My oh my how the years have flown by. I realize it's been 2 years since I posted on this mandatory-for-class-credit blog, but I figured I'd start updating this more regularly now that I'm a COLLEGE GRAD! Right now I want to talk about this never ending, summer break forever, college is over, state of mind. I have read endless blog entries about post-grad life. Some bloggers seem to have their lives perfectly mapped out-- from their Europe trip to their new job selling insurance or getting accepted to grad school. Other bloggers seem to have no clear direction for their future, and they note that it's okay to not know-- just live, relax, enjoy. Bliss. Well... While I have more in common with the latter blogger, my impatience and anxiety won't let me be. I realize it's okay to not have concrete plans for my future, because most likely, the plans I conjure up in my head are not the plans God has for me. I would love for a stone tablet to come crashing down before me with my life plans illustrated before me. I would love to have a prophet knock on my door. I would love to have God whisper in my ear one night. But the truth is... that is most likely not going to happen. With every anxious wringing of my stomach and every paranoid chill that runs down my spine, I know God is teaching me patience and he is teaching my contentment. "But God, I don't want to live at home forever!" "But God, I need money!!" "But God, I don't want to get stuck!" "But God, most of my friends know what they're doing!" I get in this, "But God" habit, and every time it happens, I feel his hand on my back, telling me to chill out. The perfectionist in me wants me to land the perfect job, and have that job carry me through my life. This perfectionist Bailee wants people to hear what I do and be impressed. She wants to excel and climb to ladder to ultimate success. She doesn't want to wait and waste time in careers that will not lead her to where she is meant to be. In the midst of this I hear God telling me to trust... to have patience... to be strong and courageous. As hard as it may be to swallow some days... I know that I am on His timeline, not mine. While I may feel insecure or impatient or unsure-- He is secure in me, and He knows the plans He has for me. WELL... Now I feel encouraged to go see Wonder Woman and feel empowered. Talk soon- Bails
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"Where do you see yourself ten years from now?" This ever so typical interview question forever haunts me. There is so much I want to accomplish with my life that I don't know how to logically form it into a plan or even into words. I'm going to try... Well, in ten years I would love to be at a company with a stable job, loving what I do! The End. No but really. My dream job that I tell everyone about is working for a Late Night TV Talk Show, doing anything really, but preferably, working with/ for the musical guests. I have an undying love for Late Night TV and music. In ten years, I would absolutely love to be doing that. Since there are many more practical options out there, such as working for a non-profit (which would be great) or working in Sales, I'm going to continue talking about my dream job because I feel like not enough people do that. I'd like to consider myself a dreamer, right alongside John Lennon. I moved out to California from Wisconsin all by my lonesome and never looked back. I followed my heart and my instinct and have never been happier. There is a ridiculously corny quote that I remember hanging up on a poster in my favorite English teacher's classroom that read, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars". I always thought it was really quite annoying, but it has resonated with me all this time and I still remember it. It has a lot of truth to it, at least for me in my current walk of life. I like doing things that challenge me and grow me. I don't like staying in my comfort zone. Most importantly, I like dreaming big and wishing and praying things that are greater than myself. This is why I still have a "dream job". Most kids my age don't do this anymore. The whole "dream job" thing kind of ends at high school and maybe even middle school, with the aspirations of being an astronaut or movie star. I like to have realistic, attainable goals for myself, but I also have bigger ones that I try and chip away at. What am I doing now to try and be where I want to be in ten years? Well, I'm staying up to date with the media and am growing my social media presence. I'm gaining experience and connections through internships, and I'm working hard in school to try and stand out against competitors. Every day I'm growing and asking God where He wants to lead me. I have my own, worldly goals and aspirations, however, ultimately, I want to be used for His Glory. I know what He has in store for me is much greater than what I plan to have in store for myself. I took this quiz, and to my surprise, I was pretty accurate on most of my guesses/ opinions as to what brands are super popular at the moment. Some of the responses kind of shocked me, but I think maybe that's because of the broader audience that may have taken this quiz? For example, I have never heard of Plated before, but apparently it's a website where you can order nice meals right to your house with the recipe and ingredients included. I don't really think this is anything kids my age would take advantage of, but I can definitely see some middle-age folks using and loving this. Also, I've