My Essay for Brainco the Minneapolis School of Advertising.
1.What interests you about the program you're applying for?
When I was a child and beginning to comprehend the world around me, I started paying attention on television to the small stories that would come frequently. I found myself ignoring the long tired drawn-out boring stories. At one point my mother pointed out that the long stories were the main reason that everyone watched, and that the small stories were just advertisements. I knew in my head it didn't matter to me, I still thought the small stories were more interesting.
Later when I entered the second grade I was placed in a classroom that was considered "liberal" at best. It was the combined population of two teachers classes, with two joined classrooms. There were many small creative areas, with large learning areas as well. The two teachers really encouraged free thinking, Mr. Bowman really fostered my love for Elvis. When I was given the time to pursue whatever I wanted I found myself writing books. I'd make a crude thicker colored paper cover, with about ten to twelve sheets of paper folded over to make about twenty or twenty four pages. I'd make up a title, and then try to fit the story in the allowed space. I made this all up on my own. The spirit of writing has never left me, I still document my life, and make up stories all the time. I'm currently launching myself down a weird path of writing a book proposal and actually trying to get an agent interested in shopping a non-fiction story about my years spent as a Fugitive Recovery Agent. I know I'm a writer.
In the early 90's I was employed in yet another wage job as a Delivery Driver. One day I was dispatched to Carmichael Lynch. While walking through the long hallway, I noticed someone had taped a bullseye on the outside of the Plexiglass tunnel. The caption around the graphic told you to toss your spare change at the target. I reached into my pocket and just pulled out a few pennies, and tossed them at the target. The change rebounded off of the Plexiglass tunnel and landed inside what was obviously a change-filled can. I'm very sure I heard someone do a high-five, I'm sure that often happened when people threw their spare change into their bucket. It made me envious that someone had the freedom, as well as the creativity to do what they did.
When Jerry Seinfeld left his hit sitcom, he was quoted as saying he wished to go into advertising, because the medium is so fun and challenging. Shortly after that he did the Visa campaign, and I thought it rocked. I found myself agreeing with Jerry, but unable to really complete that dream, until today.
Shortly after 9/11 my Mother gave me a couple of books on copywriting. I read them simply because I'm a voracious reader. From that point on, I read all advertising with a critical eye. I found myself tearing everything apart in my head. I've been analyzing the hell out of everything for a while now. I know I'm over-prepared for the next two questions.
2. Choose an advertising campaign you like. Briefly describe your choice and explain why you like it.
The first thing that comes to mind is the Geico television campaign. From the Gecko to the Cave Men everything has been original, fresh and innovative. The spots make me laugh, maybe not enough to actually make me change my car insurance, but at least I laugh. The Gecko has a lilt to his voice that reminds me of Ewan McGregor. The Cave Men are played so perfectly, that they are just mind blowing. I remember thinking to myself when I first saw the Cave Men spots that they HAD to win some sort of award. The first spot was an interior shot of the Spokesperson doing his lines in front of a film crew. When he delivers the deadpan line ". . .so simple a Cave Man could do it." One of the crew runs off the set, and we see it is actually a Cave Man living in modern society. The next spot shows two Cave Men sitting down to lunch with the Spokesperson from the earlier spot. The stare one of them gives the Spokesperson at the end of the spot is priceless. The Gecko spots are executed with really great comic timing. Especially the one being run recently where he's sitting down in an interview and ends with ". . .of course I'll babysit for you, you're like a brother to me."
3. Choose an advertising campaign you dislike. Briefly describe your choice and explain why you like it.
The first thing that comes to mind is the print campaign from Events & Adventures. My tendency is to pick up City Pages, and leaf through it while seated upon my toilet. When I'm done with the issue I tend to throw it next to my trash bin face-down, so all the back pages are facing up. Events & Adventures have basically reserved the bottom ¼ of the page, and all the last few weeks ads are easily visible as I am in the bathroom. The particular ad I would have written differently is the one that reads "I'm busy this weekend. Are you?" And here is what I would have done differently. "I'm busy this weekend. Aren't you?" The original language seemed wimpy, the new version seems like a challenge. Most of the print ads for this campaign seem watered-down, and boring.
