Pilot

I will admit right from the start that this is my first 'true' blogging experience. I have written for blogs before, but I have never had one that I could call my own.

From the start, readers may be wondering why the blog is called the biggest fish and the truth is that I cannot give a direct answer. Realistically speaking, I am a creative person and I love to write and express myself through words. I write a lot of poetry, and though I am not world famous I think that the act of writing tells a lot about a person. With this in mind, I can say now that I wrote a poem that was titled "the biggest fish" and I have to say that it is probably my favorite piece. A lot of other people may not agree, but I am entitled to my own opinions, as subjective as they may be. I have a few reasons as to why that poem was my favorite. First, it was a turning point in my life and it reflects elements of who I am that I cannot necessarily verbalize. Second, the poem pertains to mystery and acceptance and I hope to embrace those two ideas in life. Third, I just think it sounds pretty good.

So you, if you are still with me, are probably asking, "what could this blog possibly be about?" I have an answer for that question, I do not really know. This blog will start out as an assignment for my creative thinking and problem solving class, but I think as I learn more and embrace that mystery it will turn into much more. I hope to explore creativity through different means: writing, advertisements, slogans, and much more in order to determine why people come up with the ideas they do and how that may benefit the greater population. I am using this as a vessel to learn more and not limit that learning to one section of marketing or one series of problems that are present in today's society.

I will begin with something I saw while waiting for the train today. As I was looking out onto the tracks waiting for my train I noticed a series of advertisements along the wall separating inbound trains from outbound trains. As I stood there I thought about information overload and the attempt to push a lot of information into a person's brain in a small amount of time. I realized that, as a consumer, I did not like being bombarded by seven advertisements at once (only three of which I could recognize). That realization made me think what I would do as a marketer or advertiser. Would it really be effective to put ads in train stations because other methods of advertising are being crushed by modern technology. The television used to be sufficient, but now that we can fast-forward through commercials, T.V. ads are difficult. I thought, what would be the creative solution? How could we change this? At first I came up with nothing. However, as I thought more I remembered some of the ads that stuck best in my mind. Ones on the radio where I could visualize the person speaking and ones in magazines where the story was told for me. The ads in the train were just super-sized posters and did not mean anything to me as a person or as a consumer. I know now that the best advertisement may be one that reflects simplicity and reaches out to consumers on a personal basis. The 'Coca Cola' commercial with the polar bears, the 'Domino's' commercials that unveil their problems, and the 'Disney' commericals that make you wish you were going.  The Disney ads actually bring tears to my eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql-iGGxyGuo (Polar Bears)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5Q2Y2ZQ-4Y (Domino's)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMU1OKFluQQ&feature=related (Disney)

These are some of the advertisements that I am recalling without any information in front of me because they spoke to me as a consumer. The best campaigns, global or domestic, need to address consumers. These are the issues I hope to address in this blog and so much more.


So that you know more about me my poem is listed below.

"The Biggest Fish *"

"I went fishing once
Long ago before fish knew
About the hooks and buoys and people

Casting irons thrust into smooth waters
Making them choppy and ill
Dangling worms freely throughout the kind ripples

Telling old stories of singing nightingales and bare kings
Laughing hysterically and forgetting whatever troubles we created
That same nightingale dancing for me

Singing songs and chanting séances to secure our superstitions
Of the biggest fish
Swimming in the pacific sea

Fake lines stretching to nowhere to catch a myth
Nibbles by passing Lilly pads who hunger to be loved
Screaming silently I’m crazy for you fisherman

Bottles of tap and fresh peaches flooding the boat
Our own mouths are our lifesavers
Dusting away on the open sea

And here it was at the end
Sleepless in the night when the witching hour was cast
Like our rods

He appeared amid the darkness
The biggest fish I ever saw
Dancing for me while the others were enchanted into sleep

Un-catchable and free singing sweetly
Tide pools of scales and fins
Drowning the sea with salty delight

He enchanted my childhood my stories
And when the hour passed so did the fish
Away into darkness again until another lone fisherman called for his blessing as I had

Gone as a ghost, never real they said
A dream, a figment they said
But I knew he was the biggest fish because I was the smallest and I never went fishing again"

*Entire poem property of Alyse Dunn

So go ahead and find your own biggest fish