Well, as you may or may not have guessed from the title I am in Canberra in the Australian Capitol Territory (A.C.T., hence the title). I stand satisfied, or perhaps more accurately sit uncomfortable, at the end of my first day in the city (also hence the title). It has, on the whole, been an eventful day. A very (very) kind friend of mine took me to the airport at five O' Clock this morning. Although we got there before 5.30 this had no influence over the fact that my plane left at 6.35, leaving a good hour for luggage drop-off, toilet stuff and general meandering.
The flight, oh the flight. The plane roared along the runway, and then soared out over the ocean, covering the intervening distance in seconds, regardless of its minor enormity. Everything became smaller much faster than I had expected. And then we passed into the clouds. Excluding the frostbite and hopelessness I imagine that this was much like the phenomenon known as "white out" in the polar regions. And then a vast landscape was spread before me. Great mountains, deep valleys and caves so large that they could hold the dragons of mythology, all made of a vapour so thin that I had just been immersed in it and was still able to see wisps of it coming from the engine. Yes, the clouds were my favourite bit. Can you tell that I am a first time flyer? Oh, and also, the landing was a bit disconcerting. I had not realised they were so bumpy.
Window Seat
Well, after a beautiful flight, on which I was glued to the window like a child who has discovered an exhibit marked "lethal vipers and mongooses" at an otherwise boring zoo, and three breakfasts (pre-flight, mid-flight and post-flight) I spent the rest of the day war memorialisin', being lost in a shopping centre or just meandering with my colleagues. Oh yes, did I mention, I'm in Canberra for a conference of Evangelical Students called SPRTE. I am now accepting entries for my "guess the acronym" contest (prize to be advised) (Clue: 'P' doesn't stand for Paladin) (OK, so that's not actually a real clue).
Canberra Fire Hydrant: Oddity
Well, I suppose that's that. My apologies for this blatant narrative of my day. No great insights here.
"I want these (pineapples) juiced and on my desk by three."..."I'm trying to run a highly professional business here" -John Cook
Unfortunately I think it might be true. By the time I have finished here I will have written two (whole) blogs, both solely devoted to the issue of advertising. In fact I may well be a critic of health-industry-related advertising by the look of things. My beloved readers, along with the rest of you (if indeed any of you exist), will be happy to know that this entry will not be an absolute angry-rant-session. Quite to the contrary, I will be telling you about the few ads that I genuinely like. (I'm kind-of going for the canceling out effect after the severe cynicism of the last post).
First off we have a pleasant little trailer for a film called Sunshine. The trailer is about the most dramatic thing that I have ever seen, we're talking more than Neighbours here. The music, which is probably a significant contributing factor to the heart-stopping intensity of this short, was originally written for the second Lord of the Rings film but was not used in the end. Since then everyone and their dogs and their dogs' favourite chew toys have been using it for trailers. It didn't actually make it into the film. In some ways the film was not a let down. It was just as intense as the trailer made it out to be with a grand total of __ creative ways to die covered. My personal favourites were: incinerated by the sun, frozen in space and then incinerated by the sun, stabbed to death by an over sunburnt religious wackjob and leg crushed in ships computer and then frozen to death in coolant. Oh yeah, and who could forget (except me, just then) the main character being blown up in slow motion (resulting from the time dilation caused by the sun's intense gravity) by a nuclear bomb the size of RHODE ISLAND! (Or somewhere like that). Actually, now that I think about it the film wasn't actually that good, I came out a bit disturbed. But that just adds to the brilliance of the trailer in convincing me to go see it. Anywho, here it is in all its tense forcefulness:
That ad was OK, but this one absolutely blew me away. This is the ONLY advertisement that I have ever looked up on the internet simply because I thought it was nice. The cinematography is stunning and yet heartbreaking, kind of reminiscent of the Eric Bana film Romulus my Father, but it's the music that really gets me. When I was on my second year country nursing placement I did a number of late shifts on which there wasn't much to be done. One of the enrolled nurses would often sit in the patient's sun room and watch television and every time this ad came on I would lean against the disabled hand rail and think of home so far away. What can I say, I'm a sap and a sucker for mournful beauty, but I earnestly believe that the maker of this ad should win some sort of award. Anyway, turn up the volume and prepare to look off into the distance and think of better days, here it is:
Well, that should do it for now. I know that I promised to make this post more general and helpful than the last but I think we all knew better didn't we?
