Author: andrewcareaga

Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction.

Coming soon: CASE marketing and branding conference #CASEACMB

The CASE Annual Conference on Marketing and Branding is coming to Baltimore, Md., April 30-May 2, 2014.
The CASE Annual Conference on Marketing and Branding is coming to Baltimore, Md., April 30-May 2, 2014.

Keep your eyes peeled for a postcard (like the one pictured) from CASE announcing this year’s CASE Annual Conference on Marketing and Branding. If you’re involved in marketing or branding for your institution, you won’t want to miss this conference.

Led by the illustrious Rachel Reuben (@RachelReuben), associate VP for marketing communications at Ithaca College, this conference promises to be a terrific opportunity for anyone wanting to learn from some great higher ed marketing and branding pros.

I’m fortunate to be a part of the faculty for this conference, which is scheduled for April 30-May 2 in Baltimore, Maryland. Joining Rachel and me are three more exceptional marketing and branding pros:

  • Charlie Melichar, senior consultant in strategic communications at Marts & Lundy and formerly with Vanderbilt University and Colgate University. I’ve worked with this great presenter in the past, and look forward to working with him again.
  • Jason Simon, who recently joined SimpsonScarborough as a VP and partner after serving as executive director of marketing communications for the University of California System. He previously held a similar position at North Carolina State University.
  • Heather Swain, the VP for communication and brand strategy at Michigan State University. A member of Michigan State’s staff since 2006, she previously work in communications at Ball State University.

Check out the program. We’ll be covering a broad range of relevant topics — from launching a new brand identity, measuring success and using storytelling in your marketing to advertising strategies and keeping your brand vibrant beyond the launch, and more. So sign up for this great opportunity. I hope to see you there.

You probably think this blog is about you

I was flipping through radio stations the other day when Carly Simon’s early 1970s hit “You’re So Vain” came on. It’s the song that propelled her to superstardom. And it’s a song I’ve heard millions of times, but not for a long time, and on this day, for some reason — maybe because I was by myself and driving a familiar route, so my mind was reasonably undistracted — I paid more attention to it than I normally would.

It amused me to listen to it. Carly Simon’s vocals are so heartfelt, but her delivery and the lyrics come across as somehow more mean-spirited today than I remembered it. Her words and delivery are vitriolic and essentially spewed out in a controlled seethe, directed at this unnamed perpetrator of vanity, who we all know by now was probably Warren Beatty, or possibly Mick Jagger, David Bowie or Cat Stevens, but definitely not James Taylor, who was her husband at the time. She’s clearly angry about this Lear jet-flying, apricot-tie-wearing offender.

Later on, as I reflected on my reaction to “You’re So Vain,” I thought about a track from the latest album by the Avett Brothers (The Magpie and the Dandelion) that deals with the same subject: vanity. In fact, that’s the name of the song: “Vanity.”

Despite the common connection of theme, these two tunes are as different from each other as the era in which they were born.

Carly Simon’s song came out in 1972, an era when obsession with celebrity and fame was still more or less mediated by the entertainment media of that time and The National Enquirer. And she sat in judgment of another person’s vanity.

The Avetts wrote their song in the era of the selfie. The vanity they write about is their own, not another person’s.

I’ve got something to say

But it’s all vanity, it’s all vanity

I found a tune I could play

But it’s all vanity, it’s all vanity

The Avetts aren’t directing any anger outwardly. They’re reflecting on their world and singing introspectively, while echoing the ancient opening words of the Book of Ecclesiastes.

The vanity they sing about is that of the Internet age. It is theirs, and ours, and maybe even Carly Simon’s. We’re all so vain. Especially those of us who post and blog day in and day out. Look what I wrote! Look what I’m sharing! Check out this video I found!

But at least we’re not angry about it.

You probably think this blog is about you. But, really, it’s all about me.