How would it feel?

Every single morning as I am driving to school I see the same old man on the side of road with the same sign asking for help. I used to avoide eye contact and just think to myself, "get a job," but I recently watched a show that has changed my perspective. I never knew why people were homeless, I usually just thought that they were lazy. From the show, World of Jenks, I learned that actually many people are homeless because they had been released from hospital, prison, or the armed forces and just simply don't have anywhere to go. Others leave forcibly or voluntarily because of an unwanted situation at home. They aren't lazy, they just have no where else to go. Many of them suffer from a mental illness. I tried to put myself in their position and honestly I don't know how they do it. I can't imagine what it would feel like to not have a home to come back too. How terrible it must feel to know this is how it will be for the rest of your life. Knowing that you will most likely be by yourself forever. What do they do when it's cold? How do they find somewhere to sleep? What would it feel like to wake up and not know if you are going to eat today? These are all questions I hope that nobody will able to answer; and for those that can, I hope that someone will be able to help get you on your feet. I know I am going to do the best I can.

As Simple as a Bumper Sticker

Toyota has been struggling to recover after a drop in sales due to safety concerns. Rather than change the whole car, Toyota came up with a much cheaper way to increase sales. They came up with a simple idea to link Latinos' pride in their heritage with pride in being a Toyota owner. The answer to their problem was a bumper sticker, but not just any bumper sticker. Toyota realized that no one would want the standard, "I love Toyota," bumper sticker, they would have to be more creative. So instead of the standard bumper sticker, they decided to make it more personalized. Since Latinos' are known for showing their heritage whenever possible they came up with bumper sticker decals that would not only show that they love Toyotas, but that they love their country and heritage as well, which  would prove to be key. The most popular decal reads, "Somos muchos mexicanos. Somos muchos Toyotas," Spanish for "We are many Mexicans. We are many Toyota owners." Toyota came up with 99 different decals which could be ordered through Facebook for free. This turned out to be very successful and it resulted in an increase in Toyota sales and over 259,000 decals ordered. It is amazing how something as simple as a bumper sticker can completely change people's opinions towards something. Toyota didn't even have to improve the safety of their cars, they just had to give people a free bumper sticker.

Apple Cares

Apple recently came out with a new application, called SlowDown, for the Iphone or Itouch. There are many concerns with driving safety today because there are so many things to distract your attention away from the road. Apple did some research and concluded that people normally drive faster when they are listening to music they enjoy. I never really took this into consideration, but now that I think about it I absolutely agree with this. When you are listening to a song you love you are more likely to be enjoying the song and paying less attention to the road. While Itunes cannot really control no texting while driving, or much else, they came up with a plan to help the driver realize they are above the speed limit. While listening to music from your Itouch and Iphone in your car, the application will detect the speed limit for the road and will slow down the tempo of the music if speed limit is exceeded. This will remind drivers to slow down as well, but if the speed limit is exceeded by over 10 miles then the music will completely shut off. I think this is a great application to help drivers be aware of their speed. I believe parents will really like this application for their children that often listen to their music too loud in the car. And best of all, it's FREE!


http://creativity-online.com/work/parents-of-child-road-victims-slowdown/21853

Be Stupid. Good Advice?

Diesel is running the "Be Stupid," campaign to promote their brand. I have gone through their website and gone through each "Be Stupid" Advertisement and I haven't really come to the conclusion as to why they are doing this campaign. I am not really sure why they want to associate their brand and products with, being stupid. In my opinion I think that this campaign itself is stupid. Most of the advertisements for this campaign are referring to sexual situations. In most of the ads the models are hardly wearing any clothes. I don't think they are portraying the right image. Although they are advertising to young adults, there are many more creative ways to advertise. I don't see the connection with this campaign to their jeans and I don't feel as if it will result in a positive reaction. This campaign definitely does not make me want to go out and buy Diesel Jeans, it just leaves me contemplating to myself, what were they thinking?

