I was searching for some good billboards for a presentation I had to do yesterday and I found some really random ones that were too funny to pass up.

Okay, so if you go to Microsoft Powerpoint’s animation option, there’s a customizable tool you can use to have your Powerpoint do pretty much whatever you want it to do.  I recently found this out since I was told to take an existing presentation and make it loads more exciting and fun.  So I got rid of all the sentences in the presentation and now there are just numbers and keywords. There’s animation, pictures, and it looks pretty darn cool if I may say so myself.  I even added sound, to add another dimension to the already cutting edge Powerpoint. Okay, so maybe my presentation is the coolest thing that’s ever been made, but this whole animation thing has been a blast to play around with.

I currently have 7 rubber bands around my wrist and they are seriously cutting off the blood circulation and making typing a much bigger challenge. By the way, I realized that during the USA vs Mexico game, I forgot a line in our National Anthem. It was very disappointing for me, but I’ve decided to completely relearn therefore I’ll never forget it again. Here I go (from memorization):

Oh say can you see? By the dawn’s early light. What so proudly we hail, at the twilight’s last gleaming.  Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight. Over the ramparts we watch, were so gallantly streaming.  And the rockets red glare, with bombs bursting in air, gave proof to the night, that our flag was still there.  Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner, let way.  For the land of the free, and the home of the brave…

All right let me check it out with the actual lyrics now. Pretty darn good.  With the exception of some “thru”s and “O’ers” I did fine.  While this is my last week for Admerasia, I think I may stay on just on this website to continually add content for people to read when they’re bored. Okay you got me, when they’re really really bored…Fine… Really really really really bored. Happy?

I’m not sure if that’s how you spell Mexicans, but that is definitely how they said it. My friends and I were present at Giants Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey for the afternoon Gold Cup Finale. A solid first half by both teams became irrelevant as the El Tri humiliated the Americans on their home turf. This is their first win on US soil in 10 years, and while they did deserve the victory, it must be mentioned that the team that did play for the USA was NOT our real team. Whatever you hear about the game that the US took a whooping and now they’re a disgrace is lies. Let’s just take a look who started in this game:

Troy Perkins who is, at best, our 3rd string keeper behind Tim Howard and Brad Guzan.

Our defense consisted of Jay Heaps, Chad Marshall, Clarence Goodson, and Heath Pearce… Do you know who starts over them?  Hejduk, Cherundolo, Spector, Bocanegra, Onyewu, Demerit, Califf and Bornstein.  Yes by that count 8 players rank higher.

Onto the midfield: Stuart Holden, Robbie Rogers, Logan Pause, and Kyle Beckerman are all young American prospects that hope to be on the actual US team someday. Bradley, Donovan, Dempsey, Beasley, Feilhaber, Klejstan, Adu, Clark, Edu and Torres,  all are preferred by coach Bradley to play instead of them.

Strikers have been led by Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies and  Eddie Johnson, but we started with Brian Ching and Davy Arnaud.

As you can blatantly tell, our coach decided our team’s priorities and gave up on this tournament to focus on more important goals like the Confederations Cup, and the World Cup.  What is truly exciting is that the US will visit Mexico City on August 12th for a World Cup qualifying match, which will truly decide who is better.  Not only that but our A-Team will want revenge and show Mexico their true place in world rankings.

I will take some positives from the match.  Almost 80,000 people showed up at the stadium for the match, and despite the majority of them rooting for Mexico, the atmosphere was something else.  Some of our young players did hold their own, but their was only so much they could do.

Oh, and FIFA referees judge US games unfairly.

Italiano, eh boppity boopity?! I sincerely apologize for the lack of content on this post, so here is the scene from Good Will Hunting.  I know, why would you just settle for one scene instead of an actual blog entry by me? I don’t know, but if you’re any sort of movie person at all you’ll like this movie. Damon and Affleck at their best.

I blame my barren entry on a few simple circumstances. 

1. I woke up and got the office near midday, because the ol’ girlfriend wanted to watch Goldfinger at midnight last night…
2. I actually had a solid workload today!
3. I got a lot done, two presentations coming up and made good headway on both.
4. I don’t actually have a topic to write about!

Till next time, on Kwan’s Blog.  Or Intern’s Corner.  Mind you I did NOT come up with that name…

Today we’re going to talk about another completely related topic to Advertising, Product Integration!! Now while that may sound just as boring as synergy or one of those other corporate words, product integration may be the future of advertising and it’s starting off with television and movies. Of course, it’s been around for ages, with cigarette, beverage and car companies all vying to have their products on the big screen, but it’s been getting more and more necessary as people don’t watch advertisements as much, due to online and pirated options for films and shows.