Until next time you wayward travelers of this internet, Cheerio,
John
("signs")
P.S. If anyone knows what the song in that ad is, I will be very grateful to know and will probably spend the next week trying to find the CD.
P.P.S. There was also this ad. It's amazing, hilarious to the extreme. I think the producers were sitting around the office discussing the ad and it went something like this: Jim: "Hi Tim. Hey, you know that advert we are supposed to be making?" Tim: "Yes Jim?" Jim: "Well I was thinking, we couldn't decide which stunt to use, right?" Tim: (with some uncertainty) "I suppose..." Jim: "Well, why don;t we just use all of the stunts!" (long, long pause) Tim: "well..." Jim: "Great! It's decided then" so on and so forth
I promised in my last blog to write a more general entry on the purpose of this whole shebang. That wasn't entirely accurate. Instead, I have chosen to rant on about shopping centres and how annoying they are. Sorry.So, I went to Foodland yesterday with my sister to help her do their "big shop" (the weekly acquisition of most of the food needed for the next seven days). Her housemates, who love expensive and difficult to find food, had added some items to the list such as pesto, walnuts and artichokes. Would you believe it, they were all fairly expensive and, you guessed it, exceedingly difficult to find. To add to the fun we had chosen a trolley that was difficult to steer, occasionally swerving in he most awkward direction, generally when you least expected it. The whole charade took approx one-and-a-half to two hours. Fun, in the context that being slowly torn to shreds by dingoes with gingivitis is also fun. Hmm.
Today I went back to Foodland to buy supplies for a large breakfast tomorrow. Yesterday's trolley was bad, todays was hell-on-wheels, though perhaps more hell-on-circular-objects-that-serve-no-purpose.
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" -John Cook
Alright, contrary to the title, I do NOT intent to write this entire entry about drugs. And, many may be disappointed to know (if indeed they have read this far), the drugs that I will write about are legalised, albeit prescription, drugs. Infact, I'm probably going to jump topics a bit. Oh... gosh, I need to go do a drug round (I'm a nurse (well, student-nurse)). How Ironic. I'll be back.
Ok, where was I? Oh yes, drugs. I recently had the joy of writing an essay on the topic of pharmaceutical company ethics. It was perhaps the closest thing to fun I have ever had in pursuit of the academic side of my studies. One of the topics I covered was advertising, and since the essay I have been constantly noticing the plethora of ridiculous ads for miracle-cures for everything. You get some good ones on television, such as the prostate one with the guy and the dripping tap and ALL THOSE uncomfortable winces, and I'm sure I've seen some good ones in the papers, but if you want really hillariously over-the-top drug advertising, you can't go past the MIMS. (I tried to find out what MIMS stands for, but the book itself doesn't say, the web-page is equally un-helpful and the google definitions say that MIMS is "an American rapper from Washington Heights, Manhattan").
The MIMS Is the book that appears on every hospital drug trolley in Australia. It is the source of all information for nurses and doctors on every drug, and every name of every drug (because each one has at least three). I guess it makes sense then that it is the place that drug companies really let loose with the ads. Who better to advertise to than the people who write the prescriptions? One of my favourites features a picture of an apparently golden, excessively muscley topless man with the word "power" in big letters next to him. It's for Lipitor, a drug used to treat high cholesterol and high blood pressure, apparently side effects may include jaundice (yellowing of the skin) and insanely-huge-muscles (I kid).
However, by far my favourite is Olmetec. Olmetec is a blood pressure medication, and the advertisement reads "TARGET BP. KNOCK IT DOWN". The picture background, spanning over half a page of the drug guide, is that of the Berlin wall being knocked down. I kid you not, a direct connection is being drawn between lowering your blood pressure and the fall of oppressive government, the collapse of the iron curtain, and German reunification. WHAT!??!!? So, if one was to read a bit far into it, the oppressed East Germans are comparable with people suffering high blood pressure, the wall (and, by extension, the Communist regime) is equated with high blood pressure? Well, makes sense to me.
Now I did mention at the beginning of this rant that I would talk about something other than drugs. I lied. Sorry, it's getting late and I have patient-notes to write. My next blog (if indeed it ever happens) will hopefully be more of an attempt at introducing myself and the reason (if there is one) for this blog, but until then, you wayward internet traveller, cheerio.