http://www.diesel.com/be-stupid/

Robots Make Mistakes

I read an article about Social-Media Marketing and why robots should not be taking our place in that role. I didn't know much before I read this article but now I realize what the problem is and I have witnessed this mistake personally a few times before. Although robots are capable of cutting a lot of intensive human labor and do jobs faster than any human could possibly do, there are some situations where it is necessary to have a human do a job. Social-Media Marketing happens to be one of the situations. In the article it gives an example of someone who just arrived at a party and decided to try and join a group that was in the middle of a conversation. The logical thing to do is to listen to what the group is talking about before speaking, and that is the job of the robots. They are designed to look for key words and from there decide where would be the best place for an advertisement. The problem is, many times the robots misinterpret the context of the sentence or phrase, and place an ad where it shouldn't be. He gives an example of an advertisement for an airline placed right next to a story of an airplane crash. Although they have cut drastically cut intensive labor with the robots, they are wasting time and money when the robot misunderstands the context of something. I agree with the author of this article and I feel that the intensive human labor is worth the benefits of placing the ad where it needs to be. It is much less likely a human will misinterpret the context compared to a robot.

http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=147266

People Just Want To Talk

I recently read an article regarding companies using Facebook and Twitter. Usually companies have these websites and occasionally will make posts or tweets promoting their product. They have realized that hearing about their product is not exactly what people want to read about on Facebook or Twitter. People are on this website to connect with people and therefore companies like, Oreo or Coca-Cola need to connect with their consumers. They have concluded that there is a much greater response when companies have more conversational posts. It doesn't always have to be about the product or brand, in fact they have found that, "simple, random, even banal statements," work the best in creating a large response. Facebook and Twitter have created a completely free way for companies to advertise and promote their brand. Oreo has done a great job at using Facebook to create a large response and increase sales. They have posts like, Ever try dunking an Oreo cookie with a fork or anything else? Pick a flavor, any flavor! If you could create a new Oreo cream flavor, what would it be? And Pop quiz: Twist, lick, then...?" All of these posts created so many responses and actually increased costumers and sales, all at no cost to the company. I believe this is the future for all companies, they just have to figure out how to connect with their costumers without advertising to them.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=147272

On Campus or Off Campus?

Many sophomores will come to this question toward the end of their freshman year. Unfortunately many of them will choose off campus. This is a problem I faced last year and in the end I chose to live off campus with my friends. Don't get me wrong I love having my own room and I love my own space to come back too after class, but sometimes I feel we are missing out on what college is about. Despite everything, it depends what college you are attending. For SMU, not many students other than freshman live on campus, simply because their just isn't enough room. Even if you wanted to live on campus as a sophomore, their is not guarantee that there will be enough room for you. Therefore many students prefer just to live off campus. I think it is really important that there is enough room for most students to live on campus because it is so beneficial for them to be involved and active in student life. I realize that I am arguing against a decision I made to live off campus, but the reason I made that decision was because all of my friends decided to move off campus, and the last thing I wanted was to live by myself. Although I try to stay inlvolved on campus, it's difficult to get back to that "college" feeling of when I lived on campus. You only go through the college experience once, you will be living in an apartment or house on your own for the rest of your life.

If I Had A Super Power

I am the kind of person that likes to get really technical about questions. Yes, I am the one in the movies that says, "why don't they just call the police," or, "that could never happen in real life." I am the one who gives the response that's no fun, but the most logical in my mind. Immediately after I read this I thought to myself, if I had a super power, it would be to have unlimited super powers, obviously. Since no one really specified that you couldn't have that answer, that would be my response. I know that is super boring and I doubt anyone would really care to hear anything about my ability to have unlimited super powers. So with that in mind, I decided to actually narrow it down to one super power. If I could only have one super power, I think it would be to fly. How cool would that be? I know almost everyone at one point in their lives have thought of what it would be like to fly. Not very many of you have wondered what it would be like to turn things to ice. If you could fly you could see the world from a whole different perspective. You would feel so free. Literally the sky is the limit. You could travel the world, and better yet, you wouldn't have to wait in traffic.

What Should I do?

I recently saw an article about LeBron James, being a basketball fan I read it. This article talked about how Nike is actually trying to rehabilitate LeBron James. They are hoping that some of its "brand equity will rub off on LeBron." Nike actually made a commercial with LeBron asking what should I do? Although this question is not necessarily supposed to be answered it is meant to prove a point that everyone wants LeBron to make decisions based on their own personal judgment, and punish him when he does not. LeBron has been torn to pieces for his recent change of teams. Everyone has been against him since then, but in reality changing teams is a fairly normal thing that happens in NBA Basketball. LeBron happens to be one of the best players in the league and it is normal for everyone to want him on their team. The commercial emphasizes the phrase, "what should I do?" I believe they are trying to make a point to everyone that he isn't perfect and that he can't live his life according to how everyone thinks he should live it. It makes no sense for him not to be able to make his own decisions and be asking, "what should I do," for everything. I think this commercial does a great job in getting their point accross. It really puts things into perspective, and you realize that LeBron has really done nothing wrong by moving teams. He is just another player, and that is the way it should be dealt with.




