Kool-Aid Man Gets A Makeover

So just as my last post showed, even the Kool-Aid Man has undergone a makeover. The new advertisements show the 59 year old pitcher lifting weights and changing his "clothes". He has lost weight and is able to say a few more words than just his catch phrase "Oh Yeah!!!".

 The development of past brand mascots is a trend that has been around since mascots were created. Thankfully for creative individuals like myself this means there will always be work as far as developing and evolving the personality and character of some of these beloved characters.


Here is a look at the new and improved Kool-Aid Man in this fresh campaign created by Saatchi & Saatchi Agency in New York City.

There is also a 30 second spot which is a better representation of the transition of the character. That video can be seen by clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV7BaurdQQ0&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Another Moving Campaign

Dove is once again playing on the heartstrings of everyone who owns a mirror. This is an incredibly inventive execution of delivering a common message.

Self image is something that can be very hard to deal with. We are our own worst critics and Dove has highlighted this fact in a beautifully done campaign. A police sketch artist has each individual describe themselves to him and while he produces a sketch based on the details given. He then does a sketch of that same person using the descriptions given to him by a third party. The difference of course is a much friendly positive image than the one produced by the personal description.

The music combined with the emotion given by those in the video makes for a really strong emotional connection. You wouldn't even remember it was for Dove products until they flash a logo in your face.


The Ogilvy Agency hits an emotional homerun with this campaign, plain and simple. Not to say that there won't be those who feel this just further solidifies the standard of caring this much about how we look but as an advertising campaign this attains more success than short comings.

Watch the video below:

Love yourself, you deserve it.

Some Advertising Work

These are a couple examples of the creative executions I've come up with for various assignments/campaigns during my time in the Advertising Program at Sheridan College.

These train wraps were done for GO Transit.

The "GO Green" campaign was designed to communicate the earth friendly alternative to driving a motor vehicle in high volume traffic every day.

The idea behind these wraps is that now when someone sees a GO Train they don't just see at as a train they actually see a cleaner more beautiful planet.

The contrast of the nature images against a busy urban background really drives the message of a "greener way to travel".

I will locate the rest of the out of home executions and share them but for now...


The following images were created in Photoshop by Donald M. Love

All the image used for the wrap were chosen specifically because they played with the depth of the image. I wanted people to get caught looking at the train and feel like they are actually in that space.



You'll notice it says "osoloco" in the corner of the images, that is the name i put on all of my creative work. Call it a brand if you will, it is essentially my digital signature.

With the first two images I used images of places that could relate those living in the southern Ontario region. I wasn't going to use a picture of a vast dessert because people wouldn't relate. I felt i kind of pushed that boundary on this one.  Don't get me wrong I know hamilton has the most waterfalls in a single city in the world, but they don't look like this!


Thanks for taking a look at what is I do when I sit at a computer for hours at a time.

Its harder than the finished product makes it seem.

Dancin' With Myse-helf

I have a confession to make.

I spend countless hours in a week dancing by myself. I do this because something about certain music just forces my body to move. It can't be explained really. I'm the furthest thing from a choreographer but I do recognize what good dance looks like.

Being someone who enjoys the arts overall, I find that this video and this group of dancers, The Jabawockeez, encompass visual, physical and musical art forms in such a way that even to those who don't particularly appreciate the arts they see that this something special and all-in-all impressive.

I highly suggest watching this more than once to take in all the intricacies of the dance. Isolation hand movements, head movements, see what people in the back row are doing as well as those out front. All the smallest details contributed by each individual are what make the look and feel of this number so incredible.

Enjoy!

*I'm the one wearing the white mask...on the left...*

In 2012 The Jabawockeez were awarded with the Living Legends of Hip Hop award for their work and became the first dance crew to ever achieve this honour. The core group is made up of 8 individuals who collaborate on all the choreography, musical composition and any other aspect of their performances. Just another example of how minds working together can create and achieve much greater things than the mind of one individual alone.

