I assumed for the directive of review that most of my classmates would be looking back on Project 54 as a whole and reflecting on their own past posts and experiences throughout the project. I believe that many people would be critiquing themselves and their work. That was my first thought given review, especially since it was the final post and final directive but knowing that would be a common idea I thought that would not be as creative as I wanted. Instead, I thought it would be creative to review my teachers Scott and Will. I will review them and their class, not specifically project 54, but a review of whether or not I believe the class did for students what Scott and Will intended for it to do. This post connects to the directive of review because it is a review of my professors and it connects to the brand of kleenex because of the focus on kleenex in this course and the idea of taking a brand and realizing your creativity.

in this course we hope you learn…
1) how to solve problems and generate ideas in multiple media.
2) more about the advertising industry.
3) how to evaluate ideas and select the best.
4) what goes on in the VCU Advertising program.
5) more about yourself and your creativity.

#1-5 above is an exerpt taken straight out of our syllabus. Coming into this class I had no idea what to expect, and had no idea what a class called “curiousness” may entail. The first day of each semester is generally very boring and repetative but in the case of curiousness, Scott and Will were far from the norm. In a packed classroom of 200+ people I found myself sitting in the very back. Scott and Will both seemed very interesting and upbeat. Looking over the syllabus in class I still did not know what exactly Project 54 was and how someone could do so much with kleenex. Scott and Will both quickly made me realize how the class was not about Kleenex, but it was about creativity, and getting your mind going, helping us achieve and go far past what we believed our creative capacities were on day 1. If this class were taught by some of my other teachers I believe I would have given up on it very easily and maybe wanted to switch away from the advertising major. The class is a long process in which there is a lot of work every single week. The idea of Project 54, 3 exams, and pop quizes was very intimidating which I believe caused about half of the class to drop (juding by class attendance and blog posts). I think most people were sitting in class confused about why they would be forced to do something like create a blog, but the enthusiasm of Scott and Will kept me personally motivated. I knew this class would be a lot of work but after the first few weeks I also realized through my own posts and creative growth how much this class could really teach me. I know many people thought Scott and Will were possibly trying to hard to be stand up comics in class, but I believe that effort is what kept me connected to the class. The jokes Scott made in particular brought light to such a tedious class and kept my class attendance very high. I think some people did not like all the jokes but if the class was taken in to seroius of a manner I believe more than half of the class may have dropped due to how boring and more difficult the class would be with more mild mannered proffesors. I think it is a nice change to hear a couple of proffesors drop a few F bombs during class. It shows me how these teachers are real people who are not sugar coating anything, Scott and Will particuarly told us how we would fail if we did not want to work hard and if we did not push ourselves. In class Scott and Will put emphasis on interaction with classmates and the entire class. I usually hate that kind of stuff and I refrained from help from friends with my posts but in class interactions helped the class stay interesting and helped me realize how important it is to interact with others in the advertising field. You can build off eachotehrs ideas and make your own ideas much better than they originally were. The goals 1-5 above were all covered by Scott and Will. Along the line in the class some may think it is pointless but going back and looking in the syllabus at the class goals I realized how much I truly did learn. I learned a lot about the advertising field at VCU and have since succesfully chagned to a strategic advertising major, and have planned out all of my classes for the next 2 years here at VCU. Most importantly in this class I learned a significant amount about myself and my creativity which is goal #5. I was so intimidated at first and even after the first 3 weeks when I only had about 15 posts, 15/54 seems like so little compared to the amount of work still ahead of me. As time went on I believe I was more and more creative and got better and better at the project. Scott and Will kept me motivated thoughout the process so that I did not give up. I was not working for a C in this class I was working for an A. With every post I thought about impressing my teachers and thought about how I would be proud to show this blog to future employers or my friends and parents. Im sure the people who know me best would be shocked to see how creative I became and how much hard work I put in, but I would always insist to them that it would not have been possible with teachers who did not truly care about me and my work. I learned a lot about the advertising industry as Scott and Will showed us both great and poor ads. We learned how money could be made in the industry and how a simple slogan can make you a fortune. We not only saw the best ads but we learned about what motivated those ads and how they were created. I think this is a great teaching technique and the seriousness of the subject along with the amount of fun my teachers made this class created the perfect balance and extended my ability to learn. Overall I hated the idea of a blog as a class, but Scott and Will truly taught me to be creative and this class was much more than a stupid blog thanks to them. Their friendliness, bluntness, and intelligence all helped me grow in creativity.

