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!)

Got a Clue?

Remember when I published a post saying that I had a great idea for my individual advert which included my Cluedo board game? Well here it is ladies and gentlemen... The final product! :D

For this part of the project, I felt like getting a little bit creative! So I grabbed my camera and made my own little photography studio... In my kitchen :D

Tools Required:

1. Cluedo board game, with the little people and dice that come with it.
2. Camera
3. A couple of cigarettes and a lighter (I had adult supervision with this part, I promise)

Method:

1. Set the setting :) Layout board game, put Miss Scarlet on her face in the ballroom, and place the dice and case file envelope in the ballroom too to set the mood of one taking chances with ones life and the also to make it clear that the advert is a sort of parody of Cluedo.
2. The key ingredient: Place two burning cigarettes in ballroom.
   
3. Take a photograph of the crime scene
4. Edit the photo so that it becomes an advert

The End Result: A message that leaves an impact (I hope!) - Got a Clue? Smoking Kills!

This was second to filming the Charlies Angels TV advert on the top-awesome-parts-of-making-this-English-project list :) I really had fun with this.

Coming to the end of this project, I realise that a lot of making this project happen was fun. From procrastinating at sleepovers, making radio advertisements with fake bands ("Hi we're the Parlotines"), eating Zoo Biscuits and getting addicted to Rooibos tea, to dressing as a giant cigarette and getting kicked in the butt ;), cramming in the many blogs, and really discovering how useful our Blackberry cellphones are when it comes to keeping organised! Looking at all of this, I can truly say that this was one of the most fun projects I've worked on. And it's definitely thanks to our crazy group. Tarryn, Nina, Jade :) You guys are awesome.

Sigh, it's good to know that this project is nearly out of the way though. I'm looking forward to having finished presenting our PowerPoint presentation so we can have a chance to relax :)

I think that as a group we have created a great campaign against smoking and that this project will be a success :)

Our television commercial :)

After an hour of uploading, it is here!

The Commecial is DONE!

Finally after hours of filming and editing, our television commercial is perfected! We chose to advertise 'Smokers' Anonymous South Africa' in association with the 'Kick Smoking in the Butt' campaign. With this advert we aim to get smokers' across the world to put down their cigarettes and, in doing so, live a healthier life. This commercial is fabulous girls! So now all we need to do for this section of the project is our individual magazine advertisements or flyers. I tried to upload the video but it didn't work. Sorry. :(

Look! Almost there :)

What we have completed:

1. Designed a campaign: SA Squared
2. Sent letter to companies: Got no reply (How mean)
3. Did a radio advertisement: "We could tell you that smoking kills, but you already knew that..."
4. Did our TV commercial: "Kicked smoking in the butt..."
5. Analysis of an advertisement: Done and dusted
6. My individual advertisement: Completed

Only thing left to do...

PowerPoint.

Lets break it done now.

Jade - Introduction

Nina and Tarryn - Analyzing those adverts from the 40's through to the 60's

Kim- Conclusion

After MUCH (much, much) hard work, it has finally come down to the final stretch of the weekend which lies ahead. The goal was to see this project 100% completed by Saturday and not a minute past midnight. 

We have decided to delegate different jobs to everyone to hopefully spread the FINAL amount of work and eventually end up with a small round disk withholding all our many hours of sweat and blood (more like tea and zoo biscuits) however, it can not go unnoticed that this has by far been the most challenging group project I have ever been given. I can't say that the whole grade feels the same way, but from what I have heard - the majority is on my side. Even now as I type this blog (there should be ten of them by now surely), my eyelids flutter from staring at the tiny words on the screen. 

As this is not my final blog post I can not end with a dramatic "goodbye" so stay tuned for a climatic ending...

