A Snowball's Chance in Hell: Ads That Give me Feelings

I really love advertising. There are constantly ads that pull my heart strings, and inspire me to be more awesome. I have a "Top Ten" that constantly changes and grows as new content becomes available. I have seem some great ads lately, and I want to share them with all of you.

GE: A Snowball's Chance in Hell
Okay, so I am no engineer, but I am really obsessed with the idea of living with an "un-impossible" mindset. BBDO produces some really amazing advertisements and I love the work they do in experiential marketing as well. They are coming to a career fair I will be at in a couple of weeks, and I hope to make a great connection.

Extra Gum: The Story of Sarah and Juan
Energy BBDO brings it again with this commercial. I love this love, and even more that it represents people of color and brings up inter-racial relationships. Energy BBDO is a wonderful company who will be at a career fair I am attending in a couple of weeks. I hope to make a new connection, because that could be a dream job. I also really like their experiential department.

Honey Maid: Unconditional Love

Okay, listen. I am obsessed with this commercial, because I love seeing more exposure for "non-traditional" families. I love seeing homosexual relationships and people of color featured in commercials because it doesn't happen enough. Droga5 brings us great feelings of hope and love, and this is definitely a commercial for graham crackers. 

A Year in Search: Google's Heartwarming Video

I love reflecting on the previous year, accomplishments and some heart-stopping pain. The hope that comes after a tragedy, and the banding together of human beings to be human beings. 72andSunny brings us the real questions; what we search for defines who we are.

Angel Soft: Happy Father's Day, Mom

Deutsch hit me with a ton of bricks on this one. I was sobbing in an office alone after this commercial came across my YouTube ads. As many people know, my mom was a single parent, and she passed away when I was 16. This ad really gave me something to hold on to, and brings tears to my eyes again, as my biological dad passed away last July. 

Advertising is really an outlet for me. I put creativity and feelings in, and this is the kind of thing that comes out. I am so glad to have found my calling/passion so early on in life. I truly believe this is what I was meant to do. 

"I would rather die of passion, than of boredom." -Vincent Van Gogh

Gun Control: Controlling Ourselves

I really do try to stay away from political things online because I know there are several views out there, but I saw this gem on Twitter today, and I have some things to say about it. 

1) College is the time of your life when your world view should be dumped on its face. College and education as a whole is the time where you should "go there" and push the boundaries of all you know. 

2) Someone shouldn't have to stop teaching a subject because someone is butt hurt by it. My roommate didn't stop eating pizza when I went on a diet, I just don't eat the pizza (that often). If you can't control your emotions about a topic, don't take that class. If it's required? Suck it up. Life is full of things that you won't like. Get over it. 

3) Educators shouldn't be asked to censor themselves for fear of being KILLED. You should teach your children to grow up and not kill people. 

4) Yeah, mental health is a problem, I agree it needs to be addressed. The stigma and affordability and accessibility to aid for mental health isn't exactly the best. That being said, my parent(s) also raised me to understand that things don't always go my way, and I learned to accept "losing" at an early age. 

5) I'm not after "your" guns, but something needs to be done. And yes, criminals will get them either way, but that doesn't mean we should just sit and wait to be gunned down. People are going on killing sprees frequently. Okies want to complain about earthquakes, but we can't complain that people are dying everyday from gun related deaths?

6) I am a firearms owner. I have had 3 firearms passed down to me by both of my parents. I am responsible with them, and I respect them enough to know that if I fire one of them, I better have a damn good reason. 

And finally,

7) Please. educate yourself and your children to not kill people. I don't want to die because I rejected a man, or because someone is pissed off, and I damn sure don't want my friends to get killed because they are black, and I don't want my friends to die because they practice a certain religion.

Respect one another enough to let them live. Respect one another enough to not kill them in cold blood. Be a human being. That's all I ask. 

10 Things Keeping Me Alive Right Now

It was the best of times (college), it was the worst of times (college). Things are confusing and scary, and sometimes I don't even know what day it is. For all these reasons, I decided to make a list of all the things keeping me together right now. Here you have it; 15 things keeping me alive right now:

1. Sleeping- it seems stereotypical, but my 8 hours and I are super close. I need them, and so does everyone else around me for fear of me being a terrible human being. 

2. Netflix- also cliche, but also totally necessary. Whether it's background noise for a project (OITNB), or getting into the next episode of Mad Men, yes Netflix, I am still watching. 

