Nike Ad

I just love the Ad Copy of this:




You were born a daughter.
You looked up to your mother.
You looked up to your father.
You looked up at everyone.

You wanted to be a princess.
You thought you were a princess.

You wanted to own a horse.
You wanted to be a horse.
You wanted your brother to be a horse.

You wanted to wear pink.
You never wanted to wear pink.

You wanted to be a Veterinarian.
You wanted to be President.
You wanted to be the President’s Veterinarian.

You were picked last for the team.
You were the best one on the team.
You refused to be on the team.

You wanted to be good in algebra.
You hid during algebra.

You wanted the boys to notice you.
You were afraid the boys would notice you.

You started to get acne.
You started to get breasts.
You started to get acne that was bigger than your breasts.

You wouldn’t wear a bra.
You couldn’t wait to wear a bra.
You couldn’t fit into a bra.

You didn’t like the way you looked.
You didn’t like the way your parents looked.

You didn’t want to grow up.

You had your first best friend.
You had your first date.
You had your second best friend.
You had your second first date.

You spent hours on the telephone.

You got kissed.
You got to kiss back.

You went to the prom.
You didn’t go to the prom.
You went to the prom with the wrong person.

You spent hours on the telephone.

You fell in love.
You fell in love.
You fell in love.

You lost your best friend.
You lost your other best friend.
You really fell in love.

You became a steady girlfriend.
You became a significant other.

YOU BECAME SIGNIFICANT TO YOURSELF.

Sooner or later, you start taking yourself seriously. You know when you need a break. You know when you need a rest. You know what to get worked up about and what to get rid of. And you know when it’s time to take care of yourself, for yourself. To do something that makes you stronger, faster, more complete.

Because you know it’s never too late to have a life. And never too late to change one.

JUST DO IT



I think this ad (for Nike if you didn't get that by the "just do it") does a great job of capturing the awkwardness of growing up in a single page.
As women and as young adults it's so easy to get caught up in what everyone else wants us to do and where we need to be and what's "expected" of us that we forget to just be who we are, and do what we need to do for ourselves.

it makes me smile. I may print it out and hang it in my office.



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G.R.E.EN. [Girls Really Excel at ENgineering]

If you knew how many times my boss sent this back asking for "just one more change" you'd shake your head in dismay:

http://girlscoutshh.org/admin/articles/GSHH__IBM_May_7th_Event.pdf

It's a flyer for a day of G.R.E.EN. or, Girls Really Excel at Engineering. It's an awesome partnership between GSHH and IBM to teach girls "who were 10, are 10, or are going to be 10 at any point in the calendar year" (don't ask me; i didn't set the age requirement).  It's actually pretty phenomenal, but you can read so I won't bore you by explaining it here too.

Girl Scout Ads

My boss at GSHH recently asked me to throw together a few 1-page flyer-ads to recruit volunteers for Girl Scouts. She wanted them to reach out to a variety of different audiences, and to be very vague in what we were asking from volunteers - not in that we wanted them to be confused, but in the idea that they could have control over how they got involved.

This first one, would be for a college activities fair.  A lot of colleges have these at the begining of every semester. Since many clubs also require community service or volunteer hours from their participants, I thought it would be good to get Girl Scouts in their heads. I made this mock flyer for Marist because it is where I go to school and I knew which clubs require hours:

This next flyer was also created for college-aged women.  It focuses on the zany-side of life and those unique quirks that make every person an individual. So many people go through college trying to convince others that they're diffeernt from the crowd, so I tried to embrace those seldom-recognized talents and put them in the spot light.  It asks college-aged girls to volunteer for specialized programs in their interest area:

This third one is for current Girl Scouts who have just completed their Gold Award and are about to graduate High School. Many of them have been in Girl Scouts for ten or more years at this point and are sad to see it go. As they are about to go through so many changes in their life, Girl Scouts could be an anchor of similiarity for them.  They now have the opportunity to teach what they've learned to the next generation of scouts.  It would be handed out at the Gold Award ceremony:

I really like this one. That's probably because those are my hands and my shoe adorning the flyer, and my words being spoken in the print.  I took one tiny aspect of Girl Scouts - learning how to light a match - and tried to change it to encompass the entire growing and leadership process a girl goes through in Girl Scouts. I tried to be edgy in the headline to attract readers - "explosives of death" doesn't usually make you think of Girl Scouts (and I'm not sure if the director will approve this flyer because of it), but it does make you stop and keep reading (at least I hope so). In this one, I reached out to adults emploring them to teach girls what they know by giving them an example of how one skill leads to another and can even lead to a life-long hobby or skill to brag about. (And yes, I do light one-match fires on the regular. And yes, I became a pro and Girl Scout camp.)

The last two ads I created are in the same vein.  They are both addressed to adults in the community and asking them to become volunteers (mostly troop leaders).  They are written from the perspective of an older Girl Scout (9th or 10th grade) and a younger Girl Scout (4th or 5th grade) asking for role models. The whole idea started when I saw the image of the young girl blowing the dandelion on creativecommons.org and knew i had to incorporate it somehow.  It grew from there:

Skullcandy Commercial - Green Screen

The following video is a commerical I made with Hillary Sterling, Jaime Spinelli, and Taylor Crichton (The Black Ninjas Advertising Team) for our Broadcast Commerical class. The task was to create a 30 second ad for any product and to utilize a green screen.

