ABSOLUT BLOG

Art direction, my Wednesday night class has proved to be insightful and challenging. As much upper level course, I'm with 10th and 11th quarter students. I enjoy being able to work with fellow classmates who are on a much higher level than my first quarter peers. They have better insight, feedback, and more thorough understanding of design, layout, what works, and what doesn't.
In this class our first project was introduced right away, and we jumped into creating a full-page ad. This was for an ABSOLUT AD. Everyone is familiar with them. They are well known for their humor, and easily spotted in magazines, billboards, and anywhere else that they are published. What makes them so successful? How can a simple page with bottle of alcohol be recognized throughout the world? This advertising, along with the "For Everything Else There’s MasterCard" campaign, are the one in a million that work. They stick. You know what they look and sound like.

Since 1979 Absolut has been using the SAME layout for their ads. Do they get old or stale? No. They're still humorous. Why? You may look at them and think, wow, that's really simple. Yes, it is very simple, but recognizable. The mere shape of the bottle and font are enough to sell the product. By using the same bottle shape, same placement of text, and changing the message, it becomes highly recognizable and yet not boring. One key to creating successful ads is to use humor. However, do not tell jokes. There is a difference. Jokes get old, and we all know... a joke is never funny the second time you hear it. After the first time you hear it, or in this particular case, see it, no one wants to hear it again. Humor implies something that is common knowledge or plays off a certain place, event, or object. Take ABSOLUT PITTSBURGH. In this layout, a large steel press has just completed making a steel bottle of ABSOLUT. A molten glowing bottle, and we know that's Pittsburgh. We find this humorous. Haha, we can laugh about it. Steel mills. Pittsburgh. Get it?

Enough of the boring background and advertising rational, Here's a site that has a very extensive listing of the ABSOLUT ADS: www.absolutad.com

I'll soon post some of the ones that I worked on.

Naked Hugging

I recently avocated the idea of naked hugging. Everyone loves hugs, and being naked while performing this action would increase it's enjoyment. Upon releasing my new theory, Kristin quickly pointed out several flaws. Here are her thoughts on the matter.

I don't think that your "naked hugging" philosphy really holds true. I can think of many situations in which naked hugging would not solve the problem, say the middle east. I don't think that if all the Isrealites hugged the Palistinians while naked that anything would be solved. On the plus side, no one could bring a bomb or weapon to the affair, so no suicide bombings. Or at least, it would have to be a very strategically placed bomb to go unnoticed. Take the leader of North Korea and the leaders of the UN. If they all hugged, North Korea would still wouldn't cooperate with nuclear weapons. You would just have a lot of different ethnicities hugging each other and probablly a very uncomfortable situation. can you see Kofi Annan seriously hugging anyone naked?
Just to really push this point home, next time you have a problem with mom or she's really annoying you, do you really seriously in any dimention or other world, see yourself hugging her naked? let's not even go there. I think through my 3 examples, you have seen that naked hugging is not a thorough theory. If you recall the scientific method or whatever we learned in middlle school, it should not be considered a theory any more. Iit should be down graded to a tropical depression; or whatever is the level below theory. Please make such a note in your profile that there are exempt cases to your claim so that others are not confused as well. You don't want George Bush to read that and go cuddle with John Kerry.
Have a nice day,
Kristin

More from Maine

In addition to the NOLS posts, I'll throw in something hiking related, but far less structured. This past Labor Day, I went hiking with the McKnight clan, in Maine + Bill Hearne, and Sue Omang. Oh yeah, my parents were there for part of it too. Anyway, it was 4 days of awesome peak bagging. For those of you not so outdoor savy, peak bagging is hiking for the sole purpose of reaching mountain summits. We didn't do any overnight camping, infact had the luxry of a bed and breakfast for our stay. During this time We got 9 peaks(I'm going to have to verify this), I think the highest in Maine. We also ate tremendous amounts of fresh blueberries, hiked up ski slopes,got lost, and abandoned my mom at a bar. The nice thing about hiking in September is that the weather is pleasant to hike in. At the base of the mts. we were in shorts, and at the top, bundled up in wind-proof jackets. It wasn't bitterly cold, but the wind in some places was rather gusty.


