or raunchy. There will always be the chance to make something funny just because it's funny, even when you are risking damage on the moral character of society.
He told us that this is the easy way out. Most advertisers have a fear of restraint. They let their laziness take a hold of them, and they stop trying to make something great, and instead make something raunchy or offensive.
Just like any other fear, the only way to continue is to face it and run through it. He told us to always face our fear of restraint head on, and to never be lazy. This is what we, as the next generation of advertisers, must do. As our society's morals dwindle year by year, and music videos become less like works of art and more like soft-core pornography, we as advertisers have the chance to help out the world by saying something meaningful and inspirational.
We hold a powerful tool in our hands. Use it wisely.
The part that hit home the most for me was when he talked about "the fear of restraint." He told us that we, as advertisers, have the power to influence the world and shape its culture. There will always be the chance to make a campaign that says something trivial or raunchy. There will always be the chance to make something funny just because it's funny, even when you are risking damage on the moral character of society.
He told us that this is the easy way out. Most advertisers have a fear of restraint. They let their laziness take a hold of them, and they stop trying to make something great, and instead make something raunchy or offensive.
Just like any other fear, the only way to continue is to face it and run through it. He told us to always face our fear of restraint head on, and to never be lazy. This is what we, as the next generation of advertisers, must do. As our society's morals dwindle year by year, and music videos become less like works of art and more like soft-core pornography, we as advertisers have the chance to help out the world by saying something meaningful and inspirational.
We hold a powerful tool in our hands. Use it wisely.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
MoonPie Madness is on the air!!
About an hour after my final Portfolio Review at the Adcenter I was at Sine's Irish Pub celebrating finishing my two years of advertising graduate school. After sipping on a few pints of Guiness, I planned on stopping by school on my way home because I forgot something. When I got there, I heard the most amazing news I could have possibly heard on this already glorious day...
The NPR radio piece on the VCU Adcenter aired that morning. And MoonPie Madness got a full minute of conversation and quotes! We made national radio! 1.5 million people from all around the country heard about our MoonPie eating contest!
I was ecstatic. Not only as a part of the team that pulled this all off for less than $500 and only help from MoonPie in the form of free product. I was ecstatic as the teams Brand Manager whose job it has been all semester to track the brand impressions that we have generated. YouTube got us over 12,000. The Richmond Times-Dispatch article got us around 28,000. The local CBS6 11:00 News piece got us 35,000. But this was huge.
On the morning of May 15th, we had generated 106,000 MoonPie brand impressions. Now we've generated 1.6 million MoonPie brand impressions. All with less than $100 out of each of our pockets.
Talk about a resume booster.
The NPR radio piece on the VCU Adcenter aired that morning. And MoonPie Madness got a full minute of conversation and quotes! We made national radio! 1.5 million people from all around the country heard about our MoonPie eating contest!
I was ecstatic. Not only as a part of the team that pulled this all off for less than $500 and only help from MoonPie in the form of free product. I was ecstatic as the teams Brand Manager whose job it has been all semester to track the brand impressions that we have generated. YouTube got us over 12,000. The Richmond Times-Dispatch article got us around 28,000. The local CBS6 11:00 News piece got us 35,000. But this was huge.
On the morning of May 15th, we had generated 106,000 MoonPie brand impressions. Now we've generated 1.6 million MoonPie brand impressions. All with less than $100 out of each of our pockets.
Talk about a resume booster.
A newfound respect for Green Day
I heard Green Day's newest single today for the first time. It's a cover of "Working Class Hero" by John Lennon, and it is done very well.
Anytime someone covers an artist of the stature of John Lennon, they are walking the fine line of putting their own mark on the song while not infuriating the purist fans of the original artist. Green Day did a great job on both ends. The song is distinctly Green Day, with Billy Joe's recognizable voice and the band's rebellious but straight-forward sound. At the same time, they kept the tempo at the same slow pace that Lennon had it, which is out of the norm for Green Day's fast-paced style. What came out was an amazing and modern rock ballad for the working man.
While many artists today successfully cover songs from the past and walk that fine line well, most fall short in one major area: they don't give credit to the original artist. You always have to search through the CD booklet (which are being read less and less these days with our lack of CD buying and obsession with downloading) to find the credits area for each song. There you find "Words & Music by [insert old rock legend here]" written in 6 point font. It's like finding a needle in a haystack.
Many 12 year old kids in the world have never been educated about the music of the 60s and 70s, and therefore don't even realize that the song they are listening to is not written by their new favorite band of 25 year old guys. While I'll venture to guess that while most 12 year olds have at least heard of John Lennon, the vast majority have never heard Lennon's original track of "Working Class Hero."
Which brings me to how Green Day got my respect in a way very few bands have ever managed to do before. As the last 15 seconds of the distorted guitar and drums fade away, the John Lennon's voice and folk guitar are slowly faded into the song. The song then ends with John Lennon's original ending, which might shock the 12 year old into a state of realization. All of a sudden, their eyes will be opened to the fact that Green Day's newest song was written by some old guy, which will get them to ask around about who wrote the original.
Most likely, it will be their parents that tell them the answer. The kid will feel enlightened, the parents will feel cool again, and John Lennon's memory will be crystallized in another generation's memory.
Great job Green Day.
