I GRADUATED!

In October of 2015 I finally graduated from my MA in Creative Advertising from Southampton Solent University! I am very pleased (and proud) to say that I graduated with a Merit.

The day of my graduation I had my cousin Naomi and my wonderful friend and colleague Elizabeth join me for the ceremony. I was lucky enough to have Elizabeth take some amazing pictures that turned out amazing!

At times it is hard to realize that I have finished my education (for now anyways) and have fully started my career in the Advertising industry at Global Fire Creative. 

It feels like I have finished, but really I have only just started.

(All images courtesy of Elizabeth Halford)

Meet the Global Fire Creative team!

I decided I wanted to do an illustration of everyone in the team that would represent us all in different ways. The images have been uploaded to the Global Fire Creative Instagram that you can follow here.

Happy Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire night

I decided to do this image for my agency, Global Fire Creative as a side project and to practice my graphic design and typography skills. This is also a great start into letting our followers on Instagram (where the image was posted) that we are now doing more graphic design and creative based work.

Feminism and postfeminism in advertising: Is femvertising a result of fourth wave feminism?

This post was originally written and presented for my Cultural Influences unit while doing my MA at Southampton Solent University in Creative Advertising in May 2015.

 

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Short intro.
Emma Watson held a UN speech on feminism for the HeForShe campaign launched in September 2014, turning feminism into a public debate topic discussed globally. It received great response on social media and has inspired all over the world. The idea is to have governments, businesses and Universities agree to specific commitments for gender equality. One of the topics raised is on the misunderstanding of the word ‘feminism’ and that it is associated with ‘man hating’.

Feminism and Postfeminism

The Oxford dictionary defines the words as following:
Feminism: The advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.
Gamble (2001) defines feminism as such : “A general definition might state that it is the belief that women, purely and simple because they are women, are treated inequitably within a society which is organised to prioritise male viewpoints and concerns.” The belief was therefore if the male gender is strong, the female gender is weak. Is feminism then simply an excuse for women to rise a riot against society? Nicholson (2013) talks about how from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s, the feminist theory displayed a repetitive motif. The viewpoints that where discussed and theories that where raised where merely the point of view of white, middle-class women of North America and Western Europe. It therefore might not seem equal to the different classes and races as the viewpoints seem to be rather limited, despite of what feminism stands for.

An example that Gamble (2001) talks about is modern times feminism in popular culture where the Spice Girls have used the term ‘girl power’. Even though they were in short skirts and bra tops singing about sexual intercourse that might seem a little conflicting and degrading their stand. They still represented a strong female identity and sexual freedom.

Time Magazine (2014) proposed a poll list of words that should be banned in 2015, ‘feminism’ was one of them. On the list it was debated that the label should not be used as a political stand but to focus on the the topic of equal rights in itself. The poll received strong reactions and was debated to the point of where the magazine had to apologise for their statement. Other words listed where ‘bae’ ,’OMG’ and ‘YOLO’, this puts the word into perspective on how serious the word ‘feminism’ may be taken.

Moss (2014) has argued that the fourth wave feminism is not only being led by politicians or academics as presumed. It has become a debate of women in their twenties who could be presumed as the figurehead of feminism in 2014. These are women who are discouraged with the topic of sexism. It has emerged into a discussion amongst the public as well as in politics. Laura Bates (2014) started the “Everyday Sexism Project” to raise awareness on the topic. On the website women post stories of their everyday sexist experiences The website is used as an exposure of small and lager incidents where the women get to express their feelings on the topic of feminism and sexism.

Postfeminism: A person who rejects some earlier feminist ideas as out of date. However this is the official definition from the Oxford Dictionary postfeminism is very complex as it has different meanings and practises.

