Pitch Letter

Good Morning Ms Dohack,

Would you like to improve every aspect of your life including: health, financially, love, and luck? Well, a new product claims it can teach you to do all of that for your self. The book written by Art Davis, Success from Serenity: Making your Nervous System Work for You, comes with a CD and relaxing eye mask. The CD includes Miracle Breathing Techniques and a relaxation poem to calm the listener into inner peace. Davis teaches the listeners to positively visualize what they want in their lives. The entire process takes less than 30 minuets. After enough practice, the customer can even learn to do this on his or her own.

I believe you’re the perfect editor to write about such a product because from reading your past articles, your target audience is women in their late 20s mid 30s who want to look their best but lead busy lifestyles.

I am contacting you first and believe that the lifestyle section of the Columbia Tribune would be the perfect place for this story because every busy career woman needs help distressing and relaxing. I can set up an interview with Art Davis if you would like.

I will call you in a few days to see if you are interested in covering the product. If you are, I can get you a copy if the book, CD and the accompanying mask so that you may try the product out yourself.

Regards,

Jasmine Martin

Story Assignment: Desiree Rogers

Before politics became an issue, Desiree Rogers was great friends with the Obamas. Rogers, an New Orleans native, attended Wellesly College. She then went on to receive her MBA from Harvard University. Rodgers met the Obamas through her husband, who attended Princeton University with Michelle's brother, Craig. That was about 20 years ago. Early in the race for office, Rodgers proved herself to be a valuable asset by raising about $600,00 for the campaign.

After Obama took office, Rodgers became the first African American woman to hold the title of social secretary. To some cabinet members' disdain, Rodgers posed for magazines such as Vogue, The Wall Street Journal's Magazine, and Vanity Fair. She attended fashion week in New York with Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintor. David Axelrod, who has also known Rodgers for some time, even deemed it necessary to have a sit down with Rodgers about her behavior.

The night of the State Dinner, things took a turn for the worse. Two uninvited guests snuck in, which led to Rodgers’ resignation. Weeks before the event she, and her staff, went through records of President Bush’s State Dinners and emulated what the social secretary did before her. Her staff placed metal detectors at the East Portico but not at “the outer checkpoint on the street.” About five months later, Rodgers resigned.

1. Do you believe there’s any bad blood between you and David Axelrod since he didn’t come to your defense after being close friends for so long?
2. Will you ever release a public statement about the incident?
3. Some refer to your behavior (attending fashion shows, wearing couture) as ‘Camelot’. It upset some people when our nation is facing 10% unemployment. What do you think?
4. You look so young! What’s your beauty regimen?
5. Most of the things written about you have a negative connotation. No one ever talks about the things you did right (the Halloween party and poetry jam) What do you think of this?
6. How do you feel about fashion?
7. Did your reprimandation from David Axlerod change your perception of fashion?
8. Do you feel the odds were already against you because you are African American and a woman? Do you feel some were simply waiting for you to fail?
9. Why do you think fingers got pointed at you instead of the Secret Service?
10. Have you spoken to the Obamas since your resignation?
11. Where will you go from here?
12. I read somewhere that you took a pay cut to become Social Secretary, How do you feel after sacrificing only to be crucified by the press?

Blog Entry 5

The tone of the article I read is optimistic, gives advice and warnings for internships. The writer organized the article chronologically, through telling of events that led to the internship and mistakes Jasmine made while on the job. The intended audience is young girls possibly college age, thinking about internships. The purpose of the story is to give readers tips, when they have the opportunity to intern the readers can learn from Jasmine's mistakes and impress their boss.

When Jasmine, 18 learned of an opportunity to intern at Bankable Productions run by Tyra Banks she cried. Jasmine has looked up to Tyra for almost her entire life because of the way she is not afraid to show her true self on television. Jasmine greatly enjoyed her time there and learned a few lessons along the way.

1. The first lesson she learned was always have a pen and paper. You can not rely on memory alone to get things done in a fast paced environment. What if your memory omits a small detail? This will tell your potential employee that you are forgetful. What a bad impression to make.

2. Just do the coffee run. Your an intern trying to prove yourself to potential employees, you need to show them that you are prepared for anything they may need done. Doing coffee runs may be apart of simply paying your dues. After all, no one starts off in the corner office with a view.

3. Act professional. All the time. This means, not texting or make personal phone calls. This will show your bosses that you are there to work. This will allow them to trust you will big responsibilities.