http://adage.com/adages/post?article_id=146690

It Drives Me Crazy

Let's be honest, we all have things that drive us absolutely crazy! I have many of them, but there is one in particular that I just can't stand. Sure I don't like when people smack their gum, chew with their mouth open, or ask me "where the last place I had something was," when I lost something; but over all of those things there is one thing I hate more than anything else. I can't stand it when someone doesn't acknowledge your presence if they see you. It really bugs me that people have become so used to only socializing with their small clicks that they wouldn't dare say hello to you unless you said something to them first. I think our society needs to learn how acknowledge one another. We are all so distant from each other, there is no interaction between people unless absolutely necessary or they happen to be your good friends. There should be nothing wrong with asking someone how they are doing, or how their day is going. People feel so uncomfortable to talk to one another when they don't really know each other. I think it is very unfortunate that this is not considered to be a rude gesture in our culture. It makes people feel excluded and unimportant, and nobody wants to feel that way. I think our society could be so much better off if we all just made a little more effort to acknowledge one another. Imagine how many new friends you could make. Imagine how many people you could make smile.

Do People Actually Buy That?

Over the years I have seen the most ridiculous products being sold in magazines or on TV. I don't know anyone who wold want to purchase such a wacky product. Do people really wear Snuggies to soccer games? Are we really that cold that we can't take the blanket off our hands for five seconds to change the channel, therefore we need a Snuggie? Do girls really use bump-its to make it look like they have an extremely abnormal head? I was really curious to see whether products like these actually sell. I did some research and found a website that listed fifteen ridiculous products that actually sell. I was shocked when I saw these products, I would have never guessed that people would actually buy them. There are "Doggles" which are goggles for dogs protect their eyes from the chlorine in the pool. There is also a Taser/MP3 Player Combo Holster. You will never have to worry about keeping your Ipod and Taser in two separate places. And probably the most ridiculous, there is a "Revenge" Aggravating Noise CD, which is meant for getting back at noisy neighbors or roommates with even more obnoxious sounds. I am clueless why people would spend their money on things like these. It seems as though people are just looking to buy any new product on the market just so they have the newest, latest product. Advertisers are really successful at creating a need for a product that there is really no need for. I guess there is a certain satisfaction people get just to be able to say, "I have it."

Take The Bait

I was flipping through the channels the other night when I came across a TV show that caught my attention. The show is called Bait Car. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a show where they set up a car in an area with a high rate of stolen vehicles and basically use the car as bait to catch criminals in the act. They have cameras inside the car and the car is set up to where the people running the show can kill the engine and lock the crooks inside at any given moment. There is really no escape once they are in the car. As I began to watch this show I was shocked at how quickly these people jumped in the car and sped away. They were all very aware when a person left their car somewhere and almost immediately broke in as they walked away. This was definitely  not their first time to steal a car, they knew exactly what they were doing. Usually two people were on the look out for the police or anyone else, while the others searched the car for valuables and the driver hopped in the front seat to start the car. They even used a shirt or a towel to touch everything inside the car so they wouldn't leave their fingerprints. I was so surprised how easily your possessions can be stolen from you, and even more surprised that the the ifs really felt no remorse about it. It really opened my eyes to the reality we live in. You can never be too careful now. This is a clip from Bait Car

The Wifis

This post sort of adds on to my previous one. Recently, I went into my local Verizon store simply to check my eligibility for an upgrade for my 2006, out of date, Motorola Dare phone. The salesman in the store noticed my friend had and Iphone. Working for Verizon he began bashing the Iphone and saying all these bad things about it. I was shocked with his behavior as a professional. He showed us this video that compared all of the other smart phones to the Iphone. In the video the Iphone customer is portrayed as a robot who is so caught up in the craze of having the brand name of the Iphone, they don’t even care about the features or price of any other phone. The seller in the video tells the Iphone customer all the reasons any normal person would be thrilled about to get another phone but the costumer doesn’t listen. My favorite part is when the seller says “it has an app that builds you an island, then transforms into a jet and flies you there.” The customer reply’s back with “I don’t care; if it is not an Iphone then I do not want it.” I totally agree with the message this video sends. Sometimes we get so caught up in wanting a name brand, or something just to fit it, we don’t take time to step back and way out the options. I understand he works for Verizon and his job is to keep me there, but I do believe the Iphone is no better than any of the smart phones coming out today. They are all so similar! Fortunately, I was able to take a step back and I am now the proud owner of a 2010 Droid Incredible, and I love it!