Tasker and Negra (2007) states that ‘Postfeminism broadly encompasses a set of assumptions, widely within popular media forms, having to do with the ‘pastness’ of feminism, whether that supposed pastness is merely noted, mourned or celebrated.” They argue that as post feminism is a reaction after feminism it can be celebrated as a good or a negative thing. Is feminism alive or dead? Or is it a way to situate contemporary feminism to continue the the long history of the women’s movement? They further argue “What appears distinctive about contemporary postfeminist culture is precisely the extent to which a selectively defined feminism has been so overly ‘taken into account’, as Angela McRobbie has noted, albeit in order ‘to emphasise that it is no longer needed” (Tasker and Negra, 2007. p 1-3) It might be seen as though feminism is no longer needed in a more modern society where ‘we have it all’ and it may be argued that the genders are equal in the perspective of past feminist history. However, postfeminism talks about the same topic as much as feminism. Does that make them just as bad or good? The complexity of postfeminism is from who's point of view the topic is discussed.

Kim (2001) talks about how Carrie Bradshaw from the HBO TV series ‘Sex and the City’ could be classified as a postfeminist. The TV show and lead character show ‘pro woman’ theories on how they are independent and talk about sexuality, identity and subjectivity but antifeminist on still having the need of finding a man in their life. They illustrate the struggles a modern day life woman may have with balancing femininity and feminism. It might be a representation of independency but still have a need for a man in their life to take care of them. It might also be portrayed as third wave feminism.

Ealasaid Munro (2013) mentioned that many commentators have argued that the internet has delegated a shift from ‘third-wave’ to ‘fourth-wave’ feminism. The internet is a good place for debating and opens up the opportunity for anyone with internet access to join any debates desired. This makes it accessible to create a ‘call out’ culture in which debates around feminism or postfeminism can be challenged (Munro 2013). This is seen on websites such as “women against feminism” created by the author Laura Bates (2014) and “the everyday sexism project” arranging debates and campaigns online on sexism towards women.  Raising every day issues on how women are treated in different environments.
Do we see change in our society today in gender equality? It depends on who you are asking and what they see or want. The statistics from you.gov (2013) research show us a change in attitude, but it is slow.

An early example for feminism in advertising is “If you let me play” by Nike (1995) on how sports can influence females positively psychologically and health wise. Children talk about how playing sports can lower the risk of breast cancer, depression and raise self confidence. This can be perceived as a very positive toned commercial arguably focused on women because they are seen as a weaker gender and it is too masculine for a woman to be active within sports. This can also be perceived to present an alternative view, and contradict gender stereotypes supporting the equality focus of the feminist movement.

2. Marketers on feminism. (I’m not a feminist but …)
Zmuda and Diaz (2014) clearly establish how advertisers have previously drawn upon the ‘feminist’ or ‘postfeminist’  agenda to sell certain products. They mention that advertising agencies are taking more responsibility for their own actions on what they are really saying helping brands come forth as best possible not only for the client but for themselves and for the society.

Marketers are however being careful by labelling anything as feminist [Zmuda and Diaz, 2014]. According to a YouGov Poll (2013) an amount of 26% of consumers would portray being called a feminist an insult and only 14% would state the opposite. 19% of the general public call themselves a feminist, but if you ask if they believe women have the right to be treated equally to men 81% would agree. This shows how feminism and postfeminism could be misunderstood and demonstrates that the general public does not have clear understanding of the topic and issues.

Zalewski (2000) states that “radical feminists are the ones the media loves to hate”. “- who is more often than not a fat, ugly woman with short hair and bad dress sense. Typically, there is an assumption of lesbianism too.” Because of these assumptions advertisers choose to replace ‘feminism’ with ‘female empowerment’ and girl power’. This is what David Rogers, Columbia Business School calls ‘soft feminism’. He states that "It's not really about pursuing feminism through government action or legislation. There’s this idea of 'Let's pursue feminist goals,'" beginning internally rather than externally” he said. In essence, the movement urges "'Look at yourself; look at your heart -- change begins with you’”

Becky Swanson, exec VP-executive creative director at Leo Burnett, Chicago says “I don't think anybody wants to talk about feminism anymore. It’s one of the most misunderstood and controversial words out there. [But] if you talk about it as 'girl power,' that's purely positive. At its heart it's not that different from feminism, but it is a fresh new way to think about it.” [Zmuda and Diaz, 2014].
It can be perceived that advertisers and brands are saying “I’m not a feminist but .. we still support equal rights”. It could be interpreted as rather contradictory.