I will be back >bursts of evil laughing in the background - Moohahaha<

(Apologies to Arnold Shwartaneger for stealing your line - but it was in the moment)

The TV Advert was Awesome

Ahh! That was so much fun!
We just finished filming our television commercial and I don't think I've laughed this much ever! Jade, Tarryn and I are all dressed in black, looking like Charlie's Angels/superheroes! and Nina is a person-sized cigarette dressed in a pretty white top, and wearing a yellow Bafana Bafana T-shirt as a skirt XD

I think that our entire campaign is creative, gets the message across, and will get some people laughing :) I'm looking forward to presenting it to the world :D

Today is THE DAY

Today, my friends, we finish this. Armed with biscuits and tea, we have the power to 'kick cigarettes in the butt' and at the same time get a fabulous mark for this project! So lights, camera, ACTION! Let's make a commercial! :)

A Meeting of the Minds!

Today we are meeting again to finish our project.

Wow lets just take a moment and say that again: finish our project. Oh I am just drinking it in! Hahaha! No, this project has actually been a really interesting one, I just wish that we had got our acts together sooner so that we didn't have to use any holiday time. Although I think that we did fairly well because have met a couple of times before which has definitely helped in the long run.

Anyway, we are tying up all loose ends as well as filming our TV advert. Just adding finishing touches to everything. :)

Yay!

Radio Advert

I have tried multiple times to upload our radio advert but I'm sorry to say that each time I failed. I think you can only upload videos.

Sorry guys! But I'm sure you can all remember the fabulousness of it in your heads! :)

Smoking Quotes

Just found two amazing quotes - gave me goosebumps!

"Sometimes I just sit in front of a mirror and watch myself inhaling that poison gas. If I was in a concentration camp and someone tried to make me do that, I'd want to kill them."

- anonymous smoker

"Quitting smoking is easy, I've done it a thousand times."

- Mark Twain


We will definately be able to use these for our project!

Looking GREAT!

Wow! I can't believe we got so much work done today! Our radio advertisement sounds so professional and I love the idea we have for our television commercial. All we need to do is film it seeing as our script is ready and we have practised it sufficiently. Who knew this project would turn out to be so interesting? Our powerpoint is looking good, just need to tie up the few loose ends tomorrow. Tarryn and I will be researching the 40's more extensively tonight - during this time the Marlboro Man ad campaign was launched.

Can't wait to finish this all up. See you tomorrow. :)

a quick look at the work so far

Alright! Thanks to Tarryn, who has updated our funky web page, we have a couple of viewers and comments. It looks amazing!

I have a good feeling about this project already.
We have most of our PowerPoint presentation completed. We are all going to go home and complete a section of our own and add a few facts or pictures we feel are relevant. We're each also going to go home tonight and complete a magazine advertisement, promoting the campaign: Kick Smoking in the Butt.

Right now we are tying up a few loose ends on the website, which is also titled Kick Smoking in the Butt, and we are about to start working on a radio advert for a different campaign which we are calling SASA - Smokers Anonymous South Africa :)

We've already analysed an advert and so all that is left for us to start working on is our television commercial, which didn't happen today because we didn't have the right props.

Anyway, need to get back to the radio ad.
I'll update you on any further progress :)

Our new site!!!

So, to supplement our project, we created a web page!!! Yes, I'm serious ... we have our own website, and people have already commented on it :) We have really investigated all the different ways we could use technology to make our lives easier for this project. So, we have a blog, we have a group on windows live - this means that any of us in the group can upload documents and photographs and the rest of us have instant access to all of the posted documents - if we connect to the Internet. We also now have a website, so now the public can view our findings too. Its all very exciting really!

If you want to visit our windows live group, follow this link: http://puffonthis2011.groups.live.com/

If you want to visit our website, follow this link: http://www.simplesite.com/puffonthis/50402318/ Please leave a comment or write in our guest book :)

Progress Report

Today we discussed all that needed to be done and we have a solid plan to make sure everything will get done!

