Tagline

In my tagline, I have three pieces of advice from Jennifer Johnson, an adjunct professor at the U. I've taken classes in creative strategy and portfolio development from her, and she shattered my whole previous concept of creativity. I'm beyond fortunate to have had her input on my creative briefs and some of the ads I've put together.

The three pieces of advice she's given me come from the two semesters of class I've had with her. I don't know the story behind the first one, except that she tells us at least once a month not to cry at work. Taking her advice to heart, I've always sneaked to Vincent Hall (the math? science? engineering? building attached to the J-School) when I've needed to shed a few tears, because I never want to cry in Murphy Hall.

As far as being an elbow rather than an arm, she told us the story of working at Leo Burnett in Chicago in a building that looked over the Chicago River. She and a colleague would joke about seeing an arm in the river. But they realized that if they saw an arm in the river, they'd probably panic, grab the nearest phone, and call the police, because there very clearly was a body floating in the river and it had to be taken care of. But what if they saw an elbow floating in the river instead? The first reaction would be less, "Oh my god, it's an arm!" and more, "Wait...is that...is that an elbow? It kind of looks like an elbow!" And it would be a little ridiculous and a little bit funny. So don't fit the mold of what people already know at first glance. Throw them off and be endearing when you do it.

And finally, she told all the account planners to start a blog to talk about advertising and people and whatever we wanted to rant about. So here I am.