3. The start of a new era?

3.1 What is femvertising and how does it relate to feminism and postfeminism?

Femvertising: Advertising that employs pro-female talent, messages and imagery to empower women and girls. (SheKnows Media, 2014)
Repisky (2015) says the advertising business is now celebrating women empowerment and joining the discussion on equal rights. Women are calling it a new era for feminism. It has even been given a separate name: Femvertising.

Dr. Kilbourne (2010), creator of the documentary "Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women." says "Traditional advertising has remained so sexist. In many ways it's worse than when I started looking at it years ago. ... Given that, ads like these, even though they're not perfect, are a step in the right direction.” Dr. Kilbourne continued to say in the documentary that the average American are exposed to 3000 commercials every day and will on average use 3 years of their lives on only watching advertising of different forms. This gives us a view of the power advertising really has even though most people claim they just ‘tune out’ adverts and not really pay attention to them. This might put the amount of influence advertising can have on their audience.  

Dove Real Beauty campaign can be seen as an early example of feminism in advertising, or femvertising as they have used female empowerment as a technique to engage with their target audience. It may also be perceived as postfeminism because this concerns beauty standards which imposes the female imagery in todays media, rather than the foundation of right of woman seeking to deliberate woman in external forces for defining beauty standards.
The campaign was launched 2004. Since then brands like Nike and Always have also taken this technique to use with campaigns such as #Like A Girl and ‘Better for it’.  “Women are more active on social media and chances that a female will share something on social media is much higher. -- making up 58% of Facebook’s users, having 8% more friends than male users and accounting for 62% of shares on the social network (The Telegraph, 2015)” Making women a much more attractive target audience to target in advertising campaigns. Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign, as mentioned earlier, is an early example of femvertising where they show a female model and how the cosmetic transformation models have to go through to make them look suitable for the billboard. They show how she is prepped, put on makeup, has her hair done and photoshopped. Giving the sense that they are showing what other brands are really doing to trick their target audience into buying beauty products that will help you improve your looks. However, Dove is a beauty product made to improve peoples looks.

Femvertising can be a very powerful technique to use on a target audience. “Ban Bossy” A campaign launched in 2014 to encourage girls to be leaders is an example of this. In the commercial they talk about when a man has taken on a leadership role he is the boss, if a woman is a leader she is called bossy. It sounds rather harmless and very empowering to women as they are encouraging girls to ban the word “bossy” and take on leadership roles. However, the campaign may have you feel bad for multi millionaire women who are represented in the campaign for, for example, not making enough money. Some examples of celebrities represented in the campaign are Jennifer Garner, Jane Lynch and Beyoncé. The campaign that has been running since 2014 has claimed several facts that can be perceived to be outdated research. One of the statements where “By middle school, girls are 25 percent less likely than boys to say they like taking the lead.” According to an article in the Washington Examiner (2014) this is from a study conducted in the years between 1992 and 1997 that could make the claim insignificant.

SheKnows did a survey poll including 628 women on their thoughts on feminism and advertising and how it affected their purchases.
They found that the brands that are currently most popular with women are :

[SheKnows survey, 2014]

As these brands have a supporting message in their campaigns.

The Telegraph (2015) claims that women buy 96pc of beauty products, 93% of groceries, 60% of new cars and 55% of home computers, according to Gloria Moss, a professor in management and marketing at Bucks New University. Overall, women hold 83% of all purchasing power [Davidson, 2015]. These are statistics that indicates why agencies are targeting women harder then they ever have done before, and with good reason.

Not everyone may agree on the approach that are taken when targeting women. Fineman (2014) opinion is that “Inauthentic support cheapens the idea of women’s equality, and that is dangerous not only for the purveyors of business behind those token messages, but to the feminist movement itself. Too many attempts to “market to women” seem to me to turn female power into a commodity — or at least, reduces female power into something mostly good for buying more commodities”
When advertising for a product and using vague political stands to increase brands popularity could then either go good or really bad depending on how it is created, perceived and the message.
Bates (2014) told the Telegraph how she sees it as a big difference between coming up with pro-women campaigns with the intent it will go viral and not really having any real message behind it to having a product or a campaign with the principle of equality as a focus. Having a good message to support the brand should probably have the brand support the message just as much to reach a stability.