3. Best Friends- cheesy and cliche, but sometimes having a random emoji BF with a fellow exec member, or reaching out for some words of wisdom keeps me grounded. 

4. Working Out- it feels odd to write about this, because I haven't been to the gym in 2 weeks, but working out makes me feel better, and it gives me a good social network. 

5. Texting My BFF- No matter what is happening, I'm guaranteed a good reaction gif or capital letter excitement from her. I love Laura, she's my

Life. 

6. Travelling- nothing keeps me grounded and ready like exploring the world. I can't begin to tell you how the pieces of my soul float back together when the plane takes off. 

7. Looking at #Goals- Keeping in mind what I want in life, and browsing it regularly, reminds me of where I want to be. 

8. Taking a Minute- taking time out when I'm frustrated or emotional has really helped me keep my cool when things get hard. It's a good life, sometimes you have to remember that. 

9. Keeping a Countdown- Sometimes all it takes is something to remind you there's only so many days until your next adventure. 

10. Chips and Salsa- I love Chips and Salsa. They just make me happier. 

Drive Me Home: When to Say When

I love to have fun. I am almost always down for a good time, and I am always open to spend quality time with friends. Sometimes, that means going to one of the most upscale bars in Oklahoma City, and having a bar tab that could have paid for most of your cable bill. On this particular evening, one of my professors, the amazingly talented and wonderful Dr. Terry Clark, was set to give the midnight toast at Ludivine OKC. Now, Clark is a funny guy. One of a kind, spunky, and filled with a wit that will burn you if you get too close. So, naturally, he compliments my personality well. When you get an invitation to have a drink with your friends (shoutout to Mason and Harold!) and to witness a college professor rapping, you don't turn it down. 

So, I pulled up the bar about 2.5 hours before midnight, and told the bar back Connor, that I wanted a drink and that I didn't care what he brought me. 3  rounds later, just before midnight, my other friend Justin came in to the bar. He immediately asked me if he needed to take me home. I said yes. That becomes more important later on in this story. 

Justin and I are close. He knows me pretty well, and after 4 years of friendship, I trust him to take care of me. He got me home safe, and even got up early this morning to take me back to my car and get breakfast with me. It is important to note that I was pretty obviously intoxicated. I knew it, my professors knew it, the bar back knew it, and my friends knew it. If I am too much when I am sober, I am even more of a handful drunk. But, I know where I stand. 

I don't drive when I have had too much.

I don't get behind the wheel of a car and endanger lives. I always have a DD, and the backup of buying an UBER if someone can't come get me. I believe in owning where you're at, and I think to be a truly authentic person, you must understand that sometimes, you're going to drink too much, too fast, and you need to have something to fall back on. People were concerned about me last night, and while I am a little embarrassed, I also know that it means that people care and don't want to see me get hurt or hurt others. Drinking and driving is serious, and while I am not necessarily the poster child for the Moral Compass that points due-north, I appreciate that my life or someone else's could have been ended. 

I urge you to always have a plan. I didn't go to the bar last night with the intention of turning up too hard. I didn't go with the intention of interacting with my peers a little intoxicated, I went to have a ton of fun with my friends. And I did, but fun can come at a cost. So please, make sure you're safe. Make sure you have a plan, and if you're looking for me, I will be the one at the end of the bar, nursing a Moscow Mule, or a whiskey neat. 

Official Review: The Best and Worst of Super Bowl 50

It was a slightly chilly evening, but the bar was warm. I was looking pretty cute, and I was ready to see some action in the commercials and in the football game. I had picked up my friend Barbara, and headed out to a local bar. A Moscow Mule and some beer-cheese dip later, I found myself with a pleasant buzz and a great view of a TV. While I brought my friend Barbara for the moral support of not sitting in a bar by myself, it turned out to be a visual joke of the evening. She was yelling at the football games, I was yelling at the commercials. I love football, but I love commercials more.

I live tweeted the Super Bowl with the hashtag #AshleyDoesSuperBowl50, and I shared a lot of thoughts as they were happening, so if you would like to check that out, you can do so here!

