Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

Keri S.

February 7, 2010 - 11:30 PM

Today was my favorite American holiday-Super Bowl Sunday. As an avid football fan and a marketing student obsessed with advertising, it is two of my favorite things combined into one. Although I normally watch the game with friends, this year I decided I should stay home and study for my Sports Business midterm tomorrow.

 

The game started, and I had all of my Sports Business material in front of me. I had the best intentions to study during the game, but never found the time. During the game, I said "I will study during the commercials", but during the commercials, I said "I will study during the game". It was a vicious cycle, and long story short no studying ever took place. Looks like it is going to be another long night studying...

 

Although I am sure most of you saw the game, I wanted to share with you my three favorite commercials from the game (in no particular order)

 

(1) Coke "the Simpsons": With Pepsi's decision not to advertise during the big game, Coke stepped in with a great ad. Pepsi has decided this year to donate the $20 million they normally spend on advertising for this game and donate it to communities across the nation. What a great idea in my opinion! With this said, the Coke commercial embodies the community feel as well, with a subtle "money can't buy you happiness but Coke can" message. I also like this ad because it was done by Wieden and Kennedy, an advertising firm located in Portland!

 

 

(2) Google "Paris Love": This ad is the perfect example of story telling. For those of you that haven't seen it, it tells the story of a man who studies in Paris, falls in love, gets married and has a baby, all within 60 seconds. It also does a great job of showing all the features of Google-auto fill, auto correct, Google maps, Google dictionary, and flight information. As a first time player in the Super Bowl advertising game, Google did a great job!

 

 

(3) Volkswagen "Punching Game": As a proud Jetta owner, I always love to see what Volkswagen will do next. This time, they exceeded my expectations. By taking a popular game, "Slug Bug", and expanding it to their entire line of cars, they have created "Punch-Dub"-a game for everyone to be played at any occasion. This ad featured men, women, children, police men, bus riders, EMT, women in labor, college kids, surfers, and even Tracy Morgan and Stevie Wonder. It also conveniently showed all 13 car models currently offered by Volkswagen. Brilliant commercial!

 

 

So there you have it, the three best ads of the Super Bowl according to Keri. I am glad I could share my passion for advertising with you all, and hope I can continue to take what I learn in the classroom to contribute to the content of my blog. As I now have to go study for my midterms, I leave you by saying: good night and GO SAINTS!!!

 

 

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Living in the EUG

Keri S.

February 4, 2010 - 4:00 PM

This week, I have spent very little time in my apartment. As a matter of fact, I leave around 9 or 10 in the morning to class and don't get back until 11 or 12 at night. When it is all said and done, I feel like my rent checks should be made out to Lillis and not my landlord.

 

When June hits, I will probably be moving out of the Eugene (hopefully to somewhere new and exciting). And when that time comes, I know I will miss the city and all of my homes I have had during my time here.

 

Freshman year, I lived in the LLC residence halls. It was the first year that the dorms had been open, and they were brand new. This meant no one had slept in my bed, worked at my desk, or stepped foot in my room before me. Here, I had the true freshman experience-random roommate, communal bathrooms, 2 am runs to get food in your PJs, and annoying neighbors who blasted their music at all hours of the day. Overall, it was a great place to live, and a great place to start my time at the University. To all incoming freshman, I encourage you to live in the dorms because it is a great place to meet people and get used to living without the parents.

 

Sophomore year, I lived a second year in the residence halls. This time, however, I was the RA. This meant two things: (1) I had a lot of responsibility and (2) I didn't have to pay for housing! Although the free room and board was nice, the responsibility of watching 70 recently-out-on-their-own freshmen was tough to handle at times. It's all fun and games to throw pizza parties every weekend, but having to go to the hospital with a resident who has alcohol poisoning or talk to a suicidal resident makes the job hard! Although this job taught me a lot about myself and about how to work with people, I also learned that I never want to live and work in the same place again. Coming home should be a relaxing thing, and not like clocking into the office. Although the job was hard and demanding, I had great residents and great co-workers to make it all a little easier.

 

Junior year, after a lot of consideration, I decided not to return to the residence halls. Although the RA job had a lot of perks, I realized it was time for me to get an apartment of my own. I moved into a two bedroom apartment with a good friend from high school, and still live there with her today. This apartment is a little old, a little moldy, and a little falling-to-pieces. But I love it and consider this my first home away from home. I have had a lot of great memories in this apartment, and will be sad when I have to move out.

 

Overall, I have been very fortunate with my housing situation here in Eugene. Although it is scary to move out of the house and out on your own, it is great that I was able to take baby steps to get where I am. And who knows...maybe the next step will be an apartment all my own without a roommate.

 

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A great week for Oregon Basketball

Keri S.

January 31, 2010 - 9:45 PM

As such as avid Oregon Football fan, I am embarrassed to say that I attended my very first Oregon Basketball game as a student over the weekend. Since this is the final season at Mac Court and my final season as a student, I headed to the Oregon vs. USC game with a few of my friends from Alpha Kappa Psi.

