I'll get by with a little help from my friends...

Ah, Lent, hello you old fiend! Even though I'm not religious I always try to take part and give up something for 40 days and nights. Now. With it being my final year, final semester of University, I have much dissertation writing to be done and I figure this can't really be done with a permanent stinking hangover (not that I drink all of the time). So I have given up brown alcohol. I know, I know, it's a huge sacrifice, just 40 days of vodka and gin?! I've decided this due to the hefty hangover Amaretto and Dark Rum leave me with.

Writing this down I realise how much of a pansy Lent sacrifice this is.

I do insist I love Amaretto, the little devil. Farewell for a little while my Italian sweet almond-flavoured treat.

On another note, I'm now trawling the waves of Last FM as part of the placement I'm doing now. (SOCIAL NETWORKING IS NOT A FAD). So, if anyone is free for some music exchange, sophielovestea, fiiiinnnddd meeeee.

Last Days of Wine & University.

It's starting to dawn on me now that my little University/education journey is coming to an end. I'm not dim or anything, I was aware this was my third year, but I never really thought about it.
No more drinking in the middle of the week and the earliest I have to get up the next day is 10. No no, now it will be 7am starts and WEEKEND drinking! What's the fun in that?

But seriously, I'm going to have to start thinking about getting my own little pad and a job, it's really exciting actually. I'm making my escape plan and deciding how I'm going to get into advertising without ending up as this guy...

I figure I can start my documentation here on my quest from super student to agency must-have! Hoorah!

All I Want For Christmas...

So. My Nan often asks me, "Sophie, are you going to make better adverts than this?" when we're watching TV and, with a heavy sigh I'll reply, "Definitely Nan", because I find it particularly difficult to explain the ins and outs of what I actually do at University. She has a point though. All the ad's on TV are pants and the products they're selling are even worse! Now, I know TV advertising is a dying 'art', but does it really mean that whatever is produced, has to be either annoying to the point where you're chanting "...we buy any car dot com!" in your head, hoping at any moment you might spontaneously combust. That, or the advert is so stupidly pointless you are bewildered.

Every now and then I'll see something ace on TV, I guess it sticks out a lot more when you finally see something good through the rubbish. However, I saw something so silly and futile, I decided it was blog worthy!

Hold your breath. To experience. The wonders. Of.

https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next

Yes. Snuggie! The solution to all of your problems. Because, really, when you are sitting at home beneath your blanket, you truly are TRAPPED from reaching for the remote. Or another, insolvable mystery of the blanket, IT SLIPS! Yes friends, it slips off of your shoulders, what do you do about such an issue. What else, but buy a blanket with sleeves, obviously... The justification of the product claims to cut your heating bills and solve such blanket mysteries and more. Personally, I turned my dressing gown backward to achieve the same result.

I'm not quite sure what happened to the bravery of mankind when we can't reach from our blanket to the chilling winter cold, to reach for the remote. I just thought it was brilliantly bizarre, even down to the way they justify it. So, folks, my inbox awaits all of your thanks and gratitude for saving you from searching the shops for Christmas presents, your troubles are solved!

The Best Ad's of the Decade

It's nearly the end of the 'noughties', and what a ten years it's been. I'm eagerly awaiting a bunch of Channel 4's finest 'Best Of...' countdowns for the decade but thought I'd jump on the bandwagon as I've read a whole bunch online and in the newspapers already.

I think this decade has been brilliant, aside from seeing in my 18th birthday alongside coming to University, we've had some ace music to start, but I won't bore anyone with a streaming list of that *cough* In Rainbows *cough*. However, to stick with my loose blog theme, how about the best (or at least my favourite) TV ad's of the last 10 years.

There's something really mesmerising about watching 250,000 bouncy balls all run down a hill in San Francisco in the Song Bravia Bouncy Balls advert from 2005. It's so tranquil for the whole 2 and a half minutes, just listening to Jose Gonzales watching the colourful bouncy balls, absolutely stunning.

Honda releasing their first Diesel engine really needed something special. The idea of positive hate, represented

in the most cutesy, catchy fashion really worked for me. I remember my friend and I singing the "Hate Something,

Change Something" song, walking about town, hmmm'ing along as pretend Honda Diesel's.

I do tend to really like story type ad's, in this case how the diesel engine came about. The whole positive

Buddhist philosophy thinking really works well with Honda's image and taking a more positive step toward a

brighter, greener future.

I shan't go on, but just one more.

