Adiocracy

Here are a few student reviews from this Fall’s Killer Work class at SVA. They’ve graciously agreed to respond if you have any questions. Email addresses follow their comments:

Cristina Twigg, Marianne Merritt, Ilse Garcia at the wall

Cristina (Gradilone) Twigg

On a 1-10 scale, the ‘Killer Work’ experience was a complete 10!

Killer work helped me concentrate on concepting, which I haven’t had much of a chance to do at my current advertising job. It also helped me find my own “process”. I’m still polishing it up, coming up with other ways to make my process smoother, but it’s definitely gotten a lot better than when I first began ‘Killer Work’.

The greatest takeaway was learning to write everything down without judgement and to edit later. For the longest time, I would sit and think and only jot down ideas I thought were good, which didn’t allow for a fluid process. I was constantly interrupting myself and stopping the flow. This has been extremely helpful to me.

Killer Work was my first class, and it was a great experience. I plan on taking more!

As for improvements: I think it might be valuable to work on one of the assignments in pairs. It would be a great way to have a more “real” agency experience, and it would teach us how to work together and to provide efficient feedback when the quality of your work depends on it.

ctwigg@thebloc.com

Ryan Engelbert

Killer work starts with a killer idea. Learn to forget the clichés and craft relevant, compelling and authentic ads. This course will help you identify the ideas that will carry a campaign to glory.

Over the course of 10 weeks, you’ll create some of your best stuff, struggle, absolutely nail an assignment and fail miserably… and you’ll love every second.

Mark is brutally honest and an excellent creative analyst, and your classmates are sure to inspire you every week with their work and constructive criticism. Take this course, then get out there and kill it.

ryanengelbert@gmail.com

C Twigg/Clorox/Killer Work

Ilse Garcia

On a scale of 1-10 ‘Killer Work’ was a 10! The class taught me many different ways to approach an advertising challenge, and how the same concept can be expressed in unimaginably different ways. I will never forget to “keep digging for the bone” —  there is always a better idea down there.

Compared to the other courses I’ve taken where we spent weeks polishing the same idea, here I was always working on new ideas and fresh thinking, even for the same product. The only thing I would add is a chance to work in a team.

gabbynette@gmail.com

Stacy Crisostomo-Flores

On a scale of 1-10 ‘Killer Work’ was an 8 (but only because I wasn’t able to participate full-on due to work schedule and working late.)

Killer Work taught me how to  churn out more ideas and faster, keeping persistent with things that work, and letting ideas go that aren’t great. The presentation aspect of getting in front of class also helps develop that skill, which isn’t my favorite part of the job, but has helped me present ideas to people outside the creative team.

Mark focuses on ‘authenticity’ and why that is key to distinguishing great work. This course was a great break from doing the sometimes mundane work I have to do at my job. It keeps the inspiration going, so it’s great for people who don’t want to leave their comfy job just yet

As part of every class, Mark shows ads and talking about why they are “good” or why they “fail”.

As for suggestions, I felt that sometimes the student feedback was ‘too nice’. Maybe we should hand in anonymous feedback so that people won’t be embarrassed to say what’s on their minds.

girloftheworld@gmail.com

For those deciding on a new advertising class at SVA, below is some of the lastest feedback on Mark Burk’s How To Do Killer Work class:

Tegan Mahford:

On a scale of 1-10, this class was an 11!

By listening to Mark’s insights on my classmates’ presentations and my own, it became possible to step back and observe my style of thinking from an objective standpoint.

Mark is adept at routing class conversations in a direction that forces students to open their eyes and evaluate the reasoning behind their problem-solving methods. As he made abundantly clear every class, there are a million and one ways to solve a problem. The first idea you stumble upon is most likely not a polished, mature idea.

The greatest thing I’m taking away from ‘Killer Work’ is that when you’re generating ideas and a light goes on, you should never stop there. What you hit was one light switch to one light bulb in a whole castle. There could be hundreds of others lights, twelve-tiered chandeliers. It’s possible you hit the light switch to the dimmest lamp. You won’t know unless you keep groping around the castle walls.

