Speaking of user-generated content

This is kind of cool. Weezer performed their songs along with some die-hard fans.

Entry Level Salary Survey

This is from DHorridge.

"I'm trying to learn more about what entry level positions are paying these days. So, if you've been hired within the past 6-7 years, do me a favor and fill out this survey that I created. It only takes a couple minutes.

I get 100 respondents so it's first come, first served.

People are always asking me about salary advice, so I'm hoping this will really help out. We'll see."

You can also read the AIGA 2008 Salary Survey here.

Our world is changing

on glumbert

on youtube

Things are not always what they seem

Thanks to Elizabeth, The American Creativity Association - UT Chapter President, for the link

Time's 50 best websites of 2008

The 2008 edition of Time's 50 best websites is out. I always enjoy clicking through their choices and discovering obscure gems.

Say hello to ecopop

Say Goodbye to 86 the onions. Say hello to ecopop.

ecopop is a living fun factory of innovative ideas designed to instigate positive change in individuals, community and the world. It's a virtual product development, branded content, and consulting collective that specializes in merging capitalism with global responsibility. ecopop.com is a free idea exchange invites the creative community to help solve problems that truly matter in the world.

After more than 14 years of creating influence, demand, social currency, and profitability for 130+ iconic brands around the world, visionary brand innovator and serial entrepreneur Chad Rea (A Texas Tech alumni) repositioned his efforts to bring conscious consumerism out of the exclusive fringe and into the accessible mainstream.

Rea's mission is to use his creative problem solving talents, pop culture sensibilities, proven intuition, and integrated marketing and new media prowess to solve problems that matter to the world and ensure that constructive brands have the creative tools necessary to compete with leading mainstream brands. And to do this is a way that entertains and embraces people through pop culture.

Working directly with visionary entrepreneurs and ambitious enterprises, ecopop provide expert advice, innovative ideas, and actionable marketing assistance across all aspects of business, including product development, branding, advertising, design, marketing, media, branded content/entertainment, and public relations.

There has been a paradigm shift. In Rea's opinion and experience, those companies that align their product with their global responsibility, and package themselves in an authentic way that appeals to a broader audience, will reign. The race is on. And it couldn’t be more exciting.

"More pop. Less crunch."

editor's note: At first glance, I couldn't figure out what ecopop is so here's the About Us page.

Learn from every job

Photo by Seraphimc

USA Today has a great article about how CEOs learned invaluable lessons from their first jobs growing up. This article reminded me of pushing grocery carts and being a dishwasher and busboy when I was 14 and 15. This excerpt particularly caught my eye because it seems like a lot of recent college graduates want their first full-time job to be their dream job at so-and-so dream company. It doesn't always work that way. What the first job can be, however, is a stepping stone toward your dream job at so-and-so dream company.

Chris Kearney, 52 and CEO of industrial products giant SPX, was 13 in 1968 when he made $100 a week loading trucks for the family-owned beer distributorship in Mount Pleasant, Pa., something generations of Kearney boys have done since the end of Prohibition.

Today's teens should think of every job opportunity as an important building block in life, no matter how menial it seems, Kearney says. "A successful career is built incrementally, one step at a time."

News Roundup

• Thanks to DRorth for Christvertising.
  


• New Sony Bravia Test commercial by Kobayashi
  


• Jesus has a MySpace page!


• How to sell more Kleenex boxes


• Two very cool flash creations: Japanese drummers and Jackson Pollock (adapted from Stamen).


• Admcom (Italy) created a Year of Creativity booklet.



Check out this cool artsy video about Bono by GOOD magazine.

First Ever Promiscuous Mothers Day

Happy Belated Mother's Day.

From alumni Greg Hunter, Rob Baird, and other former Longhorns at Mother NY

Drink Drench water

21st century story telling

Basically, advertising is story telling. And story telling is about communication. Both are about communicating to people a certain plot line, memory, or message. The internet and new technologies have allowed people to communicate even more effectively and interactively. More often than not, it has enhanced the conveyed message. In the case of Local Projects, it has also fostered community.

Below are some examples.


A very inspirational digital storytelling company called Local Projects. From Dwell.







An interactive twise on the traditional (especially in the Southern US) story telling quilt. Via Its Nice That.

Amen brother

Created by 22-year old Misssissippi State Univ. student Will Bryant.

Via BySoandSo and HOW Blog

Photoshop Disasters

I just found the funniest blog ever... for art directors. I was laughing out loud at my desk and some account people were like "I don't get it."

Anyway, enjoy Photoshop Disasters

You too can be a pro footballer

Very creative camera angles by Guy Ritchie for Nike Football. Because of the first-person view, the story can be told without a script. Has anybody seen this run on TV or is it only on youtube?

You Rock

I found this online somewhere and didn't bookmark it. Anybody know who designed this?