heard of Vice Media, but I did not think it would rank highest out of other apps such as Snapchat, Netflix, and Instagram. Kids these days are absolutely addicted to these apps, especially now that Snapchat added all of those new, crazy obnoxious yet fascinating filters. I also wasn't very familiar with any of the subscription-free shows, with the exception of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I remember seeing a clip of that on Conan or something. Other than that, I have never heard of those shows/segments in my life (Stay Melo and Park Bench). Most of the other brands or games I have heard of, but just don't really feel the need to gain more expertise in. For example... Minecraft. Yep, I've heard of it, but I am in no way trying to explore that at all. Another example, Whisper, that sounds very scandalous and in comparison with Tinder, it makes me very nervous. Well anyways, for the most part, my answers matched up or were at least in the top two for each category. That just proves how in sync with this generation I am. KK. (Kinda Kidding). I'll look into some of the uncharted territories within my knowledge of digital brands, games, etc. and see what I'm missing and if it's worth writing home about. Ta ta. I absolutely adore the fact that REI is closing their doors for this year's Black Friday. I am not even entirely sure why Black Friday became a "thing" in the first place. The concept in itself is horrific. We spend all day Thursday giving thanks for what we have and how fortunate we are, and then the next day, and lately, Thursday night, we go out and literally fight people for things we do NOT need. It's insane. We literally go from gratefulness to selfishness and greediness within hours/minutes/seconds. Anyways, as I said, I love the fact that REI will remain closed on Black Friday. I think it sends out a good message to their customers, and it should be something the public appreciates and finds inspirational. And what's more, REI will pay their 12,000 employees to not partake in the Black Friday craziness. This is something that other companies should model-- instead of competing to see which store can open earlier on Thursday night. Black Friday pollutes the idea of Thanksgiving, it should be abolished, it shouldn't continue to take over this respectable holiday. While I do understand that it brings in a lot of revenue for these businesses, by following suit and closing their doors on Black Friday, they will gain respect and loyalty from their customers. Hopefully in the near future Black Friday will be abolished, and I think this notion is starting to take off. The more the public starts to express their anger and disgust with Black Friday and the more businesses announce they're shutting their doors, the closer we'll be to saying "Bye. And don't let the stampede of shoppers run you over on the way out" to Black Friday. Public opinion is extremely powerful, and the more people start publicly expressing their opinions about Black Friday, the more people will feel comfortable sharing their opinions publicly as well, and the idea will take flight. I'm totally on board with this notion, and I think other companies will start to be as well, especially after this year, seeing it modeled by REI. What will be the icing on the cake is if these other companies witness REI bringing in more revenue and support in the long run due to their decision to shut their doors. Positive changes take time to produce visible results, and while being open on Black Friday brings in a lot a lot a lot of money and customers, it's negative and only produces immediate results/gratification, which is not very noble. Check out this video about Black Friday, marketing, "door busters", and violence (start at 4:07) It's actually kind of funny how quick our society is to jump on the bandwagon, and to conform to what everyone else is doing. I wish people would just go with their gut instinct and make the right decision based upon their own beliefs and knowledge, but the truth is, no one wants to be the odd man out. This slightly rational but also slightly irrational human behavior can be of favor to different brands. For example, if a particular company has a ton of positive reviews or Facebook friends or Twitter followers, they will most likely get more business than a competing company that has way less followers/friends/reviews. Many companies and brands buy these friends, followers, and reviews, just so that it appears as though they're very popular and successful from the outside. It's lying! And it makes us as the consumers look like fools. I actually find it quite humorous. Brands will do whatever it takes to get more business/awareness, and yeah I guess this is a good strategy. All this generation wants is 1,000 likes on an Instagram picture, and as shallow as it seems, it's a good way to lour in customers. I'm taking a class this semester called Persuasion and Attitude Change, and we talk about similar things. We're reading a book about how to go about change, and just the other day we read about how people are more likely to do a particular action if they know that other people are doing it as well. For example, in class we watched a video of a study done where a class of elementary students are shown a few lines, and they're supposed to say which lines are the same size. Everyone in the class, except one clueless student, is in on it and gives an extremely untrue response, but they all give the wrong answer. In almost every single