Stay in School or Else...

What do you think about this commercial, called "Set Yourself Free"? It was paid by "Learn for Life Foundation of Western Australia", a non-profit organization which promotes the importance of education for people of all ages

Check the meaning of this verb before you watch the video: Slack off

I would say this is a controversial ad - to say the least

January 30th: School Day of Non-Violence and Peace

Celebrating the School Day of Non-Violence and Peace

• A motto, Make Love, Not War, from a different perspective

• A song: John Lennon´s Imagine by "Playing for Change"

• The annual Global Peace Index 2013, International Alert and Vision of Humanity include lots of documents about peace research: maps, reports, videos…

• A video by "International Alert" that wants to show how words can stop bullets: Peace talks

International Alert - Peace Talks from International Alert on Vimeo.

A Christmas Commercial

This could be your Homework Assignment 7: How would you explain the title of this commercial: "Apple-Holiday-TV Ad- Misunderstood"? Make sure you write a clear explanation where you include the four different parts of the title

Restore Your Faith in Humanity

Read the story behind this video told by videographer Casey Neistat. The film studios 20th Century Fox asked him to create an ad campaign to promote their new movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Casey spent the entire budget ($25,000) on the typhoon victims in the Philippines - 20th Century Fox agreed ;  This is the story told by Casey: 

no crew traveled with us, it was just Oscar and me. we filmed this ourselves, with a tripod, using my personal cameras.

the whole story; i often get solicitations for work, all kinds of companies, people, organizations etc asking if i would be interested in making a video for them. i was really concerned after the typhoon, as anyone with a heartbeat was. left with the frustration and guilt i often feel when i learn of other people suffering, a guilt for not being able to help more. i had made donations but it's hard to see or feel the effects of ones contributions. a few days later i was contacted by 20th Century Fox, they wanted to know if i could make a promotional film to get the word out about Ben Stiller's great new movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Mitty is a movie about chasing a dream and they wanted me to make a movie about chasing a dream. I am a big dreamer but at that time only one thing came to mind; if i could do anything in the world right now what would it be? that's to help the victims of the typhoon. i, someone crassly, replied to 20th Century Fox that the only movie i wanted to make is one where i give away the budget to those in need. i still don't understand how or why but they agreed. i jumped on a plane with my best friend and fellow adventurer Oscar and we flew to Manila. there was little time to think or plan before we left, actually we did zero planning before we left. my original thought was that we'd connect with an NGO already in place, a non-profit that's already doing a lot of good, and i'd simply hand them a check. but that turned out complicated and it sort of felt like the non-profits we contacted did not want to link up with us. so on a whim we decided to launch our very own relief mission. it was complicated and at first improbable but with the help of an extremely loving group of locals, all who were total strangers, we were able to stretch the production budget really far. beyond the food distributed in the video we also worked with a local nurse and purchased a lot of medicine and medical supplies, as well as providing tools to village leaders to be shared within the village and aid in the rebuilding process. 

never have i met such people with the resilience of these typhoon victims. there was one thing that stuck out, one big huge tiny thing, that was; of everyone we were face to face with, thousands of people, not once, at anytime for any reason did anyone complain. no one. their focus was on rebuilding and healing, not sympathy.

big thank you to Fox and Ben Stiller for not freaking the fuck out when they saw what i did with their money.

Now tell this story to someone; remember the 5 questions: who? when? where? what? why? Rehearse it to yourself and then share it; include the expression "restore one´s faith in humanity" some time in your version of the story

Click here  to read some other amazing stories like this one.

25th November 2013: Day Against Violence Against Women

November 25th is here again, a reminder of the violence against women in the world

Here are two different ways to make you ponder on this issue. The first one is an advertisement for female abuse prevention which won an award in Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2011

The second one is a story called Hooked on You, written by Cristina Durán and Miguel A. Giner  Bou

Uploaded on Feb 19, 2009

Would you like to read this story in Spanish? Click here

One More Commercial

Dear 2nd BAC students, 

Talking about advertising…

What do you think about this ad? Is it an ad for or against wearing Uggs ( i.e. having elephant feet) ? What technique do they use for that? 

Do you think this is a good ad? Why (not)? Analyze how you felt both as your were watching it and at the end, that will give you a pretty good idea of how good / bad it is

Do you think this ad is sexist? Why (not)?

Have a Good Summer!

