After today, we’ll be 6 for 174! That’s because today is One Day Without Shoes and lali is doing our part to spread awareness that millions of children live without proper footwear, exposing them to injury and disease every day.
Clearly we’re a fan of the Toms brand, enjoy the four pairs of Toms shoes we own between the two of us, and love the way they’ve merged capitalism with conscience. We were even willing to scurry shoeless through the kitchens at the risk of stern reprimand! http://www.flickr.com/photos/lscribbly/7066067135/in/photostream
And we’re also super excited to welcome them to the neighborhood. They recently joined our cool-companies-with-warehouse-offices-in-Playa-del-Rey club, and now basically share Chiat’s parking lot (that’s them at the end).
PS to our neighbors: if you’re reading this, we’re still anxiously awaiting a tour and chance to go down the twisty slide we can see from outside your window while we’re parking our cars. Also, we should collaborate on some ads sometime, don’t you think?
So thanks, Toms, for giving us a reason to concept shoeless other than our usual love of comfort and bare feet. We hope lots of kids have brighter futures after today.
So lali just got back from a shoot! You’ll find out all the juicy details about who and what and with whom we were shooting later. But for now, just know that we went to the lovely hipster city of Portland to shoot it!
So, for a rainy week in March, lali presents:
Portlalia.
Two ad girls trying to make it in a city of hipsters.
Ahh, city of hipsters. All in all, Portland was a town with good food, nice people and lots of rain. We can’t wait to go back in a month and give you another Portlalia update!
So last week, we finished a Chiat culture video for a new business pitch. We can’t share it, or really talk about it, because just like L.A. Confidential, new business pitches are always off the record, super QT, and very hush hush.
Conveniently, however, Refinery 29 decided at the same time to do an article about the Chiat Day offices. So instead of share our video, we can share their article!
Tour L.A.’s Most Outrageous Office Space & Peep Some Killer Style
If Don Draper could hop in a Delorean, he’d park it in front of TBWA\Chiat\Day’s eff-the-establishment office space in Playa Vista. Home to the whiz kids behind America’s most prolific ads (Apple’s splashy neon billboards, the Energizer Bunny, and Taco Bell’s chihuahua), the radically modern building designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects serves as fertile breeding ground for the quick-witted tone of the unconventional agency.
It makes us super proud to work in such a cool place. You can always tell when someone is new to this building – because they can’t stop staring up down and all-around. It also makes ME super proud that my sister interned at Clive Wilkinson Architects while she was still in school. Making that video and seeing this article remind us that industry we work in and the company we work at are just super, super cool. Here’s to being a Chiat Pirate!
And check out a few of the photos from the article:
There’s a joke I’ve heard more than once, that you’re supposed to start all your scripts with “open on the French Riviera” or weave some serengeti animals into your plotline. CDs with a few more years under their belts than lali tell tales of the days, pre Sarbanes–Oxlely when ad men would spend ungodly amounts of money on advertising boondoggles, getting flown around the world to snap a picture of a car or whatever.
These days, ad people take budgets and regulations quite seriously (ref: our anti-bribery training) so lali may never experience the true advertising boondoggle. BUT, every once in a while, we do get to take part in a fun production or two.
Last week, I had the privilege of art directing photoshoot in sunny San Francisco. There were only three downsides: I had to be apart from my better half la (insert super sad face), our hotel was almost in the Tenderloin, and my L.A. tendencies annoyed more than one local (oops!) but that wasn’t on purpose. But other than that, the shoot went amazingly well, and I didn’t take for granted — even for one minute — that being in production makes all the hard stuff about our jobs well worth it.
The rundown, in photos…
It wasn’t first class or anything, but A2 is almost as good as it gets on Southwest!
Our hotel was cute, in an eclectic “vintage San Fran meets Nat Geo” sort of way:
The studio was super cool:
And the commute was lovely:
We photographed LOTS of food:
ate food at famous places:
and drank a variety of cocktails:
All told, cutie pie account girl Brigette and I vistied over 23 fine establishments in our seven nights there, including the original Bigfoot Lodge, which we know and love from back home:
(As a result, Airbornes and coffee were consumed in mass quantities):
Craft Services was delish:
I multitasked many comps and conference calls on set, but took pictures of my glasses when I needed a little break:
The crew was so amazing/fun, a wrap party ice cream social was in order on the last day!