 

There was so much going on during the game, I kept asking myself how I hadn't been to a game before this? The screaming Pit Crew, the stomping and screaming fans, the band, and of course the basketball players all crunched into Mac Court. It reminded me so much of the energy found in Autzen, and I was pretty overwhelmed at first. I sat quietly and content for the first half enjoying the basketball game simply as a spectator. But in the second half, I began to really get into the game, screaming and waving my Duck-a-roni at the USC players.

 

The turning point of the game came when a USC team manager was called for a technical foul. Before that point, USC had quite a bit of momentum going and was closing the gap on the scoreboard. However, after this foul (which he apparently got for screaming profanities) Oregon took the game back and dominated for the remainder of the half to end with a win. It was so exciting to see the Ducks get powered up again. And I couldn't help but laugh at the Pit Crew chanting "you got fired!" to the USC manager as he mysteriously disappeared after this event and wasn't seen again for the rest of the game.

 

My favorite part of the game was the uniforms. Oregon was wearing white and pink jerseys to promote the coaches vs. cancer campaign. The ducks traded in their yellow and green for pink Nikes to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research. Items from this game are being sold on the Go Ducks website. It is campaigns like this that make me so proud to be a duck!

 

Overall, this was a great week for Oregon Basketball with two wins and a successful campaign to help raise money for breast cancer. My vote is that we keep wearing the jerseys until we lose (so far, we are 2-0 with the uniforms).

 

 

 

As for my experience at the game-it may have been my first game, but I can promise you it won't be my last! GO DUCKS!!!

 

 

 

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S-T-R-E-S-S

Keri S.

January 27, 2010 - 10:00 PM

It has come to that point in the term where the joy of going to class and the relaxation you find during the weekend is replaced with stress and pure panic. As I look over this week, I realize I have only gotten about 12 hours of sleep over 3 days (and if you know anything about me and my sleep, we need to spend at least 8 hours a night together or else I don't function well). This lack of sleep is a due to the merging of two roads: midterms and procrastination. (Next week, I have two big deadlines for my BA 453 class: a midterm on Tuesday and half of my final project due on Thursday. Also due next week is the first half of my SBUS 452 business proposal. This means lots of group meetings and my nose in a book).

 

As I walked home from class today, I felt completely overwhelmed with it all. Spending over 12 hours in Lillis each day has started to take a toll on me. I had to consciously tell myself to breathe as I calmed down from a stressful week that is almost over. When this level of stress hits, it is really hard to stay motivated. It is easy to want to give up and just go to sleep as soon as I get home. However, I realize all of the time I have spent so far and realize that in only 5 ½ short months, I will finally have my degree!

 

After a couple hours of homework tonight, I have completed everything that is due tomorrow. I have therefore decided to go to bed early now, and give myself a much needed night of relaxation.

 

 

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The Oregon Bridal Show

Keri S.

January 25, 2010 - 11:30 PM

This weekend, I went with my sister to the Oregon Bridal Show at the Salem Fair Grounds. I was amazed at the number of vendors there and all of the services that are offered for weddings. There were some vendors that I expected to see, such as the cake bakers, the vineyards, the caterers, and the photographers. There were a few, such as the invitation specialists, videographers, purse vendors, and photo booth rentals that surprised me. Although my sister is not planning to get married until June 2011, all of the vendors were very anxious to start talking to her and to get their name out there. And my sister, likewise, was excited to talk to them and start planning.

 

Throughout the show, I was fascinated at how each vendor tried to stand out and differentiate themselves from their competition (Keri Sime: Marketing student, will travel). We would walk around and talk to a photographer, then move directly on to talk to different photographer. It's a marketer's worst dream being that close in proximity to your competition. After four or five photographers in a row, we would have to stop and say "the photographer that had X, Y, or Z...which one was that again?? Some vendors had TVs set up, couches and chairs to sit down on, photo albums and picture frames full of their work all crammed into a 10' by 10' cube. My favorite vendor was one of the videographers. We were talking to him and stopped us a few times to show us one of his video clips and would then tell us a personal story about one of the brides he worked with. With this industry, you have to feel a personal connection to the people you hire since they will help capture the most important day in your life. One consistent marketing theme was the bride's biggest dream: free giveaways! Every vendor had a contest for a free widget or a free hour of service to collect your contact information. I will be interested to hear how many of them follow up and contact her. Since it is such a competitive market, my guess is a majority of the vendors will.

 

Once I took off my marketing hat, I decided to put on the maid of honor hat (my little sister, Katie, will also be a maid of honor). The rest of the afternoon my sister and I discussed the vendors and the details of her wedding: the location, the colors, the dress, the table settings, the music, the guest list...even down to the flower girl and the photo booth she should get (and yes, there WILL be a photo booth there. I think it was my favorite part of the bridal show!)

 

Should be a great time helping my sister plan the wedding of her dreams. The process is just getting started, and I look forward to all of the bridal magazines, the dress fittings, the wedding showers, bachelorette parties, and then the actual wedding that are all soon to come!

 

A quick shout out to my little track start sister, Katie! Congrats on your PR this week in the hurdles, and keep working hard at pole vault! Love you and miss you and hope I can come up with mom and dad to see one of your meets soon!

 

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