Drumroll please.....

WE ARE DONE!! The files are on the disk and everything is printed! We are finished with this project, aside from doing our actual oral that is. Who knew it would turn out this well!

I'm so proud of everything we acomplished while doing this project and for the way in which we did it. We worked so well in a group and got things done when we needed to. We also had lots of fun and did everything with enthusiasm and smiling faces.

So, this being my last post, I would just like to thank you all for being so incedible and working so hard. This has probably been one of the first projects that I feel like the work really was evenly spread out properly.

I love you three. ♥

So like they say in theatre, its time for the curtains to close on this project.

83 Days down and one to go...

(Yes I did just go on the Internet and count all the days since school started - and now I am tired :))

Apprehensive, carefree, excited, really confused... These are just some of the emotions I felt, going in to this project. I was nervous about my group members, since I had never been in a group with them and there is always that little "What if I end up doing all the work?..." looming over your conscious. The next thing you think about it is... "Haha we can do this the night before." Woah, was I WRONG about BOTH things.

Firstly, this has been by far the best group I have ever worked with. I enjoyed knowing that the work was equally spread and that for the first time in the history of... well in the history since I joined high school, this project was NOT done the night before (Yes, my parents are very proud). I just can't believe it went so fast. Seriously? 84 days later and all we get to give in is a disc? I do not feel that that justifies all the hard work we went through. Then again, there is this blog and it does showcase most of the stress and fun times we went through trying to impress the class with a few pictures of people smoking. And to think, smoking is not even a MORAL thing... I wish we had to do a project on cupcakes or rainbows... Now there is a happy topic. (Ms. L - There's an idea. Advertising in the COOKING careers. You will be fed AND we also get to be fed - now that's an easy A right there :) ).

So I think I'm meant to ask myself...
What did I learn from this project?

I learnt that advertising is a powerful tool.
It is persuasive, cunning and people will tell you whatever you want to hear in order to get what THEY want, what you GET is a whole different story.
I absolutely adored No Logo. Honestly (and apologies to Naomi Klein), I thought the book was going to be horrible, boring, not very useful and instead... IT OPENED MY EYES. I actually want to take it out at the library and read the entire book from cover to cover (We only had it for two days, so we only photocopied what we needed). But even from these extracts I feel attracted to each and every bit of information.
Here are a few of my favourite quotes SO FAR:

"The reasoning was that if a "prestige" brand like Marlboro, whose image had been carefully groomed, preened and enhanced with more than a billion advertising dollars, was desperate enough to compete with no-names, then clearly the whole concept of branding had lost its currency." (Ch.1 Page 12)

"Of course it's a classic symptom of teenage narcissism to believe that the end of history coincides exactly with your arrival on earth. Almost every angst-ridden, Camus-reading seventeen-year-old girl finds her own groove eventually." (Ch.3 Page 63)

"...peer pressure emerged as a powerful market force..." (Ch.3 Page 68)

Marshall McLuhan

"When a thing is current, it creates currency." (Ch. 3 Page 71)

And the more I read, the more intrigued I became. I honestly think my calling is Marketing and Advertising... The mind thought behind advertising absolutely baffles me. But then again, I tend to baffle MYSELF with a few of the ideas which tend to cross my mind.

I also realized the seriously bad effects smoking had on people because of the adverts created in the past century before it got banned. It has left millions of people with health problems and even with today's medication and methods, people cannot be fully cured. What probably hurts me the most is that my parents smoke,a few of my family members smoke and their friends smoke... The list goes on. These people KNOW what is happening to their lungs and general health status but it does not cause them to stop. I think I would like to design a video which really stops people and makes them THINK about what that little white and brown object is really doing to them.

On a lighter note, Tarryn, Nina and Kim... Thank-you. This project was a tough one and we really bit the bullet hard. I am very proud of the finished product and to think, from website-designing to sleepovers to laughing hysterically at the way Tarryn talks to her cat... We are done. Finally. :)

So this is it.
The light at the end of the tunnel... School is the metaphorical light and oh shoot, we are not dead. It's worse than that; we are entering Term 2 of Grade 11. Exams, more projects which are meant to "enlighten us" and "make us grow as people" and the endless amount of tears (Something tells me, I'm not alone).

Farewell amazing marks, Hello June/July exams.
And please, oh please - be kind.

For more drama and suspense catch me on my next blog: I'm-scared-of-Grade-11-and-this-maths-makes-no-sense.
Till then Goodbye.

Flip, I should be a news reporter :)
And over to Kim for the weather...
Lol

Finally!

This is the very last thing I have to do for this project. Post this entry!