I Feel Like Dancing

Freshman year I lived in Peyton Hall, which is a fine arts community. My suitemate and all my neighbors were mainly dancers. This year one of my roommates that I met last year is a dancer, and the most of my good friends at SMU are dancers as well. It was completely different then what I had expected my freshman year to be like. I learned so much about just how difficult it is to be a dancer here at SMU. They normally have dance classes all day which leaves very little time for any other academics, then at night they have rehearsals for upcoming dance performances. Before I got to know them and their schedules I imagined someone who was a dance major had it easy. I expected them to have much more free time and be much more relaxed all the time. I was very wrong. Dance literally becomes their life. They spend hours and hours just practicing and rehearsing. Even for those who aren't in an upcoming show, they still are required to learn the dances. Some rehearsals don't end until twelve on a school night, other rehearsals are practiced on fridays and saturdays, and they miss out on a lot of the fun during the weekends. After living with the dancers my freshman year I have gained so much respect for what they do. Their college experience is so different from those students who major in something academic. Although I was hesitant about living their at first, I am so glad I was able to learn what their college experience is, not many people know.

Everyone's Doing It

One of my close friends is a hockey player. I grew into his hobby and began to watch the Stanley Cup Playoff’s with him this summer. His Favorite team is the Chicago Blackhawks. A lot of his family is from there and he lived there for a year, so that has always been his team. He was a Blackhawks fan through the good and ugly. It just so happened that the Blackhawks ended up winning it all this year. As they were in the finals he explained to me how all of his hockey friends and kids in Chicago he knew were all jumping on the Blackhawks Band Wagon. The night they won there were numerous examples of people on facebook and kids in general being pretend fans. I think this happens a lot more in life than just with sports. For example, my parents have jumped on the bandwagon with smart phones, they don’t need a phone that can do all those things, they don’t even know how to use it. Also, my brother with his new clothing brands he wears just because that’s what everyone at his school wears. I am also guilty of jumping on the bandwagon with certain things. I admit I began wearing the 70’s and 80’s blues brothers sunglasses because I saw many fashionable girls wearing them. It’s so funny how we all change just because it is the “in” thing to do at the time. The money we spend and the sacrifices we make just to all look the same. I think one of my favorite sayings is “You are unique, just like everyone else”.

Turn It Up

I love music. I am always singing the latest song and blasting it in my car with my friends on the way to and from school and everywhere else. I think it’s funny how the dj’s on the radio introduce a song to the audience. They will play the song a couple times and you will hear it and think nothing of it. Before you know it the song is everywhere, movie trailers, ring tones, and it’s become every other song played. I think these dj’s ruin these new great songs by over playing them. I remember a few summers ago, the hottest song was “Best I ever had” by Drake. I was driving and it was on one station, I changed it from the pop station to the rap station and it was there, then I changed it to the Hits station, three stations in a row. It was insane! The Music industry is drilling songs into listener’s heads until they are forced to like it. They need to come up with a better way to make songs more popular. Just because a song is popular at the time doesn’t mean it should be the only song played. I don’t know if it is just me but I’d rather be excited to hear a song on the radio then to feel like I’ve already heard this song a million times. I feel like it destroys the songs.

It's That Time

The State Fair is finally here! Unfortunately I have no idea what it is like. I have never been, and oddly enough I am from Texas. I think it is about time that made my appearence there but I am a little apprehensive about the thought. Don't get me wrong I love the atmosphere of a fair, and I love all the food they have, but the rides scare me. I have heard so many horror stories regarding fairground rides not functioning properly. I have never rode a fairground ride personally but I feel reluctant to take that risk. As a result of this situation I decided to do a little research about the safety of fairground rides. After all, shouldn't they be just as safe as amusement park rides? As I did my research I found that most accidents that are incurred are because of inproper use of the ride. Many people at the fair are usually under the influence, and they tend to do things that cause themselves to get injured. Every fairground is required to go under inspection just like any other amusement park. The rides are tested to ensure they are safe and durable. The second leading cause in accidents at the fair is inproper set up of the rides. When set up properly all fairground rides should run smoothly, but occasionally they are set up wrong causing problems. After I reading about this I felt much safer about going to the State Fair, I am actually really excited to see what everyone has been talking about! FRIED OREOS!