case, the student that isn't in on it will go along with what everyone else is saying, even though it is so obviously wrong and they know it. They just don't want to be that one person that is going against the flow with no other followers. This week, so many brands jumped on the Back to the Future bandwagon because of the amount of publicity it was receiving. Nike released the notorious self-tying shoes, for example, which they probably could have came out with long ago if they pleased. But suddenly, this is such a cool, huge thing because of Back to the Future Day. They strategically planned it so that they would get the most publicity and attention possible, since so many people were paying attention to Back to the Future Day. Funny and smart. I guess what I'm saying is I don't really have a problem with bandwagon brands because they're just trying to go along with the way our society acts. We're weird and don't like going against the crowd. It makes sense that brands would want to appear more popular than they really are to draw in business. It works because that's the way we're wired. While it is somewhat deceitful, it's getting these brands business, so in that way they're successful. Here are the cool self-tying, Back to the Future-esque, Nike shoes: Edelman is the world's largest PR firm, so that's pretty neat. This company stood out among the list of the best Los Angeles Public Relations Firms & Agencies. Not only is it the leading firm overall, but also in categories such as Entertainment and Beauty and Fashion, which are things I am interested in. They also value honesty and a mutually beneficial relationship between the public/ client and the company. They also care about current events and philanthropy. For example, the American Lung Association turned to Edelman to help them with their campaign to increase their diminishing relevance and funding. Together they launched Lung Force, which kicked off in New York City, May 2014. This initiative is trying to spread awareness to the public-- to inform them and encourage them to donate. I included the American Lung Association's Lung Force vision video below that shows a woman's personal battle with lung cancer, and shares some shocking statistics such as the fact that more women die each year from lung cancer than from breast cancer, and yet breast cancer receives more awareness. I admire that Edelman shows interest in movements such as this-- the issues that deserve more attention than they are receiving. I also looked through some of the jobs available in the United States for Edelman, and there was a particular internship that stood out to me. The internship is for Social Media Analytics. I'm interested in this not only because I am very active on social media, but I also believe it's an extremely powerful way for awareness and news to spread. The internship is for post-graduates and is full-time, so I couldn't apply for it now, but it is definitely something I'll keep in mind. Overall, I appreciate the values of Edelman, and they appear to be genuinely interested in helping spread awareness for causes that go unnoticed. They are using their power in the PR world to help start initiatives such as Lung Force, and I think that's very admirable. Could it be possible that there are traces of early PR in the Bible? This seems like a super weird thing to even consider, but... I can kind of see how this could be a thing. What I'm thinking is, since there was no media outlets or anything back then, PR was different-- it had a different definition and context. In a sense, Jesus' disciples and prophets were running PR campaigns for Jesus, trying to make him "viral" and spread the good news of a Savior that came to earth to save all of mankind! Through the telling of Jesus' parables and miracles, His name was spreading like wildfire, and people became curious and wanted to know more and see this Jesus for themselves. Another Old Testament example is Moses. This is kind of a 2-in-1 PR example. For starters, Moses used PR to tell of God's mission and served as God's medium to show signs and miracles. Also, Aaron used PR for Moses, since he couldn't speak very well. He was literally speaking on his/ His behalf. PR was kind of like Evangelism back then. By spreading the news of Christ, His name was becoming more and more popular, and more and more people were trying to see Him and hear His teachings. This is still true today. The more people spread the joy and good news tucked within the Bible, the more people hear about it. Simply proclaiming the news isn't enough, however. As Christians we're called to act it out by loving everyone, not being judgmental, and wholeheartedly following Christ in everything we do by obeying His commandments and worshiping Him with all of our being. We have the advantage of social media, though. We can share our testimonies and stories of His wondrous grace on whichever social media platform we choose. Even though the times have changed and technology has rapidly evolved, He remains, and that's what is so special. Check out this cool video: Volkswagen has really gotten themselves in a pickle. (Which is such a shame, because I love the Darth Vader kid commercial). Basically what happened is they cheated, lied, and got busted. The company somehow included a "defeat device" into the Diesel engines, so that the vehicles would enter a type of safety mode, and the engines wouldn't run as normal. In turn, the vehicles would pass their emissions tests, and