How a Utah boy transformed into a big shot ad guy

Wednesday Chateau and I started our internship at Ogilvy & Mather. Since I certainly didn't know what Ogilvy was before I got into advertising, I am providing the following explanation from SourceWatch for your enjoyment:

Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide describes itself as "one of the largest marketing communications networks in the world [servicing] more Fortune Global 500 companies in five or more countries than any other agency."

Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide is the agency created by British-born advertising legend David Ogilvy in 1948, virtually from scratch. It now has 35 US offices and a further 359 worldwide in over 90 countries. It was the first agency into China, Korea and Vietnam and is now Asia's largest integrated network; also one of the first into Eastern Europe. Excluding specialized marketing subsidiaries, Advertising Age ranked O&M as the #11 agency network worldwide in 2002 with revenues of $589m.

So in three days, here are my first impressions of Ogilvy New York:

1. Everyone is really nice.
2. Everyone is really smart.
3. Everyone really likes to have fun.
4. Everyone really likes to work.
5. Everyone really likes the color red.

So yeah. We have been having fun getting our feet wet. The creative department is housed mostly on the eighth floor. There are several teams each consisting of a pair of creative directors and a 4-5 art/copy combos. On day one were introduced to our creative directors Josh and Joe. We also got to pal around with some of the recent BYU graduates now working there.

Our first assignment was do do a TV spot for The Mets. We came up with a few commercial ideas in the first couple days and presented them to one of the guys in our team. They all got shot down, but he preped us by telling us that everyone gets shut down the first time they present. That helped.

On Friday we were briefed on a new assignment along with the rest of the groups in our team. It's TOP SECRET right now, but soon enough you'll get to hear all about it.

So, in other news, this weekend I:

>went to the MoMA with the BYU interns

>got to see a film at the Tribeca Film Festival with Valerie

>got to sleep in late on Saturday

>visited my friend Jason in Inwood

>went to a swanky party in one of those midtown apartment with lots of windows that make you feel like you're suspended in air among the skyscrapers

>went to the First Corinthian Baptist Church with my friend Daniel

>went to my church

Allergies stink. My apartment is nice and remodeled. I'm finally getting to understand business casual. I love having unlimited rides on the subway. I love New York.

Guess who's back.

OK, some of you are probably saying, "Where is the old OCD blogger Seth? We liked him better when he was camera happy."

Well he's back, and he's ready to remind you just why he loves NYC so much. Let's start from the beginning of the trip, shall we?

This is Hazel. Hazel is my friend Manny's dog. I stayed at Manny's house in New Jersey for the first few days until my apartement was available in Manhattan.

This one of Hazel's chew-toys. That dog is crazy. She comes to you with toy in mouth wanting you to throw it, but then once you reach for it she pulls away. Reminds me of those people who need help but won't let you help them.

These were taken at Marjorie Eliott's weekly jazz gathering last Sunday. She is the one with pen in hand. I love this woman. She invites the world into her living room to listen to some top notch live jazz and eat granola bars. Every time I visit her I have a unique experience. She always gets a diverse crowd. Marjorie is an inspiration to me.

After Marjorie's on Sunday I went wandering through Harlem. I saw these two guys sitting on this rock and just had to take their picture. They were really nice guys. One of them, named Daniel, is a painter. You can check out his stuff in my "Sethillites with websites" section.

Monday was the big immigrant strike. These photos were taken at the Union Square gathering. Dallas and Chateau joined in the fun.

After the rally we wandered over to Saint Marks Place. I love this pole.

This is magician David Blaine doing his underwater bubble thing. He is totally copying Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips.

Aside from the sight-seeing, Monday and Tuesday was all about shopping and moving in. I had to get my bags from Jersey to Manhattan by bus. That was fun. I made a Bolivian girlfriend along the way named Jovanka. That was pretty much the extent of my pre-internship experience. Now let's talk about Ogilvy...

A Day With Mexicans

Today was supposed to be the day when no immigrants worked.

The only absences I noticed were the bus drivers that go from NJ to NYC. Other than that, my McDonald's clerk, my sandal retailer, and my corner store owner were all immigrants and all very much working today.

The protests were fun though. I saw two. One was while leaving the very Dominican Passaic, NJ, and the other in downtown Manhattan.