Collaboration is the key to progress and progress leads to success.

Celebrating A Milestone: Part Two

Part Two: Putty In Their Hands

   My first job ever had me working at a tiny meat shop in a plaza that featured a 7/11 and a Thiara Market. The owner was a man half my size and I was only 14. I learned a lot from the people I worked with. My foul language at this point was pretty limited and extremely unoriginal but I was willing to work on it. I knew swearing was for me the minute my parents told me it was wrong and that I shouldn't do it. When I showed up for my first shift and met the man I'd call boss, I didn't know that I was about to meet the man who would open my ears to a whole new world of disrespectful language never to be used in front of my parents. What some would call verbal abuse I called language arts. I learned that taking a common swear word and joining it with everyday words or objects gave them new life.

    He was particularly good at put-downs. There was one individual at the workplace who essentially acted as a pin cushion...for samurai swords and battle axes being thrown at him by our boss. Everyday this kid would come in to work and everyday he would spend the whole shift getting dumped on. He was the longest standing employee aside from the owner, and that meant something. I learned from this young man that sometimes it's acceptable to be somebody elses toilet, as long as that person pays you better than everyone else and gives you better hours. Noted.

      When my loudmouth boss wasn't cussing out his beloved employees or out buying discounted meat from local grocery stores and selling it as luxury meat at his shop, he was a very friendly and extremely helpful person. He would help load heavy products into the cars of customers and even offer their children lollipops. I was astonished when I first saw him acting this way. It was such a drastic change in such little time, but how? Two-facing. A life changing ability and one that I've since realized everyone possesses. Again this man was showing me what it meant to be a part of the "real world". It meant being one thing to some people and another thing to others. Yes, sometimes it takes being who they need you to be in order to be who you want to be. So for the lesson in Language Arts and Deception 101, I sincerely thank the boys down at the butcher shop.

   I was putty in their hands and all they did was roll me into a ball and whip me at the wall to see if I would stick... I didn't. I very quickly peeled back and fell to the floor. Next job please!


For a personal online Language Arts Lesson watch this video:

My Past and My Future

The Waynes World movies played a major role in my childhood. Garth Algar was one of my first impressions and he also had an interest in playing the drums. Wandering through Youtube as I do so often, I was reminded of a scene from Waynes World which combines both of my academic ventures. I didnèt know it at the time but this was some serious foreshadowing going on here.

Comedy and advertising, it's a killer combination!

For your viewing pleasure, my two Post Secondary Diplomas at work:

Celebrating a Milestone: Part One

Part One: The Award Goes To...


I got fired two days ago for the... no way! I just realized that I have reached a Milestone in my working life. I have officially been employed and deployed 10 times! Never in my wildest dreams did I think this day would come. Okay, maybe I did but certainly not so soon. I'm speechless.

Who am I kidding? I have plenty to say.

   I know there is no trophy to raise, banner to hang, ribbon to pin or medal to be worn but damnit I feel like a winner! So, as the winner of any lifetime achievement award would do, I begin my giving of thanks. I should mention before I start that I can be extremely sarcastic at times and I know that doesn't always translate well in the written word. I wish all readers the best of luck in digging out the trace amounts of sincerity scattered amongst this dense mass of literary feces.

10 jobs...

   I'd like to start off by thanking myself. Without you none of this would have been possible. You were always there for me. I always had a choice of shoulder to cry on. I couldn't picture my life without you. Thank you so much, you incredibly intelligent and fiercely attractive man.

My plan now is to rifle through every job I have ever held and thank those who helped me on my way to achieving this impressive statistic in such a short period of time. This will be done in chronological order of course.

Now, for legal reasons I can't use the names of the people who pissed me off- I mean worked alongside me. (I always get those mixed up) That works out though because I wasn't going to use their names anyway, they don't deserve the credit.


In my next entry I discuss the first 3 jobs and a few of the characters who helped mold me.