So, here we go, my feedback on the best, and worst of Super Bowl 50:

Top 5:

1) Jeep- I have always wanted a Jeep Wrangler with a detachable top, and Jeep really brought the emotional side of Jeep ownership to the forefront this year. I enjoyed it, and I can totally get with it.
2) Wix- I really enjoyed the "Adception" here of including some of the most popular ads in recent history. Really fun to watch.
3) Mini- Okay, so I don't know why the car commercials this year had all the feelings mixed in with them, but I am really loving it. Mini "bucked the stereotypes" and I love it so, so much.
4) T-Mobile- I like the play off of Steve Harvey, and I think it is really funny that he is making so much money off his mistake. I just thought it was a lot funnier than the Kim K commercial last year.
5) Hyundai- First of all, you can sign me up for anything that includes looking at Ryan Reynolds for any period of time at all. Second, I think Hyundai might be making a transition from family car, to target the child-less millennials. I love my Hyundai and I have to congratulate them on a commercial that grabbed attention.

Bottom 5:

1) Mountain Dew Kickstarter- Puppybabymonkey is going to haunt my dreams. 100%. It caught my attention, but I probably won't ever buy it as an open form of protest.
2) NFL Super Bowl Babies- The only thing that scares me more than puppybabymonkey, is babies. Also, it should be a federal offense to remix "Kiss From a Rose."
3) Doritos- First of all, Doritos are really good, but this commercial really wasn't. Everyone was trying to be weird and it just didn't work for anyone really well.
4) Skittles- This is mainly here because I am bitter that "Dream On" was stuck in my head for days after the Bowl was over.
5) PayPal/Quicken Loans- Both of these were aimed to be about tech savvy millennials, but really to me, PayPal (which I use all the time) was trying too hard, and Quicken Loans cam off a bit like "let's do 2008's financial crisis again, but with an app!" Just missed the mark for me. 

Honorable Mentions

1) Audi- I can appreciate anything that gives me good feelings and nods to David Bowie. RIP Starman.
2) Heinz- The best part of this commercial is the kid dressed as a ketchup packet. It's perfect and a visual gag and it is wonderful.
3) Prius- It was a good effort, and I appreciate the funny they put into it. Not good enough for the top 5, but worth mentioning.


Let's Talk Sh*t:
There was more than one commercial this year that offered the audience of Super Bowl 50, an opportunity to learn about Super Bowels. That's right, I am talking about poop. Two different companies had commercials for two different issues: going too much, and not going enough. So, whether you can't go at all, or if it feels like Taco Tuesday took your lower intestine too seriously, they might have a great suggestion for you.

Physics: Breathing at 30,000 Feet

I love flying. I love airports and traveling. I love TSA security checks and I even love baggage claim. I don't know if this feeling will ever go away, or if I am going to have to travel many more miles before it wears off. I love flying. 

The idea that I can get about 500 miles away in about 3 hours absolutely fascinates me. I'm even writing this post on a S80 American Airlines flight from DFW to STL. But even with the thought of spending time just sitting, being served a drink, and listening to TEDTalks, my favorite part of flying is enjoying the view. Between attractive business men and the photogenic plane wing against a sunset, the "friendly skies" have a lot to offer. None of this is compared to the view of night flights and the ground below. On a clear night, I feel like I'm looking down into the galaxy. The cities below glitter like stars and constellations, and the darkness around them is dotted with small lights, like a cosmic runway for me to get lost in. It's truly beautiful to me.

I didn't always deal this well with flying, in fact, it used to absolutely terrify me. I blame an early life exposure to "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", an episode of The Twilight Zone featuring one of the scariest monsters I could imagine. It also features William Shatner as a younger man plagued with a fear of flying. The episode ends like most, with a mind boggling mystery, and Rod Serling saying "something something something, in The Twilight Zone". The monster used to make me cry, and I still sometimes think I will see something on the wing of the plane, but these days, it's going well. 

​

By the end of March, I will have logged a lot of miles since August 2015, traveling from OKC to Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago (again), and finally New York City (and back, of course). So, bring on the TSA checks, bring on the cramped seats, and bring on the airline food, because at the end of the day, the destination is so worth sitting back, relaxing, and enjoying the flight. 

Official Review: The Best and Worst Commercials of Super Bowl 49

Chips and queso. The seconds ticking on the clock. The clinking of glassware, and aluminum cans fills the air around you. Companies paid millions for the opportunity to take 30 seconds of your time. 49 million to be exact. That works out to about 1.6 Million per second. From laughter, and even tears (thanks Nationwide) the 2015 Super Bowl advertisements kept all of their spectators on the edge of seats, not knowing what would come next.

