As I was filling out my application for a year-long fast-track program to begin a career in advertising, I realized what I was writing was very true and real about my ambitions, adversity, and the next phase of my life. I thought it would be appropriate to share this with everyone as I only write about what is real about how I feel. Here are my responses to the four questions on this application. The name of the school will be changed and the names of the people that I refer to will be changed with an alias.
1. What interests you about the program that you are applying for?
I am applying for the copywriting program at ADVERTSCHOOL to become a writer for an agency.
First and foremost, I am initially excited about going back to school to be surrounded by like-minded people who are willing to learn the same skill sets as me. The most vital part of this notion is that we all will be fresh pieces of clay that will be molded into achieving the same end goal. Another interest that I have is that I will be learning about the creative process that this program will teach me. I am a naturally creative person, but there is always room to improve and to grow as a creative. I am very excited about the fact that I will have a vast knowledge of the advertising industry before going into my first job. Most importantly, I am ready to learn, be humbled, and learn from my mistakes as a writer. I have never been able to take direction creatively before in my writing academic career. This is because learning came easy to me and I took it for granted, but after proctoring two classes at ADVERTSCHOOL and knowing that it can help me pursue a career that I want to break into, I realized that I want to make the most of this opportunity to be the best writer at this point in the learning stages of my career. I am ready to fail as a writer so that I can learn in order to develop into one of the best writers in advertising once I hit my early 30’s.
2. Choose an advertising campaign, design piece, or website that you like. It should be one which applies to your area of interest. Briefly describe or send copies of your choice and explain why you like it.
Right now, I really like the Bud Light advertising campaigns because, despite all of the humor, I interpret it as that back in medieval times that even paupers, peasants, and even Kings would glorify Bud Light just like in the present day. This is brilliant because it is hitting a major demographic that is very widespread due to the Game of Thrones craze that has been perpetually catching interests of different sects of the population for the last seven years due to the HBO series. With that, a lot of people also like to romanticise about living during this period of history. For me this is genius. I personally do not like Bud Light because I prefer Coors Light or Mich-Golden Light. But the phrase “Dilly Dilly”, has resonated with me because it is very simple and only a mear two words that now has hit a sensory signature within the brains of many consumers all over the country, especially the ones who are obsessed with Game of Thrones. The commercials are like a mini television series that are told in 30-second specs, in which keeps the consumer waiting in anticipation to learn more about the story. I may be right or wrong but I do not think there has to be anything like this in advertising before that uses comedy or basically in general. Like a sitcom, I am going to label this as a “Com-Com”, a comedic commercial series. Now if you go to their website, they use simplicity and sensory signatures in a brochure like fashion to draw you in not only to admire the commercials but to set a sort of propaganda to purchase Bud Light. The key to this is the design of placement that blends words with pictures, and videos from the commercials. Every time you hover your mouse over the words such as, “Friends you can count on”, it inverts from the blue font with a white background to vice versa. This to me shows the blue color that Bud Light is all about. Every phrase on the front page is written between 6-9 words and it grabs your attention. As a writer, this is hard for me to do. I want to learn more about this process to create ad campaigns similar to this one. Last, the smaller subtext does the same thing in less than 20 words. This is an effective strategy that uses the catchphrases that are 9 words or less to transition to the more informational text that they give you about their brand. Everything is beautifully placed and it tells a story.
3. Choose an advertising campaign, design piece, or website that you dislike. It should be one which applies to your area of interest. Briefly describe or send copies of your choice and explain why you dislike it.
When I think of State Farm, I do not think about insurance because I think about those dumb commercials with Aaron Rodgers and Clay Mathews. As a Viking’s fan, I despise these people. But, when you go to their website they are nowhere to be found. This destroys all of the sensory signatures in our brains about what represents this service that they are providing. We see images of couples, families, and people of a wide demographic from all walks of life. As neat as this is, the more you scroll down the front page, there is more and more literature that I personally do not want to read. Like most consumers who view ads and websites, I have a short attention span because we live in a modern world in which we are constantly being sold to. At a certain point, everything is written in 30 words or less, versus 20 words or less on the Bud Light website. The front page needs to be a brochure that is used as a launching pad for consumers to commit and purchase this service. If State Farm wanted to promote to all of these different demographics of people used on their website then they should have created a commercial campaign that is not geared towards football fans. So, when admirers of Aaron Rodgers go to the website to see more of him, they will be thoroughly disappointed rather than interested in their services. I may be 100 percent wrong. But I stand strong by this because of their misleading campaign. Due to their misdirection, and the words on the front page on this site, it cannot add to the campaign to make it more effective just like the Bud Light website did.
4. Why do you want to come to ADVERTSCHOOL?
I want to attend ADVERTSCHOOL to develop my writing skills to work in a field that uses my best skillset. Admissions Guy told me that people come to the school with a lot of determination to get their lives started. He told me that people who go to ADVERTSCHOOL are sick of their jobs at banks, bars, and law firms or etc. This is because they want to work in a creative industry with like-minded people to do something that they love. I also have been speaking with Mr. Portfolio and many other people who have worked in the industry who have highly spoken about the school saying that they get their best employees from this program, and I really want to be one of those products of this environment. They also emphasized the great selling point of how you will get a job coming out of the program. I am tired of working as a bartender and getting rejected after numerous job interviews for positions that I have no interest in. When I spoke to Ed on the phone, he told me that the school has many resources for networking, job search and even job placement all over the country. As much as I feel honor and pride in being a General Manager/Bartender for my family’s restaurant, I want to get my life going in a job that I want to work my hardest in to excel. Working at a restaurant is something that I do not want to do for the rest of my life, it is being a writer is why I want to pursue a successful career in the creative industry.
I wanted to share this with my readers because when I wrote this application, I realized that this was a true part of who I am and where I want to go. We should all think about the Latin phrase, Quo Vadis, in which means “Where are you going?” For right now, I’m facing the horizon everywhere I go, and the horizon is my home.
Remember, “The Zos Knows”.
-David Zosel
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