Inside My Brain

I recently heard from a friend that the cookie brand Oreo has its own Instagram channel. The channel has a remarkable 82 thousand followers. I must say that this is a very smart and inventive business tactic. The average photo on the Oreo Instagram channel includes a real photo in a small circle bubble at the top left of the photo space, and then in the rest of the photo space is the recreation of whatever is in the circle at the top right, with Oreos! An example is the following image of the portrayal of a piano:

The headline message for the Oreo Instagram page is “Are you cookie? Or are you creme?”. Oreo has established two teams in which Oreo fans must select a side. There is the cookie side in which is for the people that think the best part of the Oreo cookie product is the chocolate crunchy cookie part. The other team is the creme filling team. The Instagram page offers a medium for members of either team to show how much better their side is by utilizing either the creme, cookie, or both to portray a real life scene or object with Oreo parts. More brands need to do this. However, it is harder to approach when your product cannot be split into two parts. Looking at the Oreo Instagram page, I would honestly say it is half team cookie and half team creme. Selecting a side is hard for me because one part of the cookie is nothing without the either, which is why it is such a good idea to force fans to select a side. What side are you on?

Most ads for travel companies are obnoxious in my opinion. Travelocity, Hotels.com and Expedia are all great examples of brands that have mediocre campaign endeavors. It just seems that they are trying too hard and focus so intensely on the low prices and how they are better than their competitors. Another problem with the ads these companies release is that they are trying way too hard to be funny and fail at doing so. Despite which site offers the best deals for cheap travel, I believe that Kayak does a very good job at keeping the viewer entertained by keeping things simple and absolutely hilarious. Below are three links to some really good Kayak ads on YouTube:

1) Roommate Ad

2) Five Man Ad

3) Pupils Ad

On top of having hilarious and simple ads, they have a strong logo as well as a strong and simple slogan which is “Search One and Done”. I admire how each ad message and its content that it relays to the viewer is consistent, yet the visual display is always different and random. They really make you laugh! It is not surprising that the ad firm that does Kayak’s commercials is Goodby Silverstein, a well known ad firm. I hope to one day produce quality entertainment such as that of Goodby Silverstein.

It seems that new cartoons that are being made today simply lack the great simplicity and quality present in almost any 90’s cartoon. Cartoons are a huge part of my existence and have most definitely shaped who I am today. I see cartoons as sheer entertainment because they do not use human actors, thus instantly transporting the user to another reality if the viewer truly focuses on the program. I enjoy it for this very reason because cartoons make it so easy to escape from the realities that could get us feeling depressed, stressed or feeling any other negative emotion. Some of the truly great cartoons of the 90’s that I hold close to my heart are the following: Hey Arnold, Dexter’s Lab, Angry Beavers, Doug, Johnny Bravo, Rocko’s Modern Life, Spongebob, Rugrats, CatDog, Ahh Real Monsters, The Wild Thornberries and Rocket Power. Nowadays, the number of cartoons that come to par with the ones I’ve just listed are only a select few. I’m not sure why, but the cartoon industry is just not as original and fun to watch as it used to be. However there are a few exceptions. Some 2000’s cartoons that do come to par with these quality 90’s cartoons are Futurama, Family Guy, Superjail!, Adventure Time and Gravity Falls. I know that Futurama, Family Guy and Superjail! are targeted towards adult audiences, and that needs to be factored in when comparing the cartoons I watched as a child with the cartoons I watch currently; but honestly there are just less original cartoons that are truly entertaining being produced today than in the 90’s. I wish these cartoon oldies would be on the air again, but I can’t control what is put on television. Cartoons now are over-educational and hardly entertaining and treat the kid as if they do not know anything.

One of my favorite things on this planet is electronic music. The electronic music scene has gained recognition and has sky-rocketed in popularity within the past 2-3 years. Television commercials are starting to rely on using it more and more for it catches the viewers’ attentions. Sure, I attend live electronic shows, however the drugs aren’t the reason I am there. I am there for the great music, that I believe is the voice of our generation. I did not even know what drugs were back when first started listening to Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren in seventh grade. After growing a very distinct taste in electronic music over the years, I have found a trust worthy blog that posts quality electronic music as well as quality hip hop tracks. The blog site is called thissongissick.com and is based out of Boulder, Colorado.  I consider Colorado to be very knowledgeable to what’s hot in the electronic music scene because my brother in Denver, CO tells me about the sheer volume of electronic artists that play shows there.