Superbowl Reflections.

As I was watching the Superbowl last night, I followed two Twitter groups curious to see people's reactions of the show. The first one I followed was the #SB44 which was the superbowl's hash tag, which was literally flooded with thousands of people watching the game. The other group I followed, was the nice folks at JHP Advertising, who allowed me to share my advertising thoughts with. As I followed both groups, I was pleased to see Social Media have such a strong force during the game. The commercials however, were an entirely different beast. I wondered a few times if the commercials had forgotten that they were there to sell a product. These thoughts came primarily with the Doritos and Budwiser commercials? The commercials were funny and creative but what did they tell us about the product? The Google Ad I personally loved. I had heard it was going to make an appearance, but I did not know in what fashion. I found the Advertisement to be simple and in a time of over the top jokes and celebrity commercials, it was creative in it's simplicity. A number of ads, I felt really hit the spot. They were both creative and funny, and surprise, they actually tried to sell the product. These include Monster.Com, Career.Com, and Teleflora flowers. Also how I could leave out the Letterman commercial, that literally left me and my roommate stunned. The advertisement was a success and not just for Letterman. I feel that this was a commercial for not just Letterman but Late Night as a whole. Worst Ad: Now I have talked to a few people on Twitter about this, who disagreed and many who have agreed. But my choice for worst commercial is GoDaddy.Com. The shock value of these commercials had already ended, when they first debuted this campaign years ago, and I feel that these commercials are now in just bad taste.

How the Internet has now Branded you.

Many people talk today about how important a brand is in today's society. What feelings or thoughts that a particular item conveys, is very important, as an item tries to build rapport with it's customer base. Imagine computer giant Apple, who survives on their brand name. You hear Apple and you immediately think words like "Smart" and "Innovative". These words have came to signify not only their technology but the grand in general. People perceive brand's as an item or company so much, that they forget about branding themselves. Now your names mean a lot in this online world. When you were growing up and going to your first job interview at the age of seventeen or eighteen, the first thing you always heard, from your parents, was just how important that first impression was. Your parents would spend hours with you going through your wardrobe and trying to find the perfect outfit. Well the same thing can be said about your online presence. The first thing in today's society that many people see is your e-mail address or your social networking name. Your online identities say alot about yourself. Would you rather read an e-mail from RacerFan32@Gmail.com or Steve_Wozniak@Gmail.com. Which sounds more professional to you? If you read Racerfan, you can jump to two conclusions, either he has some affiliation to the sport of racing or you can jump to the conclusion that he is a nascar fan on the weekends. These names and persona's mean everything, and many people tend to forget this. How often have you viewed a Myspace page that is simply titled "Crazy B****" or some other random name. Many times, if you are intrigued you do, but more often than not you ignore them. Especially in today's professional atmosphere, there is no reason to view a "Crazy B*****" unless she's someone trying out for a new reality show. Imagine Linkedin.com, a professional social networking site, where you can post your resume on. Through Linkedin.com, you can create and manage your own resume page. Now imagine as someone sends you their Linkedin domain, as a place you can view their resume on. Would you want to hire WWW.Linkedin/in/RacerFan32, even if he is qualified for the job? You know immediately that this person does not care professionally if he is using such a name, but maybe the race means more to him than the position. This has caused quite a stir in recent years as people find it so hard to get their naming rights. Early adopters are quick to get their names, but imagine everybody else in this three hundred thousand packed country. Surely there are thousands of Jack Smith's and even a few Cole Watts'. Many professional sports players have found problems with this in the past as many have found their name rights bought up before they even get a chance to register them for domains. This has caused quite a controversy and many people offering money for their name rights'. Your domain name means a lot. No matter, what you say. It is your online persona that your friends come to recognize you as. What is your online persona? Do you have the same name for everything? Or do you just wing your names as you go? Because no matter what you pick your domain name says a lot about you, more than you probably think.

What content readers mean to paper and books.

With yesterday's announcement of the new Apple Ipad, I could not help but wonder how everything is going digital and the loss of paper products in today's society. Are we totally ready to embrace the concept that we are now a paperless society? We have given up on the Newspaper as a hard copy, in the last few years as more and more people are going to the Internet for their news these days. But with the announcement of the Ipad, as a true "content" driven platform more people will be exploring the use of it and Kindle's book readers. Books are not the only thing losing their value in our society either. Have you tried to fill out a job application these days? If so you might notice a quick difference in the application process from years ago. No longer do you go to a store and simply ask for a job application, instead many company owners and manager's simply direct you to a website where you can file an application or an e-mail address where you can send an application directly to them. Now I could highlight all of the various reason's on why one could choose a book reader over a book, but I am not going to do that. I am hear to make you think about the other alternative. The other view. An electronic book might be more cheaper to make, save us on cutting down trees, and be better to read at night, but does it have the same intimacy as a book? Is it something that can be passed on to your friend? Or left at a gas station for the next passerby? I think not. A file is a file, but a book is a book. It does take up space, but it takes up space in an almost magnificent way. A book can be shared from person to one another or can sit on your coffee table for days at a time without being touched. To a content reader a book is just another file, but to a couch a book is an adventure.