Virginia is for Lovers... and a job?

Hi everybody! Yes, our blog was still working--there wasn't anything wrong with your computers. The lack of blog posting-ness was on our end. We haven't felt that we've had anything excitingly newsworthy to post. If you've been following either of us on Facebook, you might have seen some of the random bits of news, but nothing had felt big enough to make it to our blog.

Until now...

Two or three months ago I found out that someone I had worked closely with in NYC last summer (my AE from Y&R) had moved to The Martin Agency in Virginia last fall. She was able to help me get a phone interview there. One morning I talked to someone there and I felt that it went really well. But in the weeks following no position at my level had opened up yet.

Until now...

Two weeks ago I got an email from another contact I had made at The Martin Agency informing me of an open position in his department. He helped get the ball rolling and the next morning I got an email and a couple days later I got a call about when I could fly out to Richmond to meet with some people there. In the next couple days I received an itinerary and last Thursday I found myself on a flight to Atlanta (and then on to Richmond).

I had such a great time! I met with 7 different people and I really enjoyed talking with them. I came expecting more of a classic "interrogation" kind of interview series, but it ended up being a "getting to know you" set of meetings. Everyone was really nice--I'd love to work with them. And the agency building was beautiful!



Richmond was beautiful, too. I'm really excited to find out how this will turn out. They said I'd hear back in a couple weeks, so by the end of next week I should know something.

Thanks for everybody that's been supporting us for the past few months! We're crossing our fingers for Virginia!

Shakespeare in the Park

Every year there is a free Shakespeare play in Central Park. There are always big stars in the shows and the tickets are handed out the day of, meaning super long lines. Tickets are distributed at 1 and so Wednesday I got to the park just before 9 am. The line was already over a half mile long and there was little hope of getting tickets. We were determined to see the show, so the next day I got there before 7. The line was long even then, but I was close enough to be guaranteed tickets. All that was left was to wait and wait and then wait some more. I endured boredom and rain storms, but was successful! 6+hours= 2 tickets to Twelfth Night staring Anne Hathaway and Audra McDonald.

We didn't have the best seats, but it was still an amazing show! Yay for live theater!
You can't take pictures in the theater, so this is view from the back. We were sitting on the upper right side.

Free things save us money

Hey we have some more pictures of things we've done here in NYC and we thought we'd share them with you! And we're not even waiting for a couple months to do it! We're going to try out how the real bloggers do it...

During the summer here they have the River to River Festival, which includes a lot of free concerts and activities and fun things. A couple weeks we went to a fireworks show on the East River featuring music by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Two nights ago we went to a free concert of Mozart's The Magic Flute by the New York Opera at Rockefeller Park. It was a lot of fun to sit in the park in the beautiful weather and enjoy the concert.

Waiting for it to start...

A couple weeks ago a group of us went to the famed Apollo Theater (We lived about a 10-15 minute walk away...) for Amateur Night. That's when you can actually boo the performers off the stage. They encourage it! It was a cultural experience and a lot of fun.

I also wanted to include this because Michael Jackson performed here early in his career. I can't find any sources to back that up, but it does make it cooler that we went there.


(UPDATE: I found out when Michael Jackson performed at the Apollo Theater. The Jackson 5 won the Apollo's Amateur Night in 1967.)

Internship Update (and a contest!)

Greetings from New York City!

I realized that I haven't really given many people an update on how my internship is going. Initially, the internship was supposed to be from the beginning of May to June 16th, but the people at Y&R gave those who wanted to an opportunity to extend our internships until the first week of August. I've really been enjoying it here and I feel like I get along really well with everybody I'm working with, so Megan and I decided to stick it out here for at least a couple more months and see what happens.

We had to find a new apartment for the remainder of our stay since our first place was only for the duration of the regular internship. Now we are living a little farther north on Manhattan. But it only takes about 30-40 minutes to get to work, thanks to the subway! I love public transportation. If I can have someone else do the moving for me so I can have time to relax or read a book, I'm happy.

Here at Y&R I am working on the recently acquired Office Depot account. On June 1st we launched a new part of the campaign called "The Survival of the Smartest" and the "Small Business Self-Bailout" It involves a website and some funny webisodes with "Matt and Matt" that will be released periodically through the rest of the summer.

A big part of the campaign is the "Adopt a Small Business" contest that ends July 31st. (If you or someone you know owns a small business, let them know about this!) 500 businesses will be awarded $2000 each in Office Depot prizes (gift cards, print services, etc.). To enter, all you have to do is make a 2-minute video telling Office Depot two things: what you are doing in these tougher economic times to be smart (how are you saving money or finding new customers or reducing costs, etc.) and how Office Depot has helped you out. If you're not sure how Office Depot has helped your small business out, you have until July 31st to visit your local Office Depot to figure it out. They also have some great online resources. This is a really great contest. If you want to learn more about that, check out www.thesurvivalofthesmartest.com.