In 2015, I used the hashtag #AshleyDoesTheSuperBowl to track my tweets of what I appreciated and what I didn't necessarily click with as far as the ads. From Invisible Mindy, which didn't really turn out how I thought it would, to Kim Kardashian's T-Mobile Ad, some of the 2015 Bowl ads left a lot to be desired. My personal favorites included this Fiat spot, this happy Coke ad, and (my personal favorite) this domestic violence awareness advert that really changed the way I thought about advertisements to help those around us.

As Super Bowl 50 quickly approaches, I find myself more ready than ever to track the ads for this year. I will be live tweeting from a bar in the nice neighborhood of Oklahoma City, using the hashtag #AshleyDoesSuperBowl50. If you are curious about what I have to say about this years content, or you just want to see my all caps tweets on game technicalities, head on over to the Twitterverse, and give me a follow at @ashleytrattner. Tune to CBS at 5:30 PM Central Standard Time to catch the game and Coldplay during the half-time show.  I will be at the bar with a cold glass in hand. Carbs don't count as much on Super Bowl Sunday.

Proof That You've Lived: Ashley "Fattner" and Body Image

Kids are mean. Trust me. It was kids that nicknamed me Ashley Fattner growing up. It was kids who teased me about my weight. Even at a young age, I was fat. I had an okay diet, I just had fat on my body. Needless to say, it ruined my spirit. I began to hate my body, while I was still in the single digits of life. Before my body had even started developing. These bullies had put an idea in my head, but no one could have been worse to me than I was, and still am. It is something I have to work on every single day; teaching myself to talk to myself in a way similar to those I love. If I would never tell my best friend that she looks disgusting, why would I say it to myself?

"Jealousy will never serve you, because we all have our own paths." 

Self deprecation is a very common thing, and how we do it these days, speaks volumes about our society. For instance, I tell my trainer that if I had her body, I would wear underwear to school. She has a great body; strong, fit, and lean. What I am really saying to her, has nothing to do with her, and everything to do with me; Comparing her body to mine. I am just starting on my fit journey, and she is practically a Sherpa, leading others towards theirs. She is there to coach me, not to be a beacon of envy. She is there to say come with me, not look at me.

"You don't need to defend where you are in life, at all." 

So, I have a lot of issues with my weight. It's been 23 years in the making, and with some of the things that surround us, and the way we not only talk to other people, but to ourselves, doesn't help. So my trainer Stephanie, shared an amazing video (right here) and last night, after a very empowering sweat sesh, I went home to my zucchini pasta, to get a little perspective. As I watched this video, I felt heat in my stomach, recognizing some behaviors that Kathryn talks about. The social media fat shaming, the self deprecation, and one of her quotes really hit home with me. "You don't need to defend where you are in life, at all." She means that I don't owe anyone an explanation for my body, because it is just that, mine. But this phrase resonates other places as well. You don't owe anyone an explanation or an apology for anything in your life. Yeah, I started a diet. Yeah, I am worried about my health, that's why I work out almost everyday. No, I don't owe you anything.

Another great point of this video, is how the ideal woman, the "real" woman, is portrayed in the media. Victoria's Secret Models are no more real than Lane Bryant Models, are no more real than myself; the tall, plus sized Ashley Trattner, who struggles to find clothes that fit my length, and my width. I have broad shoulders, and strong legs. Sometimes pants fit me around the waist, sometimes they don't fit at all. It all depends.

"Anything wrong with any part of your body, is just proof that you have lived."

When I was a freshman in college, I struggled with an eating disorder. I would binge on food, then feel so terrible, that I would force myself to throw it back up. I was at a low point, lower than low. All the scars on my hands, all the bruises that come and go from my legs and arms, the freckles, the gray hairs, the knee pain and the shoulder pain; it is a reminder that I have lived through and survived the things I have. My shoulders have held the weight of the world. My feet have touched the ground, and helped me travel. My hands do work, they help me eat, and help me do things everyday. My belly, holds in nourishment, and my arms pick up and hold my loved ones. The vessel my soul has come to, this meat suit as Kathryn calls it, is mine. It gets hurt to protect me. Why wouldn't I love it as much in return? Be kind to yourself, do good and do well.

Ashley