for my second to last post with project 54 I decided to review some different kleenex advertisments. I went on youtube and found over 50 differenet kleenex ad’s. Many of them were repetitive but I have chosen that I believe are unique to eachother and are much more interesting than your average kleenex advertisment. These ones are crazy and I have trouble believing one in particular ever made it on air, but I believe these ad’s are creative and very interesting. They relate to the brand of kleenex because the purpose of all of these ad’s is to sell kleenex tissues. They relate to the directive of review because I am simply reviewing and analyzing the different advertisements. I hope to point out what I believe to be unique about each commercial, and how I believe the idea was created and how the idea was intended to sell the product. I will review and compare the advertisements to the other clips I have shown and also to more stereotypical kleenex advertisements we are all familiar with.

For video #1 this is one of the less unique kleenex advertisements out there but I still believe it is creative. Most kleenex ad’s have to do with someone being sick and maybe being comforted with a kleenex. This ad focuses on children and parents like a lot of ad’s do. This shows a teacher who is home sick from school, obviously her students need her. They come to her house bearing a box of new anti viral kleenex. Here, kleenex is branding itself as a friendly product that is there for you when you need it. It can save the day killing germs giving the teacher back to her students. In this commercial they say “Thank goodness for kleenex tissues” as if no brand other than kleenex would be able to get the teacher healthy enough to return to her students. I think this commerical is unique because of how much thought was put into using the cute little kids, and showing how much the students relied on their teacher. Their relieance on their teacher is similar to the teachers reliance on the brand of kleenex to help cure her cold. This is somewhat similar to the standard kleenex advertisement but to me it is very apparent how much thought went into what appeared to be such a standard commerical.

Clip #2 is VERY different from any advertisement I have seen for kleenex or any other product for that matter. This one caught my attention immediately mostly because of how wild and crazy the idea was. This commercial was obvioulsy not from America and that is likely why I have seen nothing like it before. Commericals like this help me realize that in other countries products can be marketed in a very different way when the intentions of what they are trying to sell is the same. We may think a commercial like this is insane but to people in a country like Japan it may make those consumers flock to the shelves to buy and rely on kleenex. This commercial shows what appears to be a baby ogre sitting next to his mother and a box of kleenex. The baby seems extremely cranky and irritated as the mother reaches for a kleenex. She tries to kiss him and then lets loose of a kleenex which then begins soaring through the air. This is hard for me to understand, as I do not know how a commercial like this endorses the product really. It is similar to common commercials as it has a mother and a child but the fact he is dressed as an ogre and that a kleenex starts flying away is strange to me. I am sure there is very good reasoning beyond my knowledge that has to do with the japaneese culture that makes this clip make sense but as of now I am unaware.

Clip #3 is a much more modern looking advertisement. It shows a monk helping different animals to safety including spiders, turtles and more. He is a savior to the animals and is shown as a hero to the animals. Many people may disregard the animals but the monk is not your average person. The ad says “thank goodness for forgiveness, thank goodness for kleenex tissue.” It talks about how an anti viral kleenex kills99% of germs. The creators of this advertisement appear to be attempting to relate the kindness and forgiveness the monk has in his heart for the animals to the killing ability of kleenex. Kleenex kills germs while the monk is saving and forgiving animals. The monk may not like the idea of killing at first because he could have killed the animals like the spider but when the idea of killing germs comes up he seems pleased. The music in this ad is very soft and comforting just like the kinds of sounds you may relate to a brand that emphasizes itself on being soft and comforting. The mand did some gross things and got his hands dirty helping save those animals, and he does not need to worry about getting sick because of the germ killing ability of the kleenex.

