STANANDLOU MARKETING/ADVERTISING

Brandy, Michelle, Kate, Rhea, and Jennifer excited to see Madonna!

Well, most of us anyway. She’s on almost all of my 56 mix tapes I made in middle school and now occupies a whole playlist on iPod. I own several CD’s and know the names of all her three children.  I am a Madonna fan. To my delight (to put it mildly), STANANDLOU’s account services and media team attended the sold-out, much anticipated Madonna “Sticky and Sweet” concert on Sunday, November 16 at Minute Maid Park.  Although she was a little late, Madonna’s performance was worth the wait. The production was extravagant, the dancers incredible, and the star lived up to her reputation as an amazing performer.  Best memory of the whole night besides being with the STANANDLOU crew? Singing my lungs out and dancing to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” – just like I did when I was 13.

I know this is almost 2 months past due, but better late than never!  I think moving to college, unpacking and then beginning one of my hardest semesters yet may have something to do with it. But nonetheless, I wanted to write something to share my experience as an intern and thank everyone at StanandLou. I was only there for four days, but it was still a really great way to see how an advertising and marketing firm works. Before this, I had an idea, but now I have experienced it and figured out I really like it.

So, thank you Lou for letting me come in for those few days. I really enjoyed getting to see how each department worked and getting to sit in on meetings while I was there. Danica, thank you for showing me how to use the phone system over and over again even though I didn’t really finally understand it until the last day.  Rhea, thanks for showing me the ropes and giving me great advice about the business. And most importantly, thank you for suggesting crave cupcakes-possibly the best thing ever.  Brandy, thank you for your advice and it was great working with you! And to the rest of the team that I didn’t really get to spend time with, I hope to come back and get to work with you as well!

Thank you again! I hope to be coming back Christmas break before I am shipped off to Australia to study abroad next semester!

-Lindsay (”The Stan’s” daughter)

STANANDLOU Marketing/Advertising just celebrated its 20th anniversary. This is what Brandy had to say about the whole affair.

For more information about one of Houston’s premier advertising agencies, go to http://www.stanandlou.com.

So another thing about me is that I am a little bit of a hippie. Or at least I try to be. I am really interested in all that Green discussion that seems to pervade all of our lives. I remember reading a while back in The Economist about the food crisis in the world. It talked about the rising prices for rice and how it would push millions of people into unheard-of poverty levels. I can’t remember the figures exactly, but there would be millions of people in the world forced to eat less than $1.00 food per day.

That stems from many different factors – natural disasters (floods, etc), changes in farming techniques, but also government intervention in agriculture, specifically subsidies for food products to create biofuels like ethanol. Other articles also talk about the ratio of energy produced versus consumed to create these new fuels to cut the use of fossil fuels. All interesting reading.

In the June 28th issue of The Economist, they discuss Brazil’s biofuel industry. There were many interesting points to the article, but what stood out in my mind the most is that the ethanol that the brasileiros produce “packs 8.2 times as much energy as it used in its production, compared with just 1.5 times for corn ethanol, according to the Woodrow Wilson Centre, a Washington think-tank.”

My main problem with all of this talk is that people are living on less than $1.00 in food and people are concerned about using food to produce fuels that will preserve our future. Why don’t we care about people we can save right now, using those same resources?

Last night, as I was tossing and turning in bed thanks to my not so dear friend Insomnia, I started thinking, among other insomnia-crazy thoughts, about what I wanted to change in my life that would influence the planet where I live, the planet where my children will live, and probably the children of my children…and future Badurina generations. I came to the conclusion that I want to become a more eco-friendly person. I’m not talking about spending a lot of money on products, or transforming my house into a green house, I’m just talking about pequeños cambios. Tiny things that, with time, will add up and make a difference, at least, to the arboles and pajaros around my casa, and the squirrels too, por supuesto.
So I’m open to try some little things that are easy and cheap to do and make the earth a little better. Things you can also do, little things for Un Mundo Mejor:

Air-dry your clothes: I know it is easier to put your clothes in the dryer, but I’ve actually found that taking five extra minutes to hang things on a small rack, which you can easily find in IKEA, can make a really big difference. It not only reduces energy usage, but it also makes your clothes last longer. I started air-drying my clothes six months ago, and I can seriously say that I have fallen in love with it. I’m not only using less energy, but I am also preventing my clothes from ruining. If you can’t air-dry everything, at least try it with big things, like sheets and towels. They’ll dry in less than a day, or even half a day with Houston’s weather.

Živjeli,

Danica

The gift-wrapping job that new STANANDLOU Account Service and Media Service hire, Danica Badurina, did today was absolutely incredible.

I bought a large piece of embossed paper from Texas Art Supply (it was on-sale for a buck) yesterday in which to wrap two T-Shirts I got for my best friend who is getting engaged today: 8/8/08 at 8:08 pm. He’s Chinese, you see, and the number eight has some spiritual significance, as seen in the opening of the Beijing Games.

I had originally planned on making a shirt myself with iron-on letters, if they even still make that kind of stuff, but then I had an idea. Good old creative production agency 808, Inc. sells some very well designed shirts, and they seemed appropriate. Very appropriate. I called up Robert Campbell, the Creative Director over there, and he set me up with two shirts. They have two little owls joined together at the ass and “808” underneath. Perfect.