The Early Years of a True Original

 

   I am going to be posting several installments over the weeks which tell the story I myself have lived. There will be other posts between installments of various contents I feel are worth sharing with you. This first installment I uncover the beginnings of the cornerstones of my life; my soccer career, my sense of humour and my 19 years of educational warfare. I hope you have as good a time reading it as I have writing it.

Enjoy.



      There once was a blonde haired blue eyed little boy. In the earliest years of his life he knew nothing but the love of his family. With each day that passed he learned something new, things like walking, talking, counting to one hundred, being able to recite the alphabet and determining that green was in fact his favourite of all colours were just a few of the major developments in his first 3 years.
Honourable Mentions
Secreting bodily waste into something other than his pants.
Climbing the counter to retrieve his own sippy cup.
Finding his first and longest lasting love, soccer.

       Before even being enrolled in school he would frequently visit St. Edith Stein Elementary School, the school his two older sisters attended, with his mother. He would spend most of his time in the main office, making small talk with the secretaries and indulging in more lengthy talks with the school’s principal. As kids are often seen by adults when they aren't crying, whining or making a mess, he was adored and thought to be a wonderful child who had an incredible ability to converse with adults. The principal would sit him down across from her at her desk and ask him if he would like a cookie, and what kid would say no to that! Of course, as smart as he was, he was still no match for the smarts of a senior principal, and from her jar of cookies she would hand a piece of Melba Toast. Always taught not to be rude he ate the cookie assuming that these were the types of cookies important adults ate on a regular basis.

       He would visit the classrooms of teachers he could potentially be instructed by the following year, and just as they did in the office, they adored his charm and budding intelligence and were looking forward to the opportunity to teach him. Now these teacher's had no adult-cookies to offer him but they would let him sit in and listen to them teach the class or draw pictures on what then seemed like humongous pieces of paper. He liked the environment there. It was friendly, welcoming and most importantly seemed like a lot of fun.

        Weeks went on and summer vacation began. There were no more visits to the school to eat dried up crackers or sit in on lessons, now it was time for his first soccer season. He had been kicking a ball around the house from the time he was able to walk, it was an easy decision for his parents to sign him up and see what happened. His jersey number was eight, his team name, The Mr. Magoos, and he took to the sport like a Scotsmen to whiskey, or a moth to a flame, neither metaphor is particularly cheery but you get the point. He was good, and as the staff in the school had done, his coaches and the parents of his team mates couldn't help but notice and comment on how talented he was with a ball at his feet. He didn't know it at the time, but that summer was the beginning of something special and truly life changing.

      The summer had ended and it was time for the young boy to attend school for the very first time as a student. It was the beginning of an entirely different life changing regime which again he could not possibly have foreseen. Building blocks, paint brushes and mountains of toys were all there for the bright young minds to explore. Lessons in sharing and playing fair seemed to make up most of the curriculum. Raising hands to speak in turn and remaining quiet while the teacher spoke seemed to be heavily emphasized as well and understandably so, the poor teachers didn't stand a chance.

       It became apparent to his teacher that not only was he good with numbers and speaking proper, though childish, English but he was a very creative individual with a perhaps over developed sense of humour for child of his age. The example his teacher used to bring this to his parents attention (as if they didn't already know) was a drawing he had done in class that would be posted on the wall outside the classroom for all to see. Students were asked to draw a picture of their parents doing an everyday activity. Most students drew stick figures of their parents driving a car or simply just standing there holding each other’s hand in the sunshine. There was no originality, no creative thoughts in any of these, nothing that provoked a response from whoever looked at them.