4. Advertising example of Femvertising #Like A Girl

The ad ‘Like a Girl’ by Always (2014) show us the negative stereotypes associated with being female and what young girls think before they are taught that being a girl is inferior. [Bahadur, 2014] The video has nearly 80 million views world wide (Griner and Ciambriello, 2015) and via social media it seems as if people think they are on to something.

It is simple to see why Always chose this approach when 75% of women say they like ads that feature every day women and 51% like pro-female ads as they feel it breaks down gender limitations. [SheKnows, 2014] These are statistics Always has tapped into and used to their advantage targeting women of all ages with a strong pro-woman message.

They use simple techniques to connect with the target audience. One of them could be “authenticity” to make them seem trustworthy by simply filming the campaign from behind the scenes. It makes it feel like it hasn’t been edited and is if the campaign is un scripted. One thing we see in both the ‘Dove Real Beauty’, ‘Ban Bossy’ and ‘Like a Girl’ campaign is a clack in the beginning of the videos, again, making a ‘behind the scenes’ influenced feeling and giving authenticity to the brand.

The main focus in this campaign is to “Throw like a girl”. Trying to find form different perspectives what it means to throw like a girl or run like a girl. Older teenage girls and boys imply that a person is weaker and feminine when one throws like a girl. The younger actors demonstrates how it makes no difference to what gender one is to the speed of throwing or running and that their entire self esteem is connected to this stigma. However, the campaign is about feminine hygiene products where the product is never even mentioned in the video.  

An article form AdWeek (2015) states that a recent study has shown a change in attitude has been inflicted after watching the campaign. 76% of girls from the age 16-24 do not assume the phrase “Like a girl” to be an insult and that two out of three men that had seen the campaign said they would no longer use the phrase and think twice before using it to insult someone.

However, when doing further research on the Always website for the campaign it is shown that they are in a partnership with Lean In and Girl’s Scout organisation, who are the creators of the campaign “Ban Bossy”. As some research mentioned earlier has shown that the “Ban Bossy” campaign did not have well enough research for their claims, could that indicate that Always claims are also inauthentic?

 Always #LikeAGirl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs

 

5. Advertising example on sexism Carl's Jr. All natural burger Super bowl ad 2015
A campaign example that is not trying to empower women is the Carl’s Jr ‘All Natural Burger’ campaign.

 Carl’s Jr has previously used a lot of attractive semi-naked women being sexualised in their commercials. Their super bowl ad was to no difference. Even though feminism seems to be rising and female empowerment might be 2015’s biggest buzz words, sex will probably never stop selling and Carl’s Jr seems to be aware of that. Their ad that was released for the 2015 Super Bowl half time ad, had already had 9.4 million views in February and  staggering 2.5 billion media impressions in less than two weeks. [Nudd, 2015]

The campaign focusing on the all natural aspect as the food they are advertising is supposedly free from all unnatural chemicals. This might give us an indication that their target audience has demanded a higher quality option to their fast food meals. This could input authenticity to the brand as consumers might see that the brand cares what their opinions are. However, the ad might still be considered very sexist.

52.4 million women watch the Super bowl every year. That is 42% of the viewers [SheKnows, 2014]. Even though statistics show that almost half of the viewers are women who watch the super bowl, Carl’s Jr is still mainly targeting men with their sexual campaigns. Although the commercial has a larger amount of views and media impressions it does not necessarily mean they are selling very well. The Daily Mail’s journalist Konstantinides (2015) writes that 51% find the ad offensive and 52% find it annoying. 32% also felt worse about the the fast food restaurant after watching the commercial. Konstantinides continues to say that this leads to a 24% increase to how the audience felt after watching average fast-food commercials . As a result from the statistics it could be questioned wether or not sex really does sell anymore?
 

