FUCKKKK

This course has been a lot of work. It has been helpful to my career though, and I do feel better for taking it, especially not knowing what to expect going in. It was interesting to see the number of students that started the course as opposed to the number that are left, after (in my opinion) realizing what the course entailed.

In regards to what I have learned while working with my group:
well, this wasn't the first time I have worked in a group..
1) the best laid plans can often fail to materialize.
2) at the last minute, if technology can fail, it will.
3) I must not let a vehicle containing six bags of clothing get towed prior to actually delivering the clothing for a charity event. If this does happen, it will significantly effect the volume of clothing collected.
4) Google docs is the shit. Hands. Down.
5) Many eyes proofreading does not ensure and clean final copy.
6) Brian and Andreas are great guys.

This class, while a requirement, has been helpful in completing the credit hours needed to get closer to graduation, and that applies to my degree, and for real world experience, this course has helped me to overcome gatekeepers in a different environment and prospectively get my ideas published.

La La Land

This has been a particularly trying year for me personally, and I am considering a brief summer trip to Los Angeles. I am in a short term apartment which I give up May 1st, and am planning to take my finals, balancing time between NJ and my parents house in PA, and taking the summer to spend on the west coast.

I love LA. I love NY too, but every trip out to the city of angels i fall more and more in love. It could be a case of the grass is always greener on the other side, but in the case of the two cases, NY has rotting grass and LA has brand new, fake AstroTurf. My work is steady here, and I have companies that run absentee, and with a recent divorce.. I feel I have nothing to lose.

Wish me luck

I dont care about your opinion

Well, most of the time.. When I read an opinion piece, or even start reading any piece, I consider the source. I do not listen to much news, as I feel it completely biased, and only occasionally read the paper (NY Times only), but I get my news from a variety of sources, and then choose to research topics that pique my interest. This has worked for me, as I get to evaluate the source and if I do not feel it credible, I then can redirect my search to find something better.

Often, the opinion has liberal or conservative bias, and I just want the facts, so no, I do not listen to, or even read most opinions that are printed.

Rarely, on superficial matters, I will indulge.. but this is only on issues like cars or clothing.. not news or issues that have a potential to impact the way I live, work, or get paid.

Spring is in the Air

Look outside.. its nice out. Very nice. I cannot wait for this snow to melt and to get back outdoors. It seems every year that cabin fever sets in so much that when the spring/summer does finally come, my kids and I dont know what to do with ourselves. I love the array of seasons in the northeast, but nothing is as good as spring.

From first taking the soccer fields, to spending afternoons at the park, to bicycling through the Palisades. Outdoor play dates, and exploring the city on Saturday afternoons. I am ready.

My favorite days of spring are when the air is soft, and the leaves are coming in and the grass is damp from the frost still at night, the smell when you walk out in the morning.. there is nothing like it.

I will be patiently waiting for these days, and there are so few when the elements are just right to make the perfect morning.

the pigs fly

I had to call. The buzzwords like fun and clever being used to describe a mundane function like calling about a chocolate bar? My interest was piqued.

Pig Latin, while tricky to comprehend at the speed he was talking, was my favorite. Having used this secret language back in the mid eighties, but its ways escaping me now, it was nice to hear the old "kid-speak" as my dad would call it, again. (after all, my sister and I would use it to confuse our parents and try to "pull the wool over their eyes/ears).

I think the use of this creativity is genius. Like the author of the blog, I will not run out to buy a Crunch bar, but will keep the product in mind when searching for chocolate and looking at the boring Hershey's products...

If only I could come up with an ad like this, or a promotion, or stunt or what have you, my life would be complete. I dream of a career in the advertising world, and it would be a break (me off a piece of that kit kat...sorry) like this to get the ball rolling. Until then, it will be PR writing I guess.

Enjoy the snow everyone.

bad perez is still good press

Reading the Badpitchblog, I couldn't help but compare the blog to that of pseudo famous celebrity blogger, Perez Hilton's site. The overall page was similar, and the content is similar, in that it makes fun of legitimate attempts at PR, as Hilton makes fun of sometimes legit celebs.

The BadPitchblog is silly and entertaining. This site showed me that there are so many bad pitches that before the world of blogs, escaped with little criticism. Not anymore...if the pitch is spotted, it is called out and put in front of those who care to follow the site. I love to critique ads, and now with the field open for bad pitches, if I come across any, I will be sure to think of this site, and may even submit a release or two.

I do not feel that Southwest Airlines responded appropriately to Mr. Smith's situation. While there is absolutely no dispute that he is fat, overweight, obese, or unfit, depending on which media outlet is reporting about him and his unfortunate flight, but he was treated unfairly.
Over the past few years, the decision to make passengers purchase an extra ticket if overweight has received much controversy.
The article only makes those with little knowledge of the situation aware that Mr. Smith had an incident on a commercial flight in the past week, and that he was outraged. I have seen much more angry articles, but not his Twitter tweets.

From a P.R. standpoint, I feel that Southwest is doing the right thing. It appears in not just this post, but others as well, that they ARE listening, and are supremely apologetic. Apologetic to the point of sincerity. Also, after consideration of the events, Smith feels slighted, or has made a public statement claiming to feel slighted, on a personal level-from an employees personal feelings towards him. Something that the airline has no control over.

This situation could be saved, if Southwest and Kevin Smith reach an under the table agreement, if Smith agrees to stop bashing Southwest, and the mistake is chalked up to the personally feelings of the employee.

