Class

Class, originally uploaded by ideateller.

So, I've been teaching a class at Otis School of Art & Design here in sunny
Los Angeles. The class is 'Advanced Advertising Concepts' and it's very much
like any class at Miami Ad School, Creative Circus or VCU.



I've got 10 students, 8 girls, 2 boys. They¹re generally in their early
20s. Otis is a 4 year school.



Class is on Thursday nights, and we¹re splitting time between having class
at Otis and having class at DDB.

So far, i¹ve given them one assignment: do an ad campaign for any city or
region of Mexico. They did some bad work, some good work, and a couple of
kids did things that will go in their portfolios. The best idea was a
guerilla idea for acapulco. In cold weather cities, they would build
snowmen, and then dress them up in ponchos to make them look like Mexican
guys. They'd have a sign next to them saying, "It's 95 and sunny in
Acapulco."

Fucking cool.

So, I've asked to meet with each of the students individually so I can talk
with them and look at their portfolios. That way I can get a better sense of
whether or not the work that they¹re doing is good or bad.

One of the girls told me that she wants to be a copywriter, but that she has
a really hard time condensing her stories into print ads. So, I gave her
some examples of people that do wonderful jobs of capturing a story in a
single instant. Gary Larsen of Far Side fame was the first.

The other were the fine contributors to PostSecret. If you don't visit there
every week, you should. Readers send in postcards that they've made or
altered and written a secret upon.

This is from this week's batch, a Valentine's themed lot.

Visit Frank over at PostSecret.