Jumping off bridges, playing with lions and eating catipillars: Zambia

I'm back...and with lots of stories to tell.

Just over a month ago, I traveled to Lusaka, Zambia for three and a half weeks to study media, intern at Young & Rubicam/Ogilvy Zambia and, of course, do a little touring. Although the internet connection was almost never in my favor, I was able to pump out four posts during my trip. Click below to read about:

-How PR lessons came full circle in Zambia
-Striking similarities between Zambia and Vietnam
-Music: a connection point between cultures
-My thoughts about "going with the flow" while abroad

We even produced an e-magazine dedicated to our trip (and designed by yours truly). If those don't convince you to grab your bags and head to Africa, check out some of my photos.

When you say "that's so gay"...

"When you say 'that's so gay' do you realize what you say? Knock it Off."

Setting: A mall, a grocery store, a pizza place
The players: a group of girls or guys, a semi well-known actor or actress such as Hilary Duff or Wanda Sykes
The reason? A "think before you speak" ad asking, or rather, demanding, that the general public refrain from using the phrase "that's so gay".

Now, although this message is indeed an imporatant one, I think that there are many flaws in this ad. One, I feel that this ad is simply doing what it is trying to stop: it is associating the word "gay" with words such as "bad" or "stupid". In these ads, the famous character says something like "don't say something is gay when you mean it's (insert negative adjective here)". Now, in my mind, this is only telling me that the word gay is used to mean "bad or stupid" (even though gay is not even an adjective at all, but that is an entirley different battle). Second, saying "knock it off" at the end only makes me, as a consumer, feel a little threatend. I, personally, don't like when television ads/public service annoucement boss me around.

In short: good idea, bad advertisement. Then again, I don't have any better ideas, so who am I to critisize? I guess that's why I'm not on the career path to a job in advertising. My full (officially) quarter as a journalism student, however, has brought me to look at television ads with a much more critical eye (knowing that all ads must be relevent AND memorable, never either/or).

So what do you think? Let me know about some ads that you think are missing their mark, I'd love to hear it/discuss it with you.

"We are living in a media world"

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

When I was younger, my "aspirations" changed from day to day. Whether on a given day I was fighting fires in my mind or chasing down vicious criminals, one factor remained unchanged: I wanted to help people. Now, twelve plus years later, here I sit, beginning my journey to a degree in Journalism. I must admit, upon making this decision, I felt a little selfish; I felt as if I was taking a path that would lead me to doing anything but helping mankind. Turns out, I was extremely wrong.

After my first Journalism 101 class today in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, I remembered why I had chosen the field in the first place. The media is all around us. If not for the media, how would the average citizen be able to hear and understand the views of candidates running for election? If not for the media, how would organizations like the Humane Society or campaigns like the "Live Above the Influence" campaign against drugs get their message out to the masses as they do with newspapers and television ads?

Although the media is obviously changing, I believe that it is not withering away, it is simply upgrading. In fifty years from now, whether I'm checking the weather for my grandson's soccer game or looking to adopt a new pet, I'll still be receiving the amount of information I need and demand (even if it is through a chip in my arm); and in fifty years, I'll look back at my first few days as a college student and be glad that I chose a major that could help me make a difference.