A message from the Dalai Lama for the New Year

Here are some words of advice from the Dalai Lama for 2006.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs

a. Respect for self
b. Respect for others
c. Responsibility for all of your actions

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

The Highlights of 2005

Here is an oldie but a goodie to start things off for the day.

Creative Wonders blog link

2005 is coming to an end. It has been an eventful year here at Creative Wonders.

We started up the 'Pickin is Easy' campaign for Cottonwood Mall, and it was a success. We made three television ads for the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and once they launched, drew in a full house for the open house on November 29th. We were able to get the public service announcement for the alarms for the deaf played on CTV, CBC, and Global (and they should be running now). We won three Frankie awards for our Pharmasave Live Well Campaign. Not to mention we survived two floods. In 2005 Tracy Ho joined us as a graphic designer, and now I've been here for a year as well.
There has been a lot of changes, trials and tribulations, and all in all the future looks bright for 2006.

I'd like to thank my readers for showing an interest in this blog for the last year. I am Always open for suggestions, comments and flattery. Where would you like to see this blog go in 2006?

Advertising as Bait

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Coming from a typical Canadian family, we carried on with a mishmash of traditional Western celebrations tracing back to 4 separate cultures: tortierre (French), vinetarta (Icelandic), turkey (English) and whisky (Irish) as well as engaging in several bizarre rituals such as cutting down a tree and planting it in our living room, decorating it and placing gifts under it. My parents gave me a tent and a new fishing rod, as well as several shiny new lures. My uncle and aunt gave me a great book about advertising in the 50s. Back then, the best copywriters were the sons of preachers, strangely enough. There are a few alarming ads depicting little babies looking sadly up with the copy, "Before you scold me mom, light up a Marlboro". There were ads for Camel that made 'sure you never feel over-smoked' and ads for booze to make you 'the life of any party'. The whole book is such an interesting statement and yet mere cultural mirror of the time. The ads portray an ideal. People are attracted to their own ideals. It draws them in. Envy could be argued to be the root of attraction. Being slighlty obsessed with advertising, I couldn't help but make the parallels between the lures and the book. Essentially, that is our job, to make the shiny bait that catches someones attention and hooks them into a new perspective. The ethics of how this is done now, as opposed to the 50s is a statement of the times. We live now in arguably more enlightened times.