Another thing that sounds obvious but was extremely useful was when Mark gave us a perspective on the amount of time we need to put in on assignments. It’s comforting to find out you’re not a total idiot if brilliant ideas don’t hit you every minute of the day. Walking out of this class, I’m aware that if the creative process is a mountain, I’m facing it with the appropriate tools to climb it.

‘How To Do Killer Work’ did exactly what it promised in the course description.

Tegan has kindly agreed to answer questions if you’ve got them. You can contact her at tegan.mahford@gmail.com

Bill Hogan:

Prior to taking this class I focused too much on the execution aspect of creating an ad or ad campaign. My thought process was dominated by taglines, visuals, and execution based ideas. This class taught me how to start with an insight or an idea that relates the product/service to the audience in an original way.

I really enjoyed the class discussions. It’s great to work with others on an assignment and get the opinions of those around you, and often a great new idea is spurned by those types of discussions. In addition, Mark’s ‘bone analogy’ is something that resonated with me and I will remember for some time.

The last course I took at SVA did not explore the thought process behind the execution. It was primarily execution based.

I offer one suggestion.  I think it would be helpful to explain in further detail or by example in the first class what is expected in your presentation.

Bill has kindly agreed to answer any questions. You can contact him at william.thomas.hogan@gmail.com

Summer 2010:

Carly Schott

How To Do Killer Work helped me to begin thinking big picture creative.  It helped me tap into the part of my brain that makes me think about concepts from different angles. I learned a lot about strategic delivery, and discovered the importance of creating work that is relevant, fresh, and insightful… This course forced me to create and think every single week, and I have begun to develop a creative thought process that I didn’t really tap into before.

schott.carly@gmail.com

Rocky Ito

Killer Work helped me understand the full process of how to concept from start to finish, and how to strengthen my thinking in the parts of the process I needed most. It showed me how to expand my ideas and how to approach things from many different angles.

hito@g2.com

Touseef Mirza

I learned a lot from Killer Work. The class really challenged me to think outside the box.

(How To Do) Killer Work helped me understand how far one has to dig in order to come up with “insights”. It takes time. This class made me realize that I need to go through all the “gunk” in order to get to nuggets that are good ideas to develop.

My single greatest takeaway from the class was to present ideas with a specific point of view. I have a tendency to be general and give too much information “everything but the kitchen sink” syndrome. I also have a tendency to be literal with my ideas. Killer Work helped me come up with a specific point of view, taught me how to see a product/service from different perspectives, and generate new ideas that way.

I definitely recommend “How To Do Killer Work”.

You can contact me at tmirzanyc@gmail.com

Here’s a simple campaign reminding adults jumping back into the pool (as in dating pool) that they’re just as susceptible to Sexually Transmitted Infections (Brit for STDs) like syphilis, genital warts and chlamydia as young people. Though the outfits in the ads feel like they’d put the audience a bit older than their stated 40′s and 50′s target, we won’t quibble over a decade.

And while the structural connection between remembering when you wore an outift and remembering to wear a condom is a bit blunt, it fits with the simple and direct message: You’re older, you’re supposedly more experienced now, so wear a condom. By advertising agency tea, London (though we couldn’t find their site). AD: Chris Bishop and CW: Stuart Fermor.

Here’s some student feedback from Mark Burk’s spring Killer Work class:

nicholas.troop@gmail.com

What seperates good teachers from bad ones?

I dont think it has to do with intelligence in the traditional sense of the word.  The best teachers posess an intuitive emotional intelligence that allows them to connect on some level with all the different personalities in the room; to understand their thought process and know what to say and do to bring out their best work.

After learning the characteristics of good advertising, the majority of this course is an exersize in self exploration.  The most important things you can take from this is an understanding of the way you think and the beginnings of a creative process that will produce work you can be proud of, and the confidence explore and ”keep going without knowing where youre headed.”

