VerveCast

In the spirit of the New Year, a post to address the best… and worst… of the past 12 months. TIME put out an article listing the Top 10 Everything of 2011, which includes 54 wide-ranging lists. Here are some of the top notables in selected categories.

TV Ads

1. Dear Sophie — Google
2. The Force — Volkswagen
3. Reply All — Bridgestone

Best Tweets

1. News of Osama bin Laden’s Death Breaks on Twitter
2. Gabrielle Giffords Returns to Congress (The #Capitol looks beautiful and I’m honored to be at work tonight. – @Rep_Giffords)
3. Wael Ghonim on the Egyptian Revolution (Mission accomplished. Thanks to all the brave young Egyptians. – @Ghonim)

Worst Tweets

1. Anthony Weiner on… Anthony’s ‘Weiner’ (I won’t share that one with you.)
2. Nir Rosen on Lara Logan (Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal – @nirrosen)
3. Gilbert Gottfried on Japan (Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them – @realgilbert)

Viral Videos

1. Rebecca Black, “Friday”
2. The Homeless Man with the Golden Voice
3. Volkswagen’s Darth Vader Commercial

Buzzwords

1. Occupy
2. Winning/Winner
3. Planking

You might notice that Volkswagen’s Darth Vader commercial made the top three on both the ‘Top 10 TV Ads’ and ‘Top 10 Viral Videos’ lists. In the ad world that is one of the biggest home runs you can hit. (Not to mention the fact that I’m aware of at least one kid who chose his Halloween costume based on that commercial. It seems to appeal to nearly all demographics.)

It’s entertaining to look back at the last year in our culture. Go ahead and take a minute to peruse the other 49 lists. Happy New Year, all!

This week I came across a fun article, 17 Haikus About Writing and Editing, by a woman who practices haikus as an exercise to keep her writing fresh and flexible. It seemed like an interesting experiment, so I decided to give it a go. Here’s what I came up with.

Call the media.

We have an awesome story.

Now tell it like this…

PR or social?

Related, but not equal.

Differentiate.

You must proof your work.

Not enough time in the day?

Prepare to look dumb.

Comma before which,

but no comma before that.

Please pay attention.

I could go all day.

But, no time for fun with words.

Clients call my name.

Seriously, my mind will not turn off. What a fun (and addictive) exercise. Go ahead, embrace your inner nerd and give it a try.

There’s a great post over The Society Pages that highlights a Molson Beer campaign that created two different ads, one aimed towards men, and another aimed towards women.

Above is an ad for Molson that ran in Cosmo magazine… obviously targeted towards women.

And below is an ad for Molson that ran in Playboy magazine, obviously targeted towards men.

There’s nothing wrong with running multiple ads geared towards different audiences, but the ad for men explains how the ad for women was “scientifically formulated to enhance their perception of men who drink Molson.”

At one level, it’s amusing, especially if you work in the advertising or marketing industry…

But on another level, it’s a little disturbing and insulting, to both men and women.

What I find interesting is that this campaign ran about 8 years ago. That’s not too long ago, but I wondered how many people would have seen an article on the web about such a campaign 8 years ago versus today.

And even more interesting is the divergence of comments on the piece.

Last week we celebrated another year with our “z2 inspired Holiday Party” which included a 5-course breakfast at The Pfister Hotel, followed by a train ride to Chicago for a bit of shopping before heading out to Moto in Chicago for a 15-course meal (yes, I said 15!) that included 9 savory dishes, 6 desserts, and edible paper and ink along the way.

And the chefs? You may have seen Richie Farina and Chris Jones on Top Chef: Texas. Yeah, those were our chefs…

It was definitely an experience to be remembered. A big thanks goes out to Cory and Deb from all the Z2 staff for this one.

Happy Holidays everyone! :)

Interesting post, suggesting that smiling isn’t conducive to creating a good portrait.

Of course, in the olden days of painting (and the early days of photography) you had to remain still for quite some time. Smiling is something best done quickly, not over long periods of time. Even trying to smile for more than a few minute isn’t enjoyable. (I don’t know how some people in the service industry do it!)

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of smiling for photos. I know that everyone wants a smile when there’s a snapshot being taken, and I have to assume it’s because people associate smiling with being happy… But I think you can make a great photo (and/or portrait) without a smile.