Madness

...is the one word that pretty much sums up my whole life right now, but mostly in a good way. I've been averaging 60-something hours a week at the agency on at least five different clients and my weekends have been and are being booked solid. I'm actually at the agency right now. It's so different with no one here. It's raining like crazy and I rode my bike here so I have to wait for it to stop before I can go home and eat some dinner.

Anyways, yesterday a bunch of us dressed up in our best retro skits, suits & ties to honor the third season of Mad Men, which premiers tomorrow night on AMC! It was swell, and we hit up a piano bar here on Lincoln afterwards where I may have had one too many martinis. But hey, it's not like i could drink beer dressed up like that!




I also saw this link tweeted a few times today. Fastcompany has this interesting little slideshow paralleling real life advertising in the 60's to what Sterling-Cooper references on the show. LOVE that beetle campaign by DDB that revolutionized creative advertising!




And don't forget to take the Quiz on AMC's website to find out which character you are! I discovered my inner Betty Draper.

Upgrade

I love working in advertising, especially at an interactive agency. We get to find out about all the coolest stuff before it goes mainstream. I think we make up a lot of the innovators & early adopters according to the new product life cycle (and I thought I wouldn't use any of the stuff from my marketing classes anymore on the creative side - lol). Maybe because generally we're paid to create and promote the next big idea(s)...

Anyways, I am officially switching from YouTube to Vimeo for all of my video uploading and sharing needs. Youtube has become like MySpace for me, too overwhelmed and underdesigned by the masses. Plus, they're really pissing me off with all their copyright claims!

Vimeo has a way simpler & cleaner design (and bonus points for hybrid wordage: video + me = vimeo). The only trade-off is that your videos take longer to process and you're limited to 500 MB per week (unless you purchase the premium membership). I'll stick with the free version for now. Here's a couple videos I made from this past weekend partying at the W hotel & the Gansevoort with Christy & the girls and then a quick clip from the agency pub crawl in Key West yesterday!

Random Bull Riding from Miranda Peterson on Vimeo.

I've Got A Feeling... from Miranda Peterson on Vimeo.

Oh yea, and Happy Birthday Dad! (My sister and I bought him a case of his favorite candy, but I think his favorite gift was me getting a job and getting off his payroll - lol)

The Wrong Vibe

So I was watching the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner last night and saw this amazing commercial for Trojan's new "Vibrating Touch."



Ok I have to admit it's inherently awkward due to the nature of the product, but this ad must have been written by a guy who is completely clueless or is at best trying to be as P.C. as possible. Thanks to the fantastic acting, now you know that your paranoia of people eavesdropping on your literature and conversations are confirmed. And it's so inaccurate! Silly commercial, old people don't use...the internet. And I guess it's appropriate that it comes in a box. LoL

The website is even better. The writing and design are a mess and it's kind of one continuous "that's what she said" joke. I would have much preferred some kind of comedic choreography to one or more of these classic hits:





I think this commercial by the THEM Agency in London is more what I had in mind.

Preparation

I am thoroughly enjoying the beginning of my break. Today I did some character research and costume design for the outfit I am wearing to the Christmas party tomorrow night. Or in other words, I layed in bed and watched Mortal Kombat and then went and bought black, white and lime green clothes.
Anyways, I'm planning to visit a couple agencies in Denver tomorrow so I have to do a little research today. I already had two in mind and I found another cool one called Cultivator Advertising. The website is very well designed and I like a lot of their work including these keystone ads.




The one about skiing back east is so true. I hate it when they have to make the snow and it turns into ice and makes me skid and fall on my butt. Speaking of which, I bought a few early Christmas presents for myself: pink goggles, the north face gloves and snowboard pants complete with suspenders.
I should probably start packing now...

Gimme the Juice!

Don't you love it when they make metaphors literal?


The South West is an agency in England which is apparently trying to attract new employees and/or clients. I like the video but I have no idea what kind of work they've done for clients. Curious...

amsterdam's best agency

our guest speaker at school today was johan kramer, co-founder of amsterdam-based agency kesselskramer. i decided to check out the website because a lot of the kids were saying they have amazing work, www.kesselskramer.com and was thoroughly confused. everytime you click on the link, a different, crappy-looking webpage appears with random bits and pieces of their work scattered throughout them. and it really annoys me that you can't click on most of the 'buttons.'
and their work is just as strange as their website, i think. but, i guess that's what you would expect at an agency in amsterdam, lol.
i guess their style distinguishes them from pretty much every other ad agency out there, but its not really my personal taste.





i have to admit, i kind of like this 'unique design' print series.