We could learn a thing or two from Lady Gaga

A little while back third year student Colanthony Humphrey mentioned all the hype about the latest Lady Gaga video. He noted that even though it's not advertising, it's still relevant to what we're doing.

He couldn't be more right.

We could learn a thing or two from Lady Gaga. And I'm not trying to be funny when I say that. She's a brilliant marketer. She knows her target. Her brands is one of the strongest in music today. And the consistency in her messaging is admirable.

While I'm not a fan of her music, I can't help but be fascinated with what she's done. In a time when MTV and Much Music don't seem to playing videos anymore she managed to garner over one billion views of her latest video.

Music videos are nothing more than commercials for the artist. Telephone is nine minutes long - when was the last time you watched a nine minute commercial? It was also full of product placement thus creating an additional revenue stream. And if that wasn't enough it created a whirlwind of controversy which in turn yielded boat loads of free media.

It's all pretty smart and highly calculated if you ask me.

The clean version is below. You'll need a Youtube login for the explicit version.

Humber students get published

As a student you tend to spend a lot of time standing in bus shelters. Often times they're not very pleasent places. They're dirty, littered and the unmistakable smell discourages you from sitting down if in fact there is a bench. However there's one thing that can make the whole experience a bit less demoralizing: seeing your ad on the shelter. And that's the case right now for Julia, Denver, Martin, and Spencer who contributed to ads for the Ontario Human Rights Commission which can be seen on bus shelters all over the city.