The final video clip is of a diverse group of people who need a kleenex each for a different reason. The first person seems to be sick with a cold and needs a kleenex to blow her nose, the next person is extremely sad about the stock market crashing and needs a kleenex to get rid of his tears, the third person is a guy who uses a kleenex to clean off make up he was wearing while dressed as a women, and the final person is shown sitting at a toilet with no toilet paper left. The end of the ad presents teh question of “Kleenex, do you need another reason” This slogan is showing the ability of kleenex to be used for so many different things. A kleenex in your house can be used for all of the abovre reasons in the advertisement along with an infinite amount of other reasons. This commercial brings commedy and teh ability for consumers to relate the product to uses that they may need a kleenex for on an every day basis. This is more creative than a lot of other kleenex ad’s and gets the product across very well in waht I believe to be a great marketing strategy.

When thinking of review, I began to think again try to connect the directive through something that interested me. I wanted to think of something that had to do with sports. Review is very important in professional sports, there is a lot of money and emotion in the game and it is extremely important to always make the correct call. Sometimes certain plays are just to close to call and officials and referees make the wrong call. Most sports have some type of review system in the game. The sport that came most to my mind was the NFL. The NFL has “Instant Replay” in which they review different close calls in order to make the right call. In the sport coaches are given 2 “challenges” throughout the game in which they believe the referee made an incorrect call. The process of “Challenging” begins when the coach gets word from the coaches booth that the play was close enough that they think the referee made the wrong call. The next step for the coach is to take out a red challenge flag and throw it onto the field before the begining of the next play. When the referees see the red flag they stop play and head to the review booth to watch the play over and over again until they can determine the correct call. It is usually very important to get the right call on reviewed plays because they usually come at very significant times in the game.

The red flags used by coaches are just like the yellow penalty flags most sports fans can identify. It is sand in a soft tissue like cloth that is able to be thrown and noticed. The sand is in a little sack at the end of the tissue, and it looks extremely similar to the ghosts that people make out of kleenex. I thought it would be a great idea to make a red challenge review flags that are symbolic of the ones used in the NFL. To create my red challenge flag I first took a kleenex and colored it with a red sharpie. I tried to paint one red initially but that was a mess and did not work. Second I took some of those scented balls and put them in the middle on the uncolored side. I then took a rubber band and sealed the balls in there just as sand would be used in an NFL flag. It was a pretty simple plan but took a pretty good amount of time to do because of the tissue tearing at times. The review flag is a very important part of an NFL game and I believe the one I created could be used as a substitute with the same effect which shows how kleenex can truly relate. If there was a big enough difference between the one I created with kleenex and an acutal challenge flag they would not be able to use mine in a game but I believe they could.

PLEASE SKIM THROUGH THE FOLLOWING LINK!:

http://voices.yahoo.com/daily-challenges-dementia-alzheimers-patient-570919.html

Dementia is a disease that progressively gets worse over time. I found the following story about a first hand experience a daughter wrote about her grandmother who suffered from dementia. When the directive of progressive was presented to me I immediately began thinking of things that got progressively worse. That being step one, I came up with many ideas but struggled to think of ways to connect the ideas to kleenex. Most of what I came up with was sicknesses like alzheimers, dementia, schizophrenia, viruses and more. I personally experienced dementia first hand as my grandmother suffered from it for many years prior to her death. I watched it go from not bad, to worse, to awful and it was a very sad and disheartening experience. The link online that I found inspired my connection to kleenex, not only because of her story about her grandmother but because of the tissue relation that is presented in her story and how my grandmother would do similar things. She talks about how often her and her family members had to tell her grandmother “NO!” Her grandmother often acted childish and lacked manners just like my grandmother did. Kleenex is a brand that prides itself on cleanliness and comfort, our grandparents both lacked cleanliness and often used anything as a tissue while constantly needing to be comforted and told what to do. Here is an exerpt from what the girl wrote on her website about her experience with her grandmother, the connection to kleenex will be become more clear after you read this:

In the case of our loved one with dementia, we have one very special “no” that is constantly uttered. “No! Don’t rub your nose on that!” “No! Use your Kleenex, not the kitchen towel to blow your nose!” “No! Stop picking your nose at the dinner table. Go wash your hands!” Seriously, our loved one will rub her nose on anything-and I do mean anything. It doesn’t matter if she has a nose full of snot or not, she has a compulsion to rub her nose on grossly (bad pun here) inappropriate things. Now it’s not like she has constant post nasal drip or something, because she doesn’t. It’s just a bizarre compulsion.

