As a journalism major, it became quickly obvious that journalism (at least in the United States) has fallen quite far on the integrity scale. Today, it has gotten even worse. While The Daily Show, a comedy program, employs a full time fact checker, news organizations will employ one perhaps part time. Most mass media is owned by one of five megacorporations. Megacorporations that have other assets to promote and a profit-oriented view.

So, I decided if I were to be evil, I just as well be honest about it. So, I switched to advertising. I really enjoyed the topic, particularly the discussions of intersections and media interactions. I love being creative and creating stories, which is the foundation of the creative area of advertising (as opposed to branding). My profs were great.

But, my peers were a different story. I really did not have any thing in common with them. Even with advertising, I don’t want to just watch the ads. Advertising needs to earn my attention. And most did not seem to look past the surface while creating; to sell something you need to get in the mindset of the market.

At this point, I stepped back and considered what I wanted and what had drawn me to advertising. It was telling stories. It was swapping my viewpoint with that of someone completely different; learning about socio-economic and cultural aspects of others. And there is something appealing about convincing someone that you have something that will genuinely make their life better.

I decided I wanted to make the things that would be worthwhile. These things that advertising could be honest. And technology is where the world is innovating. So, engineering or computer science? Computer science just felt more right to me.

The world is becoming ambient advertising. Even journalism, traditionally viewed as objective, has an angle; what new pandemic, book, sports team am I being sold now? Buses, sidewalks, television, movies, textbooks… all are subtly trying to sell me something.

Let’s say it’s a free, open source tool. Alternative tools (which may have equal features) won’t be mentioned. And rarely, they’ll give me a reason why I need X feature. No one is even being paid in these cases.

Word of mouth is the most effective and cheapest advertising medium available. It’s people that like your product or service to talk about it to others that trust this person’s judgement.

People even advertise themselves: public versus private personas. And there may be more than one. What language do you use with children? Coworkers? Friends? Family? Doubt it’s the same across all of them. (I’d certainly get in trouble if my thoughts always got to my mouth.)

Then, there’s the question of labels that are used. Despite building little embedded and alternative interface systems, I’m not about to call myself a “maker,” “hobbyist,” or “engineer.” These terms conjure images that I do not associate with even if they could be correct.

… So, if the whole world is one big advertisement, how do you brand a person. First, we need to consider what branding is. No, not the kind involving a hot iron. Branding is an idea that is painted onto a commodity. Owning a Mac does not make a person creative. A sports car does not guarantee a fast (possibly reckless) driver. Having lung cancer doesn’t mean the person is a smoker and deserved it. All computers, cars, and cancers are more or less the same. Yet, we associate these things with social messages.

So how do people brand? Well, I’ve been building the brand that is Alison since I came into existence. It’s not that I am creating one from scratch: I am just continuing my branding. (Think of Disney. When was that not about family entertainment?)

While it is possible to rebrand a person, that’s increasingly difficult. A doctor isn’t going to become a shoe salesman easily. So, think on what you have and how to sell that. Let’s try dissecting me:

• Person (I prefer human-first labeling)
  • Humor: Dry, sarcastic, and dark with occasional bad puns
  • Morals: Emphasizes integrity and being honest with oneself about immoral behavior
  • Animal lover: has pets and buys humane animal products
  • Creative: paints, writes, and creates projects
• Computer scientist
  • Mixed advanced courses: diverse CS interests
  • Diversity work: wants equal opportunities for everyone
  • Tutor: knows material to be able to teach

That’s a very basic one. I could go into being female, a person with a disability (with its subgroups), middle class, European-American, older child, being raised in diverse locations, enjoying Asian foods, being dairy-free etc. What of me is worth selling? Well, as with selling anything, it depends on who I’m selling to.

What do Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 14″ (also known as the “Moonlight Sonata”), Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope have in common? In case the title wasn’t a giant clue, these are all works in the public domain.

Property in the public domain belong to, well, the public. Anyone can use content in the public domain and could create new protected materials from them. Copyrights, patents, and trademarks, once the protection ends, enter the public domain. In addition, works by the United States government (and several other governments) automatically enter the public domain.

Works created based on public domain content can have their own shiny new intellectual property protections (same as if the work were made from scratch). For example, modern productions of Hamlet are protected under copyright laws despite the play being in the public domain.

And, seeing as the protections are already covered, here’s a list of places to get public domain content:

• LibriVox for audio recordings of books.
• Open Clip Art for clipart.
• Project Gutenberg for text of books.

(Also see Wikipedia’s list of public domain resources

Next up, something I got way to familiar with as an ad major: trademarks.

Trademarks are the little things that discern one service or product from another, like logos or slogans. (Branding is built around these things. But, that’s a topic for another time.)

In the U. S., trademarks must be used in commerce before they can be filed. That said sticking a small “TM” (trademark) or “SM” (service mark) next to or on a trademark can be used until it’s registered. Once registered, the trademark will be active for 10 years and can be renewed for 10 years (and then renewed again). Unlike copyright laws, there are not international trademark protections; a trademark will need to be registered for every country it will be in effect for.

When it’s being registered, a trademark can either be granted to a person or a business/organization. In most cases, it’s wiser to keep it with the person and just license it for a set period. It makes sure that if the company is taken over, closes, etc. that the creator actually gets to keep their creations.

So, what’s so great about them? Sounds like copyrights would be better. First, many trademarks can’t be copyrighted. Words, phrases, and colors cannot be copyrighted. What’s special about “Puma” or “Good to the Last Drop” or the pink color used for Owens Corning’s fiberglass insulation?

Even better, knockoffs are also prevented. While there are a variety of mice in overalls, Disney will get involved if there’s something akin to Mickey Mouse, particularly in animation.