There is a lot of room in this scenario for both parties to save face.

the blair witch project

about 10-11 years ago, if my memory holds, I sat in a movie theater and was soooo intrigued with the trailer for an upcoming movie, called the Blair Witch Project, that I decided when it finally did come out, I would go opening night. This is an uncommon thing, that I get so into a fictional conveyance that costs 40 dollars to go see, with popcorn, drinks, and an extra ticket for a date or friend. But I waited patiently as the hype grew, and critics were terrified (or so reported) of the film.

Opening night comes around, and I fight the crowds to pay to be frightened. The movie starts, to little big cinema previews, and follows the trend that this is an indie release. The plot builds, and having grown up not so far from that area, I am very attentive to the details of the story, although at that time, some of the sets look conceived. I'm not entirely buying the story, but agree to go on with it as it is scary and entertaining, but it is not till the ending of the movie that I am totally convinced that this is real. Hands down, legit scared. I try to figure out how far it is to get to Burkettsville, MD so I can get some thrill seeking friends to go and get a true life feel for this ourselves. (no takers..) I saw the movie again in the theater, this time during the day, by myself, and remained interested in this for a while.

There were constant reports that the movie was produced for next to nothing, and how it had such a great return on investment through box office sales. This is business- make a product for x, sell it for y with the anticipation that y is more than x. This was even more reason to applaud the efforts of the filmmakers. All is well in the mind of Mike, that these kids, or the survivors, are modern day heroes.

It was a fake. A fraud. A scam. I was duped. So was everyone... it was a great scam. The movie made millions, but the Blair Witch Project was a one hit wonder for the movie world, as no one trusted the efforts of these kids again.

I think there was so much interest because you never really knew what the movie was about. During the trailer, there were only screaming, shaky cameras running through a forest, camping scenes, and a title implying a witch.. but this was enough to draw millions to see this opening weekend. There was a Blair Witch 2, but very very little interest.

Even with the original, there was websites and a a whole culture that supported the film, making it that much more believable.

this was the greatest trick the witch ever pulled, make the world believe it existed.

entrepreneur article

I found the article very interesting, with a marketing background from other institutions. Having never personally planned a marketing stunt in conjunction with my businesses, I am actively batting around ideas of how I may make one a reality.
The Taco Bell stunt was my favorite, particularly because I love April Fool's Day pranks. This one, on a national level was pure genius. I think this worked so well because of the pure outrageous nature of the stunt. People did not know whether to believe the reports or not. This type of press has no downside, as it is harmless and generates substantial interest and discussion. I would venture a guess that on April 01 that year, many more people were talking about Taco Bell than actually visited the restaurant, and with the proof being in the numbers, there was a huge increase in visitors.

Of the stunts that did not work, the life threatening attempt by JMP Creative was the most ill-conceived tactic. For starters, the crew did not apparently have the proper training, and there was no mentioned safe word that would call off the stunt. While the firm, and McCafferty have gained clients and monetarily after the stunt, the risk of human life does not justify the end result.

Fears

Until now, I harbored a slight fear of public speaking. I don't know why exactly I fear my peers, and cannot say that I am fully cured of this, but this weekend was my first karaoke experience. Let me say, I am hooked.
To set the stage, it was happy hour, NYC, and a friend of mine was bartending and the majority of the patrons were her friends. The bar had just opened for the night, and there were only a few other people in the bar, so my inhibitions were already low. My friend, Natalie, made me some concoction, what I would consider a "girly shot" and told me that my song is next. I had no idea what she had picked for me, but did a short introduction to the bar while the into was playing. She informed them that I was visiting from across the Hudson and that I do not "fist pump". I knew the song, Bon Jovi (fitting?) and had no choice but to take the mic and do my best. After the first few lines, I just looked away from the crowd did what I was up there to do, and in three minutes, it was all done. I followed up by singing five more songs that night, while the bar filled up, and people came and went.
I overcame a major fear that night, and if I can sing in front of people, anyone can..

Tweety bird hits a Mack truck

Every product has an inevitable life cycle. Although Twitter may be classified as a service, it cannot escape this process of natural selection. Economists have defined the life cycle to have five stages: development, introduction, growth, mature, and decline. If Twitter is indeed hitting its stride, the future of the site is not as clear cut as is a tangible product.
I am not an expert on technology life cycles (or anything else for that matter), but in my opinion, there is a large demographic that can skew the trends from the inception of Twitter. This demographic is the "early adapters" that are growing up. While my generation, Generation X, has carried this label as well, I feel that an entirely new segment has been created and is on the come-up.
Twitter can capitalize on this younger generation, as the largest current market segment is held by 45-50 year old people (according to comScore). The methods to market to this segment are many, but with the 12-17 year old segment as the largest movie going population, Twitter would be wise to promote in this audience, literally.
I do not feel that Twitter has reached its plateau. I do not have an account, nor my sister or anyone close to me for that matter. I have considered it, but just feel it redundant to Facebook, and do not feel so grandiose that I need ANOTHER outlet for my friends to observe the goings-on in my life. If they want to know whats going on, email, text, BBM, or even god forbid, call and find out. But with 22 million existing subscribers, the possibility is there to create a true LinkdIn approach to businesses, or another spin off of the technology and reputation to carry a message to millions of users at once.

Hello,
My name is Michael Guzzardi. After 10 years away from college, I am thrilled to be back. This time around I am only focused on getting done, as was not the case at my first institutions. Before, I have the goal to learn as much as possible even switching to non-degree status so that I could take 300 and 400 level courses as a freshman. I got what I needed though.

My spring semester looks promising and with construction on a new project getting underway mid-February, I anticipate being very busy in the upcoming months.