I've found that this blog has become just a release for my aggression, but the fact that I have a lot of aggression right now is probably a good indication that some things in my life need to change.

Here's something pleasant:
A friend from highschool, Danny Roemer, ran across my blog and emailed me a few days ago. What a pleasant suprise. My angry ranting and complaining has lead me to contact with someone from my yesterday. Like the lotus flower that grows out of the mud and swamp, good things can come from my crap.

Danny ( if he even goes by "Danny" any more. I'll call him "Dan" just in case), I mean Dan, originally sparked my interest in film when he asked me to be in an anti-drug film he made for a national competition. Dan was very serious about film. He's one of the first people I can remember knowing who made his art his life. I remember driving through a residential area in good old Mansfield, Ohio and seeing this crazy guy setting up a huge home-made crane in the middle of the street for a shot he wanted to get. I am very complimented that Dan took the time to get in contact with me.

Continuation of the last thought:

I thought wow, Secret sure is cool, a lot cooler then those people who had that other campaign a long time ago. What's funny is that Secret was "those other people".

“If you examine strength in terms of Invulnerability or endurance, then the argument that strength is sex-typed breaks down a bit.”

The early 90’s birthed an advertising campaign for Secret deodorant. The catch phrase was “Strong enough for a man but Ph balanced for a woman.” The first ¾’s of the commercial were filled with close-up shots of sweat rolling down the necks and backs of bronzed men in a locker room. The final shot was of a woman (nicely dressed and with wind blowing through her hair) holding her arms up in the muscle man position.
This commercial alone brings up some issues: It’s complimentary for a woman to use a product good enough for men; Men are stronger than women and sweat harder than women. But these issues are not what I’m going to talk about. What makes this advertising campaign so intriguing is where it has gone.
A few weeks ago I was watching TV when a very familiar feeling came over me. It hit me like a ton of bricks. The commercial was for Secret and they have revived their old campaign. They’ve hooked up the cables, been hit by lightening and like Frankenstein, resurrected a dead slogan. But my feeling of familiarity vanished when the voice hit mid sentence: “Strong enough for…”
“A man…,” I thought to myself.
“A woman,” the voice continued as the image of a girl working out flashed onto my lens.
I just sat there with my mouth hanging open. First of all, I wondered why they would revive an ancient campaign with a major tweak. I thought for a second that such an act made Secret appear as though they were desperately trying to reach consumers, that they had no more creativity. But the more I thought about it, I began to see that the current campaign is in fact a brilliant continuation of the last. By providing the base argument a few years ago that somehow women are weaker than men, they were able to help the audience see how up to date they are now in comparison to what was laid out in the 90’s.
The definition of strength is shifting in culture. People are beginning to include factors other than bronzed muscle mass. Strength can now mean endurance and invulnerability. According to this newer (and possibly more accurate definition of strength) women can be very strong indeed.
I think Secret’s new campaign is clever because it contrasts the old one. Wow those Secret people are able to keep up with the times. If they had not laid the ground work a few years back, the commercial would not have stood out in my mind at all. Well, of course it’s strong enough for a woman. I mean they made it to stop me from perspiring, right? “Strong enough for a woman” has an entirely different meaning when built upon the slightly older “Strong enough for a man but Ph balanced for a woman.”