Sandbox Farewell Party

I have a strong tendency to blog about things that are looooooong over....but just because something is overdue, don’t make it less worthy of a Charmaine-friendly blog post. 

A few weeks ago my friends Kimiya, Lindsay, Maria, and I went to the final Sandbox magazine party. For those of you who don’t know, Sandbox in a local magazine about fashion and culture, and was started as a Creative Communications project at Red River College. They carried their magazine for two really successful years and have recently decided to call it quits. I’ve always wanted to go to one of their parties but it never seemed to be good timing for me, so I made sure I put time aside to go to their very last one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Let me tell you, it was a ton of fun. The room was packed with people who all shared a love of the magazine and its creators. There were drinks, dancing, live bands, singer/songwriter Flo, and so much excitement. Here are some pictures I took from the shindig. 

Super Plate? Super Mug? No no, Super BOWL

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl. I find it mildly offensive that the Super Bowl has been around for years, but they have yet to make a Super Plate, or a Super Mug. Why discriminate against those dishes, why is the “bowl” so special?

I considered watching at least part of it, so I can watch the commercials. In advertising class we spent a couple of days talking about the commercials that air during the Super Bowl, how much people pay for them, and how people found it odd that this year they released some of these commercials early. I learned that aside from the hockey game? Baseball game? Oh wait, the football game! I learned that aside from watching to FOOTBALL game, a lot of viewers watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials.

This didn’t quite make sense for me, but after watching a few of the commercials in class, I realized I too would have enjoyed watching them during the game. I tried to watch, I really did. But my attention span for sports isn’t very long, and the commercials I did manage to catch, were mostly for CTV. I initiated a Glee marathon instead. But I did take the effort to YouTube some of the ones people are talking about. Here are three of my favourites...

 You can't go wrong with the combination of M&Ms and LMFAO

Now I know what you're thinking. The whole vampire thing has been done to death, (like that punn?) but I still like this commercial. At least the people at creative team at Audi knows what's trendy. So what do you say? Does this commercial make you want to join team Audi? 

Does it make sense? No. Is it funny because there's kids in it? Yes.

Wonderful Wedding Show, 2012

I know it’s long overdue, but I wanted to share the time I spent at this year’s Wonderful Wedding Show that I went to on January 22^nd. No, I’m not engaged. No, I don’t have a boyfriend. And yes, I’m as single as they come. Shall we move on? 

At first I was going to write an article about the event, but someone snatched that story up before I could. But I was excited to go so I grabbed my friends Kayla, and Michal and we all had a great time. The fashion show was really enjoyable to watch, even though we didn’t get there early enough I grab a seat. And all of the display tables were absolutely gorgeous. Here are some of my favourites...

This is what you will see at Charmaine's wedding!

Not only will I be sporting the hot pink and bling at my wedding with Zac Efron, my fiance and I will be making our grand entrance in-->

As for my cake?

So the bulk of my wedding is pretty much planned out. Now, for Zac to propose to find me a fella.

The wedding show was a blast and I'll definitely be going back next year, engaged or not. In the mean time, I leave you with this fun photo!

Batman

The bulk of this semester seems to be surfacing around a ton of group work. Right now I’m a part of four different groups for different classes. I have a group for producing a radio intro, a group for our magazine project, a group for creating a radio drama, and a group that has to shoot our very own infomercial. As soon as one group project ends, another begins. 

One of the strengths I claim to have on my resume and during interviews, is that I work well with others and that I have a strong ability to problem solve, which I hold to be true…most of the time.

I feel that when a group I’m apart of is faced with a problem or some sort of roadblock, that I can usually find a way to get us out of the jam, or at least contribute a list of ideas to help along the problem solving process. However, with all of the group work we’ve been doing this month, this doesn’t appear to be the case, at least not as often as I’d like it to be. 

Why?

It’s easy to come up with solutions to a problem that’s prevalent in a group, but what do you do when you’re the only person who recognizes something as problematic?  I don’t want to be rude and push a “solution” to a problem no one believes to be there, but at the same time, I want to I don’t to be penalized for an issue that could have been avoided early on.

In public relations we learn the importance of detecting potential problems before they turn into real issues down the road. So I’m not sure if I’m using my PR brain, if I’m over analyzing things, or if I just want to jump at the chance to be a hero. Batman, not Superman….blue, yellow, and red don’t mix but damn, I look good in black.  

Undressed Survey

Hello Folks!

Some fellow CreCommers and I are creating a magaine called Undressed. 

Undressed explores the fresh, the fearless and the frisky sides of sexuality in Winnipeg. Right now we're conducting a survey to learn more about our target market and what they'd be looking for in this type of magazine.

If you could take 30 seconds to fill out our survey that would be fantastic: http://apps.facebook.com/my-surveys/d53z0trq

A steamier survey is soon to follow...

Thanks guys and dolls!

Bloggin Madness

Alright folks, Charmaine is changing her blog once again. My problem is I have so many different interests and it’s hard trying to have one area of focus. In September I had to start a blog as a part of my public relations class. We were asked to choose a topic and focus our blog around it. I sat there for at least half an hour trying to think about what my topic should be, and decided that a blog dedicated to starting my own clothing line (something I’ve wanted to do just for kicks) would do for the time being. After I had a few mishaps with my sewing machine, I switched my focus to craft-like things in general. Don’t get me wrong, I would still love to work on designing clothes as a hobby, and I’m definitely going to keep crafting. But because I’m learning and doing SO many different and interesting things within the Creative Communications program at Red River, I figured it was time to create an outlet where I can share what I’ve learned, what I’m still learning, and what I’ve accomplished so far. I’ll also be talking about and examining the different communications strategies/techniques used out there strike my interest. 

Thanks for sticking with me throughout my blogging journey ladies and gents. Comments and new followers are always welcome.

P.S. If you're still interested in crafting, designing clothes as a hobby, or any other shenanigans I may be up to, check out my other blog: What Can I Say?

PR Moment- Tampon Shortage

A couple of months ago, Johnson & Johnson had a shortage of O.B. tampons across Canada and the United States and consumers were not pleased. There are a lot of people out there who when they find a product they like, they always stick to that brand and refuse to try anything new. A lot of people started selling thier boxes of O.B. tampons on ebay and other buying and selling sites, and boxes of tampons were purchased for as much as...wait for it...$90! I don't know about you, but when I have to $10 on a box of tampons I start thinking about all of the other things I'd rather be spending my money on.

The thing I find the most interesting about this whole scenario, is how the company chose to handle this problem. They issued a bunch of coupons to consumers to recieve free boxes of tampons when they are back on the shelves, but the thing that interested me is they way they formed their apology. If you follow this link http://obtampons.ca/apology , it will take you to a page where they ask you to type in your first name. Then a few seconds later, a video of a man playing piano starts to play, and he sings and spells out your name (in clever red roses) in a heartfelt apology. It's quite impressive I must say. Johnson & Johnson, you are something crafty!