Nick

Robert.Ross@draftfcb.com

Mark Simon Burk has a fantastic ear for dead-on headlines and a keen sensitivity for what makes great advertising work. Whether you are a student looking to break into the industry or an advertising professional seeking to hone your skills, Mr. Burk’s class is a must-take. That’s not because you might not be good at what you do. It’s because you can be better. Even great. But you’ll first need to put in a lot of hard work and learn the fundamentals of how to do killer work!

Developing great noteworthy creative just doesn’t happen over night. It relies on the skills to competently evaluate advertising and sift through what makes bad advertising bad and great advertising superb. It requires that you develop a process in which you can delve deep into the details and come up with the insights and big ideas from which excellent creative can be developed. And, of course, it demands feedback from an advertising wiz like Mr. Burk who has the refined experience to help make your conceptual ideas sizzle and your tarnished ideas shine.

Robert Ross
Group Copy Supervisor
DraftFCB

Stock market = dread. Those who bother anymore, open up the stock pages (where they still exist) with one eye opened, but half-covered. Which is why we like the opportunity Pepto-Bismol and agency Publicis, NY took to blanket the nasty bank-born financial spirochetes and similar Madoff toxins with a thick coat of Pepto.

You probably were not covered (financially), as the line promises. But at least Big Pink can protect your belly from the dozen tequilas you downed along with the oily nachos and quesadillas you stuffed your face with during the pink slip party at that skeezy little Mexican joint. These days, its easy to wake up feeling lousy about a lot of things, but maybe your stomach doesn’t have to be one of them. Cudos from Adiocracy to AD John Wagner, Writer Dan Cohen and Group CD Bertrand Garbassi, and the folks at P&G.

That’s our take. What’s yours?

Of course! A single serve packet of water flavoring! Crystal Light promises to help on-the-go-women turn the water they need into ‘something beautiful’ (their words). A powder that will help a woman feel confident, playful, free and happy! We know of other powders that claim this sort of transformative power. But water flavoring? C’mon. This ad’s so filled with inauthentic blather we had to check to make sure it wasn’t written by Govenor Blagojevich himself.

That’s what we think. How about you?

The copy for this ad reads, “When I’m happy being me, I’m confident, playful, free, good to go.” Take your best guess below. Hint: It’s not what you’d expect your first guess to be.

We’ve been meaning to get to this confusing ad by Reddi-wip in celebration of Thanksgiving. But as usual, the poor holiday got lost in all the pre-Xmas hooplah. Reddi-wip’s proposition is that, even though delivered in a can, it’s made with real cream. Call us crazy, but when your goal is to remind people that you’re a dairy product and not made from say, corn oil, you don’t choose to celebrate Thanksgiving by spelling out your name in the kernals of an ear of corn. Pick the mighty pumpkin as your holiday reference. Or one of those pilgrim candles. But maize makes for a damn confusing message. We have no idea how agency and client could have ended up here. Do you?

This ad for Schmitt Sohne Wines suggest that you to go to your local wine store and ask for a little German. We did and it didn’t go well. We’re not saying there aren’t lots of uses for a little German fella around the house — stacking stones, organizing the pots and pans on the bottom shelves, whatever — but the woman in this ad has chosen him as her private bath-time companion. Of all the men she might fantasize to be with, she’s chosen this little wide-eyed character.

At our New Year’s Eve party, on the chance we were missing something, we showed this ad to a few woman we wouldn’t have minded sharing a bath with ourselves. It did not elicit a single giggle or smile. It did receive a few ‘eeew’s’ and a couple of off-color remarks questioning our own intentions for showing them the ad.

Which leads us to the conclusion that the idea is not only a bad pun, but a creepy, dumb execution of a bad pun.  

We hope that Schmitt Sohne does not intend for this goofy  little character to be its Yellow Tail. In this country selling a Reisling is dificult enough. Pegging it to a midget in lederhosen would be just plain silly, if it weren’t so creepy. 

That’s where we stand here in Creepy-Ville. What do you think? Post your thoughts below.