And check out the first webisode next Monday! (June 29th)

Oh, and another cool thing: Y&R finally updated their website!! After nearly a year of being "Coming Soon" or "Under Construction" it is an actual website that you can look at! Check it out, it's cool: http://www.yr.com.

(Map image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team and Wikipedia)

In case anyone didn't know...

We graduated!!!

Adios Provo!

Here's Proof.


Scott got a BA in Communications: Advertising

I got a BS in Sociology (in 3 years...)

Yay for us!

Some Things We've Done in NYC

News Flash!!

We really are here in New York City and having a good time! We are not dead!
We are just really bad bloggers. We will try to be better...

Whew, now that that's over, here is our bi-annual-or-so update: (Put your mouse on the pictures for captions.)

Here's the quick summary of what you just saw. Max Brenner is a really fun (and maybe a little pricey) chocolate store/cafe. We ordered the "Eskimo" (or "es-KEE-mo" as the waitress pronounced it). Everything there was presented (or "plated") in cool ways. And of course we've tested out the other big candy/chocolate stores here, like Jacques Torres, and our personal favorite, Dylan's Candy Bar. (Supposedly the biggest candy store in the U.S.)

We've had a lot of fun wandering around and hanging out in parks and eating pizza. So far we like Arturo's the best. It's been raining a lot lately (we heard it was the 22nd straight day of rain, although we feel like it's not true... there have been a few fair days) which makes the subway puddley and muggy. (Mmm, nothing like stuffy damp underground air!)

Overall, it's been great so far. You might say it's been an experience. We'll keep you updated.

We promise.

East Coast livin'

Greetings from New York City!!

So for the past week I (Scott) have been in New York City in preparation for an internship that starts tomorrow (the 3rd). You might think, Hey, cool, you get a free week of touring the city and seeing all of these amazing things with no obligations! But Megan hasn't been out here and it just isn't as fun without her. She's been in SLC/Provo working on a paper with one of her professors and getting things ready to come out here on Thursday! I'm so excited to tour the city with her. I am getting to be quite an expert with the subway here. I could almost be a tour guide on one of those cheesy double-decker tour buses. Okay, not really.

We're staying at some dorms called the International House by Columbia University. We ended up with a pretty good view of the Hudson River and Grant's Tomb. (Sorry, all of these pictures are going to be from my cell phone. This one is through a screen in my window and with bad lighting...)

I've found some Ukrainian places in East Village, I've walked through Times Square, I've been in the largest cathedral in the world, and yesterday I even went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island with our internship group. Here are a few pictures to prove that I was there:

At the subway stop where we live. Yes, some subway stops are above ground.


Times Square. The 2009 ball is still at the top.

The Flatiron building.

This is a sculpture that was nicer-looking and stood in the main lobby of the World Trade Center towers. (That should explain the "was nicer-looking.") It now is a memorial in Battery Park.

Downtown New York City from the Liberty Island ferry.

The Statue of Liberty.

Big things are still to come from this amazing city. Stay tuned.

Are you getting thirsty yet?

Finally, something we can ALL drink to!

Okay, I think it's about time that I shared with you one of the coolest projects I've been able to work on at the BYU Ad Lab: The Tap Project. Two years ago, the ad agency Droga5 teamed up with UNICEF to develop a way to raise money to provide clean water for children around the world. Since then it has spread to other cities and this year we picked it up here in Utah!

This has resulted in a lot of work. Each city is responsible for collecting their own media donations as well as creating their own advertising (billboards, TV spots, posters, etc.). The creative team in the Ad Lab has put out some amazing work.

Here's a video that explains how this works
(parts of the video are from UNICEF):

The Tap Project is based on collecting money at restaurants. People will often just order a glass of water when they go out to eat. During World Water Week (March 22-28), restaurants will ask patrons to donate just $1 for that glass of tap water, and the money goes straight to countries that don't have easy access to that water. That one dollar can provide one child 40 days of drinking water! How easy is that?!

As I said earlier, the creative team has really worked hard to come up with some great ads. One of our print ads were even featured in the New York Times! (scroll down, look on the left.) And if you live in Utah, look for one of these TV spots:

Utah Tap :: Here's to the World from Mike Morris on Vimeo.
You can see the other four spots if you search on Youtube or Vimeo for "Utah Tap" (like this).

Wherever you are, please search on the Tap Project website to see if there are any participating restaurants near you! You can even find participating restaurants and then check out their reviews on Zagat.com.

So save a dollar or two and take someone out to dinner during the week of March 22-28 at a participating Tap Project restaurant. Make change for a dollar.

But don't forget to tip your waiter/waitress. The restaurants are doing a lot for this, too.