– It doesn’t matter how many Kleenex or hankies (yuck! I hate them, but it was worth a try to see if this would curb her bad habit) you give her or scatter around the house. She nearly always wants to rub her nose or blow it on something she shouldn’t. It’s so bad, that we removed the towels and put paper towels in the bathroom for her to dry her hands on and to protect ourselves from her nose and snot germs.

– All towels usually have to be hidden in both the kitchen and bathroom. Sometimes we put them up high where she can’t reach them. Washcloths, towels, and once even a pot holder have been taken away from her as we catch her in the act of wiping her nose with them, and these are just the things we know about. Every time I change her bedding I shudder to think what’s on it, since I know she wipes her nose on her sheets and blankets also.

– She hides these neatly folded up Kleenex (and her used ones too sometimes) in her dresser drawers and in other odd places. Once when cleaning her room we came across half a drawer full of neatly folded up, but obviously used, Kleenex. We brought her to the drawer and asked her about it. We said, “Hey, look at all these used Kleenex.” Her reply was a genuinely grateful, “Isn’t that nice! I’ll never run out of Kleenex!” (I guess it’s the depression era child talking…) We tried to explain that they were used and that she had a half a drawer full. We counted them with her and there were seventy used Kleenex in the drawer that we promptly threw out.

What you have just read is obviously disturbing and very sad. It is sad that a sickness can bring someone to such a low mental state. The person you know and love now can not control themselves in many ways and in this instance it is with controlling where you wipe your nose. When someone is diagnosed with a disease like this you may be sad but not realize how but it could truly be. You may accept the dementia and think it is not awful but the disease will inevitably get progressively worse over time. Dementia may lead to many awful things and kleenex usage is just an example of something that may be affected by dementia but I believe that dementia is a disease that gets progressively worse and in many cases affects the elderly’s use of the brand of kleenex. My grandma hid kleenex in her purse just like this girls grandmother, and because of her dementia she would go through what seemed to be hundreds of kleenex a day always assuring me they were dirty when they were not. My grandma would use kleenex for everything, including hiding her earrings and putting flowers in them, literally everything you could think of.

Here are examples of how kleenex advertising has changed over time from the first logo to the current one:

-1924 Kleenex-

-2012 Kleenex- 88 Years Later

For this post with the directive of progressive I focused on the process by which a kleenex comes to be. Kleenex is a recyclable product so the process can repeat itself over and over which fits the progressive directive well. The product relates to the brand because I am focusing on how specifically a kleenex facial tissue comes to be and how it can be re used after the long step by step process that leads to a kleenex.

Kleenex just like all paper products come from trees. This is where the idea of progressive is really important. Planting and growing a tree is a very long drawn out process. First you have to dig a hole, then you take seeds and put them in the dirt. Next you put dirt back over the seeds and pat down the dirt. It will be a long time before a tree is grown, you have to make sure the seeds get water daily and plenty of sunlight. Trees like the trees that kleenex come from (which are listed below) can take several years to reach full growth. Once the tree is fully grown they will be chopped down and taken to a mill and crushed down into pulp. After the tree the next stop in the process is to mix the pulp with water. After that the mixture is dried, stretched out and then bleached. This in itself is a much more complicated process than I am making it sound like. After the tissues are made they have to be packaged, distributed and sold. Once the kleenex are sold and used they can be recycled and the entire process can start again.

