history

Is the main reason humans record history to validate our existence? To remember? I doubt it's to learn from it. How many times have humans made the same mistake? On a collective and individual level. We do not learn from example well. We learn from experience. And if we can't experience it, we make stuff up. From the invention of folklore to explain the unexplained to science fiction, humans can never just be. More often than not, that's a great thing. We are constantly trying to advance ourselves and the things around us, our own version of natural selection. But sometimes it gets us in trouble. Yet, because we are human, we will continue to do it.

words?

If precision is concision, and there is not a perfect word that fits without sounding pretentious, then is precision accomplished through the addition of more words?

growing pains

When someone tells you something you understand it on a cognitive level, but you never really understand it on a visceral level. Until you experience it. I find that often good advice is never really as useful as a good fuck-up. For example, our professor has been telling us the same pieces of advice for about a year now. And for some reason, we refuse to really listen to him. Not out of defiance, but out of a lack of true understanding. We would do the things he told us to, but only because he told us to. It was not until we struggled through the lesson that we understood it. And you have to go though it. There's no other way to truly understand it. For the most part, if it's painful, you're learning. The pain is the process. Not the most enjoyable thing in the world, but the best way to learn.

"tightened sphincter"

There's something about writing for advertising that constricts your throat and pen, or as Coz says makes 'your sphincter tighten up.' Maybe it's the unnatural amount of stress and pressure we put on ourselves to come up with something brilliant, despite being mere novices at the craft. Is it because we ARE novices? Is it because the business of advertising gets in the way of the art of it? Another thing Coz is right about is the fact that when you do your own writing, it flows out like water. I have no trouble rambling this shite. It's probably because there is no pressure, there is no daunting request for perfection, and there is no other voice to uphold. Just mine. With advertising, extracting words is more difficult than gathering a cup of water from a stone. Every word must have a purpose. It cannot be 'self-indulgent bullshit.' You are in the business of advertising. You are speaking on behalf of someone else and that is your first priority. However, if you can stay true to their voice and yours, you can have a great time in this industry and not feel stiffled by the handcuffs of the business. But every writer wants to discover and develop their own voice. Writing in your own voice should also be an escape from the industry. Everything shouldn't be about advertising, despite the importance we assign it.

Mattress Ad

You idiots.

Xerox?

Sometimes in advertising you come across ads that are eerily similar. Is it the creative unconscious or conceptual theft? Well, there is the argument that any self-respecting creatives would never lift someone else's concept, whether it's on account of morals or the fact that they'd look pretty silly if discovered. But then there is the disturbing new trend of recycling old ad concepts from back in the day. Example, the Coke ad with the kids singing on the rooftop, recreated from an ad in the 60s for the same product. If you can recycle your own concepts, why not someone else's? Where do you draw the line? Why not cement the misconception that ad folk are dirty weasels? Me personally. I would weigh in on the side of the creative unconscious. I would like to have faith that people are continually trying to bring something new to the table and if something has similarities to something else, it is merely a coincedence or a case of poor memory. As creatives you are constantly surveying the work, seeing what's out there and new trends. It'd be pretty easy to pull something out of the memory banks and mistake it for your own original idea. However, no art is truly original. There are elements of something else in everything. It is simply inescapable. But the difference is in if you are able to combine those elements in a new and original way.