First Widget Post

So Yancy taught me how to blog from my widgets. Cool, huh?

I just started breathing again. I'd almost forgotten how to do it.

School is shaping up nicely after a month of unprecedented stress.

Last week was my big capstone presentation to Ford and Ogilvy Detroit. My group and I spent countless late nights writing, designing, editing, rehearsing, and memorizing for the big unveiling. While we delivered what I felt was a very polished and compelling presentation, we received a lukewarm response from the judges. After finding out we had not won the competition (or even placed), it took many days to recover emotionally. Seriously. We had put so much heart and sweat into our book and presentation. It's hard to feel like a star and be looped into the losers bracket. Oh well. It's Ford's loss for sure. Our campaign was a winner.

As if one formal presentation wasn't enough, I got to give another one that same week. I worked on a re-branding campaign for The Daily Universe—BYU's student paper. DU's problem in a nutshell is that it is heavily criticized by a student body that is becoming increasingly apathetic. (A strange phenomenon.) The DU wanted to do something that would boost student interest and credibility while at the same time create a brand they could relate to.

Now, at any other school seems like it would be an easy task; at a private Christian institution this is not the case. The social climate in Provo right now seems to be one of dissension, controversy, and exposed censorship. At the same time, the "too cool for Provo" mentality has quickly become the dominant attitude. Students are trained to hate living here. The rise of the iPod and the cell phone has created campus that is less and less friendly. Many feel alienated where they once felt so welcome.

So for The Daily Universe this means that anything it publishes automatically gets thrown into the whole "this sucks" category. It's the Daily Universe; it's uncool. It's censored. It's stupid.

So what's a paper to do?

The answer we came up with was to put it in the hands of the students. We can criticize Provo, BYU, and The Daily Universe all we want, but we must all remember that there was a reason we came here, and it was to study our chosen disciplines. (Not just to get married.) So why not celebrate what brought us here to Happy Valley?

Our idea is to create a weekly color section composed entirely of student submissions. It's called ROAR!, and based on the overwhelmingly positive response at the presentation last week, I can fairly confidently announce that it is coming to BYU this Fall. After the idea was approved, my job was to make the prototype. I collected local talent in the form of poetry, art, photography, math, design, literature, web, cooking, advertising, etc. The format is extremely loose. Like a blog in hard copy. A campaign will be launched come August calling for student submissions. It's going to be awesome.

My hope is that ROAR! gets students excited, brings them together, and helps them feel better about their community.

In other news, Ed McBand finally finished recording our debut album. We had our little reunion/farewell/CD release party at Borders last weekend. Our new CD, "Hang Out With The Sun" is available for $5.

Vlogs are the new Blogs

So I finally figured out how to put videos on my blog (with a little help from the good people at myspace.com). Yes folks, today we officially become a vlog.

This is a video of & from when we played for the girls in our ward. Watch for my awesome mess-up during the solo section!

Also check out &'s new site: myspace.com/ampersandtheband

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

My Spring Internship

Scared at work

You need to check this out!

Provo - Brigham Young University - Library-Music Section - In the Reading Room of the Music Section of the Library there is always a moaning noise that sometimes sounds like voices. Also, the room is always extremely cold or extremely hot. In another part of the Music Library, the Harp room, a mysterious chair, called the "ghost chair" by some appeared out of nowhere and the librarians can't account for where it came from. There is also a room in the back called the Music Recordings Archives where rows and rows of old records lie practically untouched and students often get scared or spooked in this room.

Thank goodness I don't have the night shift anymore!

Taking notes from BYUSA

When it comes to BYUSA elections, I'm as apathetic as it gets. Everyone knows that student leadership is a silly waste of time and energy, right? Seriously, I cannot name one good thing that a BYUSA president has ever done for me.

That was until today. As Jamen and I were walking through the quad we saw this guy waving a sign for "Mike and Caleb." Nothing shocking; there are dozens of campaigners waving signs all over campus today. What was shocking was what was written underneath the names on the sign.

FREE HAIRCUTS

As an advertising student I cannot commend this non-traditional idea enough. Simply brilliant. What better way to say "service" than by actually serving me with something very valuable and relevant to my life? I even had getting a haircut on my to-do list today.

So, yeah, vote for Mike and Caleb.