Dominika Krupa's Blog

As we learn in school every day, words are the power. Once out there, they can yield tremendous success, unimaginable wealth, worldwide fame or a passing grade for their author. People are prepared to pay the really big bucks for those sequences of letters that enchant people’s imagination. Whether it be slogans, brand names, company names, or the plain old regular name. For example, “Just Do It”, “M&M”, “Microsoft” and let’s say “Justin Bieber” put together are worth more money than many countries’ GDP. But as Karma and the Gauss curve teaches us, for every “up” there is a “down”.

Winston Churchill said that “History is written by the victors”. It may have been the case for you, Winston, but it is not anymore. Today history is written by the random people on the internet. So what would have been lost and forgotten in the early XX century as just another unsuccessful attempt at earning money, will now live on forever in the endless abyss that is the World Wide Web.

Exhibit A: The list of 10 Worst Business Names provides examples on when it’s sometimes good to consult your idea with your teenage son or daughter before investing millions of dollars into business cards and TV commercials.

Exhibit B:

Um, what were you aiming at guys? Because in the light of the BP oil spill, your logo does not give the greatest message.

Exhibit C: is of the more serious kind, were a company managed to be so mysterious and lofty in their campaign, I wonder if even they know what they actually do. Patrick Schaber, The Lonely Marketer, analyzes their slogan further here.

There I was, one Thursday night, sitting comfortably on the couch in my rez, with a hot bowl of deliciously seasoned spaghetti, with a snuggly blanket wrapped all around me, waiting for my favourite show to start.

One commercial… One anouncement… Coffee, toilet paper, baby food, German cars…

Yes!!!

Here it comes!

Grey’s Anatomy, my sole comfort after a hard week’s work. But can you imagine my surprise, when among the usual craniotomies, appendectomies, relationship drama, and rainy weather, I spot an unexpected visitor! Twitter has infiltrated even the fictional hospital of Seattle Grace.

In the episode, the interns tweeted about the course of the operation – techniques used by the surgeon, complications, etc. And of course being a prime time drama, there was, you guessed right, drama! I will not get into that, anyone who is interested has probably seen the show. For those who would like to witness it again, it’s season 7, episode 13, “Don’t Deceive Me (Please Don’t Go)”.

I mention it because firstly, I found it wonderful that what we learn in COMM 296, a University course, has actually made it’s way to the ultimate housewife pasttime, but also because TV is educating the society about new technology! It’s very eloquently presented on the show, how Twitter can be used not only for the fun of uploading your private pictures for all to see (yes, I’m talking to you, Miss Kardashian!), but also for the professional societies to communicate effectively, learn from each other and benefit from the new inventions, whether it should be a law firm, a newspaper, an IT company or an operating theater.

And that, mum and dad, is another reason why I absolutely refuse to stop watching TV!

How do you make people get their behinds off of the couch and to the movie theater to see your newest creation? Especially in 30 seconds or less? You make a movie trailer! A short, action-and-bikini-models-packed clip that highlights the best parts of the movie and cunningly hides the not so brilliant ones.

And although hords of very smart people who analyze  the demand for certain types of flicks or CDSTEP the entertainment business, what they come up with rarely corresponds to the film they were supposed to market! You would not try to sell a car by expressing your admiration for such a delightful example of God’s work, the pickle! Frankly it is all about creativity these days, and I am sure that some features of the new Mercedes do rhyme with ‘short’, ‘green’ or ‘sour’, but when you buy a car you are probably less interested in whether it would go well with a hamburger, and more with, for example, its fuel consumption.

The same should be true for movies! After watching the trailer I want to know if I should prepare for sweaty guys running around with big guns trying to save the world, or a sweet yet nerdy girl in glasses swooning over a guy she thinks she will never have.

Here is a fantastic example: ‘The feel-good film of the decade!’ Really? Because the one I saw was a bittersweet story of a young man who has had an incredibly hard life, enduring true ordeal, watching the fall of his brother and the misery and injustice around him. And that definitely does not make me feel good about myself!

Have a little faith in the audience, guys! Because believe it or not, honesty in advertising does matter.

Whoa, Einstein should seriously revise his thoughts on things that are infinite. Because it seems to me that the usual suspects sometimes look pale when compared to what people actually come up with to promote their brand.

Marketers from Desigual held an event in several big European cities to celebrate Boxing Day and the shopping bonanza that accompanies it. Check out this video:

Shopping bags are so yesterday

I do hope that all nearby drug stores offered free flu meds to these people!