A couple of months ago, I finished Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner. The whole book is worth reading and answers questions like:

“What do schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers have in common?”
“How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real-estate agents?”
and “Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?”

I was particularily interested in a chapter near the end that explored whether a gun or a swimming pool is more dangerous. The following is an excerpt from the book, and below is the remainder of the PSA campaign I schemed to bring awareness to the issue. In fact, in a recent year, there were 175 children killed by guns compared to 745 drowned in pools.

“Consider the parents of an eight-year-old girl named, say, Molly. Her two best friends, Amy and Imani, each live nearby. Molly’s parents know that Amy’s parents keep a gun in their house, so they have forbidden Molly to play there. Instead, Molly spends a lot of time at Imani’s house, which has a swimming pool in the backyard. Molly’s parents feel good about having made such a smart choice to protect their daughter.

“But according to the data, their choice isn’t smart at all. In a given year, there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools in the United States. (In a country with 6 million pools, this means that roughly 550 children under the age of ten drown each year.) Meanwhile, there is 1 child killed by a gun for every 1 million-plus guns. (In a country with an estimated 200 million guns, this means that roughly 175 children under ten die each year from guns.) The likelihood of death by pool (1 in 11,000) versus death by gun (1 in 1 million-plus) isn’t even close: Molly is roughly 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident at Imani’s house than in gunplay at Amy’s.”

Thursday, Milton Glaser came to BYU in conjunction with the AIGA and BYU Department of Visual Arts. I went, but I didn’t get as good a seat as Paul or as good pictures as Matt (I got there just in time for one of the last standing spots on the balcony). But I did take a few notes. His ideas on appreciating art and the impact of drawing on life and personal development were awesome. BYU normlly makes transcripts of these types of events available shortly thereafter. If they do, though, I’ll be sure to post it. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite quotes from the night:

“I think it’s one of my articles of faith that I don’t work with people I don’t like.”

“My instinct is to go as far as I can go before before people will say ‘That guy’s a fraud.'”

When Stephen Heller asked him about finding a niche or specializing in a certain area of design (books, web, whatever), Milton gave a great answer. In summing up his thoughts that people shouldn’t necessarily limit themselves to any one area of design, he said:

“I always thought if people knew what you did, they’d have power over you.”

and finally, in the open Q&A, someone asked what he thought was his greatest accomplishment.

“My greatest accomplishment? Longevity.”
-Milton Glaser

If you can spare a couple minutes, take this short survey [survey is now closed] about video gaming. If you do, Electronic Arts (better known as EA) will be happy, and you’ll make my life a lot easier.

thanks.

So we’re back to posting works in progress.

This is a mock-up of an idea I had for a Comm Arts ad for students. The deadline was 9AM and I’d expected to do it over the weekend… It turned out last week was one of the most eventful weeks of my life and I wasn’t able to work on it. Midnight Sunday with no ideas and no time. Against my better judgment (considering I’m even less of a morning person than I am a body-builder), I decided to set the alarm for 4AM.

In the mental fog of an early morning all my ideas seemed brilliant-but as the sun came up, I became less sure. But when there’s a deadline, I guess you do your best and leave the rest up to the toner cartridges. So, here’s the pitch.

Basically, students get a killer price on subscriptions ($39/yr). My first thoughts were for self-depreciating lines such as “Sick of being bombarded with advertisements? Pay to see them again” and “At least Visual Arts students understand our picture books.”

In the end I decided to go the safe route and just play with the price. There’s really not much strategy behind it, and it certainally doesn’t “have legs,” but this is what turned up. The idea to use the cover of Comm Arts as the visual (and to show it was the magazine students would get for “free”) came between giving up (going back to sleep) at 6, and waking back up at 7.

Moral of the story: I think better in my sleep.

Apple announces a couple little things and instantly- hundreds of stories are submitted to Digg about the anouncements. And then there are stories about those stories, and then thousands of “users” who digg those stories. And then there are those of us who write about how ridiculous that the only news to read on Digg is about another update to iTunes (aren’t they bi-weekly anyway?) or another update to the iPod (new model for every day of the week) or another update about how the new Apple OS is going to be so awesome that we’re going to blog about how awesome it is.

Point is, no offense Dave, if you want to read about the new Apple announcements, go to www.macrumors.com, and keep Digg from becoming a never-ending repository of Apple press releases. They’re easy enough to come by as it is.