This will be the last post of the school year 2012-13. I hope we will all be back with renewed energy when the classes start in the middle of September.

Here are some videos to lead you into the summer holidays:

VIDEO 1: 

Gratitude, a video by Louie Schwartzberg :

This video is a reminder of the gifts of life and and the beauty of every moment - a truly inspirational video. Let it guide you through your summer.

Click on the subtitles

VIDEO 2:  A creepy commercial about the summer VIDEO 3:  Mungo Jerry´s classic song, In the Summer Time: sing along and get into the mood for summer time!

No Tobacco Day 2013

May 31st, No Tobacco Day; in 2013, the theme is ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship 

How much do you know about smoking? Test yourself with this quiz

Governments all over the world launch campaigns to encourage smokers to quit smoking; the messages are explicit but they do not seem to work. Let´s consider this smoking campaign in the UK: the ad shows a tumour growing on a cigarette as it is smoked, trying to demonstrate that just 15 cigarettes cause a mutation that can lead to cancerous tumors. This is the message:

“When you smoke, the chemicals you inhale cause mutations in your body. And mutations are how cancer starts. Every 15 cigarettes you smoke will cause a mutation. If you could see the damage, you’d stop.”

And this is the video. Watch it and give your opinion about it: do you think it is an effective campaign? why (not)? 

What about this one?

Click here to see other graphic anti-smoking ads.

Have a look at the advertisements below; which one do you like best as an anti-smoking ad? Explain the reasons for your choice: 

Violence Against Women

In the last weeks, several women have been killed in Spain by men; all of them examples of violence against women. Our society has been discussing the origin and causes of these actions against women for ages; different people suggest different ways to put an end to it but none of them seem to work. In my view, as long as women are considered objects, either in real life or in games (played mostly by men), no campaign or message will do any good. 

Take this example: a video called "Kara: a PS3 new technology." I do not really know what kind of new technology the video advertises ( this is the definition of the video: Quantic Dream, the development studio behind titles like Heavy Rain, has showcased the new technology, entitled 'Kara' ) but I do know that I do not like the image of the woman (actually, a fembot) depicted there. Judge by yourselves:

• what kind of woman is pictured here?
• what will "she" be able to do?
• what is "she" not supposed to do?
• what is the message of the video, in relation to men and women?
• whose voice do we hear, a man´s or a woman´s voice? Does it matter? why (not)?

This is another example of a "fembot" in an advert. Why do you think they chose a fembot and not a real woman?

I got the idea for this post when I read the entry called "The Problem with Fembots...Again" in one of my favourite blogs, Sociological Images 

Girls & Sports

Watch this video and tell me what you think about it - I do not mean from the point of view of bag styles or as an entrepreneur idea; I mean the statements about girls and the comparison between boys and girls in relation to sports.

Activyst: Help Girls Play Sports from activyst on Vimeo.

Monsalud, thank you for the video!

World Water Day, March 22nd

Today, March 22nd, is World Water Day and we are celebrating it just as we should: it is pouring with rain. The rainy weather in Lugo probably makes it difficult for us to imagine life without plenty of water around us but ads like these really show what lack of water must be like; this is their message: 

Today 1.1 billion people will have no choice but to drink dirty water.

Thanks to an accident of birth, you're not one of them.

But what if you were? If you had to wash the dishes with it, bathe in it, drink it - and ask yourself this question-if you had to give dirty water to those you love knowing it could kill them, would you?

Imagine New York City's taps went dry, what would people do? Jennifer Connelly walks to Central Park to get dirty water for her family as millions of mothers in Africa do every day. This is an ad by Charity: Water; it was directed by Hotel Rwanda's film director Terry George.

More about water, click here and here

To the Football Fans Out There

Not being a football ("soccer" in American English) fan, I do know the two most popular teams and players in Spain, so I´m sure you will enjoy this commercial to promote a match in March - someone wants people to get excited about it...(Football supporters seem to be looking forward to it...)

You don´t need a translation, do you? Just in case, click here if you do

Click here for a visualization of the "Balon D´Or" votes

A Catchy Song To Go Back To Work

Going back to school is hard so let´s get enthusiastic about it listening to a catchy song released last year, "Ho Hey," by The Lumineers, a US folk rock band (click here for a link to their Facebook page)

You can sing along reading the lyrics. By the way, notice the use of the preposition "with" in "You belong with me": it is a way of saying "you are right for me" - remember we have often seen "belong to" in our lessons, but the meaning with "to" is possession.