Carl’s Jr ‘All natural burger’ commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTA_8waxTo

6. Conclusion

Femvertising might make it seem like society is moving towards a feminist theory of gender equality and that no gender is weaker than others at first. But when looking closer it the type of empowerment on offer that is often at stake, particularly in terms of the Dove campaign. From what  can be seen men are rarely, if ever, mentioned in these commercials. So are the brands really saying anything for value in their campaigns? As shown from the “Ban Bossy” campaign, not all the statements are shown to be true. Always also might loose a lot of credibility as they are in partnership with the creators of the campaign “Ban Bossy”. Are the statements shown from femvertising all empty topics or is there something to it?

The Dove Real Beauty campaign arguably, mainly uses women who are beautiful despite that they are slightly larger. Do they fairly represent the average woman when their models could be seen as almost flawless? These models are still carefully picket from auditions based on looks, size and skin colour and not picket out of random from the street.

Although the message is positive, are we really moving forward? It might not be helping society directly but it is however sending out positive messages and it may be a way of reminding adults, teenagers and children that they are beautiful and powerful if they only believe so themselves. But what does the illusion of power help if the society and government and society still treat the genders differently? Action is still needed.

To answer the question ‘is femvertising a result of fourth wave feminism?’ is rather complex, seeing as it is heavily dependent on the message the brand communicates. But as mentioned earlier we see a lot of the discussion of feminism, postfeminism and sexism happening online where the campaigns also may be seen. Therefore it may be a natural development and result from the digital age that we currently live in that might have affected into a re-branding result that is called femvertising.

However we might feel about this topic, wether it is supporting the feminist or postfeminist movement or if the advertising industry is exploiting this concept for their own benefit, it seem as if it is working to some extent. As the Huffington Post (2014) said, “Move over Axe, Feminism is here to stay.”

7. Bibliography

BAHADUR, N., 'Femvertising' Ads Are Empowering Women -- And Making Money For Brands [online] [viewed April, 2015 Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/femvertising-advertising-empowering-women_n_5921000.html

BATES, L., 2013. Everyday Sexism. London: Simon & Suchter

BROWN, S., GENEVIEVE., Feb 2, 2015. Looking at Super Bowl Ads Through the Lens of 'Femvertising' April, 2015]. Available from: http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/super-bowl-ads-lens-femvertising/story?id=28661893

CASTILLO, M., October 10, 2014. These Stats Prove Femvertising Works 'Why would I buy from a company that doesn't respect me?' [online] [viewed April, 2015 Available from: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/these-stats-prove-femvertising-works-160704

CHAMBERS, L., October 5, 2013. Has 'Feminism' become a dirty word? [online] [viewed March, 2015 Available from: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/10/05/treat-women-equally-dont-call-it-feminism/

COPPOCK, V., 1995. The illusions of 'post-feminism' : new women, old myths. London: Taylor and Francis

DAVIDSON, L., 12 Jan 2015. Femvertising: Advertisers cash in on #feminism [online] [viewed April, 2015 Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11312629/Femvertising-Advertisers-cash-in-on-feminism.html

FINEMAN, M., 2014. When Not to Use Feminism to Sell Stuff to Women [online] [viewed April 2015]. Available from: https://hbr.org/2014/10/when-not-to-use-feminism-to-sell-stuff-to-women/

GAMBLE, S., 2001. The Routledge companion to feminism and postfeminism. London: Routledge

GIANATASIO, D., October 7, 2013. Hunkvertising: The Objectification of Men in Advertising  April, 2015]. Available from: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/hunkvertising-objectification-men-advertising-152925

GILL, R., 2007. Gender and the media. Cambridge: Polity Press

GRINER, D. and CIAMBRIELLO, R., January 29, 2015. Hugely Popular 'Like a Girl' Campaign From Always Will Return as a Super Bowl Ad [online] [viewed May 10 Available from: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/hugely-popular-girl-campaign-always-will-return-sunday-super-bowl-ad-162619

Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women, 2010 Directed by Sut JHALLY. USA: [viewed April 5, 2015].

