Wimbledon: The Greatest Ever

With summer tennis in full swing, so are the high end advertisements for brands like Rolex, Lexus, and Cadillac.  Those three are always big brands used in advertising for tennis tournaments, like Wimbledon, because they are sponsors for this high end sport.  Accompanying these commercials is tennis legend, Roger Federer.  He is considered to be the greatest tennis player of all time, even better than legend Pete Sampras.

With Roger Federer being considered the greatest tennis player of all time, why else wouldn't you advertise with him to promote the greatest product of all time.  That seems to be why companies like Rolex, Lexus, and Cadillac advertise during tennis sporting events.

A perfect example is this commercial below.

Roger is being advertised showing how he developed into a phenomenal tennis player over the years of his life.  By using him to sell a Rolex watch, it must mean it is the greatest watch of all time, so consumers must buy it.  These type of advertisements have been being promoted for over 60 years, and it is something that will continue to show excellence and be successful.

Proving the commercials ultimate goal, greatness achieved.

Laws to be Enforced

With summer in full bloom, everyone is out and about enjoying the wonderful and warm weather.  People are driving their convertibles with the top down, enjoying a nice evening walk, and of course riding their motorcycles.

Within the past few years, Wisconsin passed the "click it or ticket" law, otherwise known as receiving a ticket for not buckling up in your car.

Personally, I believe it is one of the safest laws to live by because it is so simple to do.  There are too many deaths of people dying in car accidents for not being buckled up.

The other day I noticed a bumper sticker on a car about watching out for motorcycles because they are driving on the road too.

It is a great message and people should definitely be aware of it.  However, on this same day, I saw a motorcyclist riding his bike without a helmet.  I thought, why is it a law for people inside a vehicle to be buckled up, but there is not a law for people who are not covered by a vehicle to wear a helmet?  I think it is just as important, if not more, for there to be a law requiring motorcyclists to wear a helmet while driving their bike.  It will only help them save their life if something terrible would unfortunately happen.  

I hope that eventually this will become a law and that people will continue to make bumper stickers to watch out for the bikers.  

Preservatives. Good or Bad?

So far this summer, I have been babysitting for many families.  Each family feeds their growing children different types of foods, meals, calories, and so forth.  It is interesting to see the different types of food there is for children.  I've noticed that all the types of food have different messages they are communicating to customers on them how their food is healthier than others.  One that really stood out to me so far was pre-packaged apple slices.

The reason they stood out to me was because on the it states, "Only 30 calories per bag."  Its a small bag with about 6-8 slices in it.  Apples are fresh fruits that when purchased, only last a little while before going bad.  If they food is pre-packaged, it mus have some sort of preservative in it to keep it from spoiling.  

The first thing I thought was, the 30 calories might attract the parents because they are on a diet and watching calories, but growing children shouldn't need to be that cautious.  They're growing and need as much nutrition as they can get.  

My second thought was, even if the company is communicating that it's only 30 calories per bag, are the preservatives they are using to keep the apples from spoiling healthy? None usually are.  It usually isn't healthy, especially for children. 

It's always a better and healthier choice to go with a fresh fruit, or an food for that matter, because it will have little to no preservatives and have a better nutritional value.  Parents should be choosing food products that are healthy for their growing children, not their own diet. 

It is just interesting to see how all families and parents are different from each other and your own.  To me, I will always go with a fresh, healthier food item, even if it's more expensive, because it'll be more nutritional and better for your health in the long run.

TXTing & Driving

As technology is constantly rising, unfortunately so are deaths.  A weird combination of events, but the fascination of the new technology is so intriguing to people, that is distracts them from important things. Very personal and heart-wrenching commercials have been being shown on TV about true stories of people who were either killed or severely injured while texting and driving.  Many people have tried to communicate how horrific of an idea it is to text and drive, but AT&T captured the soft spot in all of the viewers hearts.

It started with plain, documented information with commercials like these.

Recently, commercials have been being shown of the people who were either friends or family of the victims to show more of a real understanding of the situation that has happened and will continue to happen if people don't realize the harm that can be done if this doesn't stop.

I did more research on their campaign and the message they are putting across to not only teens, who are often accused of texting while driving more than anyone, but to every viewer seeing these terrifyingly real events. 