everyone would walk away content. They didn't plan on getting caught, though... and now that they have... It's not looking so good. The cars produce 40% more pollutants than what is allowed in the U.S. and this "defeat device" was implanted in about 11 million cars. Yeah. Why they even thought they could get away with this, I don't know. But, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) busted them, rightly so. As a response to getting caught, America boss Michael Horn said, and I quote, "We've totally screwed up". Wait, yeah, I'm sorry. Do you think? And the chief executive Michael Winterkorn bowed out gracefully, resigning, and saying they had "broken the trust of our costumers and the public" (BBC News). Overall I think they're handling themselves pretty well. The fact that Winterkorn left the company was probably pretty wise for not only his own health and sanity, but for the company as well. The whole scandal made Volkswagen's image change drastically, and they lost a lot of trust and support, and that also effected Winterkorn's image. Volkswagen is now being lead by Matthias Mueller, the previous boss of Porsche, who said, "My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group-- by leaving no stone unturned" (BBC News). Nice. I wish him well. He has a lot of work to do, and it will likely take a long time for Volkswagen to gain back the public's trust. Just recently even, Volkswagen withdrew their application for their model year 2016 diesel vehicles. They will not be releasing a new line, and announced recalls will likely begin in January. Although they really made a mess for themselves, I have faith they'll clean it up and continue to treat the situation with poise and caution. They know people are, well, pissed, and they'll want to correct that, so I trust every move will be strategic and well thought out. When thinking of epic ad campaigns, for some reason my mind automatically wanders to the epic split video that Volvo produced with the incredibly bendy Jean Claude Van Damme in 2013. In this video, Van Damme manages to stand/ literally split himself between two Volvo trucks, while driving in reverse and while slowly drifting apart. It's set to some very dramatic music during a beautiful sunset in the middle of nowhere, and the whole ad has a very tranquil, harmonious feel. Which actually, makes it quite comical. I can't watch the ad without laughing because of how serious it tries to be. As odd as it seems, the video has over 80 million views on YouTube and is still talked about to this day. I've seen clips on Vine, and there are tons of people that have tried recreating Van Damme's epic split. The point of the ad was to show off the stability of the power steering on the Volvo trucks, but Van Damme's crazy flexibility is what made it so memorable. I'm not so sure this ad campaign actually worked for Volvo, because there aren't really any Volvo-specific factors in this ad (besides the dialogue and text at the end). I think the public is probably more likely to just remember Van Damme, and won't necessarily associate it with Volvo. But nonetheless, Volvo got a lot of views and publicity for this ad, so in that sense it definitely worked. Maybe if they made more commercials with a variety of epic, gravity defying acts, the public would be more likely to tie it to Volvo. But overall, it was very memorable and it peeked a lot of public interest, so that seems pretty successful to me. Check out the ad below! Burger King had this brilliant idea to unite The Whopper and The Big Mac for an epic yet meaningful fight for World Peace. I loved the idea and so did Burger King. They were completely public about their thoughts and ideas and even created a website describing each and every detail of the campaign. mcwhopper.com From the uniforms to the location to the burger itself, Burger King had it all worked out. All of the proceeds would go to non-profit organization Peace One Day. It was a completely beautiful idea! A pop-up shop would be opened in Atlanta-- the mid -way point between the McDonald's headquarters in Chicago and Burger King's headquarters in Miami, and on September 21, 2015 on World Peace Day, people would come together and munch on the delicious hybrid burger referred to as the McWhopper. Unfortunately, McDonald's said no. They said they felt their brands could do something better to make a difference. What. Check out this article. Coke and Pepsi... Adidas and Nike... MCDonald's and Burger King!! These "brand wars" are some of the most famous in the world! This McWhopper would have been a game changer. What a positive example these companies would have sent to the world. That for one day, two competing brands can unite and promote peace worldwide. Even though the event would have been small scale (only taking place in Atlanta), it would have rocked the world. It could have been so epic, McDonald's. I would have definitely accepted the offer and broadcasted it all over social media. I probably would have created an Instagram account, just for the MCWhopper. The message would have been clear-- if two brands that are eternal competitors can peacefully come together and make something marvelous, that can be true for anyone. Peace is possible! Little acts can accumulate and send messages throughout the nation and eventually the world. What a shame McDonald's. Maybe Peace Day 2k16? |
Bailee KussrowI have many thoughts. I have many passions. Archives
June 2017
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