15/03/2006
Campbell's damn good advertisement
I’ve seen good ads in this lifetime and I always pay attention to the excellent ones. And I have found a damn near perfect one. If not for the colour and parlor of the ‘coaster’, I would have called it the PERFECT ad.
The advertisement I am talking about is Campbell’s ‘No vegetable in vegetable soup’ ad.
The advertisement is printed on a coaster which is a long-term gift item. Smart move. You want to leave a consistent and permanent image in the mind of consumers. PLUS they don’t make ads like this anymore.
It is somewhat editorial, very direct and slightly on the long side. Most Malaysians or Asians wouldn’t consider it to be a good ad. Sadly, most Malaysians would prefer the ‘We have the best deal in the world’ ads or ‘Superb pricing and excellent quality’ ads. So direct that you’d know what’s coming at you a planet away!
Anyway, here’s what a good ad, in my personal opinion, should be like.
CAMPBELL’S NO VEGE IN VEGE SOUP AD
*** start of ad ***
Headline:
THERE IS NO VEGETABLE IN OUR BEST-SELLING VEGETABLE SOUP.
(One smart move. No cliché exclamation mark there. Just a full stop…like very nonchalant about it. It gets your attention with the headline, as in, WHAT? NO vegetable in your vegetable soup? Then what IS in there – plastic?)
Editorial:
How utterly scandalous!
To think that for the past 130 years, America’s favorite vegetable soup has been made, not from a single delectable leaf of vegetable. But amazingly, from fruit instead.
Alas! It is true.
And not just any run-of-the-mill fruit, mind you.
Ripe, luscious, juicy tomatoes, to be exact.
“But isn’t that a vegetable?”, you argue.
‘fraid not, maam.
You see, the tomato as it turns out, is not what it’s perceived to be.
Grown in England as an ornamental plant, this berry (Yes!) was carried by colonists to North America in the 19th century. But because only vegetables were taxable in days of yore, the Customs for the Port of New York conveniently labeled it as such. And it has been known as one, ever since.
Fruit. Vegetable. Whatchamacallit.
It doesn’t matter, really.
Semantics, after all, is not on our list of priorities in bringing you the best tomato soup there is.
Unlike, say, quality.
The quality of our tomatoes, for instance, which are specially grown at a specific day and night temperature differences of 13 degrees Celsius.
Then tenderly ripened in nature’s womb of alluvial that’s 100% au naturelle. And harvested at the optimum level of antioxidants and fructose that your body needs.
To stay hale and hearty.
That’s why we are especially proud to admit, that not only do we use fruit in our best-selling vegetable soup.
We use only the best ones.
Ironically, that leaves us with a niggling question.
If our best-selling soup is made entirely from fruit, shouldn’t it be then be our best-selling drink instead?
Oh, boy.
Here we go again.
**end of ad***
09:08 Posted in Work | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
28/11/2005
Yes!!!! I made it!!!
I made it!!! Can you believe it???
Nanowrimo winner icon
I, myself, can't believe I went this far. Only a few days ago, I thought about giving up. 50,000 words...when I have only written 35,056 words? I had about 14,944 words more to go!!! Where in the world do I find the time?
How I progressed from 0 to 50,000
I don't get anything from NanoWriMo except for a web certificate that I can look at from time to time. And also tell the world that I made it. I can boast about it to my friends and family members...but I don't get anything monetary in return.
But the feeling of having come so far, trudged through the month of non-sleep, coffee, ciggarrettes and grouchiness is....worth it!
I can't tell you how I feel. The jubilance. The 'Yes!!!" It's a personal challenge. And I've reached it. And now I can start going back to work and tell all my clients how sorry I am for having neglected them...blah blah blah.
But whenever I set out to do something, I don't often give up. I came very damn close to just GIVING UP. But then I remembered....damn, GIVE UP is not even in my dictionary.
So, thank you to the staff of Nanowrimo for giving me the courage. For helping me see that anything can be done with a deadline. Although the deadline is crazy, but if one sets one's mind to it, ANYTHING can happen.
You've just added one extra notch to my bedpost...and I have one more thing, one more credential to boast about now.
Thank you!
Marsha
www.marshamaung.com
20:10 Posted in Being human , Blog , Leisure , Ramblings , Work | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this
04/11/2005
50,000 words in 28th days…
It’s only the fifth of November, you can still make it! Check out this site www.nanowrino.org to join in the challenge of writing a short novel in a short period of time. This challenge is designed to push those who want to write a novel, have been dreaming of writing a novel, wish that they can write a novel, very damn well should write a novel to actually write a novel.