You may not notice it at first, but advertisers are now subtly implanting messages in the media.  Let’s take the big summer blockbusters for example. Brüno obviously had a deal with the company behind Smart Cars (those tiny tiny cars), and Dolce and Gabbana (the fashion group), both of these companies got lots of publicity, the latter getting (arguably) the best line of the movie; “Dolce and Gabbana, Hellloooooo?!”  Of course there is Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen and its multitude of GM cars. While blatantly obvious, you know that after you watched that action-packed Michael Bay production, you were considering buying a yellow Camaro, or silver Pontiac and hoping it’d turn into a alien robot.  Even Ryan Reynold’s romantic comedy The Proposalhad plenty of integration; leading the pack was Apple with one of its computers in pretty much every scene that could use one.  The Hangover, the comedy surprise of the early summer, had that gorgeous Mercedes accidentally become a convertible permanently. Not to mention the usage locations like Caesar’s Palace, MGM Grand and Trump Hotel.  The Man With No Name’s Gran Torino, helped show off Ford’s gorgeous car, as well as drinking loads of Tsingtao beer.

NBC has been more prominently using the strategy in effort to earn extra money and even in some cases keep the show alive.  30 Rock has been a national phenomenon with Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey having fun at The Rock, and made fun of obvious product placement with Verizon Wireless, Snapple, Bee Movie and loads more. 

The Office consistently talks about archrival Staples, and even uses some of their office supplies in the show for some reason (like the shredder).

My personal favorite is Chuck, and Subway!  One of my favorite series of all time is Chuck Bartowski slacking off at the Buy More.  However, nearing the end of season 2, NBC didn’t renew it for a third season.  After blatant product integration with Subway, fans decided to prove to NBC that it was worth keeping, and convinced fans to go to Subway on the day of the season finale.  Even cast members were seen supporting the “Save Chuck” campaign. Subway reveled in the free publicity, appreciated the actual financial success, and renewed a contract with NBC to keep Chuck going.  This is one fo the few TV shows that actually has been saved by fans, and I’m proud to be one of the people who ordered the Chicken Terriyaki $5 footlong sandwich that day.

Tell me that you don’t want to go out and buy that sandwich right now? I’ve got lunch in front of me and I still want to…

I assure you, if by the end of this article you are not humming one of these songs, or didn’t replay one of them again just to hear it, or didn’t send it to a friend to check it out, then you aren’t human.  This is television advertising at its finest utilizing music!!  I sincerely hope you enjoy this fun-filled post.

Last week during the Major League Baseball All-Star game on Tuesday, FOX premiered the first 2 minute commercial from Taco Bell’s new music video campaign.  This commercial was directed by Chris Applebaum, whose past works include Rihanna’s Umbrella music video.  From experience catchy music commercials are an extrmeely effective way nto advertise to my age group (high school/college age), so much so that we would definitely go out and try the product.  Last night my friends and I went to Taco Bell and bought $14.68 worth of food, and paid (the commercial said silver!) with dimes, nickles, and 18 pennies.  Now if you’re thinking, well they would have gotten our business anyways you sir are wrong.  They got us to pay for a meal despite us tending to go to Wendy’s or McDonalds (usually Wendy’s because they’re the only one near us with a drive-thru, adults please note; teenagers are lazy).  Therefore it’s a successful advertisement.  Other great commercials where a catchy song is used to get us to consider their product:

-McDonald’s Gimme That Fish. This is Michael Swenson’s personal favorite of the music commercials.  He doesn’t even like Filet o’ Fishes but he’ll order them now and again, just for the heck of it.

-Don’t forget the always memorable FreeCreditReport.com team.  While I’m only a fan of the originals (the ones I post), there are a total of 5 or so which have gone down in quality but nevertheless got the point across, Most of my friends have at one point visited the site, which is not free, nor necessary for teenagers my age.

-Now the Smirnoff Raw Tea commercial. It mainly caught our attention because our town is mentioned in it (Greenwich), but it was just as memorable and catchy, and we did support it just as much as the other commercials, if not more (coughes… clears throat), I mean of course we didn’t, alcohol is illegal for us under 21 people.

Now I’m sure I missed plenty of them, from Dell’s Lollipop song, Insurance Companies, don’t forget Guitar Hero parodying Tom Cruise from Risky Business, and loads more, it’s obvious that jingles and music successfully integrated into a commercial can make all the difference. Since I can’t seem to stop looking for more commercials I’ll just add them on at the bottom.

All State Insurance, not my most favorite one, but quite good.  Their best one is the kicker one, that one is so good, when I grow up and need insurance I’ll consider them at the top of my list.

Here’s the all-star cast for the Guitar Hero advertisement.  They have a whole series, maybe check out Heidi Klum, or Metallica, or maybe just check out the original with Tom Cruise.  Bought Guitar Hero because of those commercials, even though I don’t even play the game…

This is a story by T. Coraghessan Boyle who was a particular favorite of mine when I read it in my short stories class back in High School. The short story is simply about a couple’s daughter who is hit by a car and how they deal with it, it’s also narrated by the father. Here’s the complete piece from the New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/03/01/040301fi_fiction

However, the main reason I brought this up is because I would like to announce Chicxulub the movie. Produced by yours truly. Enjoy the awful acting and painful lines.

Let me know what you think of my first and only film.