Back to the real story.

With the aforementioned piece of large, embossed paper, I was simply going to roll up the shirts and tie it up with a piece of robin’s egg-blue ribbon that I swiped from my mom’s sewing room on my way to work. (Yes, I still currently live at home. Think what you want. I have good reason.) I asked Kate and Tiffany if they could tie a nice bow, because all girls are born with, or are taught early on, how to make nice bows and wrap the hell out of presents. I still can’t really do it — the ends get all messed up. Kate told me to ask Danica to do it. She’s really good at it, Kate says. I was skeptical.

I quickly went to Danica’s office where I found her at the computer wearing her ubiquitous scarf. She is always cold. I pity her. I showed her my tube-package-thing. “Ooh, that is so unattractive,” she said in her lovely Latin voice. Oh, how I love the Latin accent, “You cannot give that as a present. I will take care of it.” And my shirts, my ribbon and my paper tube were whisked away.

An hour later I returned to my office (I had to play a few games of foosball) to find something magnificent, something odd, something abstract — my present. What was once a large piece of embossed paper, some stolen ribbon and another business’ promotional material, had become a stunning objet d’art. I knew immediately that my friend and his soon-to-be-fiancé would love it and that all of their friends would know how thoughtful I am, and then, of course, question my sexual preferences.

There must be some sheik in Dubai, dripping in Euros, who would erect a building modeled after Danica’s design. I will not rest until my friend’s engagement present dots the desert horizon of that Emirate city-state!

And if any of you want Danica to wrap your presents for you, call her at STANANDLOU. 713.683.8000. Her name is pronounced DAN-IT-SA. I don’t know what she’ll charge and I haven’t figured out what I will charge as her creative agent. Just know it’ll be a damn fine-looking present.

My Life As an Intern:

As summer draws to an end, so does my summer internship at StanandLou. Over the last few days I have been reflecting upon the afternoons I spent with the employees of this Houston Ad Agency. I have come to the conclusion that I was fortunate enough to have worked with some of the funniest, creative and talented people in the industry, no matter how goofy or nutty they may act.

From Rhea’s hand gestures and facial expressions while she is on he phone to her random shouting outbursts ( to no one in particular) the cheers from the foosball table room, Jennifer’s desk ( or the search for Jenn’s desk under the piles and piles of paper) to Lou’s infamous flip-flop and shorts fashion fiasco, the employees and principals of StanandLou never ceased to amaze me, and have provided me with so many memories that this blog does not do them all justice.

Having just completed my freshman year of college, at TCU in Fort Worth (GO FROGS!), I am a definite newbie to the industry, and was terrified that I was going to be completely out of my element. I just want to say a huge Thank You to every single person at StanandLou for not only teaching me the ropes, but being patient with me when I was not understanding something or having trouble with the new phone system. ( I have it down now btw).

I truly will miss sitting at the front desk, watching every single one of yall walk by either going to lunch, meetings, or most often the bathroom (or in Rhea’s case sometimes sprinting to the restroom). And Lou I will definitely miss our front desk conversations whenever you would be walking by the front desk or just walking to the printer.

I’ll miss you guys!! Keep In Touch!

Love,

Shayna Fawcett

P.S. Bob and Justin I am sorry for my lack of foosball skills…and Lou we all know you’ve worn high heels before don’t deny it.

So I have become a bit of a nerd. I am obsessed with The Economist. Whenever I get spare time, I read it. It is really a good magazine that comes out once a week. I usually can’t keep up, but then again, there are times when I can get through most of one issue in a day or two.

My first encounter with The Economist was in Santander, Spain. I met with an ophthalmologist twice a week so he could keep up his English and we talked about all kinds of stuff: travel, economics, technology… He told me about the magazine and lent me one of his issues. I kept up reading it as much as I could between living la vida espanola and traveling around Europe.

When I came back, Michelle let me start reading her subscription, and so now I have a steady flow of great political, economic, and social commentary in my life. I usually read about 2 articles a morning for breakfast. Since I love the magazine so much, I decided to share some of the interesting things I learn.

Today’s facts:

• There are allegations that Lech Walesa (the trade union’s leader who greatly contributed to the fall of communism in Poland) was a secret police informant in the early 70s. He denies the allegations and the writer thinks that it is the opposition party’s attack on the Civic Platform, who won the recent elections.
• Chile is 2nd only to Norway in salmon exports. Last year the industry brought $2.2 million dollars into the country. The farms are mostly located in the south.

One of the many perks of working at Houston ad agency, STANANDLOU, are FREE tickets. Thanks to one of our media vendors we were able to score some nice seat to the circus.

I guess every parent wonders if/when their child will stop laughing at clowns and start fearing them. A condition known as Coulrophobia. This weekend the Ringling Brothers Circus was in town and we decided to try our luck.

Luckily we didn’t experience any meltdowns or psychological scarring but my daughter wasn’t to thrilled with being asked to stand eight feet away from the man-eating tigers.

All in all we had a great time. The show was a lot more entertaining this year and she was able to follow the “plot.” (clown falls in love with beautiful acrobatess)