 It was the first time any of us had used a green screen, and there are definitely improvements that could be made. We did not sufficiently light the background, not our main talent.  However, we are reasonably happy with the way the final product looks for a first attempt.

[We do not own the rights to any of the music included]

Credits: Lupe Fiasco "The Show Goes On" ; Veggie Tales : "Theme Song"

Starring: Dan Connor

Extras:

 Jack Famiglio

 Emily Callahan

 Sarah Parsloe

 Joe Maschak

 Billy Berard

 Jen Sommer

 Marissa Ryan.

Directed by: Amanda Benton, Hillary Sterling, Jaime Spinelli and Taylor Crichton

Camera operators: Amanda Benton and Hillary Sterling

Edited by: Amanda Benton, with creative input from rest of team

*Special thanks to Billy Berard for allowing us to use his wheel chair as a dolly. We couldn't have captured as dynamic footage without it.*

Published in Currents

Working for the Girl Scouts is a many layered and very dynamic job - every day it's something new. Sometimes it has little to do with my job description and even less to do with my major, but I have to say I enjoy the positive impact I can have on the next generation of young women.

The other day my boss, the bold and charismatic Octavia, came to me in a flutter because somehow the deadline for the next issue of Currents (our monthly magazine) was in 2 hours, and there was very little written for it. So, under a time pressure, I had my first chance at writing for publication that was not school owned and run.  They accepted and ran all of three of my articles in this month's issue.

Below you will find two of those articles. The first article, is on an upcoming event. The second, on reasons you should go to camp. The third, on ways Journeys (these new awesome options for girls) can help them prepare to earn their Gold Award, I will post at a later point in time, but due to it's length, deserves a post of it's own.



Women in Technology — A Cooperative Project with IBM for Cadettes and Seniors    

“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.” – Roseanne Barr 

 

Everyone knows that despite the progress in women’s rights over the  last century, women still, on average, make only 75% of what men make with the same job titles. IBM is one company that has looked this statistic in the face and started to tear it down. We are happy to announce that the IBM Corporation and Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson (GSHH) are co-hosting a day of Women in Technology for girls in grades 7 and older on Thursday, April 14, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the IBM facility in Fishkill. The fee is $10 per girl.  A pizza dinner is included.    

At IBM, women have been making contributions to the advancement of information technology for almost as long as the company has been in existence. Where many companies proudly date their affirmative action    
programs to the 1970s, IBM has been creating meaningful roles for female employees since the 1930s.
   
Girl Scouting is committed to building leaders of tomorrow who will stand as equals. Today, nearly 80% of all
women business owners were once Girl Scouts. Judy Scholefield, a current leader, reflects, “When you talk about the difference that you can make in a girl’s life…we gave our Girl Scouts opportunities that they will remember forever.”

This GSHH-IBM sponsored day of learning, exploration, and empowerment will find Girl Scouts and women from IBM enjoying an informative and fun-filled afternoon exploring the world of technology and the ways a woman can build a career in it. The girls will work in teams with IBM Think Pads to make presentations to the entire group on various topics such as “Computers in Everyday Life” and “Desktop Publishing.”

Girls can register on-line or by mail. (See the CONNECTIONS registration information on the GSHH website.)    

SUMMER CAMP: Girls, Sign Up Now for a Priceless Experience!

Registration for summer camp 2011 is in full swing! This year there are six sessions of day and resident camp
being offered for girls between the ages of 5 and 17. You won’t want to miss your chance to have the summer of a lifetime, so be sure to register soon!

Why should you go to camp? Here are five good reasons:

• Meeting positive role models: Have you ever seen the unbelievable energy of a camp counselor? They just love watercolors, and archery, and singing, and climbing, and performing – and they want to share all their time and talent with you

• Learn new skills in a supportive and friendly environment: Counselors want you to secure the harness, trust them, and rappel backwards off the 80-foot cliff! Scary? Yes! The satisfaction you’ll receive from trying something outside of yourcomfort level? Priceless!

• Making life-long friends: Meet people from different schools,communities and cultures. Expand your horizons – there are a lot more people in the world then the ones in your core group of friends, and a lot of them are pretty amazing.

• Practice important life skills: Camp is all about looking at theworld with imagination. You’ll have the opportunity to get creative and have fun with it, and also to plan a lot of your own activities. You’ll learn to think outside the box through team-building challenges and gain the independence and confidence of being able to stay somewhere by yourself. And hey, future employers and college admission counselors love that.

• It’s fun!: Where else will you get to spend all day every day surrounded by a hundred or more other girls whose main goal is to have a good time? Activities include swimming, boating, archery, arts and crafts, campfires, games, special events, ropes courses, and many others specific to your program of choice.

Enrolling in a Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson camp is an experience you will remember for a lifetime. They offer some of the most rewarding summer activities you can imagine! And tell your mom — all of our GSHH camps are accredited by the American Camp Association.