All's Ferin Love and Identity

Online I'm known as Ferin.

I've been using that nickname for so long now (and it's so close to my actual name) that I don't ever think to separate the two in my mind. Is the me that blogs the same me that speaks and acts? Most of the time I'd say so, but since I've had very few friends in life that both see me in the day to day and online... I have no objective opinion to be sure.

 

Well, that picture is definitely not of me! At least the location is true?

 When I first read A Rape in Cyberspace I thought that the women who felt violated by another MOO user were reacting a bit in the extreme - and yet the young girl who took her life over a fake MySpace account had my complete sympathy. It's easy to say that someone older should take the Internet with a grain of salt, but who are we to judge the openness of others?

I have done roleplaying for so long now that distancing myself from my character has become second nature. Understanding the drama that surrounds online identity crisis and "what's right and wrong here?" seems simple. But then... today I was reminded of one character I played for a brief period of time in my life. I had a fake Twitter account I used to play with others on the site, and before I knew it?

I was using the fake twitter more than my own. My thoughts, my feelings were being channeled through this fictional person, and when something bad happened to that character that I wasn't expecting? I cried.

The Internet is so much a part of our daily lives now that it might as well be a true extension of reality, hyperbole and dramatics and hurt feelings along with it. If we don't have a moral code for our online behavior, what kind of message are we sending to the generations growing up with Internet access 24/7?

be different.

Creating an advertising campaign for cellphones targeted toward tweens should have been easy enough to manage. In theory, the magic equation would be --

1 boy with a Bieber haircut + 1 girl in an iCarly t-shirt - any sense of financial obligation = SUCCESS!

When two of those options are taken away... then what do you do? CURSE YOU, COPYRIGHT!
Luckily, with a great partner, a little imagination, and hours spent surfing Creative Commons -- an ad campaign was born!

BE _____. Keeping the slogan simple and tying it to both the image used and the idea of the phone skins seemed to really work out for us.  We had a playful font for the phone name and an easy to read font for the rest of the text. Each ad was bright and eye-catching, but not too busy. 

What could have been improved? There were a number of simple changes that might have made this campaign stronger. Adding a website address to find out more info about the phone might have been useful considering the lack of information given in the actual ads. Maybe making the ad targeted toward preteen boys brighter to match the other two ads would have helped make the campaign a cohesive whole.                                                                                                                                                                                   We could have used more animal-themed skins for our peacock feathers. There was also the mention of the phone 'floating' in the third ad, so there might have been a way to use the phone on the page that would have suited all three ads instead of just the first two.

Overall, the ad campaign seemed to be successful in theme and execution. I had a blast seeing what ideas the other teams came up with for this project! The assignment was certainly challenging, but I loved getting a chance to flex some Photoshop skills and think outside the box.