This song has been used in commercials (click here for an example) and as part of the soundtrack of the film Silver Lining Playbook, which has not been released in Spain yet, but here´s the trailer - just in case, you may want to watch it once you have seen what it is about: 

Funny commercial - Punctuation Practice

This is a commercial for a Norwegian bank and its message is: some people (a few) are lucky in life; for others (a lot), saving up is the smart thing to do.

In the commercial, a woman wakes up -after a wild night-  and finds out she is a newlywed whose husband turns out to be George Clooney. 

Here´s an activity to practise punctuation: 

Watch the video to see how much you understand, then play the video again while you read the transcript below. I have not included any punctuation marks, only capital letters at the beginning of the sentences to help you a little bit; your task is to include the missing punctuation signs - paying attention to the speaker´s intonation will help: 

George Clooney finally getting married He said hed never Well we just found a new video of the star and hes definitely getting hitched but only in Norway

How would you like to wake up from a wild night to find out you just married George Clooney In this commercial for a Norwegian bank this girls that lucky

The message in the ad some people are lucky in life for the rest of us saving up can be smart

And this is one smart ad too bad they don't have commercial like that in the US

This is my suggestion: 

George Clooney finally getting married? He said he´d never! Well, we just found a new video of the star, and he´s definitely getting hitched - but only in Norway.

How would you like to wake up from a wild night to find out you just married George Clooney? 

In this commercial for a Norwegian bank, this girl´s that lucky.

The message in the ad: some people are lucky in life; for the rest of us, saving up can be smart.

And that is one smart ad. Too bad they don´t have commercials like that in the US.

September: Summer 2012, News Review

I asked my students to write about a piece of news that had been relevant during the summer; I was surprised by the great number of them who chose to write about the financial crisis in Spain and the VAT increase. I felt so sad; when you are 16 / 17 there should be many other things in your head. In fact, I expected to read about any of the following: 

1. 2012 London Olympics

Even if you are not a sports lover, there are so many interesting things related to the Olympic Games:

• From the point of view of politics, consider this photo of Jordan Burroughs, from the USA, and Sadegh Goudarzi, from Iran. The American beat the Iranian in men’s 74kg freestyle wrestling; the photo proves the Olympic Games bring the world together like no other event.

• From a sociological point of view, the role of children in the Olympic Games should be carefully considered: click here and here to read about how China trains its children to become olympic champions

• From a sensitive point of view: this is how some Olympians´mothers see the games: 

2. Julian Assange : after two months in Ecuador´s London embassy, the Wikileaks founder was granted asylum by Ecuador.

3. A Piece of News from Spain that Went Viral: an Elderly Woman Ruins 19th Century Fresco in Restoration Attempt

By the way, did you know the woman is suing the church for royalties ?

4. Prince Harry : he proved that the famous slogan related to Las Vegas, What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, is not true any more; so much so that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority decided to pay for this full-page ad on 27 August 2012

5. The discovery of a new species of monkey

This monkey was apparently a pet that someone kept tied to a post. The scientists state that it was "previously undescribed," which is a more accurate way of describing it. In fact, they recommend the short-hand name “lesula,” “as it is the vernacular name used [by people who've known about it, probably for generations] over most of its known range.”  In doing so, they acknowledge the species’ relationship to a population of human beings, making them visible and significant.

6. Neil Armstrong , the first person to walk on the moon,passed away.

7. A brutal piece of news: Ruth and José Bretón disappeared in October last year but in summer 2012 his father was accused of  having murdered the two children. 

This photo shows a new initiative in the European Union called the NotFound Project is making the most of "404 -- Not Found"pages by using them to display missing child alerts from a constantly updated database. Good use of online real estate or inherently creepy.

A Smile for Friday

Start the weekend with a smile: I am sorry  I am advertising Coca-Cola but this is a video full of positive energy, a video that makes you feel good. It gives a turn to the goal of security cameras: reporting good actions instead of crimes. 

This is a good chance to learn about some positive crimes worth committing; try to imagine what they are before watching the video:

• people stealing kisses
• music addicts
• harmless soldiers (this reminded me of "Arde Lucus" in Lugo)
• honest pickpockets
• potato chip dealers
• attacks of friendship
• friendly gangs
• unexpected firemen
• rebels with a cause (word play with the title of the film "Rebel Without a Cause")
• peaceful warriors
• crazy heroes

Watching people can be great fun!

