Classes have finally kicked off

The syllabi weeks are over; my classes have definitely kicked off. The second part of January presented itself as a mixture of unpredictable weather conditions and lots of due assignments. 

The GLC Get Together

Let’s start with a more pleasant event: The GLC Get Together on Monday, January 19. Professor Stewart, Dr. Beshah and the team advisors decided to host a nice welcome get-together for us German students to get to know everyone. We got great pizza (from Avalanche Pizza, the best joint in town), great vegetables (Prof. Stewart is a vegan) and eventually great talks. Most of the current second year students and a few alumni used their chance to get free food and joined us in the fancy 1804 room (OU was established in 1804) at Baker Center. The GLC has definitely proven itself to be a warm, welcoming community that is always open for new members! 

As I mentioned before, I had first assignments due in my other courses. In my Strategic Communication Writing class we had a memo to write, a fictional press release (including a pitch letter) and our first midterm (even though it is not in the middle of the term and we have more than one, it is still considered a “midterm”). Mr. Farkas, the instructor of StratComm Writing, taught us the key principles of good strategic writing: Brevity: Be concise and thorough. My thoughts and writings have been indoctrinated by his words. In everything I write, I’m looking for words to cut out and passive voice to get rid off. I guess this blog entry is so cluttered with no-goes; I’d get an F for it. 

The press release was pretty fun because we could choose our own topic. I chose to write about the fictional global launch of the BMW i8 at the 2015 Chicago Auto Show (I understand it’s stereotypical that the German student decides to write about German cars...). The assignment not only included the press release itself, but a pitch letter as well. A pitch letter is designed to pitch a topic to a specific journalist. It has to be personal and specifically tailored to one person. I chose the features editor of the popular car magazine Car and Driver (who is fortunately very active on Twitter). He has been ranting about the dysfunctional ignition of several GM models, which I found to be a good topic to connect with him. 

In my PR Planning course we analyzed the Doritos Social Media Campaign of 2009. All students were assigned to groups, while every group analyzed a certain aspect of the campaign. FritoLay (the company behind Doritos) had asked Americans (and still is by the way) to produce their own TV spots, which would later be aired at the Super Bowl. The winner (see below) would then not only have his spot aired during Super Bowl, but also wins $1 million. Our group assessed the campaign to be a huge success because it eventually gained vast, long-lasting publicity over a wide range of national media outlets. Getting a look behind the curtains and analyzing this campaign, made theory (which we have covered extensively) finally come into action. 

Well, of course a lot more has happened in the last two weeks, but there’s just not enough time (and space) to tell everything.