My Voice to the World

Find Me on Cargo Collective!: 25

Hey everyone! I’ve started making my portfolio website! Woot woot, I’m one more step closer to being finished with the term and college in general! I’m ready to get out into the ad world and start creating brilliant ideas and ads that will promote products and the cultures people reside in. Here is the url to my cargo website, http://cargocollective.com/rickymbostic I’m VERY open to opinion and suggestions, the more the merrier! Collaborative help and criticism always produces the best outcomes.

Out With the Old and In With the New: 24

I hate it every time, when I buy the newest and hottest technology available (iPad 2) and then not even within a full calender year, there is already rumors/events describing a better product or newer versions of that product. Today while looking through PopSci, I found an article that dealt with an upcoming event unveiling the iPad 3. Already? Can’t I enjoy my iPad 2 for a few years before I decide I need an improved product? However, as it is I will never see the day when I can sit down and enjoy my high-tech product for more than just a few months. On March 7, Apple will be announcing the iPad 3 along with the new features and improvements made to it. While reading the article there was a sentence that made me almost do exactly what it said. “…and of course we will be breathlessly reporting the details of the gadget that will inspire us to throw our current iPads out of the 9th-floor windows of our office in disgust.” I’m on the 4th floor of the Knight Library and it was tempting to throw it out the window. Then an image of my mom popped up in my mind and she said, “do that and you won’t get another one!” So unfortunately I will not be joining those who buy the new iPad 3 when it’s released. Why is it though, whenever a new technology comes out, does everyone need it ASAP? I feel like I’m trying to keep up with the Jones’ and if I am I’m failing horribly.

Sometimes I don’t think I’m cool enough if I don’t have the latest stuff. Such as Beats by Dre, I’m still rocking the recognizable all white iPod headphones, but now they are just old technology. In my own personal opinion (take it or leave it) it has become a new fad in my generation to have to follow the latest in technology or cry until you get it, but how this fad became to be is still a mystery to me. There must of been an ad on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel that had a subliminal message saying, “I know you kids want this! Go ask your parents and if they say no, whine and bitch until it’s sitting in your lap.” I know a lot of kids back in my childhood years who used to do this and I still see it today when I go shopping at either Best Buy, Target, and or at my work. Children literally get on the ground and start crying until their parents cave-in only in order to shut them up and to stop the embarrassing fact, that they can’t discipline their children. Having a Marine for dad, defiantly made me think twice about throwing a fit over the newest hot wheel. Soon this will all be over, once there are not enough natural resources left to make the iPad 10 in next few decades. I can only fathom what will happen when kids aren’t able to acquire the next advancements in technology. Hopefully they will come to realize that material things don’t make people truly happy. 

The Act of Valor an Act of Recruting?: 23

As many of you may know there is the new Military movie about special forces, but it’s more focus on the U.S. Navy S.E.A.L.s. The name of the movie is The Act of Valor and it’s starring active Navy S.E.A.L.s, is this a way of recruiting for the special forces branch of the Military? So far to me it looks like a yes, they have already made a few hour long TV shows dedicated to the assassination of Osama Bin Laden (History and Discovery Channels), and they have also made a collectors memorabilia package dedicated to the S.E.A.L. team that killed Osama. With all this hype of the death of Osama there has been a lot of talk about the special forces, prior to this the special forces were rarely talked about or had TV shows praising them for the good work.

I’m not here to bash on the special forces because they’re the true unspoken heroes of many wars. But isn’t that the point? Should the special forces stay unspoken and highly hidden from the public? Why is it now that the media wants to inform the public of the special forces and their highly classified missions? Maybe it’s just because the death of Osama Bin Laden is the for reason for all the mainstream media coverage and portrayals of the special forces. I know there will be kids influenced by this to one day join the Military. I was there the day I saw Black Hawk Down for the first time and I wanted to sign up the day I would turn 18. Until a few of my friends who were influenced by Military movies and shows, came back from Iraq and told me war is nothing like the media sometimes predict it. Let’s show the public the real face of war instead of just glorifying it.