-The success of our products has been based on helping people fulfill their needs for comfort, softness and cleanliness with high-quality and gentle products.-

What types of trees are used to manufacture Kleenex® Facial Tissue?
Selected tree species, including spruce, fir, aspen, maple and eucalyptus contain thin wood fibers which contribute to the desirable characteristics of softness, absorbency and strength in Kleenex® tissue.

Can Kleenex® Facial Tissue boxes be recycled?
Our cartons are fully recyclable with the poly insert attached. They are accepted at recycling facilities across the country.

ASPEN TREE

EUCALYPTUS TREE

FIR TREE

MAPLE TREE

SPRUCE TREE

When thinking of the word progressive, for some reason “progressive insurance” came to my mind long before anything that had to do with making progress and moving forward. I am going to relate kleenex to insurance because “Progressive” is a very well known insurance company and because accidents that involve insurance leads to a hospital visits which usually include a lot of kleenex, tissues, bandages, soft white materials, and comforting. People also often visit hospitals when they have a cold or pneumonia or another sickness that patients often would use kleenex for. Kleenex are very standard tissues that I can guarantee would be found in any hospitals across the United States. Kleenex is a very clean brand and hospitals are extremely clean and sanitary places. Hospitals are places people go to if they have cancer, have a life threatening injury after something like a car accident, and also a place they go to if they have a simple 24 hour flu. The idea of being sick and going to the hospital is just something people in our country know to do and the kleenex brand connects to the idea of being sick more than any other brand in my mind.

“Hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic resistant bacteria are hospital problems that has claimed lives after lives. The deaths from hospitals-acquired infections alone claim 99,000 deaths annually from the 1.7 million annually infected as I mentioned previously. The problem from not being careful and extra clean along with sterilizing equipments has cause healthy people to become infected with these deadly diseases. That isn’t the only deadly thing that is spreading outside the hospital, antibiotic resistant bacteria are also spreading. From inconsistency in taking the medication and from doctors over prescribing them are causing resistant strain of bacteria that are making it harder to treat them.

Those who don’t agree with this problem might oppose it on the thought that hospitals are better off today then it was back in the old days. That may be true, but we only got here from learning about the human body and of the microorganisms that are causing the problems and in order to keep improving and save lives we have to use the technology that we have now. According to this post, that is exactly how we prevent the spread of germs and infectious diseases. Washing your hands with soap and wearing gloves along with using hand sanitizer are modern ways of keeping clean. Though we have these, doctors and nurses tend to be too busy and forgets to use or practice the use of these, thus, inhibits the full potential of it.

Well those that oppose to the problem of sanitation in hospitals should answer to the families of patients that have died from acquiring an infection from the hospitals that were suppose to provide care for them. This article by Robert Higgs, provide an account of one of the many deaths that are due to HAIs, but are rarely heard of. It is the death of Friederike Roeder, a woman that died at the age of 91 after being admitted to the hospital from a fall in the bathroom. She didn’t die of the fall, but instead of the intestinal infection known as Clostridium difficile stated in the article. It is easy to say that the hospital is fine the way it is because it is better than before and they are saving more lives now, but how would you feel if you were the daughter or grand-daughter of Roeder. They like many have to see their love one slowly perish. Day after day they saw her lose weight and get thinner and thinner from lost of appetite and having constant diarrhea from the infection and eventually died.

Hospitals-acquired infections and resistance bugs are problems that occurs within hospitals that affects not only those in the hospitals. When hearing or reading statistic on the number of deaths caused by infectious for example, people think of only that number and not of the real number of people affects from that outcome. One person’s death is linked to many lives and pain. Somewhere out there a child may become an orphan or a widow. That person can be you and mostly someone you know, so the point is to be aware and support the regulation of hospitals. People need to be concern of the issue and therefore act to prevent or assist in preventing the problem.”