And just before it was time to leave, I managed a quick trip to the record store:
Also, I saw a cat on a leash:
At 16, when I decided I wanted to be an adgirl, I imagined a life in advertising might include (for example) an office with an indoor basketball court and fancy trips to awesome cities. Check! Here’s me as a bona fide adgirl:
xo, li
Note: If you’re my friend on Path or Instagram, you’ve already seen pretty much all these photos :)
It may already seem like a distant memory for many of you, but last week included a day society calls Valentine’s Day — a day set aside for nothing but love. And let me just tell you, there was nothing but love going around the lali world.
On a professional level, days and days of hard work paid off when we had a successful client meeting early last week. Nothing like a successful client meeting to up the endorphins and, as a result, love for one’s teammates. A sweet and ever-helpful account person on Kraft sent us this little love note:
I know everyone probably told you this, but your concepts yesterday were AMAZING. It is so nice to deal with, every step of the process, a concept that I actually believe in.
And no, the all-caps AMAZING was NOT added by lali for emphasis :)
On a personal/professional level, la and I delivered warm and fuzzy Valentines (complete with hologram sticker) to our coworkers: Justin Taylor‘s Valentine, as seen on his really sweet Path post:
On a personal level, la and her BF Grant had a mellow V-Day and some puppy love:
And I came across this heart on the sidewalk…
…on my way to the Venice farmer’s market to buy myself these ranunculus:
So when the all-nighters start back up again, the CDs shred our work, the clients kill things mid-production (please, god, no, not again, please) la and I will look back on this post and feel the love!
Hope you all enjoyed as many smiles, hugs, and delicious treats as we did…
There will be over 70 spots at the Super Bowl. 111 million viewers. An average of $3.5 million dollars per 30s spot. That’s a lot of money, a lot of eyeballs, and a lot of competition.
So there’s a new trend to get more eyeballs, more exposure & less competition (and more bang for your quite a bit of buck)… Releasing a teaser, or the whole spot, before Game Day.
It started with Volkswagon. Well, it really started with their Darth Vader spot last year, but continued this year with “The Bark Side.”
(I’ve never seen Star Wars, so it didn’t mean that much to me. But it seemed to be pretty popular… 10 million views anyone?)
And then the Dog Strikes Back, a commercial within a commercial responding to a commercial posted on YouTube:
We love this Audi spot. I’m a big fan of vampires, and la and I have concepted our fair share of “vampire” inspired car spots (when you work on cars for long enough, everything is game!). We’re kinda bummed Audi has now killed our dreams of ever having a car spot with vampires!
This super funny ones from our old CDs Chris & Margaret at Saatchi:
And a teaser from Hulu with “TV Star” Will Arnett:
But our most favorite one started with this – and created a maelstrom of guesses, conjectures and posts:
And then ended up as this:
Congratulations to my old partner Ariel Shukert for making what may be the most popular Super Bowl ad of 2012! Can’t wait to see it on television this Sunday!
Is it worth releasing your Super Bowl spot before the Super Bowl? I think the 6 million views, coverage on the Today Show, the Daily Show and countless blogs would say “yes.” But next year, when everyone releases their spot before the Super Bowl, will it still be worth it? We’ll see…
In the mean time, we’re looking forward to eating chips & dip, chicken wings, drinking beer and hanging out with friends while watching ALL the commercials on Sunday. Oh, and throwing in a little football watching too! Here’s to seeing what social media extensions people use on the spots to make it worth their high price tag…
So we weren’t going to cover this because we thought oh, maybe the shit people trend is kind of over (which is maybe shit people in advertising say) but then today, “Shit People Say in LA” came out and it was pretty funny (for those of us who live in LA… In-N-Out! No Parking! Coachella!!!)
Shit People Say in LA
So we thought this Industry we’d talk about the Shit People Say phenomena. And give a little lali best of the shit people say videos.
A month or so ago, “Shit Girls Say” strikes the internet. 10 million YouTube views. Every girl on Facebook shares the link – saying “I’m guilty,” and “That’s totally me” and “I’ve said all of those things.” And then shortly afterwards, “Shit Black Girls Say” hits the internet. And it may be even funnier than the original.
And then, more and more shit people say video hit the internet. It had that elusive quality that so many of our brands are looking for – the “make it go viral” quality.