Anytime someone covers an artist of the stature of John Lennon, they are walking the fine line of putting their own mark on the song while not infuriating the purist fans of the original artist. Green Day did a great job on both ends. The song is distinctly Green Day, with Billy Joe's recognizable voice and the band's rebellious but straight-forward sound. At the same time, they kept the tempo at the same slow pace that Lennon had it, which is out of the norm for Green Day's fast-paced style. What came out was an amazing and modern rock ballad for the working man.
While many artists today successfully cover songs from the past and walk that fine line well, most fall short in one major area: they don't give credit to the original artist. You always have to search through the CD booklet (which are being read less and less these days with our lack of CD buying and obsession with downloading) to find the credits area for each song. There you find "Words & Music by [insert old rock legend here]" written in 6 point font. It's like finding a needle in a haystack.
Many 12 year old kids in the world have never been educated about the music of the 60s and 70s, and therefore don't even realize that the song they are listening to is not written by their new favorite band of 25 year old guys. While I'll venture to guess that while most 12 year olds have at least heard of John Lennon, the vast majority have never heard Lennon's original track of "Working Class Hero."
Which brings me to how Green Day got my respect in a way very few bands have ever managed to do before. As the last 15 seconds of the distorted guitar and drums fade away, the John Lennon's voice and folk guitar are slowly faded into the song. The song then ends with John Lennon's original ending, which might shock the 12 year old into a state of realization. All of a sudden, their eyes will be opened to the fact that Green Day's newest song was written by some old guy, which will get them to ask around about who wrote the original.
Most likely, it will be their parents that tell them the answer. The kid will feel enlightened, the parents will feel cool again, and John Lennon's memory will be crystallized in another generation's memory.
Great job Green Day.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
"Your Majesty, those are NASCAR fans..."
Last Thursday was a very interesting day for the city of Richmond. We were double-booked. Besides the effect this had on traffic (Richmonders aren't used to a lot of traffic, so there was a lot of complaining), it also was an intriguing look at culture.
On Cary Street, they blocked off the roads because NASCAR was in town. The drivers all park their cars on the street and you can meet some of them and check out their cars. This is always a huge event here, since Richmond International Speedway is a major stop on the NASCAR circuit. It also is one of the few "night tracks" on the circuit, since most of the Richmond races are under the lights. I grew up only 2 hours north in Fairfax, yet I had never experienced NASCAR until I got here. The hype around Richmond is incredibly exciting, even if you don't normally follow the sport.
About 8 blocks away at the Virginia Capitol building, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip were visiting Richmond as a brief stop before heading to Williamsburg and Jamestown for the 400th Anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement. There was music from all sorts of different genres represented, and thousands of people picnicked on the Capitol Lawn waiting for a chance to see British Royalty. The Queen and the Prince made their walk for about a half hour, waving and having their pictures taken, and then went into the Capitol to give a speech to the state representatives.
I can't even imagine what the conversation had to be to explain to the Queen why there was another major event that was causing traffic in the city that day. Has the Queen ever heard of NASCAR? Who knows.
But the one thing I noticed about this city is that Richmonders take pride in their culture, but also give a lot of respect for other cultures. When city officials realized that they had double-booked the downtown area, they didn't make NASCAR back down because of the Queen, even though it had been 50 years since the Queen had been to Richmond and NASCAR comes twice a year. They still had the same fun celebration of the sport that they would have had if they had been the only event in town like they are used to. Richmonders were probably proud of the fact that they could have their beloved NASCAR represented at the same time as the Royal Family of our former days when we were a colony represented right down the street. It showed the diversity of Richmond and the importance that they put on their own culture of car racing, but also the importance of respecting another culture. They wanted to the Queen to see NASCAR for the first time. I think it was an important gesture to the residents of Richmond, and I'm proud that I can call myself a Richmonder, even if it's only for a couple years.
On Cary Street, they blocked off the roads because NASCAR was in town. The drivers all park their cars on the street and you can meet some of them and check out their cars. This is always a huge event here, since Richmond International Speedway is a major stop on the NASCAR circuit. It also is one of the few "night tracks" on the circuit, since most of the Richmond races are under the lights. I grew up only 2 hours north in Fairfax, yet I had never experienced NASCAR until I got here. The hype around Richmond is incredibly exciting, even if you don't normally follow the sport.
About 8 blocks away at the Virginia Capitol building, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip were visiting Richmond as a brief stop before heading to Williamsburg and Jamestown for the 400th Anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement. There was music from all sorts of different genres represented, and thousands of people picnicked on the Capitol Lawn waiting for a chance to see British Royalty. The Queen and the Prince made their walk for about a half hour, waving and having their pictures taken, and then went into the Capitol to give a speech to the state representatives.
I can't even imagine what the conversation had to be to explain to the Queen why there was another major event that was causing traffic in the city that day. Has the Queen ever heard of NASCAR? Who knows.
But the one thing I noticed about this city is that Richmonders take pride in their culture, but also give a lot of respect for other cultures. When city officials realized that they had double-booked the downtown area, they didn't make NASCAR back down because of the Queen, even though it had been 50 years since the Queen had been to Richmond and NASCAR comes twice a year. They still had the same fun celebration of the sport that they would have had if they had been the only event in town like they are used to. Richmonders were probably proud of the fact that they could have their beloved NASCAR represented at the same time as the Royal Family of our former days when we were a colony represented right down the street. It showed the diversity of Richmond and the importance that they put on their own culture of car racing, but also the importance of respecting another culture. They wanted to the Queen to see NASCAR for the first time. I think it was an important gesture to the residents of Richmond, and I'm proud that I can call myself a Richmonder, even if it's only for a couple years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