The above quote is as exerpt from a blog written by an activist for hospital sanitation. The idea of sanitation is important in understanding this post. It is important to emphasize the cleanliness of kleenex and how it is used to fight sickness. Kleenex is branded as a cleanly product that is very sanitary. Sanitation is very important in hospitals and if there is a lack of sanitation in hospitals that can be a very dangerous situation. If a doctor does not wash his hands, if a dirty tool is used on you, or if there is a spill in the hallways, if a doctor hands you a bloody kleenex, or any other number of scenarios then patients are at extreme risk of becoming sick or getting killed. There are many people just like the girl that wrote this blog that worry a lot about the sanitation issues in hospitals. In our country most people like me would believe that hospitals are one of the most sanitary and clean places one could go. Doctors and nurses are always wearing gloves and masks and hospitals often smell like bleach or other cleaning materials. They work hard to be sanitary and put emphasis on using sanitary things like kleenex and clean surgical tools. Kleenex could be used in many ways to try and make hospitals more sanitary. They could be given to patients to cover their mouths, to cover up blood or cuts, to clean tools, to clean up spills, and much more. Kleenex are found in hospitals and hospitals are a place you visit when yourinsurance is most important to you. This post connects to kleenex for sanitary issues and the importance of sanitation in hospitals and the importance of sanitation in the kleenex product.

What if a kleenex was the only man made object that a tribe in Africa had. Would they worship it as an idle, use it to start fires, how would they react if a kleenex dropped out of the sky?

For Project 54 I have always wanted to do something that had to do with giving a kleenex to a person or group of people who had never seen one before and seeing how they would react. Clearly everyone I know or would be able to find would know exactly what a kleenex was so I had to resort to creating a hypathetical situation. With the directive of progressive I wanted to dig deep into the word in order to insure I would come up with a unique idea oppose to something that had to do with just taking steps. I found the following definition as about the 4th possible definition of progression and thought I could use this to finally connect to my idea of showing a kleenex to someone who has never seen it before:

4. (Social Science / Education) denoting or relating to an educational system that allows flexibility in learning procedures, based on activities determined by the needs and capacities of the individual child, the aim of which is to integrate academic with social development

With this definition it talked about how progressive can mean more than just taking steps and how it can actually relate to social science and education. If someone had no idea what a kleenex was they would have to examine it, and learn how to use it and decide what they wanted to use it for. It would eventually be used in the persons every day life as I’m sure they would find it useful like all people who currently have access to kleenex. My idea is based around the social and educational aspect of how a kleenex would be used and what it would be thought of like if it was dropped into a remote unsocialized African village. Try to close your eyes and imagine the most remote village you can think of with nothing but huts, wild animals, unclothed people who arent able to relate to anything man made. Now imagine if a box of kleenex fell out of the sky into the small village…

A young 5 year old boy named Mbah sees something fall out of the sky and runs to see what it is, he lived in a small village with no running water, no electricity, and no form of communication with anyone outside of the village. In fact most people did not even know this small village existed and the people that lived in the village had no idea there were other people in the world. They did not wear clothes and they lived a very simple life. The men would hunt for food all day and the women would cook the animals and tend to their gardens. The children played all day long and often tried to help thier parents. The children loved to be comforted by their parents and to sleep under soft blankets that their mothers sewed with wood needles for them. The children valued many of the things that we know kleenex to brand itself to. Kleenex brands itself around softness and comfort, and in seveal of their advertisments they use mothers and their children just as the mothers comfort their children in this village. When Mbah saw the object falling from the sky he ran to find out what it was. He found the box and was over joyed and immediately brought it back to the male leaders of the tribe. The tribe was so intrigued because they had never seen anything man made before. They thought that the kleenex must have been a gift from the gods. They did a tribal dance around the kleenex as they thought it was so holy because of how rare it was and how soft, delicate, and comforting it was which are all values that the tribe practiced. They prayed for more kleenex and began thinking of ways they could use them. They first used it when one hunter came home with a gash in his leg from hunting a boar. They used the kleenex to stop the bleeding and then bandaged him up with leaves from a tree. They were begining to think that the kleenex was the best thing they could ever ask for as they learned more and more ways to use it. They began to use the tissues from the kleenex as markers for a soccer like game they played and they would kick the box past a goalie to try and score. They also learned that when they got sick that the kleenex would be good to sneeze into and wipe their faces. The most useful thing they began to use the kleenex for was to apply war paint. They would dab the kleenex in animal blood and then make designs on their bodies as war paint and ceremonial paint to worship the god’s. It was a long learning process to decide what to use the kleenex for but with a progressive attituted they thought of more and more ways to use it and began using kleenex in their everyday lives.

