I <3 Barbie Dolls

FIRST OFF: let me say that I'm sorry that I didn't post last week, I have no excuse except forgetfulness...which is a REAL burden! But hopefully you all can forgive me and let me explain what I think I'm going to be doing for this Thrusday's (1/29/09) assignment.


Assignment:


1. Choose a real product, research info about the company and tis products online.


2. Develop an original ad campaign for the product.


3. Prepare a copy platform for your product/campaign.


4. Develop a creative 30 second radio spot that first your platform strategy.


5. Bring latest electronic draft to next class




Now as you can guess, I'm not going to put all of my assignment on here... in fact I'm not putting any of my assignment in this blog at all! I am just going to explain my reasoning and strategy behind my product that I have chosen... BARBIE DOLLS!!!





When I found our assignment was to find an actual product and create an original ad campaign for it...my first reaction was, "Seriously? Where am I going to find ANYTHING that can spark my imagination to MAKE a campaign?" So.. I sat in the Mac lab for oh.. I'd say 2 minutes after Dr. King told us our assignment...and I recieved "my vision".


As a kid, I grew up with seriously 100 Barbie dolls... I even had a HUGE tub that my parents bought at Wal-Mart that barely held all of them. So why NOT do my campaign on Barbie dolls? I mean the real reason I started my Barbie-mania was because my grandma gave me her old Barbie doll.





I think that for my campaign, I will try to show/emphasize that Barbie dolls are
NOT a thing of the past, but a toy that most young girls like to play with. Even though some may argue that Barbie dolls promote anorexia or "the perfect image" a woman is to uphold, I think that Barbie dolls, like Hot Wheels for boys, create imagination and spark creativity.


With this assignment I hope to bring emotion and a type of love to the table that will impact my listeners to understand the meaning of family and of imagination. I plan to do so by having a two or more voice ad, one voice being a young girl and the other being her grandmother. I strongly believe in family and connectivity within the generations and I think that with this piece I can try to fill in the gap between generations.

The Power Of Writing

For the most part, we've all watched Anchorman, a movie made about a San Diegan anchorman who is stuck in the 60's way of thinking. There is one scene that honestly can make me laugh, even on the darkest of days. It is where Ron Burgendy's female opponent, Veronica Corningstone, happens to rewrite the script on the telepromter to humiliate Ron ON AIR!


In our book, chapter 2 has everything that we need to know about scriptwriting. How to communicate effectively, making sure everything is accurate, keeping the point of view in mind as we're writing the script for a commercial, and using proper language as well as punctuation. I NEVER knew how much detail was behind scriptwriting. Whenever I watch TV, go to a movie or even turn on the radio.. I just assumed that the talent is the person who comes up with everything that is coming out of their mouths...and now I know... that it is the writer's talent shining through the speakers mouths!


In class on Tuesday, Dr. King gave us a challenge: To listen to the way people talk at McConn or in our dorms...and I did just that. Yesterday morning before our scriptwriting class, Alex "Barbie" Canfield and I went to McConn to get a coffee and an impromptu cookie. It was there that I counted the "um's", "like's", and "you know's" in various conversations around us. In one case, there were two girls that were working behind counter that were obviously talking about their problems that happened the night before. From the 2-3 minutes that I was standing there I heard 10 "um's", 15 "likes" and 3 "you know's". WOW! :) I never really noticed how much our generation uses these words in just a simple conversation.


I also have also been thinking about how I used to work at McDonalds (yes, I worked at McDonalds...the worst 3 years of my life), and I remembered how my bosses always reminded us to use "suggestive selling". That means whenever the customer has finished their ordering we would politely ask "Would you like to try our special today? We're selling 2 apple pies for a dollar today!". In radio and even in television, I've found out that for commercials.. you kind of need to use the "suggestive selling" approach as well as the use of colorful animation through visual and/or audible effects. For commercials, the radio industry uses sound effects to make the listener imagine what's going on... like a door creaking or a door slamming. On TV we're able to see the object itself and see how it looks, it's size, and the reaction that other people have had using the product.


Well kid's... that's what I've thought about most all week! TTFN...Ta Ta For Now!!! <3 Glenda

Opinion script...tell me whatcha think! :)

GLENDA My father suffers from severe pain…no, he doesn’t have cancer or a rare type of medical illness… my father is a victim of persecution…and not because of his faith, but his trouble communicating to people through “our” language. You see my dad’s from Peru…and YES he’s LEGAL! But something happened when he got in the immigration line at the airport, he wasn’t seen as a child of God anymore… he was seen as an immigrant…a minority. I don’t remember when I realized that my mom was white and my dad was dark. But I do remember sitting on a stool in the dish room of a Marriott hotel watching my dad wash dishes along with the other Latinos and wondering why those nice guys weren’t out on the main floor ringing up orders. Whose rule was it that you HAVE to speak English in America? I understand that English is the primary language here, but why do we have to force other people to lose a part their culture? God made us different and yet he made us in his image… so why do we judge? What happened to equality? What happened to the land of the free? We’re all immigrants, and we all have had some family member in the past or present who’ve struggled. I think the White Stripes couldn’t have put it better when singing, “White Americans, what? Nothing better to do? Why don’t you kick yourself out? You’re an immigrant too.”

Know Your Past...

So many people that are my age DO NOT know where they've come from. It really irks me when I read about American citizens saying rude and disrespectful things about other races and/or religions. Let me share something with everyone... WE ALL CAME FROM ADAM AND EVE! WE ARE ALL CHILDREN OF GOD! Don't try to act like you're better than everybody else...because God is the true, and only form of purity that we should accept. So when people say that the immigrants that are in the United States should go back to their own country... I can't help but laugh. If they did.. shoot.. you'd be coming too!