In most cases, that’s a good thing. The only person worried if their commercial is loud enough, is the client. Everyone else is saying, “why are all the F#$*ing commercials so F&*#ing LOUD!! —while reaching for the mute button. Most television shows have dynamics—some parts are louder than others. Makes for good drama. Most TV commercials, as dictated by the ALL-KNOWING AD WIZARD, have one dynamic—as loud as freakin’ possible! Makes for good annoyance, or as previously mentioned, frantic scrambling for the mute button. This wasn’t a problem before the advent of digital TV. In the good old days of analog, there wasn’t the dynamic range there is now.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/rp110318.htm

Did you read the whole thing? I thought not. But enough to realize there are several contributing factors involved in determining what volume a commercial is played at any given time, on any given station. So next time a client calls you in the middle of the night saying, “I just heard my f*#$ing commercial on the Food Network and it wasn’t as loud as the one right f%#*ing before it—tell them, “Wow, didn’t we get lucky!”

I told our new intern to write a bio so we could put it on our blog. Can you say keener? It’s actually been fun…kinda like having a pet! ;)

Where do I even start this? Writing about yourself is hard.
You can’t sound full of yourself, but you can’t undersell yourself.

Oh well. Time for my super-awesome-first-time-ever blog post!

My name is Jordan Tasa, or as my friends and family call me: J.T.
I am currently the intern at GGRP, straight out of the Radio Broadcasting course at BCIT!
I’ve been having SO much fun here at GGRP.
But, there’s so much to learn and so little time!

Okay, there’s one thing that you need to know to understand me.
I am a HUGE nerd, and proud of it. (Keep note all you parents! This is what happens when kids are exposed to video games since a young age.)

It is my dream to become a voice actor. I want other nerds to hear my voice on games and cartoons.

Of course, when I told my mum that her first response was: “I’m not sending you to acting school, study something that’ll get you a job.”

Later she brought BCIT’s ‘Media Broadcast and Communications – Radio’ course to my attention. It looked cool and at least it was something that used my voice, so I applied and got in.

While in that program, I decided that I really liked doing production for radio commercials. I found myself hungering for more knowledge. (The most filling of meals.)

Our last course was to get an internship, so I called around and somehow managed to trick GGRP into letting me in to learn about production.

And here I am now, constantly annoying them by picking their brains for any information I can get. Bwahaha.

But don’t count out voice acting! My plan is to understand the producer side first, then after I can apply what I’ve learned in the studio booth as the talent.

Other than that, I’m a weird, fun-loving guy who likes making people smile.

So, yeah! Here I am, having an awesome internship. Look out Vancouver studios! I’ll be out in the industry, searching for work soon.

I was invited to speak about our gold-winning cardboard record player this February at the CMA Case Study Event. Met and presented with Carl Jones the ECD of Grey Canada, (see above pic).

Received a warm welcome from both the crew at Grey Canada and the CMA’s. Good times had by all.

I also caught up with some friends we miss over there. Thanks for the good times T-Dot!

A special thanks to Geoff Dawson, Andrew McKinley and the Grey Vancouver team. It was a big idea and we all had a great time bringing it to life. GGRP is very proud of the piece and are so happy it’s received such recognition!

Along with the prestigious Gold Lion at Cannes, the record player won a Gold at The Marketing Awards in Toronto, a Merit at the ONE SHOW in New York, and a silver at the Lotus Awards here in Vancouver.

Congratulations to Grey Vancouver, and to us!

So to all you clients/potential clients out there, if you liked our promo piece, please, for the love of God, reward us with some work! After all, that is why we did it.

June 22nd 2010 – Marketing Mag wrote:

“Grey Vancouver landed Canada’s first Gold Lion of the 57th International Advertising Festival, winning in the Direct competition for its ‘Cardboard Record Player.’

The win was announced at the first awards ceremony of the Festival in Cannes this evening.

The mailer, created for Vancouver audio studio GGRP, was folded over an enclosed vinyl record, which was then turned with a pencil by the recipient to play a recording of the children’s story ‘A town that found its sound’.

