Welcome!

My name is Rachel and I would like to welcome you all to my blog! First let me begin by telling you a little bit about myself. I am a marketing major at the University of Utah and I am set to graduate in the spring of 2012. I am pursuing a minor in digital art technology, a true passion of mine ever since using Photoshop for the first time. I grew up here in Salt Lake City and I have lived here my entire life. I was raised Catholic and attended J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School and Judge Memorial High School before coming to the University of Utah. 

I am recently engaged and could not be more excited for my wedding, which is scheduled to take place next August! My fiancé is a law enforcement ranger up at Jordanelle State Park, so I am also very interested in criminal justice and how the mind of a criminal works.  We have a dog together that we saved from the humane society and she is our pride and joy! Her name is Red and she is a mutt. We think she is part German shepherd, Labrador retriever, and American pitbull. (Photos of my fiance, Tony, and our dog, Red, are pictured above.)

Some of you may be confused by the title of my blog, “advert eyes.” If read quickly, it sounds like the word “advertise,” which is exactly what my blog is about. Advertisements are meant to “advert your eyes” or draw in your attention.  I am studying both marketing and digital art technology and I am hoping to pursue a career in advertising after I graduate. I am specifically interested in sports advertising because I was raised with a deep love for sports and athletics. After taking two advertising courses at the University of Utah, I realized that advertising is the area of marketing in which I am most passionate about.

In this blog I hope to address the many different areas of advertising, both the good and the bad. I want to talk about why advertisements are produced the way they are. All companies emphasize certain emotions through their ads, but consumers may or may not notice. I also want to talk about subliminal advertising, a topic that I find fascinating, although it is often negatively perceived. I am hoping to break down specific advertisements that stand out to me, as well as share my opinions with you all. There is so much more to advertising than meets the eye (and the ear) and I hope that you all find it interesting to learn about!

The area of advertising that really interests me personally is the creative aspect. All advertisements, whether they are positive or negative, are made to send a message. Behind every advertising plan is a creative director that develops the “look” of the advertisement. Last spring, I was in a class called “Advertising Management” and I was the creative director for my team. The layout of the class was as follows: we developed a team of five or six students, chose a company to represent, were allocated a specific advertising budget, and pitched it in front of a bunch of professional advertisers at the end of the semester. My team chose to represent Pier 1, and in the end we were awarded second place. (Two examples of print ads I developed are shown above.)

While I was in the creative director position, I realized that I truly enjoyed the jobs that I was working on. I liked coming up with print ads for magazines and billboards, as well as developing commercials for television and the Internet. Although some tasks and deadlines were stressful, in the end I learned a lot about what it takes to do well in advertising. I worked with an amazing group of people and I was proud to walk away with a second place award. If I could take the class again, I definitely would!

Is there an advertisement or a commercial that you will never forget? What aspects of that commercial made it unforgettable? Was there an advertisement in a magazine that made you feel sympathetic? Was there a commercial on television that made you laugh? Was there a radio commercial that played a jingle that you can’t seem to get out of your head? If you answered yes to any of these questions, the advertisers have done their job! They made you feel something that you probably wouldn’t have felt originally. Advertisements are meant to evoke emotions in consumers that will result in action. Have you ever seen a commercial for a restaurant, and then felt hungry afterward? If so, then the advertisement was successful.