I came across this short documentary explaining many of the peoples stories that were in the commercials.

It was so real and heartbreaking to watch.  If anyone see's this and continues to text and drive, I'm not quite sure what will change their mind to do the safe thing and wait.  This campaign shared stories of deaths, physical and mental altering injuries, and death of other people due to the drivers reckless behavior.  Each of these stories not only unfortunately affected themselves for the worse, but their family and friends too.  Like the commercial says, "It Can Wait."  By showing these real-life stories as commercials, families can see them together and talk about how it is a bad choice.  Even though it is a terrible topic, it needs to be addressed and this was the perfect way to do so.

It does not only affect the person behind the wheel, but the other passengers, family, and friends as well.  These real stories hit home, and should affect everyone's judgement when it comes to texting and driving from now on.  

It can wait.

Olympic Athletes

With the Summer 2012 Olympics coming up, a lot of commercials have been running featuring Olympic athletes.  It’s a great way to promote and advertise the games coming up so that people can watch it, and to familiarize viewers to whom the Olympians are.  It also demonstrates that these athletes are just like anyone else and use the same everyday products that we do.  It’s a great way to say that if Olympic athletes use them, they must be good products. It’s a brilliant idea by the people creating the commercials for the products.

This one is a commercial of an Olympic swimmer who has damage to her hair from all the chlorine she has been swimming in her whole life. It features Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin.

Pantene has created many products recently for all types of hair.  They have even created an environmentally safe brand that is another great promotion for them as a company.  Chlorine is a very harsh chemical, so by having an Olympic swimmer promote the product saying it has helped her hair, viewers know it must be a good product.

Perfect timing to use Olympic athletes, present and past, to get people excited to watch the Olympic games and promote more products.

Downtown Dining Week

This past week (June 7th - June 14th) was Downtown Dining Week in Milwaukee .  It gives people a chance to experience nice restaurants for a good deal.  It mostly consists of an appetizer, main entree, and desert for either $20 or $30 at the more high end restaurants.  I've been to a few other cities when this has been going on, and it is a great way to bring people into the city and explore what they all have to offer. 

Ryan Braun's restaurant was part of the Downtown Dining Week;

it is located on the Milwaukee River

The summer is a great time to promote this because it's beautiful out and there are usually other things going on in the summer as well.  A few things Milwaukee has to offer are Brewer games, Jazz in the Park, and Lakefront Festival of Arts. 

 Jazz in the Park is held here at Cathedral Square

So, having Downtown Dining Week in Milwaukee is a great way to bring people into the city for a good time and bring in some income and popularity for the city. It's a great way to communicate to people what Milwaukee has to offer not only in restaurants, but the city itself as well.  It's an affordable and an enjoyable experience for people to travel downtown and see how great Milwaukee can be.

Facebook Timeline

Everyone who is on Facebook knows how they are changing everything over to Timeline now to make it more like a story of your entire past life and to include your future memories.


It is explained here...

When I first saw this, I thought it would be a unique and fun change for the Facebook world, but once it arrived and everyone was forced to change, it didn't seem to be much like the explained it to be.  It also seemed to create a look similar to the former popular social media network, MySpace, which is now disliked by most people.  So, why create something that ended up becoming disliked by most people using a social media network site?

The cover photo is a fun and unique way to start off someones page, but after that it isn't to exciting.  Adding all the additional past events to your timeline to tell people about it just seems like too much information to put out on the internet for everyone to see.  I feel like social media networks are beginning to be providing people too much information about their lives, which leads to things like cyber bullying, stalking, and many more.  It leads to terrible fights for the entire public to see as well, which is just unprofessional for everyone involved.

Due to the recall election in Wisconsin between Scott Walker and Tom Barret going on the last few weeks, I witnessed many fights that broke out between Democrats and Republicans.  Politics are a very strong subject to talk about in general, but creating an argument on Facebook about it just isn't appropriate.  I found it very easy to see people's conversations about it that I wasn't friends with because people I was friends with were commenting on it.  It was the middle aged adults that were creating the most drama and it was just embarrassing to see what these people were saying. 