Top Left: Me at the Summit of West Peak (in case you're too lazy to read the sign).

Middle Right: Russ, Sue, Padre, and Me- North Horn Mtn.

Bottom Left: West Peak. We ridge walked this 1.2 miles between South Horn and West, only to be faced with more wind and an incredibly rocky descent. The knees were screaming.

I've been thinking about post school activities. It may be half a year away, or a year and a half away. I'm not decided yet. However, I would like to do another NOLS course before I become part of the work force. Right now my options lie within Baja Coastal sailing and Bafifn Island backpacking. They are two very different extremes which would both be invigorating. For those of you not familiar with the intense and dramatic suroundings often found on NOLS courses, here are some clips from last year.

This lake was fed entirely from the melting snowfields. We camped along the lefthand side of it, and at dusk, watched a mother bear and cub walking up the opposite scree slope foraging for food. This was taken during a scouting trip, in which we searched for a way thru the mountains, looking for a pass. We found one, and returned to camp. Tired and hot, we took a dip in the lake. Melting snow never felt so good.

Notice the small orange blob of color on the left-hand side. That is the tip of one of our tents. We were perched on a flat ledge, rather high in elevation. The night was rather foggy, and lingerd all morning. This was taken in the morning shortly after dawn. Had the sky been clear, we would have had an awesome view of Mount Olympus. The fog added a rather errie and mysterious feel to our camp, and an unwillingness to get out of bed.

Running shoe woes

I thoroughly enjoy my evening runs, and tonight I had my first night run in over 2 weeks. I was feeling great! My heels were a little sore, but I thought nothing of it. When I returned, I bounded up my stairs into my apartment. Upon streching I looked at my heels for the first time and discovered that they were not doing as well as the rest of me. I'll ducktape them up, and they'll be fine tomorrow. My shoes, however, have a new touch of red... nice.

The Infamous Garbage Plate

This year for Christmas I received numerous items for which I was grateful. However I was most excited for my skiing trip and visit to Rochester. Me? Excited about skiing?? Dave has been encouraging me to visit his hometown for ages, and finally the opportunity arose where we could take a 2-day visit. We spent the first day skiing at Bristol Mountain. The mountain was about twice the size of Seven Springs, and provided more aggressive skiing opportunities. Being the Christmas holiday, it was crowded...mostly with speed bumps (small children) and obstacles (armature snowboarders taking a leisurely seat on the slope). Not to worry, Dave snowed them right in the face... "You asshole!" My warm-up run for the day was on a double black...my first of the season. Although I was a little shaky, I defiantly got more used to the conditions and the steepness as the day wore on. Starting around 11, we were off of the mountain around 6- taking only a half hour lunch break. During this time we did 30 runs- most blues and blacks. I attempted some jumps...with mixed results. I got daring enough to get air, although landings were a little iffy. The best part of the day was being able to fly down some of the slopes going (Dad's estimate) about 50-60mph. It was sheer joy going so fast, and being in control the entire time. My skis are definitely treating me well. At the end of the night we were a little banged up (I only fell 3 times), and incredibly hungry. No fear, a remedy was at hand. Nick Tahou's is a Rochester famous hamburger place that sells the "garbage plate". Now this is probably as visually stimulating as the name implies. Let me describe it to you in vivid detail. First off it comes, neatly packed into a square Styrofoam box. This doesn't matter if you're dining in, or have ordered for take out. The bottom layer is a solid sheet of macaroni salad. On top of that are home fries. Piled next are two cheeseburgers, congealed together to form a rather unidentifiable blob. To top it off there is the "hot sauce" which is solely taco-bellesque quality meat with a little au ju, for flava. If that isn't enough grease encases every bite, and lines the entire inside of the gourmet packaging container. Franks hot sauce and ketchup were found in ample quantities...sometimes 3 or 4 bottles to a table. Now you're thinking...how on earth could you eat this, Jen? The meal was 3-5lbs of pure dinner bliss. After a hard day of skiing, nothing filled you up like a solid artery blocking, greasy meal. Mmmm....mmmm good. The garbage plate is truly an experience; one that I am not going to relive for a lonnng time.