All TV Shows Are The Same: 22

What’s with this new trend of creating virtually the same television shows but with a different name and twist? It’s killing me, I feel like there is nothing new on television anymore. Discovery and the History Channel are prime examples of the a-holes who do this. They have Gold Rush Alaska and Bering Sea Gold (Discovery), Ax Men and Swamp People (History), Cajun Pawn Stars and Pawn Stars (History) and the list goes on and on. How can people be so ignorant to watch virtually the same shows? It’s not only limited to television shows, companies are doing the same thing for video games as well. Except instead of just creating a new name for a game, they also use the series system. I’ve played every Call of Duty since they started and honestly, nothing has changed, they just keep adding numbers to the amount of Modern Warfare’s they produce, sometimes they go back and forth between modern warfare to WWII but not as often. I haven’t bought any Call of Duty’s since, I’m still playing the older ones and there is no significant differences. People who create these horrible video games and television shows need to let go of the notion that people will buy/watch the same thing twice if it has a different name. They need to start challenging themselves by actually taking time to use their creativity to make something unique.

Kenny Powers Dominates K-Swiss Ad: 21

Personally, if I had the money to buy whatever Kenny Power tries to sell I would…well okay maybe I’ll just watch the commercials on YouTube multiple times. When I saw the first K-Swiss commercial on TV featuring Kenny Powers I first thought, “it has a parody of some sort.” Then I searched YouTube for more of these commercial and I struck gold! Kenny Powers, more known for his work in East-Bound and Down, is one of the funniest people alive in my opinion. His vulgar and not giving a shit attitude is what makes him hilarious, I was in tears when I found the R-rated version to some of the K-Swiss commercials featuring Mr. Powers. I find them entertaining, risque, and something outside of the box. He makes commercials for K-Swiss fun and engaging because no one knows what is going to come out of his mouth next and it’s non-stop laughter. But on the other hand, there are those who don’t like the vulgar and carefree attitude of Kenny Powers. Many might find him to be a rude and disrespectful person, which doesn’t do any good for K-Swiss as a brand. Also these R-rated five minute feature are never going to find themselves on actual cable television for the fact that 90% of the feature would be either edited or “bleeped” out. I think K-Swiss has a great idea because those who love Kenny Powers will continue to wait and watch for more of these spots. However there is a lot of money that goes into making these short features for such a small target audience. Kenny Powers is absolutely hilarious but it’s not going to make me spend my money on a pair of K-Swiss.

The Academy Awards, The New Super Bowl for Ads?: 20

“The Oscars remains one of the very few high-impact programs when people are watching live,” said William White, group director for diet Coca-Cola and Coke Zero, in an interview with NY Times. I find this to be true, many people that I work with, mostly girls ages 20-50 were excited to get off work and enjoy the Oscars along with a lot of my peers from school. Both Facebook and Twitter updates from people and companies directly talking about the Oscars blew up my news feeds. However for me, I’m not that into watching it, I find it to be extremely boring. But there is no lying in saying that a large population of the United States will be watching the Oscars so why not introduce new ad spots to spark peoples attention in a brand. For Coca-Cola they ran a spot that used the song “Hooray for Hollywood” they really got into the theme of the Oscars. In another interview with Mr. Goeler of Stella Artois, stated, “…a platform like the Academy Awards aligns perfectly with that audience, a sophisticated, upscale audience.”

I believe that some of the more “expensive” companies saw the Oscars as a way to reach the audience whom have the extra luxury money to spend. Which is a smart idea because with this recession many people are cautious when spending money on products that aren’t a necessity but a want. Companies that had spots in the Oscars were; ABC, American Express, Anheuser-Busch InBev, AT&T, Walt Disney, Hyundai Motor America, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, McDonald’s, Paramount Pictures and a few more. Another thing that came to mind while reading this article, I realized that celebrities are always used in branding products and what’s better than having all the most famous actors/actresses in one place at once and have your ads run during off-air time. It’s a little far fetched but I could see how some people could relate the ad spots with the actors/actresses involved with the Oscars. Such as celebrities approving of the products without actual verbal conformation. Many people not only in the United States but the world in general are sometimes mislead or misunderstand the message perceived by advertisements.

Watch What You Create, You May See Prison: 19

Have you ever created something that was based off of another person’s original copyrighted work? I know have, but it was never used for profit, it was simply for self-amusement, my sketches and artwork have yet to leave my notebooks. Nevertheless, there are people who do create new pieces of art based of another persons’ work, which is completely fine as long as credit is given. Although for Shepard Fairey, owner of the shirt company OBEY, he is currently being sued by Associated Press for the use of an Obama picture that was later used by Mr. Fairey in the creation of the Hope poster (the Hope poster became an iconic art piece in the 2008 presidential race). He is being sued by AP because in 2009 he lied, concealed, and destroyed documents that proved his guiltiness to using AP’s Obama picture. Last Friday, in a new court case against Mr. Fairey, he admitted to lying and covering it up. He is now facing one count of contempt to the court and is looking to face half a year in prison, sentencing will be announced on July 16th of this year. This is just a friendly reminder to all you creative/innovative people out there, make sure your give credit where it’s due and a bigger reminder, don’t lie when your caught red handed or else you’ll end up in prison. However I do believe that the prison sentence was a little too harsh, the picture and the poster don’t look that similar at all, the only thing that is the same is the pose that President Obama is in. He could be in that pose anywhere, its not a copyrighted pose. But then again stealing a person’s art property is still against the law, Shepard has put himself between a rock and a hard place. Choose for yourself if the courts decision to sentence Mr. Fairey to prison is overboard or the correct move. The picture below is the comparison used in court to find the similarities and differences.