The guys over at Crowell asked me to post this and I couldn’t think of a good reason why not. They’re located downtown in the Gateway, so if you’re interested in a job in online media but you also want a cool office and quick access to the latest Bo Bice album (the Virgin Megastore is right downstairs), this might be the job for you. Best of all, it seems they understand that while otherwise somewhat useless, sparsely-visited blogs are still cool enough to post job openings. Contact Crowell with any questions at 531-0533.

To read the job description, go here.

Oh, and it’s not online media, so it doesn’t relate to the job posting, but here’s some radio they did for Clear Bra. “Ricochet with a capital R and then a lowercase icochet.” Nice. Very nice.

As September comes, t-shirt and trousers are laid out next to Trapper Keeper and new white sneakers. I’m supposed to be ready for the magical morning when I’ll become a student again. Somehow though, I can’t help but feel I was supposed to be done with this a year ago.

It’s a strange case of Spring fever when going to school feels right but being in school feels wrong. And it’s not Spring.

In any case, I’ll be there in a few days. Provo, Utah for another 9 months of the Junior Baccon Cheeseburger on odd and the Hot-and-Ready special on even days (and maybe some ramen somewhere in the middle to mix things up).

Anyway, when it started, this blog was mainly about advertising. Gradually, as I drifted to Hawaii and Wyoming and wherever else I drifted over the summer, the content drifted with me. Now that I’m drifting back toward the police state of Provo, I suppose the content will make its way back to advertising or over-zealous law enforcement.

With that, check out my favorite new Mac ad:

Take the smallest planet we have and pick on him. Build him up to cut him down. Reminds me of middle school.

PROVO, UT–

September 5th, 2006 will find thousands of college students flooding into Provo, Utah’s greatest city, to start another year of college education.

“It will be a great opportunity for us, as a department, to go back to what we do best- writing frivolous tickets to unsuspecting students, and breaking up harmless gatherings wherever we hear music,” said Capitan Joel Brenson of the Provo Police Department.

“I’m excited because it’s always a big morale booster for the guys when these kids come back and we have the opportunity to use our lights and sirens again. They’re really pretty neat, you should see them when it’s dark.”

Not only does the return to school mean an exciting time for the Provo Police Department, but the booting companies also see an increase in activity and revenue.

“It’s really great this time of year- we basically wait for students to show up to a parking lot and then we pounce. The best part is the money. It’s a lot easier than going to college ourselves,” said Matt Swenson, and employee at University Parking Unforcement.” My boss gave me a bonus last year because I booted the most cars in a 3 hour period during one of the BYU football games. It was easy because there’s really nowhere anyone can park within a 5 mile radius of the stadium…unless they happen to own a parking garage or something. I bought one of those new video iPods with the money.”

As students breathe millions of dollars into the economy, local businesses breathe a sigh of relief.

Store owner Cathy Hinckam notes that “our grocery store couldn’t survive without [the students], but my husband and I would never let them know that. After all- they do make our streets busier and it seems like every year their hair styles get crazier, their jeans have more holes, and they’re basically making our lives hell for about 8 months… We did just add on to our house, though, business was pretty good last spring. So they’re good for that. But not much else.”

And finally, landlords across Utah County are gearing up their office staff to handle the checks flowing in from students in “BYU approved housing.” Jean Drammup, manager of several apartment complexes near campus (including The Lodges at Glendale) is especially thankful for the influx of students each year.

“It’s great. They basically have to live here- and they pay top dollar to do it. We charge about twice what you’d pay for a bare-bones apartment anywhere else in the state, but since we’re BYU Approved, they’re basically thanking us for the privilege. Of course, we do show our thanks to them as well- last year, we remodeled the outside of the buildings to make it look like the apartments inside were actually comfortable. In truth, they’re the same as they were when we first built the place in 1972. Oh, and we give out free hotdogs and drinks once a year by the pool.”

And so as Provo prepares to receive the students with open arms (and a bundle of citations, auto boots, and deposit slips), the students prepare for the warm welcome.

“What can I say?” asks Drew Gibson, a student from Seattle, WA. “We basically prepare by taking out student loans and getting [mentally] ready to take another one in the chops. All in the name of higher education. We’ll pay a couple thousand on tuition, a few more thousand on housing, and a couple hundred on miscellaneous expenses like tickets, parking boots, and food. Then, they’ll ask us for donations to build a new training center for the football team, and another donation to fund scholarships that will go to minorities. That’s life in Provo. I’m not complaining though- they tell us it doesn’t get any better than this.”

How could it?

I’ll be in the Wind Rivers range for the next week.

Technically I’m not hunting bears, but I’ll be looking for them. And if I find one I like, I’ll be bringing it back with me.