As I reflect on the past school year, I can’t help but think about the succession of the Spring exhibition and the phases I went through to get there.
Beginning and Planning:
When the project was first announced, I was exited and eager to start right away. The first few weeks after that, before we went on our field study, we did all the research and planning. We looked into the history of our establishment, what customers they wanted to attract, and what questions we would ask them once we got there. I was assigned Kam Meng, a Chinese restaurant in Newport, Oregon, that had a fascinating story behind their restaurant.
The wife grew up in China, and from a very young age, she had a deep love for music and wanted to play all her music she wrote. Her parents weren’t supportive of this dream, and wanted her to become something different. So when she moved to Oregon for school, she saved $1200 dollars to visit her fiancé and family. But instead of going back to China to visit, she bought a piano, finally living out her dream. She played everyday in her apartment, hoping one day she could play for someone who would understand her music.
When her and her now husband got married, they opened a Chinese restaurant called Kam Meg, named after him. The first few years were hard, they worked long shifts to get through, hoping to get more attention from nearby people. The worked and worked, but one day, all their money got stolen, sending them into a bad place. Their daughter slipped into a depression and everyone was blaming her. One day, they decided to move her piano to the restaurant, so they could have more space in their apartment they were barely affording.
The wife started playing the piano again when the restaurant wasn’t busy, showing her love for music had still remained. But as she kept playing, more and more people came into their restaurant, and they started becoming more and more popular. The couple are retired now, but the piano still rests in the restaurant, reminding the customers of good times. Even if she’s not here at the restaurant anymore, the same cozy and family friendly atmosphere remains.
Once we get to Kam Meng, we learn lots of little details about the restaurant to make our ad represent them. Their colour scheme is black, white and green with little pops of colour. They wanted their famous seafood hotpot to be in the ad, along with bamboo. They wanted our ads to be informative but casual, and show the family-friendly side of it. So once we got back to Vancouver, I started immediately on my ad.
Creation:
Creating an ad is very difficult. When I made my first draft, I thought I had gotten the idea right away, but i was very wrong. It took me at least 8 try’s to get something half decent, let alone good enough to present. Lots of changing colours, positioning photos and adding bamboo later, and I arrived at my final draft. It was a long process, but I was extremely pleased with my product, and was excited to move on to the exhibition.
Planning our station
When it was time to design and plan our table, the first task was to assign a DRI (designated responsible individual) to your group. Everyone decided that I would be the best DRI, so I started to plan and give people tasks. We stuck to the colour scheme and ideas Kam Meg gave us, and everything was starting to look really good.
We decided to incorporate Kam Meg’s idea of using black, white and green, so we found green table clothes and made fake bamboo to use as decorations. We wanted to keep it simple yet casual but still show the best of Kam Meng, so we made our snack table a piano, symbolizing the importance of it.
As the DRI, my job was to ensure that everyone was on track with their tasks and that everything was coming together as planned. I would regularly check in on each group member and provide feedback to ensure that everything was meeting our expectations.
Exhibition day
In the end, our table looked amazing! The table really brought our ideas to life, and it felt like we showed everyone what Kam Meng can do. We were all proud of what we had accomplished together, and it was clear that our hard work and dedication had paid off. The exhibition was so fun, getting to see what my classmates created and how we all expressed our ads with such confidence. It was such a great experience, and I’m already looking forward to the winter exhibition next school year!
DRIVING QUESTION
How does advertising persuade, sell, and influence society?
Advertising creates a desire for a product by highlighting its benefits and uses language, imagery and emotion to make it desirable. It reaches a wide audience through different mediums and can influence what society values and aspires to. It can also create a lifestyle or culture associated with a product. It’s a tool that’s not only useful, but will help you reach lots of people at once. Advertising plays a big role in shaping consumer behavior, values, and attitudes. For a small business like Kam Meng, advertisement could help them reach new customers and show off their various food options.