‘That was probably the only entry I saw through every stage of judging where there was absolutely no debate or discussion,’ said Brenda McNeilly, vice-president and creative director at Fuse and a juror in the Direct competition. ‘It was almost universally loved as a great idea in its purest form [with] the right message and the right medium, flawlessly executed’.

During the morning press conference where winners’ names were released to the media, McNeilly said the field was a mix of ‘old fashioned’ direct executions (such as the GGRP mailer) and technology-enabled concepts that pushed the envelope.”

We received a merit at the One Show Design in NYC for our cardboard record player, (Best Direct Mail Piece)! Geoff Dawson, Assoc. CD of Grey Vancouver and I went to represent. They put on a great show. The IAC Building was a very cool venue as you can see from the photo.

We were amongst very good company. The Best in Show was amazing – check it out for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfBlUQguvyw

NYC was, of course, choice. I mainly want to talk about the food, but I will refrain. Conveniently, my brother lives in Manhattan, so he was able to take us to some great spots we wouldn’t have known about if we were on our own. He was a great host!

Anyway, good times were had by all.

Our record player ended up on the front page of http://gizmodo.com/ this morning and we’ve been getting a bunch of hits on our website from it. Not sure how it ended up there yet, but good to know the buzz is still on!

Check out this article that highlights our latest direct mail piece.

http://www.marketingmag.ca/english/news/agency/article.jsp?content=20090…

We’d love to hear what you thought of our promo piece!

What is with the preponderance of facial hair on young men these days? I first noticed it on Joaquin Phoenix: the crazy hair, ridiculous shades and something that caused me to coin a new phrase: the homeless beard.

A few months ago on Saturday Night Live I saw a band – I forget the name but it might have been something referring to a German Kaiser or a legume, I have no idea. Anyway, I’m watching them rock out onstage, looking very pleased with themselves, and I just couldn’t shake the idea that something was wrong. Very wrong.

They were all sporting various stages of the homeless beard. Yet clearly they were not homeless. They did not resemble the homeless beards of Vancouver, which sport a kind of futile lushness, a filthy trove of madness that says “Hey, I’m crazy, so you’d better step off. What are you going to do, call the police so they can give me a ticket for jaywalking? Go for it, you self-entitled poser.”

No, these homeless beards are smug, reeking of product and all-too-recent puberty. “Look, mom! I took my mustache to the next level. Check out my homeless beard!” These HBs say to the world: I’m different, I’m an artist, I’m unique – just like all my friends here (who are similarly bearded.)

I have no idea if Joaquin Phoenix’s HB is a publicity stunt or a desperate cry for help. I tend to believe the latter, because he looks like such a knob. Either way, he tires me. I really don’t care if he acts or raps or takes a dump on the sidewalk (that’s actually how you’ll know his homeless beard is the real thing.) Sure, I saw “Walk the Line” and yes, he did a good job. But there are a lot of young, cute, talented celebrities who aren’t super-weird, so I’m much more interested in hearing about them and seeing their movies. Like the Gyllenhaals. I like both Maggie and Jake, although Jake’s eyebrows could use some taming.

I don’t claim to be hip, trust me (witness the use of the word “hip” if you don’t believe me.) But I do know that one of the forefathers of the modern-day homeless beard was Jim Morrison. Remember how hot and yummy he looked before he got all bloated from drugs and alcohol? And we all know how his story ended.

Men: rethink those homeless beards before it’s too late.

I know…how great do we look?! And what fun. A Mad Men theme. Keen to dress up in clothes from the early ‘60’s, (most of us at least), we decided to go all out. We even had names! There I am on the left, Louise Masterson, an independent career girl. In the middle is Susy, playing the role of Monique Bordeaux, a well-travelled socialite who is rumoured to be royalty. Shelley, (on the right), looked perfect as Mrs. Joan Adler — simply, “the doctor’s wife”. Oh, and I almost forgot, that’s Ed Burroughs in the chair….he’s a banker.

The gang at TBWA were fab hosts. The food was delish, the drinks were abundant, and the new digs were tres chic. Thanks for having us TBWA.

And yes, perhaps it was a little too much fun for me, but whateves, I was due. My apologies to all those I professed my love to, and those of you who might have witnessed some of my not-so-sexy dancing. (And yay for me for barfing in my driveway — not at the party.)

Louise Out.