delusions

Ryan found an amazing MICROSOFT (yes Microsoft can apparently be amazing sometimes) commercial made by [drumroll] 72andSunny!

See it here.

The entire concept is beautiful illustrating the simple pleasure of sharing with friends, and it's executed brilliantly in claymation and brought to life by the heart-tugging music of M. Ward. But that's not all - the campaign also consists of an entire website of Zune art that is yes... very very good. Upon further investigation, the site is sort of a collection of shared art (like deviantart). There's not a ton of non-professional work on there, but Microsoft seems to have hired many talented creative boutiques to create some of the videos.

I know already - have always known - that deep in my heart, I will NOT be selling cars for the rest of my life. From day 1 when I first contacted Eric (a Seneca alumni at work) who asked me whether I wanted to work on a car account or a mobile phone account, I told him straight up that I know nothing about cars and would prefer to work on mobile phones. Obviously, it did not work out that way - the car account needed me more. Not that I'm complaining because I adore the team I currently work with - and it's a very well-organized account to learn about account management on.

Sometimes, it's painfully difficult to be patient with my learning curve. Trying to learn about account management on an account that I cannot really relate to can be frustrating some days. I have been noticing brands of cars on the road more and my ears perk up whenever the news talks about the auto industry, but I don't even own a car - can't even drive! School had spoiled us all in allowing us to more or less pick and choose what brands and products we wanted to work on. In reality, we rarely have the opportunity to choose.

But when I see creative like what 72andSunny produce, I know what it is I'm working so hard toward. Account management to me is more than just client services, it's inspiring and challenging the creative team to bring a strong strategy to life in a unique and artistic way. I could spend hours philosophizing over the advertising business, probably because I'm still young and naive.

I was having dinner with the J3 the other night (Jonathan, Jen and me makes J3), and we were talking about geeks. Jen is a videogame and movie geek. Jonathan is an advertising geek. But I realized that I'm not really a geek at anything. I'm a bit of a generalist where I absorb information around, but I don't dedicate the majority of my time to any one topic in particular. If anything, I spend more time reflecting on my performance at work, my social skills, my neuroses, and my personal relationships more than anything else. So, I guess I'm a personal growth geek.

While Jonathan really is an advertising geek, I think I'm just as passionate about advertising as Jonathan is, but in a completely different way. He loves the business of it, the big corporate campaigns, the 30 second TV spot - the empire of advertising as it stands today. But what I love is the new and exciting horizon of advertising (like interactive). I'm intrigued about the areas of the industry that probably scares the crap out of the traditionalists who can plainly see the shift in media habits in North America.

If you look at the media habits of people under the age of 30, you're looking at the media habits of the future. To me, that future means that in order for advertising to remain relevant, it must a.) be consumer-centric (the consumer decides if or when they want to hear or see your message, or b.) a integral part of popular culture. The former will target on niche markets. The latter will target mass markets - but true mass the way we know it from the old Coca-Cola days will be more difficult to achieve because we will all belong to more niche markets than mass.

I'm staying home sick today, which is why I have time to sit around and let my brain vomit useless musings all over this blog post. I could go on, but really... what the fuck do I know? I need to console myself by watching that Microsoft commercial again.