What Shit Girls (and black girls and white girls to black girls and guys and black guys and gay guys and black gay guys and guys in LA and sorority girls and vegan girls and Pilipino mothers) Say did was say to girls everywhere: you’re part of a group. You belong to us. To the shit girls say club. And being in that club is funny.
And then everyone else wanted to say the shit that they say. It was like every race, gender, stereotype, location and subculture wanted to tell the world what made them (humorously) them. Get a video camera and some pretty good actors and a bit of clever editing, and you can be amused for hours. (I was!)
So this Industry Tuesday takes a look at the meme, the phenomena, the craze of… shit people say.
Shit Girls Say
Here’s the obligatory original. You’ve got to give originators Graydon Sheppard and Kyle Humphrey some credit. The formula was easily spoofable (and therefore super funny). The tone, mood and editing were very well done. And the replications have kept the repeated scene editing, the cross-dressing (sometimes, or at least costume-dressing), the flutter cuts and comedic timing.
And here’s where it went. Shit Black Girls Say
Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls
Shit Black Guys Say
Shit Gay Guys Say
And as the phenomena keeps going, the iterations have to be more specific. Shit Skiers Say
Shit Liza Minelli Says
Shit Girls Say to Gay Guys
Shit Asian Dads Say (I don’t know if it’s just my Asian grandfather, but this one was super hilarious)
It even got to a place where it wasn’t shit people say, but what they DON’T say!
Shit Nobody Says
Shit Guys Don’t Say
Shit Girls Don’t Say
We’ve even gotten to things like “Shit Gay Guys Say To Their Cats” and “Shit Girls Say To Their Personal Trainers” and “Stuff Black Church Girls Say” and “Shit People Say About Shit People Say Videos.” Wonder if the more specific they get, the more the charm will wear off? But for now, it’s going strong. Maybe we’ll make a “shit ze lalis say,” filmed by Antoine Bardot-Jacquet… Or maybe we’ll hold off on that one.
Want to fiesta for free? And watch people ages 50 and up dance the funky chicken? Have a one night stand? Or maybe meet your one life stand? Nope, it’s not an audition for Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s parts in Wedding Crashers. It’s from R/GA Creative Eric Schlakman and it’s a new app.
The app collects data from the open directories of personal wedding site providers and filters for nearby weddings, time, what to wear, how the couple met, etc. It even offers a social aspect, and challenges for users to compete against other crashers, upload photos and cross off items on checklists.
If lali didn’t have a very important birthday coming up this weekend, we might be crashing a wedding instead! Blog knows we like to dress up :)
Our job titles are “creatives.” We work in a “creative field.” And we work at an office where “creativity” is King with a capital K.
One of the best things about TBWA\Chiat\Day is that they not only support creativity in advertising, but creativity in everything. This place understands that in order to do inspired work, you’ve gotta be inspired. And while a basketball court in the office, cool DJs at lunch, concerts in the parking lot & “creative black tie” holiday parties sure do make for inspiration inside the office, Chiat also supports inspiration outside the office.
They will supplement classes that we take to continue to augment our creative skills. I took them up on that offer.
And just finished my travel photography class at Otis College of Art & Design.
Travel Photography
What makes a great travel photograph? Location, subject, time of day, light, shadow, and color, all play a role in creating a terrific, engaging and memorable image. This course combines location shooting, printing, written documentation, and class critique while covering topics ranging from color to black and white, digital or film, lens focal lengths, composition, and depth of field.
I shot a lot, shared a lot, learned a lot, and was creative outside the office!
And I included a page in my portfolio of Instagram photos (responsible for most of the photos on the lali blog!) because it’s the camera that’s always with me.
So… I wasn’t toooootally sure what a prostate was, and I was kind of afraid to google it at work in case something NSFW came up. But I know it has something to do with man parts, and I know Movember has something to do with growing mustaches to help keep prostates healthy. And lali cares about the health of all the awesome men in our lives.
What do mustaches have to do with prostates, you ask? According to the Movember website:
During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.
Hopefully the cute finger staches la has donated to the cause raise much awareness and many donations!!
Click here to see our previous contributions to the movement. Preview: la looks a little dirty and I look like a weird old man.
xo to all our favorite men out there… may your prostates remain healthy and vital!
li
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