Guinness (had to be in there somewhere), the noitulovE ad! The tale of life's journey to the perfect pint, it's excellent. It was the fifth in the series of "Good Things Come To Those Who Wait" and I couldn't think of a smarter, quirkier way to sum up what Guinness is about. Oh, and throw in a bit of Sammy Davis Jr for safe measure. I think Darwin is still spinning at the thought of "Let's evolve to get something better tasting than this water...".

I think Moon Pig just missed my cut...

Rows Of Polar Bears, All Bearing Down On Me.

I'm not a preacher, but I will poke and nudge my opinions across to others. However, getting people to listen is a very difficult thing, as I explored in my Copywriting module last year on meat trading standards in the UK. With vegetarianism being particularly close to my heart, so is global warming. I find people switch off whenever you really talk about global warming. Words don't work. Facts don't work. Figures, pie charts, preaching over and over, none of it.

Mother, London, has recently launched a campaign, raising awareness of your carbon footprint. The words they use are few, but striking ones. The images they use are brutal, but one hundred percent necessary. When I saw the ad, by the end my eyes had completely welled up (probably due to being a soft sod), but it really caught an emotion. It's a very clever ad. If you've got a few spare seconds, please watch it and have a little think to yourself.

I don't believe in pushing people to believe the same things I do. But when it comes to this, it's not so much a matter of believing rather than opening your eyes and taking the information in.

On top of that, if you fancy a quirky little website to look at, take a look at The Wave.
"On Saturday 5 December 2009, ahead of the crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life will march through the streets of London to demonstrate their support for a safe climate future for all."
Help be a part of the solution - power by numbers always works. Even if you just take 5mins to look at the site (though you could quite possibly spend more seeings as I've sat here and watch the people wave for quite some time!)
Here's a link to the site The Wave - Stop Climate Chaos. Click the front page for more info.

Home, is where I want to be, pick me up and turn me round.

I love adverts that really inspire me and that's how I feel - like most others - when I see Guinness adverts. The 1999 'Surfer' advert was understandably named 'best advert' by The Sunday Times and Channel 4.

"Take me out, tonight, where there's music and there's people and they're young and alive."

Recently they have decided they want to change their strap line from "Good Things Come To Those Who Wait" to "Bring It To Life". I can understand the change they're making, seeings as the recession has stopped people from drinking out more and living more of a quiet life, watching TV and bringing their drink home. I see why Guinness would take the move to inspire people to get out there and live a little, even if it does cost a little more to have your drink via draught rather than can.

I love the move, it's fresh and moving on from the old strap line before it quickly moved from classic to stale. The advert and visuals alone are stunning and inspiring, I can't believe how inspiring an advert for such a rank stout can be!

I never saw it as a start. More a change of heart.

Each time I find myself, flat on my face,

I just pick myself up & get back in the race.

No true creative works well without some musical inspiration.

The playlist in the Bright Spark office this week:

This Week's Playlist. -

Belle and Sebastian – Another Sunny Day

The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
Ocean Colour Scene – The Day We Caught The Train
Frank Sinatra – That's Life - Remastered Album Version
David Bowie – Life On Mars?
White Lies – Death
Friendly Fires – In The Hospital
Golden Silvers – Arrows Of Eros
Pulp – Do You Remember The First Time?
Late of the Pier – Space And The Woods (Cenzo Townshend Mix)

But I can't help the feeling. I could blow through the ceiling.

Welcome to my blog!

I'm Sophie and as part of my self branding module I will be documenting my transition from student to (hopeful) copywriter and posting any current affairs that I take an interest in.

The end is nigh, But America isn't fussed.

I think it's terrifying that the most influential country on the planet has such a naive attitude. A recent Pew Research Centre survey suggests that the proportion of Americans who believe there is solid evidence that the world has been warming over the last few decades has fallen from 71% to 57% in just 18 months (see article:http://people-press.org/report/556/global-warming).

I know this is everywhere and the 'guilt trip' style ad's are becoming more and more frequent, but it is actually a huge deal that people are becoming less bothered about the possibility of wiping out humanity.

Are we really narrowly missing the chance to save the planet?

So, I've been recently hearing a lot of excitement around The Age of Stupid, a drama documentary starring Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking back and asking "why didn't we do something whilst we had the chance".

So, here's the link to the film website: http://www.ageofstupid.net, it's definitely worth a look into for sure. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

I'm currently working on a re-brand of Leek town and whilst I'm working on it would appreciate any feedback on visuals I post and the general ideas. I'll be posting some up within the next few days.