4. Don't act starstruck. If you meet a celebrity or the boss, in the case of Jasmine, Tyra Banks. This will make everyone around you uncomfortable. It is important to put your own personal interests aside while at work. After work however, it is appropriate to call your friends and tell them you met your idol.

In conclusion, remember, when you are hired as an intern you are there to work. You can't text or make personal phone calls, stay focused. Paying your dues is something everyone has to do at some point in their career. You should always be prepared, so have a pen and paper at all times and finally, act professionally.

Blog Entry 4: Image Gathering

This has the feel I would like to communicate in our ad. Simple and classic.

These are the shoes I would like to use.

This is a portion of an ad for Coach sandals.

The Coach logo.

Blog Entry 3: Selected Brand and Research

Hillary and I decided to do research on Coach sold at Macy’s. Depending on what we can find in the store, we will either be focusing on women’s flats or sneakers. One of the ideas we have is to shoot our friends wearing sneakers in urban areas like downtown. We were thinking a brick background would work nicely. Another idea would be to have a bunch of pictures of shoes maybe a mixture of flats and sneakers taken in random places. We would then put the photos against a white background, much like the Jimmy Choo ad.

From the articles, we found that Macy’s is using Facebook to advertise. The page has 67,000 fans. The article also mentioned that Macy’s has a twitter page. When fans follow Macy’s on Twitter, they will donate one meal to Feeding America. I think this is a great plan, if they make this more well known on their Facebook page I’m sure fans won’t have a problem following them. The article made it seem like this was super confusing that Macy’s was redirecting fans to another social networking site. I think they could just donate meals for every person that becomes their fan on Facebook. Plus if fans don’t already have a Twitter, they’ll have to create one to donate the meal when most people have a Facebook account this seems like the easier route.

We found that Coach considers themselves to be an “affordable luxury” company. The market towards more affluent consumers but also carry lower priced items to appeal to middle class consumers.

Another article we read was that Coach Plans to Open a Men’s Only Store. The store will be located in Manhattan’s West Village. The store will carry small leather goods, footwear, watches, fragrances, and ‘special pieces.’ To celebrate the opening the store plans to create graffiti print totes, which will only be sold at the store. This seems a tad odd to me. Will men really want to buy a graffiti canvas tote bag? Will women?

Blog Entry 2: Formal Runway Show

As we read in the chapter about fashion shows the main purpose of fashion shows is to gain publicity. I’ve only been exposed to the formal kind of fashion shows from websites like WWD or the designers website. I didn’t even know that retailers could have fashion shows. I've been to one fashion show and it was for charity. Our community was raising money for a family (the Hope's). I love fashion shows because they’re so entertaining! It’s a parade of clothing! We didn't really see too much of Valentino's show from the movie but I now see how much work a fashion show is.

On Elle’s website I watched three fashion shows. I watched DVF’s because I saw parts of her rock goddess fashion show from Spring 2009 and loved it! This show was a tad different because it was resort wear but I still liked it. There were plenty of animal prints and florals which I kind of saw from magazine advertisements. There were a lot of different bright colors but also whites and beiges mixed in. I also saw a few black suits. The silhouettes main were A-Line and Hourglass. Because it was resort wear all of the garments were light and airy. She says her spring collection was inspired by "antiquity and Pre-Raphaelite paintings."

I also watched Marc by Marc Jacob’s show. I knew his would be interesting because he loves color and there’s never a shortage of it in his line. Most of the time the bright colors were paired with dark or more muted tones, which made them pop. I got sort of a grunge feel from the whole show. The girls had bright lipstick on and messy hair sort of Madonna-ish. They also had huge bow headbands, which I loved! I pretty much just saw the hourglass silhouette on the women.

Finally, I watched Rag & Bone, which I think is completely different from the other two shows. I hated it! The background was brick and the all the models reminded me of orphans. They all looked so sad and pale. Clothing wise I found it to be just as boring. The color scheme was dark green and neutrals, sometimes black. The only color in the entire show was model’s nail polish, which was an extremely bright yellow. There were lots of jackets and vests, which gave it a military vibe—this only added to the disparity of the show. :(

In conclusion, my favorite of the shows would have to be Marc by Marc Jacobs. Anyone who wears a kilt is cool. I also liked his use of color and the headbands.

Personal Bio

My name's Jasmine Martin and I'm from St Louis, Missouri. I came to Stephens because I wanted to go to a smaller college. I wanted to be a part of a smaller community and get to know my teachers well, just like in high school. I'm majoring in Fashion Communication because I want to work at a fashion magazine (hopefully Elle). I like writing so in this class I would like to polish up my skills and learn more about fashion!