I had a plan

I had a plan. It went as follows:

 1. Go back to school

2. Graduate from school

3. Find a job

You all may be familiar with the saying, “We make a plan and God laughs at us.” So was the case with me and my plan. This week, I went back to work full-time. I know, I know. Being swamped with two IMC classes right now, starting a new job was definitely NOT a part of the plan. However, some opportunities are just too good to pass up. With my new position as a communications specialist for WVU Healthcare, I was able to return to the office where I previously worked—before I decided to put my career on hold when my daughter was born.

The decision to leave work is so terribly difficult, as I’m sure you other stay-at-home moms and dads can attest to. When I decided to leave my job three years ago, I often wondered if I’d ever be able to return to work. Would my skills be outdated? What would the job market be like? Would I ever find something? And, given everything that’s happened with the economy in the last few years, these concerns are very valid. Three years ago, I never would’ve dreamed that I’d be able to return to work full-time and be in a better position than I was when I left. I always figured that taking time off would mean that I’d be a step behind everyone else. Let me just tell you that’s not true. I am returning to work in a better position than when I left three years ago, and the IMC program has been instrumental in helping me get here. So, when you are swamped with discussion posts and readings and papers and are asking yourselves if it’s all worth it, know that the answer is yes. Yes, it is absolutely worth it. 😀

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Super Bowl (commercial) recap

Well, since I would prefer not to discuss the outcome of the actual football game (sniffle sniffle), how about we discuss something more interesting and something that actually pertains to IMC—Super Bowl commercials! 🙂

Here is a link to all of the commercials, in case you missed any:

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl-commercials?icampaign=VG_635_SB45_commercials

My favorites:

• All of the Doritos commercials (but the finger one was my favorite)
• The VW Force (Passat) and VW Bug commercials
• The Pepsi Max girlfriend commercial

Worst Commercials:

• The Homeaway “Test Baby”—Seriously, who thought that was a good idea? This commercial is already receiving a ton of criticism. It’s just creepy.
• Budweiser—Usually the Clydesdales commercials are among my favorites, but I thought this year’s effort was pretty lame.
• Groupon—I just didn’t get those.

Maybe it’s just because I’m currently enrolled in Cause Marketing, but did anyone else notice the abundance of green-themed commercials this year? At what point do all of these green commercials start to blend together? Or is that already happening?

In light of some of the discussions I’ve been having in my Mobile Marketing class, it was fun to see the different approaches to the iPhone commercials—the one from AT&T and the one from Verizon.

Here is a link to the results of how the ads ranked among viewers:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2011-02-07-2011-ad-meter-chart_N.htm

What were your favorite commercials? Which were your least favorites? Did any of you watch any of the ads prior to the Super Bowl online or through social media? Please discuss. 🙂

Mr. Yuk is mean…Mr. Yuk is green…

Happy Friday, IMC friends!

Whew, what a hectic week!  I’m so glad it’s Friday—even though my plans for tonight are going to have to include catching up on my discussion posts from both my classes.

My IMC 624 – Cause Marketing class discussion has been a lot of fun this week. We’ve been talking about social marketing campaigns, and this week’s question asked us to describe and discuss some of the more memorable campaigns that had an impact on us growing up. A lot of my classmates mentioned the Click-it-or-Ticket campaign, McGruff the Crime Dog, and pretty much everyone recalled the D.A.R.E. drug education program. This week’s lesson couldn’t have been timelier for me, as my 11-year-old niece just graduated from the D.A.R.E. program at her school this week—and won first place in an essay contest about the dangers of drugs [insert proud aunt moment here]. Congrats, Megan! 🙂

The campaign that I wrote about was the Mr. Yuk poison prevention campaign—that is actually still ongoing. Do you remember those green Mr. Yuk stickers?

Or how about this creepy video?

The discussion in my IMC 629 – Mobile Marketing class this has also been very interesting and eye-opening. We’ve been talking about mobile privacy issues—a very timely topic, as Apple was recently hit with a lawsuit accusing the company of violating privacy laws by allowing ad networks to access users’ personal information. The Wall Street Journal recently reported its findings on its investigation into mobile apps, reporting that “an examination of 101 popular smartphone ‘apps’… showed that 56 transmitted the phone’s unique device ID to other companies without users’ awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone’s location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders.” A few of the leading offenders happened to be apps that are currently on my iPhone—and ones that I use almost daily, Pandora and The Weather Channel. Personally, I never would have guessed that third parties would be getting access to my personal information through my Weather Channel app, and, honestly, that’s a little scary.

What about you guys? Are you concerned with privacy on your mobile phone?

Oh, and one more thing … HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!!! 😀