By the way, the song you can hear is Supertramp´s "Give a Little Bit"

Lyrics | Open Skyz lyrics

A Smile for the End of the School Year

The end of the school year is getting closer and we are all exhausted, the students because they are sitting for the last exams and the teachers because they are correcting like crazy so we all need a little bit of humour to keep us going, I think. My classes do not look like this one in the first video yet - who knows what may happen next week, though.

But the European Football Championship has just started, I am not much of a football fun but I know this championship is the most important conversation subject for many people in Europe right now- maybe to try and forget our financial crisis. 


I guess many of our students keep their excitement for the football matches but here´s a preview of what may happen to many football fans if they get too excited over them.

I do not really know if there is any campaign going on to support the Spain national team, but sometimes these campaigns are very original, and they manage to involved really big crowds. Here´s an example

In 2011, Telecom Telefonica became Colombia’s National Football team´s Official Sponsor; by that time, Colombians had stopped believing in their team, but the company wanted to give a message of optimism so that the team would feel they were supported.

They made an open call to every woman in Colombia named Gloria. And for an entire day, the "Gloria" was theirs. They showed their love and admiration for Colombia´s soccer players, and the whole country came together to form a unified symbol to support their national team.

By the way, soccer or football? Click here  for an explanation

No Tobacco Day: Anti-Smoking Campaigns

Let´s start this entry with some facts related to smoking. The following presentation, which got the first place as the World´s Best Presentation in the year 2010, shows some facts and statistics about the cigarette industry and how smoking affects the environment and people in general -focusing on teenagers

SMOKE - The Convenient Truth

And here are some examples of campaigns that try to help people stop smoking.

Some cities in different countries in the world, are working in order to become tobacco-free places. Austin , Texas, the USA, is one of them and has launched a very strong campaign. They have a webpage where they upload videos of people telling stories related to tobacco -click here, if you want to hear any of those stories - and they have released some very powerful videos, like this:

The following campaign is called "I Bet you can Quit," for the American Cancer Society; it is a campaign that targets the friends of the smokers instead of the smokers themselves based on the following idea: if peer pressure makes people start smoking, it can also help them quit smoking. Thus, if many people started smoking because of peer pressure, their friends  could also make them quit. This is the video which shows how the campaign works:

The following one is my favorite. It is called "Chanting Lighter." It is campaign made for an Indian audience. 'Raam Naam Satya Hai' is chanted when a dead body is carried to the funeral pyre. This chant is synonymous with death. For the campaign, they designed a chanting lighter which played this death chant every time someone tried to light a cigarette. They put these lighters at cigarette shops in place of regular lighters. The message was so clear that many smokers were totally shocked, so much so that some of them decided not to light their cigarettes there and some of them even threw the cigarettes away. 

 Fo

Some anti-smoking campaigns are really hard, especially those which show how smoking can damage your body. Click here to know what I mean. 

As you can well imagine, tobacco companies are not happy with these campaigns and, in fact, five of them have sued the FDA (= Food and Drug Administration in the USA) over the law that forces them to show graphic health warnings on their cigarette packets. Read more about it here. 

Now it is your turn to say what you think about all this:

• do you think anti-smoking campaigns really work? 
• which one of those shown in this post is the most useful, from your point of view? why?
• if you were in my place, would you have shown the videos that explicitly show to what extent some bodies are damaged by smoking? why (not)?
• what is the best anti-smoking campaign you have ever seen -not only here, but in magazines, newspapers, television...? why have you chosen it?
• what do you think about the idea of smoke-free cities?

If you want to see my former entries about the celebration of non-tobacco day, find them searching for the dates in the months of May in the past.

A Commercial

What would you do if... 

... you went to a restaurant for dinner and you were offered not to pay for it  but wash the dishes instead?

That was what sponge brand "Scotch-Brite" did as part of their publicity campaign in several restaurants around the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.


Here´s some vocabulary that you may not know- check its meaning before watching the video or pause the video when the word comes out to really understand the message:

clout

the younger set

team up

target audience

low-cost

consumer

Pay attention to the pronunciation of the following word:

brite (= bright)

Ask your friends and family, what would they do?


And now, how could you explain the title of this commercial, Wash Your Bill?