KONSTANTINIDES, A., 2015. Sex doesn't always sell: Carl's Jr. steamy Superbowl commercial failed to help sell more burgers, figures show [online] [viewed May 10 2015]. Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2998173/Carl-s-Jr-sexy-Superbowl-commercial-failed-sell-burgers.html

L. S. KIM, 4, November 2001. Television & New media: "Sex and the Single Girl" in Postfeminism: The F Word on Television. [online], Vol. 2Available from: http://www.asu.edu/courses/fms520bh/total-readings/kim----sex-and-the-single-girl.pdf

MEDIA, S., October 02, 2014. SheKnows Media Hosts Fem-vertising Panel at Advertising Week XI [online] [viewed April, 2015 Available from: http://corporate.sheknows.com/in-the-news/press-releases/sheknows-media-hosts-fem-vertising-panel-at-advertising-week-xi

MUNRO, E., 2013. Feminism: A Fourth Wave? Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/263535840_Feminism_A_Fourth_Wave

NICHOLSON, L., 2013. Feminism/Postmodernism. New York, London: Routledge

NUDD, T., February 9, 2015. Carl's Jr. Has Some Voluptuous Data on the Charlotte McKinney Ad, Its Biggest Hit Ever April, 2015]. Available from: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/carls-jr-has-some-voluptuous-data-charlotte-mckinney-ad-its-biggest-hit-ever-162849

RACZKA, R., 11.15.14. 2014: The Year Advertisers Broke ‘Feminism’? [online] [viewed April, 2015 Available from: http://www.boston.com/life/2014/11/15/the-year-advertisers-broke-feminism/eXtB2sYxs6ShzrauPRobwJ/story.html

REPISKY, J., February 18, 2015. Femvertising: The New Era of Advertising. In: Available from: http://worcuga.com/2015/02/femvertising-the-new-era-of-advertising/

SCHOW, A., March, 2014. Unmasking the junk science behind the #BanBossy campaign. In: [viewed May, 10]. Available from: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/unmasking-the-junk-science-behind-the-banbossy-campaign/article/2546128

SELBY, J., 23 January 2015. Emma Watson's impassioned speech at Davos on UN #HeForShe equality campaign: 'I’ve had my breath taken away' April, 2015]. Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/emma-watsons-impassioned-speech-at-davos-on-un-heforshe-equality-campaign-ive-had-my-breath-taken-away-9998712.html

TASKER, Y., 2007. Interrogating postfeminism : gender and the politics of popular culture. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press

WELCH, J., SARAH, 13 Oct 2014. Does Advertising Lead or Follow in Feminism? [online] [viewed March, 2015 Available from: http://www.theawsc.com/2014/10/13/does-advertising-lead-or-follow-in-feminism/

Emma Watson UN speech, 2014 Directed by YouTube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-iFl4qhBsE

ZALEWSKI, M., 2000. Feminism after postmodernism : theorising through practice. London: Routledge

ZMUDA, N. and DIAZ, A., September 02, 2014. Female Empowerent in Ads: Soft Feminism of Soft Soap? [online] [viewed April,2015 Available from: http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/marketers-soft-feminism/294740/

My work featured at Solent Creatives!

I entered a competition in March at my University's own creative agency, Solent Creatives where five designers could win and have their design printed on the agency's branded mugs. The mugs will be used to hand out to students, employers and potential clients of theirs.

They wanted me to write a little about myself and answer some questions for them to feature the mug and myself on their website. I can say I am really happy and honored to have this opportunity presented to me. I even got my own mug to keep! I can now officially say I have a new favorite mug for my morning coffee.

Have a look at the article here.

GEEOHSNAP - SNAPCHAT ARTIST FROM NORWAY

Norway amazes me sometimes. Once in a while I hear about really talented people from Norway, and when I do they blow me away.

The Norwegian I am talking about this time is Geoohsnap. He does branding but the thing he is amazing at it Snapchat. I never even thought I would say that anyone was 'good' at Snapchatting, but this guy is. He uses the app for his Random People Project where he takes pictures of random people and draws in the app making random people to be in random situations. For those who are familiar with drawing in the app, we know that is rather challenging. He took the challenge and turned something simple - into art.