You know, I think this concept works. No novel is written in one shot. I mean, let’s face it, the biggest challenge is to get past the 3 chapter mark. If you’re a writer, write for a living or have been writing for fun, you know what I mean. You start out gung-ho about everything thinking that you have the funniest, greatest plot in the Universe, thinking that you’re going to get that Pulitzer prize next year…and 3 chapters down, you think it all suck and they all don’t tie together. The characters start to dull down and you lose track of all the characters you introduced and….worse…you run out ideas and no longer have any inkling what you’re writing about.
That, my friend, is the classic symptom of writer’s block. Every writer faces this one. (Back me up here, writer friends).
So, the only way to go…the same advice I gave a friend…is to go on, go on, go on, push yourself to go on. Don’t look back, just write. Whatever it is, write. No plot, get that extra caffeine push. No more characters to introduce, look back into your photo albums, you’ll find some funny characters that’ll fit right in. The point is to continue trudging on till the end. You’ll have plenty of time to edit, proofread and re-edit it.
And trust me, the bulk of the time, you’ll spend editing it, not writing it.
So, this challenge makes sense to all you budding writers out there. Just go on. Write that 50,000 words. I mean, I write about 10 articles a day, each article containing 400-500 words. That makes 4,000, at least. Don’t tell me I can’t push myself to write 1,600 words a day. And if I lag off one day, I still only have to write 3,200 words a day….nothing compared to what I normally write anyway, right?
So, go on to www.nanowrimo.org now and sign up for the challenge. I already did and have passed my 5,000 mark. It’s still far off the target but the amazing thing is that I am actually moving along with my storyline.
So, all budding writers, go push yourself and write now!
17:50 Posted in Blog , Leisure , Web , Work | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
04/06/2005
The very basics of design
Design is a very subjective thing, therefore, if you ask me how to come up with a first class design for your marketing collateral or publishing mediums, it would be very unfair for me or anyone else to tell you what is a good design and what is a bad design. But there are certain elements and principles that we should look for in a design to determine whether the design and layout of the material will be able to carry the message across effectively to the readers and your potential market. The main aim of every design material related to advertising or promotion is either to sell something, promote something or brand a company.
Keep the design and layout simple and clean
The more cluttered or messy the layout and design is for your marketing collateral, the harder it would be for your customers to find the important stuff. So, don’t overcrowd the design of your marketing materials. First and foremost, it should be kept clean and very simple. Yes, we all want to fit as much information as we can into the design but hey, keep the purpose of the design of the marketing stuff in mind. You want to design a novel or design something that sells.
Design Colors
If you have a set of corporate colors (like the colors that you use on your logo, letterhead, envelopes…etc), keep to the same colors in your design. You should present a very simplistic, unique, corporate, professional, consistent image, not a haphazard one. How can anyone rely on you when you have that kind of image, right? It’s best that you not use too many colors for your design. And another important point about designing marketing materials is this; avoid using all the colors of the rainbow in one design! You’re not trying to confuse your customers, you’re trying to make it easy for them to find information, attract them and urge them to buy something from you! I would say using 2 or 3 main colors from your corporate color for the design is good enough.
Fonts
There are tons of free fonts (quite incredibly attractive ones at that) that you can find off the Internet for the design of your marketing stuff – but the sad news is that it’s not always possible to use all of them. Keep to one single font for the content in your design, and if you wish to, you can use a different (a bolder and louder font) for the headings and titles in your design.
Images in your design
Unlike web publishing, using images in the design of your brochures, flyers, menus, company profiles is always a good idea. Enticing your customers with useful pictures or diagrams that illustrates your point or including pictures of your products in the design of your marketing stuff is encouraged. Be careful and weary of using stock photos from the web for your marketing material. One, the resolution of such images (those that you can get off the Internet) is never good enough for printing purposes. Two, you’ll get in trouble with the people who actually owns the rights to those images. So, if possible, if you want to use pictures or illustrative images in your design, it’s best to either get the pictures for the design yourself (with your digital camera) or you should just purchase it.
© 2005, Marsha Maung
Email : marshamaung@yahoo.com
Site : http://www.marshamaung.com
Feel free to reprint or publish this article on your website, ezine, magazine, newsletter…etc. Please include the bio, links and credit intact.
21:36 Posted in Work | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this