Phew! I finished my oral! and i am very pleased with all of the work we've produced :) :) :)
Thanks Jade, Nina and Tarryn for being a great group and making this project the fun experience i has been.

Now all we have to do is present it to the class! :D I have a feeling we'll do perfectly amazing :)

So This Is IT!

I am officially done with the putting together of this English Project.

All research is done. My oral is written. My part of the PowerPoint presentation is complete. We have made our Radio and our TV ads. I have finished my Magazine advert. I have blogged more than 10 times. I'm done! Yes I am really done!

... Well except for actually doing my oral and uploading all our progress onto the various websites. But none of that matters. Why? BECAUSE ALL THE HARD WORK IS DONE! Done, done, done! Finished. Klaar. Hahaha!

This is quite a dramatic exit, but, after all, our hours and hours of hard work are over. We have finished multiple packets of Zoo Biscuits, my garden has hoards of compost thanks to all the tea we drank, my Bafana Bafana t-shirt is full of leaves from our TV advert and my computer has multiple files inside files inside files from all the information we have gathered and Word Documents we have created! I think that all that deserves a rather dramatic exit, don't you? :)

I must say though, this has been a rather interesting project. A lot of work, but a lot of interesting work - once you get motivated enough to actually do the work! I must say though, it would have been a lot harder to do had everyone not been involved to the extent they all were. It made group work bearable - having a group worth working with! (No offense to previous groups I have been in)

An interesting, worth while experience. :)

So, this is goodbye ... and good luck?? I don't think that saying applies here. But, all the same, thank you for this experience Wynberg Girls' High School, please never make us do this sort of project ever again!

Smoking Kills - my Magazine Advert

This is my fabulous advert! Ok maybe not so great, but the message I was trying to get accross was that if you smoke your life will never be as healthy as someone who doesn't smoke. It's a horrible habit that really damages your body - so much so that it can kill you. This is no one's idea of fun. So, why not try and quit smoking. If you need help, call Smokers Anonymous South Africa (SA squared), they can offer you the help you need to quit your addiction and become your former, healthy self.

Finishing touches

At the beginning of this project, back in February (or January), I'm sure it was not only me who was a little hesitant. Presentation, oral, letter, analysis, adverts, BLOGS, the list was endless! So much work to do and to be very honest, lots of time to do it in! Naturally though, knowing us busy teenagers, we started out eagerly with our letters, then having a sleepover. Soon the weeks were flying past at an unnatural rate. Science expo, tests, orals, projects, productions, auditions and somewhere in between we found time to sleep too. Before we knew it, the final weeks were approaching.

So, we arranged time to meet and discuss what was left to be done. It seemed very daunting at first but suddenly when we sat at Tarryn's house on Wednesday eating Zoo biscuits and drinking tea, everything seemed like it would be fine. So we did some lots of research and we put our brains together and ended up coming up with such a marvellous ad campaign! After finishing our radio advert including a very powerful quote as well as a fun girl band we moved onto our commercial. 'Kick Smoking in the Butt' was soon the phrase on all of our lips, as well as 'Smokers' Anonymous South Africa'. With the help of a catchy ring tone and some fun outfits, the filming of our commercial seemed to be somewhat effortless. It came together so well! A cup of cappuccino later, I had finished the editing and we were ready to tick something else off of our list. Now all that was left was our presentation and our individual adverts.

When deciding on what to do for my advert I thought... "What would make me not want to smoke?" (Not that I do) Eventually, while walking past my grandpa's room I decided that knowing the side effects of smoking is what really puts me off. So I busily set to work making my advert. One more thing to tick off the list!

For the oral, my job was to give examples of different ad campaigns from our chosen time period. More specifically, I was focusing on the television commercials. So I found my top three, one from each decade, and analysed them. Oral: tick!

Suddenly, the work load doesn't seem so bad! Our project is nearly done.

As soon as I receive two more e-mails I can write our project to disk and our project will be complete!

Thank you all for working so hard and for everybody's contribution to the project. It really has turned out brilliantly! :)

I can see the finish ...

I can't believe it ... after hours and hours of hard work we are almost done! Our last meeting is over so now it's down to us to each sort out what we need to do individually and compile our efforts over the fabulous internet - quite frankly I don't know what I would do in my life without the internet. What did people do before this amazing invention graced humans with its presence? Haha!

But seriously ... without the internet our lives would be so much harder and there would be NO space for last minute work! A lot of students would have a lot of very large problems!

Back to this project though, we are all finishing off everything - mostly the PowerPoint, then Nina is putting all our hard work onto a disk and we are A for Away! :)

Well Done girls! We are almost there, almost at the finish line! :)

(Can I get a Whoop-whoop!)