18 08 2015
Stop Trying to Sell Me Things
I averted my eyes from a billboard while driving on the highway today. I won’t pretend like I did it for the sake of keeping my eyes on the road; I did it out of principle. I’m still not sure what it was advertising, though if the previous twenty I had already seen were any indication, it was likely a brief but nevertheless compelling argument for why my current insurance provider was inadequate.
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Q: What do landing the perfect job, finding your ideal mate, and winning friends all have in common?
A: They all require you to know how to market yourself.
Yes, it’s the reason people sweat interviews (and first dates), spend hours drafting cover letters, and even pay others to assemble their résumés — we don’t always know the best way to sell ourselves. Marketing yourself is an essential skill to get where you want to go, but the process is often easier said than done.
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Advertising, like language, is no modern phenomenon. Today, we’re so overburdened with ads that advertising has garnered a negative connotation. “Ugh, how can we get ads off of Facebook?” or “Why can’t they skip the ads before the movie starts?” are common 21st century woes.
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16 12 2014
Happiness Is a Warm Brand Name
One of the most internationally ubiquitous weapons, the Russian AK-47, has undergone a little makeover. The assault rifle was developed in the 1940s in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died almost exactly one year ago. Prior to his death, the weapons engineer wrote of his “spiritual pain” in wondering if the AK-47 has done more harm than good. Although Kalashnikov’s intentions to invent a weapon of defense may have been noble, it’s impossible to determine if the weapon has wrought more destruction than it has ever defended, given the AK-47’s uncontrolled global distribution.
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That’s it, folks. Germany took the Cup. Sorry to spoil it for anyone who didn’t follow the 2014 FIFA World Cup and somehow missed every news outlet on the Interwebs.
So now what? We all pack up and go home, right? That’s certainly what most of the estimated 3.7 million World Cup tourists who invaded Brazil for four weeks are doing, and they’re likely happy about it. Custo Brazil has led to, I’m sure, more than one tourist’s rainy day fund getting completely drained.