The next campaign that comes to mind is Comcast's Television campaign. Primarily the spots featuring The Slowskys. I feel they are unoriginal and dumb. These spots have two turtles who are married, live in a house and prefer a slow(er) Internet speed. The whole series just seems "dumbed-down", ready for consumption by the masses. The other spots that are mind-numbing are the ones where Mr. T breaks through a wall to tell someone how culturally insignificant they truly are. Mind you, the scrawny guy attempting to sing "Born to be wild", is quite annoying. They seem to stop short of allowing Mr. T to hurt these people physically. It seems to me that if your ad inspires your audience to have physical violence fantasies involving the characters of your ad, you have failed to truly sell your product.
4. Why do you want to come to Brainco?
Brainco is the only school of its kind anywhere on this whole stinking planet. (Believe me I checked.) It's completely integrated, completely real world, completely creative. When I begin your program I become part of the future of the communication industry. A future that will reward graduates who understand the importance of the process. A future that puts strategy before execution. A future that embraces creativity and welcomes new technology. A future that will have changed even by the time I've finished. The world is changing. I am moving forward.
I realize I ripped that off from you, but I figured I had three possible outcomes with using that; either a lot of people have used those same words and my idea is truly unoriginal, no one has ever used them and it was a good idea, or a few others have used them and I'm marginally original.
After pondering this question one thing keeps coming back to me, the scene in "An Officer and a Gentleman" where Louis Gosset Jr's character tries to get Richard Gere's character to quit. At one point he yells at him.
"Why don't you quit?!"
"I got nowhere else to go!" Richard Gere's character screams back at him.
Right now in my life that is truly how I feel. Like I've got nowhere else to go. I've done it all, and came up lacking.
Earlier I mentioned how I'm working on a book proposal about my stories working for the Bail Bond company. I want to stress that this project will not be a glorious book about "bounty hunting", but rather a cautionary tale about a guy who couldn't really make it anywhere else. In my travels with my good friend Adam one night we stopped at a convenience store wearing all of our tactical gear. Immediately I heard Adam talking with the clerk of the store, who was pressing him for details about what we did. As I approached the counter he tried to engage me as well and asked.
"So, how did you get into that sorta work?" I could sense his desperation in getting some sort of cool line out of me.
"I failed horribly at everything else." I deadpanned as I left, with Adam chuckling behind me as he followed.
When I was a child and beginning to comprehend the world around me, I started paying attention on television to the small stories that would come frequently. I found myself ignoring the long tired drawn-out boring stories. At one point my mother pointed out that the long stories were the main reason that everyone watched, and that the small stories were just advertisements. I knew in my head it didn't matter to me, I still thought the small stories were more interesting.
Later when I entered the second grade I was placed in a classroom that was considered "liberal" at best. It was the combined population of two teachers classes, with two joined classrooms. There were many small creative areas, with large learning areas as well. The two teachers really encouraged free thinking, Mr. Bowman really fostered my love for Elvis. When I was given the time to pursue whatever I wanted I found myself writing books. I'd make a crude thicker colored paper cover, with about ten to twelve sheets of paper folded over to make about twenty or twenty four pages. I'd make up a title, and then try to fit the story in the allowed space. I made this all up on my own. The spirit of writing has never left me, I still document my life, and make up stories all the time. I'm currently launching myself down a weird path of writing a book proposal and actually trying to get an agent interested in shopping a non-fiction story about my years spent as a Fugitive Recovery Agent. I know I'm a writer.
In the early 90's I was employed in yet another wage job as a Delivery Driver. One day I was dispatched to Carmichael Lynch. While walking through the long hallway, I noticed someone had taped a bullseye on the outside of the Plexiglass tunnel. The caption around the graphic told you to toss your spare change at the target. I reached into my pocket and just pulled out a few pennies, and tossed them at the target. The change rebounded off of the Plexiglass tunnel and landed inside what was obviously a change-filled can. I'm very sure I heard someone do a high-five, I'm sure that often happened when people threw their spare change into their bucket. It made me envious that someone had the freedom, as well as the creativity to do what they did.
When Jerry Seinfeld left his hit sitcom, he was quoted as saying he wished to go into advertising, because the medium is so fun and challenging. Shortly after that he did the Visa campaign, and I thought it rocked. I found myself agreeing with Jerry, but unable to really complete that dream, until today.