The steps to climbing mount everest, get cold.

2. Proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments

For my first post with progressive I connected the difficulties of climbing Mount Everest with the Kleenex brand. The idea first came to my head because of the dynamics surrounding the task of climbing Mount Everest. It is a very difficult process that involves years of training your body physically and mentally. To get your body into prestine shape to be able to endure a climb that could last up to several weeks. Mount Everest is over 29,000 feet tall and the conditions that one must endure while climbing it are extreme. There are below freezing temperatures, near vertical sections of climbing, ice gaps, lack of oxygen, lack of food and water, short days, long dark nights, and more. Whenever I watched a movie on Mount Everest it always talked about the great percentages of people that did not finish and had to turn back, the people who died on the way to the top, and the people that had to be airlifted out. The common theme that I noticed, along with exhaustion, was the freezing temperatures and checkpoint areas. The freezing temperatures is how I connect kleenex in this idea which will be further explained later, and all of the checkpoints and time training is how I connect the directive of progressive which I will also explain further later. Whenever you watch a video blog or see any type of media from Mount Everest climbs you notice how the climbers prepare to protect themselves from freezing temperatures more than anything else. They are not shown packing food away in their bags, they are rather shown putting on up to 8-10 layers of clothing, gloves, face masks, hats, hand warmers, feet warmers, and more. They place a huge emphasis on fighting the cold which is why I though the brand of kleenex connected so well to Mount Everest. You hear about how people get frost bite or gang green, and when they have interviews you notice how their eyes are ALWAYS wattering, and how their noses are always running on their rosy red faces. The climbers often talk about how they lose feeling in their bodies, particuarly in their faces. Kleenex is designed to fight a cold just like the other precautions the climbers use. When watching video blogs you see climbers whiping their faces off with tissues in order to make themselves look presentable and to keep the snot or drool or tears from freezing on their faces.

The climb of Mount Everest is not just something you can get motivated and do, which is why being progressive is so important here. You have to spend years of training to get your body to have the stamina to endure the climb. Before even considering signing up to climb the mountian you have to spend years training and pass a series of test proving your heart rate, lungs, and more are all capable of with standing the extreme conditions that will ineviteably be run into on the mountain. They will not simply let you show up to the base of the mountain and climb it becaue you would surely die. They insure your safety by making sure your body is healthy enough and you are mentally prepared enough because once you start there is no turning back. I think progress is very important in training because I am currently myself training for a marathon. Part of that is running a higher number of miles every week which is slowly making progress to my goal. It takes several weeks but your body gets used to the training and is able to with stand more and more pain as time goes on. Training for Mount Everest is undoubtedly more difficult than training for a marathon so I imagine the training schedule for that would be extremely intense and take a lot of time to steadily build your body up week by week with slow progression. Progression is also key when you actually get to Mount Everest and begin your climb. This is not a climb that you can start early in the morning and finish by sunset. This is a climb that will take weeks. Each day climbers have a goal, and have to move forward and make a certain amount of progress to reach their goal which is the checkpoint. Based on skill there can be several checkpoints after they reach the initial base camp which itself can take 6-8 days to reach. The key to climing the mountain is to continually motivate yourself to make progress nad make it to the next checkpoint and eventually to the top all while withstanding cold and wind and other factors that are dangerous and could make you sick. Everyone knows climbing the mountain is an extremely drawn out enduring process and progression is key in moving forward to your goal, and kleenex could be charished by climbers as they deal with the sickening conditions.

