Ad Class #2 Icy-Hot

Got home about an hour ago from my ad class.

It was our second meeting which meant that our 1st assignment was due. For those of you who don't know how it works, I'll break it down.

• Each week you get an assignment, last week it was "Icy-Hot"
• We must create 3 print ads for the product
• The ads may (or may not) include a headline and visual and should include a tagline
• All of the students hang their work on the wall and the professors critique the ads
• Ads come down for many reasons (i.e. boring, cheezy, ridiculous, doesn't make sense)
• Best ads stay up on the wall

An ad that stays on the wall is an ad that might just be good enough for your Advertising Portfolio. Most times, even the ads that stick still need a lot of tweaking but at least you know you're on the right track. Big question is how did I do?

2 out of 3 of my ads stayed up!

Each week we put everything into creating these ads, knowing that our carefully crafted lines may very well spend the rest of their day's lining bird cages. It was great to have 2 stick for the 1st assignment.

Really its not that big of a deal. I mean, its not like I quit my job for this. Oh wait.

So yeah, it felt great. I thought that the professors did a great job reviewing work, pointing out whatwe need to avoid (sex jokes, before and after, etc.) as well as acknowledging the positives.

The number of different directions you can take the same product never ceases to amaze me. There were at least 25 students in class tonight and people always seem to come up with different stuff, very cool. What direction did I go? Check out my ads below (the lines, at least).

Ad #1
Headline: Walk the walk, then walk some more.
Tagline: Cool down, warm up. Keep going.

Ad #2
Headline: Desire may push you over the finish line. But will it carry you to the car?
Tagline: Cool down, warm up. Keep going.

I still need to explore what visual I'll use but overall I like the lines. I'm targeting athletes. Icy-Hot is a great product for weekend warriors and the goal of my campaign is to show that for those who push themselves, Icy-Hot is there to provide them with the pain relief to help keep them going.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, I plan to work on past ads I did for Brother Jimmy's, study Adobe Indesign tutorials and start researching next week's assignment: Black and Decker's Car Battery Charger.

In the last two days I put 32 miles on my little folding bike. Tonight I almost died twice, aside from that, it's been a blast. Wow, it's 2:30am, and I'm tired so good night. Let me know what you think of the lines I wrote for Icy-Hot (after some positive feedback from award winning industry folk, I can take a little criticism).

joeyz101
http://twitter.com/joeyz101