I love Facebook and being able to communicate with my friends from far away, but I would not be opposed to it disappearing as well.  It is a distraction to many people and is proven to diminish grades.  People could be outside spending time with their families, but many chose to stay inside on their computer to go on Facebook.  Technology is great and I absolutely love it, but there are downsides to it as well.  What happened to the days where you called someone to make a time to meet so you could find out who they were face to face? Will it ever be like that again? Only time will tell.

The Game of Life

Yesterday I had the unfortunate experience of learning of a death to a brother of a close friend of mine.  He was only 22 years old.  Even though I wasn't extremely close to him, it was still heartbreaking to me for my friend and the family I had grown close with.

Later in the day, one of my friends tweeted a picture of this..

"Longest game ever.. #life"

She tweeted saying, "Longest game ever.. #life."  However, I read in a different way.  Yes, I have learned after babysitting many children that this board game is a long game, but the real game of life is not long enough for anyone really. For some people this "game of life" that we live everyday, is far too short.  Many people say life and its contents are not fair, and sometimes it truly is not.  I believe there is a reason why these tragic things happen though, and it's for people to realize to live everyday to the best of their ability and not take advantage of anything.  We need to remember to be happy and do what makes us happy.  It won't benefit us to do only what makes others happy to make ourselves miserable because we cannot take any day back.  I believe that everything happens for a reason and these moments happen to every one of us every single day, whether it's good or bad.

The Media has a huge impact on lives and deaths today too.  News travels fast through Facebook and Twitter when the horrible news of a loved one has died, and it has good benefits and bad.  It gives people the ability to say goodbye one last time or see the stories that friends and families have of that person.  However, it also doesn't give the family much privacy from all the contact they are receiving about it.  It is so interesting to see how in today's world of modern technology one can see the entire life span of certain individuals, when in the past you could know nothing about the person unless you were face to face having a conversation with them.  How will it be in another 20 years?

Coincidence that this all hit me in the same day?  I'm not quite sure, but it's these unfortunate events of young deaths that remind me everyday to not take advantage of any day, person, or experience because you just never know when the tragic event could happen to yourself.   

Is the Economy Getting Better?

What's Not To Love?

As summer begins, more and more people want to do things outside and enjoy the weather.  It makes people happier and more enjoyable to be around as well.  Over memorial day weekend, my family went out to dinner in the Historic Third Ward of Milwaukee to a restaurant on the Milwaukee River called Rustico.  There were many people out and about because of the holiday, the phenomenal weather, and the beautiful atmosphere of Milwaukee's waterfront.   

However, as we walked throughout the Third Ward, we found many empty buildings and thought with all the business and attractions in Milwaukee, more specifically the Third Ward, how could not every building be filled?  It was disappointing to see that the economy has still not brought up Milwaukee to the potential it has.

There are three main restaurants along the riverfront where Rustico is located; Rustico, The Milwaukee Ale House, and Water Buffalo.  Even in between Rustico and The Milwaukee Ale House there was a vacant spot where it was obvious a restaurant used to be.  Hopefully this isn't a sign that beautiful and enjoyable restaurants are going to begin to disappear at relaxing locations like pictured above, the view of the river in the beautiful Historic Third Ward.  

Foster Parents Rock

I recently saw this billboard as I was driving into Milwaukee.

It really caught my eye how it was displayed with how there is an adult and a child with the phrase, "turn a life around."  The picture is that of a child that looks thrilled because of the company of an adult making them happy.  And then I noticed the website for http://fosterparentsrock.com/Home.aspx.  This billboard and the organization truly shows how important an adult figure is for a child's life.

I then started researching the website and noticed a familiar picture that was from Marquette University.  The picture was from the event that Marquette and other Universities around the state called Flash Mob.  I remember hearing about the event, but never truly understood what it was about.

As I continued to search the website, it all came together.  Featured on the website under the link foster parent stories, was this video shown below.  It was truly touching and inspirational and explained the Flash Mob took place on campus here at Marquette and around the state.  It showed the great importance of foster parents in this short one minute video.  I hope this is something that Marquette and the state of Wisconsin does again because I'd love to take part in it and help make a difference in the lives of less fortunate children.

 Truly inspirational.