As the school year comes to an end, I have a lot to reflect on. This was my first year of high school, the only year in which I did not know what to expect. During the year, I learned more and more as time went on and expectations changed.

What are you most proud of and why?

While writing online for a lot of other projects and work, i developed my own hobby for writing my own stories. I was also very proud of my Middle Ages project, that was actually my favourite project from last year. 

Where did you see the most growth?

I got more comfortable and learned a bunch of new apps i hadn’t even heard of before. It’s allowed me to broaden my horizons and lets me present my work better. It also allows me to get more creative. I am also a way more comfortable sharing my work with adults, though still not so much with my peers. 

What skills would you like to work on next year?

I would like to get better at summarizing all my notes. I do well at note taking, but they are always long and dont usually get to the point quick enough. I would also love to be able to talk to my peers better.

The work that didn’t go well for you, what can you learn from that?

Even though i got the best grade on it, i did not like my imme system characters drawings and writing. I got a rainbow on it but i do not think i deserved that, because it was sketchy and I didn’t even try that hard on the writing. 

What frustrates you most in school?

Not being able to understand work even after its been explained to me time and time again. I also get annoyed by not understanding something everyone else seems to understand. I also get annoyed by not knowing what to write when I’m typing out a blog post.

I know that I have a good work ethic because I care about the quality of my work so much that it stresses me out. I also believe that I have good work habits because I start my work as soon as I receive it. I complete my work on time and take the time to do revisions as well before I submit it. The way I allocate time during my projects allows me to revise, take suggestions and finish on time. 

During the spring exhibition, we were told to answer one question.

“How does advertising persuade, sell, and influence society?”

Hello! And welcome back to my blog! Today, I’ll be telling you all about what I did, and what happened during the spring exhibition! It’ll be fun

So, you might’ve read what was at the top of the page. It’s true, that was the question we were trying to answer throughout the entire exhibition. Now, why were we trying to answer that question? Because it was the baseline of our entire project, of course!

You see, everyone in plp 8 was intended to go to Oregon so they could interview a company and create an ad based off their work. The company specified what they’d want in the ad, such as font, colour, and visuals. So that you, the student/interviewer could get everything spot on in the advertisement. Buuut, for me, it wasn’t the same.

I actually didn’t go to Oregon. It was just bad timing- it was my birthday on one of the weeks and a few other things were actually happening at the time. So, I didn’t interview a company with a group. I did it by myself.

I did a company here in Vancouver. And I, Hazel, do not know anyone personally who owns a business. Well, aside from my dad. So I ended up doing his engineering company! He’s owned it since like 2015, so he’s likely the first person I should be asking.

After interviewing my dad, I started working on his advertisement. This is how it started out:

It’s not amazing, right? I took this off Google maps on a seemingly rainy day so it doesn’t look like a very friendly place, it looks pretty serious. (Which it is but it also isn’t at times)

Now, my lovely lovely teacher gave me some pointers. And after that I decided to just do it over again because honestly this image is atrocious to look at. Here’s my first final:

Pretty nice, right? I kept the image and the general idea but I still had ways to go from here. I had to add shadows, a phone number, an address and even a little gradient behind them so we could see better! And so I did

There were two other revisions between these, but they’re all pretty much the same and uploading takes a little so.. no point. But still, this is 100x better than what I started off with. It was grey and sad and the text was also sad, and now it’s bright and happy and the text is less eye burning to look at! Amazing improvements.

After I finished my ad, it was time for exhibition. I was alone in a group, since I was actually the only person who didn’t go to Oregon. I had to prepare by myself, with a bit of help from another staff member. I had to get food, decorations, advertising things! And so I did, and it looked pretty awesome.

I mean come on, for one person setting everything up this is top tier! I actually put out some Lindor and doughnuts later but that isn’t in the photo since a bunch of kids kept taking them before the exhibition even started. 10 minutes before starting, I threw out a kids lollipop he stuck onto my canvas holder ( I know exactly who it was, by the way. I’m not saying names though ) and met my parents! They were the first people there, they’d actually came early. I was absolutely touched!

Anywho, I went back to my table and stood. Stood for 5 hours. It was great, I met a bunch of amazing people and drank some amazing drinks, but I’ll tell you; my back and calves were broken by the three hour mark. I couldn’t walk around, I couldn’t even sit. I was in a group alone and I was in total agony for half of the exhibition. But I had to pursue. If I didn’t, I’d probably fall on the floor and never get up again. I’d also get a bad grade!

At the very end of the exhibition, I packed a little early and zoomed out the door. I was not sticking around to help everyone else clean up their messes, I was in a group alone, you can clean with 3 other people. I got permission to leave, by the way. I ran in the car and me and my parents rushed out of the parking lot, never to be seen again.

I’m kidding, by the way, I am sitting in class writing this now. Not for long…. Mwehehehhehehe

NOW, to answer the driving question.
How does advertising persuade, sell, and influence society?

It all takes… technique. And knowing who you’re selling to.
Knowing how to create a persuasive ad is important, but what’s even more important is knowing who you’re selling to. Then, you can really get your ad right on the point!
Now, do I know how to create an advertisement? Absolutely not, at least not a moving one. But did I learn a lot about advertising and how media influences people to buy things today? Yes. I did.