Hope you have a spoooooky Halloween!

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

A couple of us went to go see an advanced screening of the documentary entitled “Trouble the Water” at MICA the other night. The screening was a part of the Maryland Film Festival’s Friends of the Festival screening series – if you’re not a member, you should be. Find out more HERE.

Trouble the Water is an amazing film.  It’s a documentary about Hurricane Katrina that chronicles the plight of a married couple that is forced to stay behind as the storm hits and tries to pick up the pieces afterwards. This film was recently given the Grand Jury Award for best documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

It’s dramatic, moving, inspiring, funny, heartbreaking and eye-opening all at the same time. Here’s the trailer:

Please go see this film. It opens today at the Charles Theater and will be there for about a week.  If the reception is warm, they may even decide to keep it there for a while, so please go support it.  You’ll be doing your part to raise awareness of the suffering of the folks down there.

Go visit Troublethewaterfilm.com and hook up with them on Facebook and MySpace too.

Thanks,

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-blog.com

Dentyne launched a new campaign recently that aims to take folks back to the good old days when computers weren’t such a dominant communications tool.

The problem?  While the ads themselves are well fairly well executed, the main call to action is to GO ONLINE to a Website at makefacetime.com to check out some ways to connect…offline.  So let me get this straight?  On one hand, you’re telling us that electronic communication is jeopardizing the personal connections that we used to have before technology infiltrated our lives.  Then you turn around and tell us to go online right in the very same ad?

I just don’t get this ad strategy.  I can’t help but think of this as opportunity missed.  Yes, the Website supposedly shuts down after 3:00 (In reality it is MUCH more than 3 minutes), but wouldn’t it have been smart to use a strategy that didn’t rely on digital communications? Go guerilla.  Use outdoor.  Direct mail.  Product giveaways. Flash mobs of cuddly people. Anything.  Just don’t go digital when what you’re preaching is to unplug.

That’s my $.02

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

I wanted to share a really well-done slideshow that was passed along to me by Chris Wilson from Hester Designs out in Oklahoma City. I think it speaks to the importance of design in a rapidly changing environment. When you’re done, go join the Facebook group HERE.

Go America! Election day is a week from today. Here’s a little something to get you in a patriotic mood.

Click a link below to download the VOTE! desktop wallpaper:

1024×768 (best for standard)
1680×1050 (best for widescreen)

Happy voting!

Sarah Rosenthal
http://www.orange-element.com

There’s a spirited debate going on over at Brand New about some images that have been released that depict some new brand identities for a number of Pepsi products. There are still tons of questions as to whether these are actually real images from Pepsi or not, but the BIG debate is whether or not it is an effective change. You be the judge:

Old

New

In addition to refreshing the Pepsi brand, it appears Pepsico is poised to launch revised brand identities for a number of their other products as well:

My take?  I’m glad you asked…I think they’re pretty decent designs.  They’d hold up for any new product and would probably be compelling enough to encourage someone to give them a try.  But for Pepsi, a product that has been in the market forever, I question whether these identities fit with the brand that they have spent milions and millions of dollars building in the mind of the consumer over time.  The logo stands up for me – but the cleanliness of the rest of the design doesn’t allow for the edginess that Pepsi has always put forth through their marketing efforts in years past.

In other words, I think it’s a good design, but it misses the essence of the Pepsi brand.  I don’t think it will be as effective as they’d like. What’s your take?

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-blog.com/