For my final post with the directive of social I decided to do something completely unique to what I have done so far with project 54. I created a comic strip and decided to make it about baseball because that is something that interests me. I decided to make a comic strip about baseball and how a kleenex tissue could be used in the sport by players, coaches, umpires, and fans. The connection to the directive is the social interaction that the different characters in my comic are having with each other. They are discussing kleenex and how they are using them in different baseball scenarios. The connection to the brand of kleenex is the fact that a kleenex can be so useful in social situations such as baseball and that all of the characters in the slides are using kleenex.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them and read the interactions the characters are having in my comic!

Being social is usually a great thing in our society. Being social can lead to popularity, fame, connections with friends and future business opportunities, political party advancements such as a Presidential candidate gaining popularity and much more. For this post with the directive of social I have decided to illustrate some situations in which being social is a very bad thing. I think the idea of pointing out situations when being social is a bad idea is a very creative post because I think most people believe being social is always a positive thing in life.

One of the worst things about being sick, is how contagious many sicknesses often are. This can be something simple like a cold, or something very unique like a virus. I am going to outline some places that you should avoid when you have a serious cold or virus. You may think it is safe to go out when you are sick as long as you have a kleenex, but that is not true!

1. STAY AWAY FROM SCHOOL!

We all remember playing hooky when we were in elementary school. Thinking back on it, our parents probably knew every single time we were faking it. We all remember telling them we had headaches or felt dizzy or another stupid excuse. What many of us may forget are the times we were at school, and were asked to go home. Some parents force their kids to go to school even when they are sick and I have vivid memories of hearing teachers tell me or other students that we need to go to the nurse and go home because we are sick. With so many kids running around school, the spreading of germs is inevitable. So many people use the bathroom, sneeze in class, or wipe their noses on their hands then touch every door nob or keyboard in sight. Those are some of the reasons teachers advise so strongly for children who are sick to go home so they do not get other kids sick. I remember in high school when people were getting staph infections. They told anyone who had one not to come to school even though they were likely physically able. Once about 5 people were reported to have gotten a staph infection my school seriously considered shutting down. Some people may really want to go to school so they do not fall behind, or because they want to be social and hang out with their friends or see a girl they may like. It is so important to stay away from school and suck it up and lose your social life for a few days in order to stop yourself from getting others sick and needed kleenex.

2. DO NOT GO TO WORK!

Work is very similar to school. Adults may likely want to go to work even when they are sick as a dog. Adults with full time jobs only get a certain amount of sick days or vacation days every year so they really value them. Also a lot of working adults have children at home and want to make sure they do not get their children sick. Adults force themselves to go to work even when they are so sick for so many reason. They want to make sure to save their vacation days, they want to be healthy around their kids, they want to earn their wages to support their families, and more. Work is just like school where people are closely confined in small work spaces. If you get your entire office sick you will be in even more trouble than if you skip a few days so it is important not to go to work when you are sick. Stay home, hold your box of kleenex close and stay under the covers for a few extra hours of sleep. Being at work is being in a social enviornement. You must interact with others all the time and work together to get your job done. Work is also a place where a lot of people have friends or meet their spouses which is also very social.

3. STAY AWAY FROM THE HOSPTIAL!… Wait what?

It is important to not over react and go to the hospital when you are sick! Hospitals are places where hundreds of sick people filter in and out of every day. Hospitals are socail places because of how people are forced to interact. Patients must interact with nurses, doctors, and surgeons. If you are really not as sick as you think you should stay away from the hospital and avoid the risk of becoming more sick with more dangerous diseases. You would also be putting people with serious illnesses in a bad position as you are forcing them to wait longer and risk letting them infect other people. Kleenex is important here because of how many kleenex are used in a clean hospital and are used specifically for sick people.

4. DO NOT GO TO A PARTY!

It may be a friday night after shcool and all of your friends are going out to a party. You may be very jealous and feel like you can just suck it up and take some anti biotics and go out for a night of drinking but you are wrong. Alcohol mixed with anti biotics is very dangerous and should never be done. Also parties are usually very crammed places and if you were to sneeze you could get germs on another person or in another persons drink. Being in such close quarters can almost guarantee that you will get another person sick so it is important to stray away from being social on your average firday night when you are sick. If you go out you will not get healthy and will risk getting your friends sick!