We are having a blogging session now so everyone can update their blogs, etc. etc. etc. We have decided what we are going to do for our tv ad - its going to be so much fun! So everyone is going home tonight to get all the necessary props, then tomorrow we are going to film it! Yay! I'm quite excited! It's like our Grade 10 film project all over again ... all the different camera angles and shots, different sound effects, etc. Fun stuff :) Who thought that English at high school would be so full of filming and blogging and technologically advanced things! :)

Its amazing how technology has advanced and how quickly we all move with the times!

But, I need to return to projecting and planning! Expect further updates :)

Kick Smoking in the BUTT! ;)

At this very moment, our entire group is jumping up and down excitedly as we have just thought of the best campaign ever! We are calling our campaign: "Kick Smoking in the Butt" which is a play on words for cigarette butt.

We are now brain storming ideas for one of our ads. We are looking at doing a parody of the movie Charlie's Angels, where the Angels will be fighting the "crime" of cigarette smoking.

I'm looking forward to dressing in all black and filming a fight scene where we fight a human-sized cigarette, haha :D

Come on ladies, lets kick smoking in the butt!

BIG DAY

>Insert Mission Impossible Music<

>Insert all of us wearing super cool spy clothes like Charlie's Angels (I want to be Drew Barrymore)<

Today - we create a masterpiece.

Don't worry, I'm sure pj's could pass as super awesome spy clothes as well :) Sigh, the pro's about being on holiday.

P.s. I have no idea how to work this darn video camera!

Deep breath...

Meeting Tomorrow :)

So tomorrow we are meeting as a whole group so we can finish this project :)

We all have fabulous ideas and I know that when our minds meet we will create greatness! Hahaha :)

We get to do the fun stuff tomorrow - our adverts! We still have to do part of our powerpoint presentatioin but that's ok because we all have a fairly good idea of what we have going on with the history of smoking! I think that today will be a very productive one.

Everyone is bringing props and food. It will be good!

I'll keep you posted!

SMOKING CAMPAIGN UPDATE

We have decided to do our campaign a little differently.
Instead of using our campaign to advertise cigarettes as a product, we will be creating a campaign against smoking.

In this campaign, we'll use a series of adverts to highlight the dangers of smoking, the affects smoking has on the smoker, the people and environment around them, and why people shouldn't smoke.

This campaign will still be related to cigarette smoking and it will be advertising a healthy lifestyle :)

I am super excited to get started on this part of the project. Our group is meeting tomorrow at Tarryn's house with many props and costumes and Jade's video camera so we can film a television commercial.

Looks like our campaign is going to be fun to make and with our crazy ideas, we're hoping it comes out looking great :)

PLAN:

So there are still some things we need to complete. We have discussed in our BBM group (yay for blackberries!) and decided that the best time for us all to meet is on Wednesday so this is the plan:

• Meet at Tarryn's house at 10am - Finish presentation and advertisements.
• Nina will sleep over or go home, Jade and Kim will leave.
• Jade and Kim will come back on Thursday and we will practice our oral.

Things to bring:

• Props for our adverts :D
• Food (this is crucial :P)
• Information.
• Positive, enthusiastic attitudes. :)

See you guys on Wednesday!

Time is ticking...

So here we are in the final stretch, almost time to hand in our project.
There's still quite a bit to be done such as the adverts and presentation but knowing us, our ads will be fabulous. :) Quite excited to do the video advertisement with props and outfits and all those fun things. Our powerpoint should also be great because we have some very good videos and images to emphasise our point. The only dsappointing thing at the moment is that none of us got replies form the companies we e-mailed. I have finished highlighting the information about Marlboro in the book extract and I have a flash drive full of videos and images as well as some info on the history of Marlboro. See you guys soon to finish this. :)

WORKING :)

Time... Where did it go?

It was three months ago that we received this project.
Where on earth did it go to?

Plans in order to make a PowerPoint are yet to be made.
Sigh, what mission.

I'm genuinely hoping this project turns out to be... AMAZING :D