Shortly after 9/11 my Mother gave me a couple of books on copywriting. I read them simply because I'm a voracious reader. From that point on, I read all advertising with a critical eye. I found myself tearing everything apart in my head. I've been analyzing the hell out of everything for a while now. I know I'm over-prepared for the next two questions.
2. Choose an advertising campaign you like. Briefly describe your choice and explain why you like it.
The first thing that comes to mind is the Geico television campaign. From the Gecko to the Cave Men everything has been original, fresh and innovative. The spots make me laugh, maybe not enough to actually make me change my car insurance, but at least I laugh. The Gecko has a lilt to his voice that reminds me of Ewan McGregor. The Cave Men are played so perfectly, that they are just mind blowing. I remember thinking to myself when I first saw the Cave Men spots that they HAD to win some sort of award. The first spot was an interior shot of the Spokesperson doing his lines in front of a film crew. When he delivers the deadpan line ". . .so simple a Cave Man could do it." One of the crew runs off the set, and we see it is actually a Cave Man living in modern society. The next spot shows two Cave Men sitting down to lunch with the Spokesperson from the earlier spot. The stare one of them gives the Spokesperson at the end of the spot is priceless. The Gecko spots are executed with really great comic timing. Especially the one being run recently where he's sitting down in an interview and ends with ". . .of course I'll babysit for you, you're like a brother to me."
3. Choose an advertising campaign you dislike. Briefly describe your choice and explain why you like it.
The first thing that comes to mind is the print campaign from Events & Adventures. My tendency is to pick up City Pages, and leaf through it while seated upon my toilet. When I'm done with the issue I tend to throw it next to my trash bin face-down, so all the back pages are facing up. Events & Adventures have basically reserved the bottom ¼ of the page, and all the last few weeks ads are easily visible as I am in the bathroom. The particular ad I would have written differently is the one that reads "I'm busy this weekend. Are you?" And here is what I would have done differently. "I'm busy this weekend. Aren't you?" The original language seemed wimpy, the new version seems like a challenge. Most of the print ads for this campaign seem watered-down, and boring.
The next campaign that comes to mind is Comcast's Television campaign. Primarily the spots featuring The Slowskys. I feel they are unoriginal and dumb. These spots have two turtles who are married, live in a house and prefer a slow(er) Internet speed. The whole series just seems "dumbed-down", ready for consumption by the masses. The other spots that are mind-numbing are the ones where Mr. T breaks through a wall to tell someone how culturally insignificant they truly are. Mind you, the scrawny guy attempting to sing "Born to be wild", is quite annoying. They seem to stop short of allowing Mr. T to hurt these people physically. It seems to me that if your ad inspires your audience to have physical violence fantasies involving the characters of your ad, you have failed to truly sell your product.
4. Why do you want to come to Brainco?
Brainco is the only school of its kind anywhere on this whole stinking planet. (Believe me I checked.) It's completely integrated, completely real world, completely creative. When I begin your program I become part of the future of the communication industry. A future that will reward graduates who understand the importance of the process. A future that puts strategy before execution. A future that embraces creativity and welcomes new technology. A future that will have changed even by the time I've finished. The world is changing. I am moving forward.
I realize I ripped that off from you, but I figured I had three possible outcomes with using that; either a lot of people have used those same words and my idea is truly unoriginal, no one has ever used them and it was a good idea, or a few others have used them and I'm marginally original.
After pondering this question one thing keeps coming back to me, the scene in "An Officer and a Gentleman" where Louis Gosset Jr's character tries to get Richard Gere's character to quit. At one point he yells at him.
"Why don't you quit?!"
"I got nowhere else to go!" Richard Gere's character screams back at him.
Right now in my life that is truly how I feel. Like I've got nowhere else to go. I've done it all, and came up lacking.
Earlier I mentioned how I'm working on a book proposal about my stories working for the Bail Bond company. I want to stress that this project will not be a glorious book about "bounty hunting", but rather a cautionary tale about a guy who couldn't really make it anywhere else. In my travels with my good friend Adam one night we stopped at a convenience store wearing all of our tactical gear. Immediately I heard Adam talking with the clerk of the store, who was pressing him for details about what we did. As I approached the counter he tried to engage me as well and asked.
"So, how did you get into that sorta work?" I could sense his desperation in getting some sort of cool line out of me.
"I failed horribly at everything else." I deadpanned as I left, with Adam chuckling behind me as he followed.