The Norwegian artist managed to get a job via his Snapchat and Instagram account doing his Random People Project. Not just any job, he is currently working on a project for Disney! And if I may say so myself, he fits the role perfectly.

This makes me proud to say I'm a Norwegian! (in disguise as a Brit in England)

You can follow his work on Snapchat or Instagram under the name 'Geeohsnap' or go to his website at www.geeohsnap.com

5 THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN DOING WORK EXPERIENCE

As you might have seen earlier I wrote and article for FutureRising about doing my masters. I got a pretty good response to the article so I decided to write another one on things I have learned from doing work experience. The article was published on FutureRising's website.

Image source: FutureRising

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The first time you do a placement or work experience with an agency is nerve wracking. You might not know how skilled you really are and how to behave in an office environment. When is talking too much, when should you be quiet and how often should you go for a coffee breaks? There are big and small things one has to adjust to when doing work experience.

These were the five things I learnt most from my recent work experience at Carswell Gould and Global Fire Production.

1.Every agency is different

When doing work experience one has to always remember that every agency will have different systems and routines. So you always have to have an open mind and not be set on how you like doing things. Follow what they do and you will be safe. But keep a distance, you don’t want to become the annoying work experience student who is completely incompetent into doing anything themselves.

2.Don’t kiss ass

Yes, do what they tell you to do and then some more but never forget to be yourself. You should try and please your temporary employer as best as you can while still being true to yourself.

You have probably heard this before a million times but it is still important. If you don’t agree with something speak up, or don’t say anything at all. It may save you later and they will respect you much more. Don’t treat them as gods, treat them as any other respected employer and co-worker.

 

3.Take that risk

If there is a discussion in the office and you have input or an idea, even if it isn’t great, say it. The idea might not be great but it could lead to something.

Even when you aren’t coming up with ideas you are still contributing to the team by being active and enthusiastic. It will not only make you a part of the team but it will challenge you more and stimulate your talking and brainstorming skills. Sitting quietly in the corner will not get you anywhere and it is a safe route of being forgotten.

4.Work more

Even when they say it’s the end of the day, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is for you. If there is more you can contribute then don’t hesitate to do it. Maybe you didn’t finish that report or the storyboard you where supposed to draw up. Don’t leave it to the next day, finish it at home as much as you can so that you are ready for new tasks and challenges the next day. They might not acknowledge the work you put in at first but later you will be much more valued than remembered.

5.Do something different

Never forget to present your skills that most people might not have. Maybe you know a different language or maybe you are good at doing presentations. These are things the employer might not think twice about that you are good at, but by reminding them you might get more challenging tasks and more responsibilities.

By showing enthusiasm they are more likely to bring you on to the team. If you don’t bother, neither will they. Even if you don’t think you have special skills for them to use there are other things you can do to make them remember you.

Bake them muffins on your last work day, bring in cakes and cookies for holidays like Halloween or St Patricks day. This does not interrupt their work and makes the day a little more special.

Racist tweets, racist bleach

We all waited long enough for the racially diverse emojis for the iOS. I mean, we want to be fair, right? Well, some people want every little thing to be fair and therefore are completely over sensitive about everything anyone ever does. Confused? Let me explain.

Clorox bleach wanted to be a little silly on twitter and tweeted this on Wednesday evening:

The first time I saw someone tweet this I didn't think much about it. If anything I found it mildly amusing but not particularly clever, really. Then I saw it again when Ad Week wrote about it, this is when I understood what the fuss was about. (Yes, I need everything spelled out for me) 

Apparently a lot of people took this tweet as racist and thought they meant the other racial emojis should be bleached white. After a lot of criticism they then later tweeted this:

With the pun definitely intended, people weren't buying this explanation (fair enough). Then again (and these are my opinions only) this was meant only as a fun little thing that would make their brand look youthful and like they are up to date with what is happening in the world. The first time I saw this I honestly did not read much into it, simply because I got what they where saying, however bad joke it was. This makes me question how sensitive we have become about racism. There are times where one can barely do or say anything because we might offend someone. Where is the "free speech" in that? Or as some people may say, it's a free country. Yeah, it's a free country as long as everything goes as you expect it to. I'm not going to bring the government into this, that's going off topic.