Facebook Found a New Way to Turn a Profit: 18

With the announcement that Facebook plans to go public this upcoming spring, they are trying finding new ways to make a profit. One solution is to find better ways to use the information that people easily revile on Facebook for advertisers. Tomorrow, Facebook is expected to unveil a new advertising tool that will be able to reach 425 million Facebook users on their mobile devices. However many people, in the United States and Europe are becoming skeptical of Facebook publicly handing out personal information. In Europe it has become a big problem, a proposed European-wide law may be passed soon, requiring Facebook and all other online companies that contain personal information about users, to expel any information at the users discretion. This could potentially hurt the advertising agencies worldwide, because there will be limited access to a far more larger group of people if they decide to keep their personal information hidden from advertisers and companies alike.

Research will not be as easy as it could be if the informational law is passed in Europe and in the USA. The government will be monitoring Facebook and how it shares and collects data on users for the next 20 years, even the White House has expressed concern about how little opinion users have in the security of their personal information. For advertising agencies to get a hold of 845 billion users’ personal information would be a great sigh of relief because that is less field work and money that would have to be done and used in the name of research. Nonetheless, I’m sure with the creative and innovative people that are currently in the ad world or those whom will be entering the ad world soon, will find new ways to collect information with the click of a button.

Always Drop Your Phone in Water? Problem Solved!: 17

Have you ever accidentally drop your smart phone in the toilet, bathtub, sink, and or spilled a drink on it? I know I have, it recently happened to me, I won’t go into details on how it happened but I can say that my smart phone is no longer the same. I was introduced to the new phenomenon of using a bag of rice to draw the moisture out of the phone and to my surprise it actually worked. However it didn’t work 100% there is still a few problems with it, so now I’m just waiting for AT&T to send me a new phone. Nonetheless, there is a new, better non-organic technology that completely secures your phone from water abuse. Liquipel, a nano technology company has come up with a technology that can securely protect your phone from dying in water without a case! The article doesn’t say how it’s applied to the phone probably for patent reasons but it did explain that it’s a thin coating of nano cell that covers the entire phone. The coating is as thin as a human hair! This is an excellent product for accident prone people like myself. I’m going to get this on my new phone once I receive it, this is an investment that will never lose its value, until I find a different way to destroy my phone. I just hope it’s not extremely expensive!

The Most Creative Country in the World: 16

After typing in creativity into Google I ended up stumbling on the Top 16 Creative Countries in the World, the title hooked me so had to see what it was about. Apparently there is way scientists and researchers figure out which country can claim the title of the Most Creative. Each country is examined based on their GCI (Global Creativity Index), the index uses three human factors questions to create the GCI. They’re, how technologically savvy are they? How capable is their workforce? And how open are they to new ideas? After the countries were assessed, the scientists and researchers have determined Sweden as the winner, they had a GCI of 0.923. The funniest thing is that I’ve always wanted to go to Sweden, it has always seemed like a awesome place to visit. Now I have legitimate reason to travel to Sweden, I want to know why they’ve been crowned the most creative country and why they are better than the USA, which we came in second place.

After trying to find more information on why Sweden won I went to a website that is dedicated to promoting people go to Sweden and the first thing i read was, “Sweden, the most creative place in Europe.” Then it continued to stay brag about how they have beaten the United States.  Then it later goes into how Sweden is the place to live. I thought that it was funny they would put that first, if was running the website I would have the page start with what people actually find to be value and also usable in deciding to go to Stockholm. After reviewing their travel website, I journeyed onto the United States’ travel website and I found it to be more interactive and a lot more creative. They don’t have much text, just pictures of places that people are most likely to visit. The website over all, I think is more creative than that of Sweden’s, but you can’t judge a book by its cover, hopefully soon I’ll end up in Sweden and figure out why they have beaten the USA for “Most Creative Country.”