       There was however one drawing that stood out amongst all the drawings on the wall. It was of a man, wearing a green sweater and blue pants that didn’t quite seem to meet at the waist line. The image was a profile shot, not a full frontal of a stick figure but rather a side view. In front of the man seemed to be what was originally perceived by the teacher to be a basket, a tall white basket to be exact. The man appeared to be tossing bright yellow eggs into the basket, prompting the teacher to think it was an Easter themed portrait. Too wrong she was. She approached the young boy at the time he was nearly finished his masterpiece and commented, "Nicely done, did your father give you lots of chocolate eggs for Easter?" to which the young boy replied, "That's the Easter Bunny's job. This is my dad going pee into a toilet." Not knowing how to respond, the teacher accepted the drawing and explained to anyone who asked that it was what she had originally thought, a candid Easter moment. Though the artist himself knew what it was and shared the truth with his classmates. The laughter of his peers made him feel just as good as he did when he was kicking a soccer ball. The thirst for this reaction only grew as time went on and again was something that would take him places in the future that he could never have imagined.

The next installment of this story will deal with the progression of this child's academic trials and tribulations throughout grade school. So until next time, please remember that anything and everything in this life is subject to change. Respect that.

Donald Mackenzie Love

Subject To Change ; A Something Created By A Somebody

Before I get distracted, I'll tell you a couple important things about myself.
                                      1. I have never killed anybody.
                                      2. My name is Donald Mackenzie Love
... priorities, right?...

       I won't say that I "suffer" from what society has labelled as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder [ADHD], it seems to be everyone around me who gets annoyed by the way my brain works. I personally love my humorous, creative, intelligent and all together unique perspective of things. If anyone is suffering it's those who lack the ability to accept whatever differences we all have amongst each other in this world. You worry about you, I'm doing just fine thanks.

     The main focus of this blog is its lack of focus. To start out I am hoping to change people's perception of what ADHD really is. In the world right now, particularly in North America, there is an "ADHD Epidemic" which most of us are unaware of. I use quotations because the validity of this idea is broadly debated amongst citizens of all personal, social and professional statuses.
      ADHD is labelled as a disorder when, in reality, it is just a misunderstanding of an individual's unique mental operating system. These are children and adults whose minds are driven by parts of their brain that don't seem to match up with the work or content of material they are being asked to focus on. Like every individual on this planet, certain compartments of their brain are more active than others, in some cases this works against the individual and, as society sees it, is so unnatural and psychologically unhealthy that it is considered a mental disorder.

     Sir Ken Robinson,PhD, explains to us what has happened over the last couple centuries to produce such a poor view of minds that work in this fashion and what needs to happen to erase this negative connotation which has been developed entirely by society. The speech highlights the educational system as a major contributor to the stigma surrounding ADHD and those who are "unfortunate enough to have the disorder". All of this is cleverly done with the assistance of hand drawn images which, in detail, explain everything he says. This makes it easy to follow and is entertaining for anyone who may become disinterested quickly if it were just a 63 year old man on a stage with a snooty English accent shooting out multi-syllable words like t-shirt's at a sporting event.

                                      

FYI: I wrote all of the above without looking away once, how do you like them apples?

      Now don't go thinking that all my posts will be informative videos or overly studious articles because they most definitely will not be.

       I graduated from Humber College's Comedic Writing & Performance program in 2010 and am currently working on completing the Advertising program at Sheridan College, with my heart set on a career in the creative field of the industry and my bank account set on multiple commas. I'm not sure how I will be able to achieve success in these regards but I wholeheartedly intend on working hard and having fun to do so.

        Perhaps in my next post I will touch more on my personal interests and past experiences, allowing you to understand me a little bit better as a person. I just thought I would start by posting this video to hopefully shine new light on an issue that is very much current and relevant and that has also become a major part of my life. We can't expect everyone to be on the same page, especially on a topic like this, but at the very least we can open our minds to new ideas and understand that there are more ways to see things than what our own eyes and minds allow us to see.

       At heart I'm an entertainer. If the most pertinent component of the video turns out to be the quality of the drawings, it is better that way than if nothing were to relate at all.

Just remember; anything and everything in this world is subject to change. Respect that.

- Donald Mackenzie Love


You can learn more from Sir Ken Robinson at his website:
http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/