Ad week did however notice that the emojis Clorox used in the image did not include any bathtubs, toilets or wine glasses. Interesting.

Am I the only one not offended by this?

#The100DayProject challenge!

A couple of days ago I joined a 100 day challenge where you challenge yourself to do something for 100 days. (Obviously. )

It is a challenge that got kicked off by the quarterly magazine The Great Discontent. They wanted to celebrate the process of creativity. It started on Monday the 6th of April. I didn't hear about until then so I got a slow start, starting the challenge on Wednesday the 8th. So far I am absolutely loving this but also nervous that I wont be able to finish it. But I guess that is what makes it a challenge, right?

My project is #100DaysOfIllustratedFaces, where I draw different characters everyday with a different personality. The idea is to try different drawing styles to push myself in different directions. I never draw anymore so this is an absolute joy! I got a surprising start to the project getting a few requests from friends to draw them as characters. So far I am loving how this is turning out and can't wait until the 100th day to see what has happened in the meantime.

Here are my contributions so far.

You can read all about the project on the website and follow the hashtag #100DayChallenge or follow my process on my Instagram profile @CharlottM and #100DaysOfIllustratedFaces. I will however be posting about this halfway through and when the challenge is completed.

YouTubers publishing books - and they are amazing at it!

You might not have noticed but YouTubers can apparently write! (Kinda..)

The new craze for 2015 seems to be YouTubers publishing books. Even though I am heavily doubting that they have written these books all by them selves I still admire them for doing something different from video blogs and sketches. Mostly these books let the viewers get a closer look into the YouTubers life and history such as Zoella (Or Zoe Sugg) with Girl Online (2014) or Shane Dawson's I hate myselfie (2015). It has been reported that Zoella has earned more on her book Girl Online than J.K Rowling has. In what relation that is to I am unsure of, if it is for first week selling or in total. It only illustrates how the timing was right for publishers to do this. YouTube is being more and more looked at as a career option and those who do this for a living seem to emerge into several types of media. TV, movie directors, radio, designers, experts at special effects, cooks, actors, stylists and make up artists and of course books. It is interesting how this has become an alternative for creatives to get jobs, and they are being well payed. Currently the Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie, Felix Kjellberg is the most popular YouTuber with 35 million subscribers earning him an estimate of £2.4 million yearly. Not bad.

Here is a list of YouTubers that have or are going to be publishing books:

Dan & Phil (Danisnotonfire, AmazingPhil) - The Amazing Book is Not on Fire (Oct 2015)

Zoe Sugg (Zoella) - Girl Online  (Nov 2014)

                           - Girl Online 2 (Nov 2015)

Alfie Deyes (Pointlessblog) - The Pointless book (Sept 2014)

                                        - The Pointless Book 2 (Mar 2015)

Joey Graceffa - In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World (May 2015)

Miranda Sings - Selp Helf (Jul 2015)

Connor Franta - A Work in Progress (Apr 2015)

Joe Sugg (ThatcherJoe) - Untitled (Sept 2015)

Shane Dawson - I Hate myselfie ( Mar 2015)

Hannah Hart (MyHarto) - My Drunk Kitchen: A Guide to Eating, Drinking, and Going with Your Gut (Aug 2014)

This might just be around half of the YouTubers who have or are going to release books this year. Is this the Draw my life paper edition? Some have expressed frustration on this topic online. Is it unfair as there are so many struggling authors out there trying to have their books published? While the YouTubers where probably approached by the publisher. Yet, one can argue that YouTubers work hard too and have many opinions and experiences they wish to express to their audience in any form of media. We could also argue that we should not limit ourselves to one form of creativity. It seems this is an attempt to get people who are online - offline and into books again, and to be hones, it is brilliant and working! Having someone who already has a huge audience ready to follow and support their idol is not the worst marketing and business idea anyone has had in the past few years. Two of the publishers who have taken this approach and have the most YouTubers on board are Simon & Schuster UK and Penguin. Well Done!

(Image source: google / Shane Dawson book cover "I hate myselfie")