Monday, February 28, 2011

Why Can't More Campaigns Be Like This...?






Not long ago NIKE launched the "Make yourself" campaign just for women.  I feel this is the right direction for advertising to be going.  Dead are the days of people being told what to look like.  Today, women of the world have united and they are tell us, the advertiser what THEY  ACTUALLY look like.  We are not all "Stepford Wives" so why try and be one.  Each of us has a different way we try to get healthy and fit.  


Anouk HoogendijkI Say "GO NIKE"  for encouraging women to be exactly who they are and more.  Nike's Women Facebook profile is like a free gym buddy that you never knew you had.  On the “I’m Making Myself” wall women can leave comments with statements in order to inspire other ladies to follow their example. Statements starts with the phrase “I’m Making Myself,” and users can finish it with adjectives such as “strong,” “healthy,” “fit,” amazing“” and so on and then give a short description of what helps them have the above-mentioned characteristics. These statements can be commented or liked by other Nike women profile on Facebook fans making it fully interactive. 


The only critique I have is this:  Why use athletes in these ads?  Monica Byrne-Wickey

The everyday woman not an athlete, she's just that a woman.  If I were to make this campaign better I would take out the hot female sports stars, go to the park and the local gyms to see who's there.  I would stop in a healthy eatery and get my photographs there.  I would seek out the health continuous, shape-up wearing, everyday women of the world.  After all in a campaign about showing off the best you, shouldn't you start with the real one?

Friday, February 25, 2011

Because Sometimes Laughter Really is the Best Medicine




As a women we are imprinted from birth how to think, see and feel constantly by the culture in which we in find ourselves in.  In this inspiring TedTALK though, Liza Donnelly shows that women in the media do have the power to cultivate positive change through joy and laughter.  I don't know if I exactly agree with her ideas, but, perhaps by me not agreeing I am really just saying, I'm one of the many stuck in a mold of "Political Correctness"  too worried about who and how I may speak, and less concerned with the actual issues at hand. Worrying about offense creates too many mental barriers and often never allows the real problems to be heard. (Interesting how even as my fingers strike the keys, the words still seem like concepts I should possibly hold my tongue over for fear of being labeled "unworthy" or "offensive").   
Donnelly suggests that perhaps we are too "Politically Correct" to begin with.  Maybe this world needs a few good media queens to take the reins and show the country how they can "loosen up a bit"?  Look at John Stewart and Steven Colbert, where's insert name of woman? 
The rules of society have been laid down long ago.  What if rather than terror and guns war raged with, laughter and joy? What if the media could become the next great bullet of revolution?
Thoughts?