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THE LOOP
Mark

Ze Loop

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a great weekend and welcome to February! 

For my goal setters how are those new years resolutions going? Now is a perfect opportunity to make any needed adjustments, look at it from another perspective, or step on the gas pedal. The beginning of a new month is a great time to start a new habit or quit an old one. Forget anything that happened this past month and focus your energy on making the next 4 weeks great. Onward! 

Here are some holidays we have to look forward to this month as well as some random facts about the shortest month of the year. 

  • Groundhog Day
  • Valentines Day
  • National Freedom Day
  • Chinese New Year
  • Black History Month
  • American Heart Month
  • National Dental Month

Symbols of February:

  • Birthstone: Amethyst
  • Flower: Primrose
  • Zodiac signs: Aquarius and Pisces

Lauren

Super Bowl Ads

The Super Bowl is the single biggest sporting event of the year. Some people watch it for the actual game (go sports!), but a good handful watch it just for the ads. Being on the Paid Media Team and all, I wanted to analyze the advertising side of things.
 
Year after year, commercials seem to be very polarizing, but it seems like that's the advertiser's goal. You'll keep watching it, it'll provoke you somehow, and then you'll want to talk about it. Boom. Now that brand's name is in your head, and now the commercial is on your colleagues mind after you've had a conversation about it. Advertising during the Super Bowl now seems to be a game on it's own. It's a fight between big companies to see who can get the biggest celebrity endorsement, the oddest jokes, and other bizarre strategies to get people talking.
 
In recent years, brands have been launching their commercials early. The Rolling Stone even critiqued this 60 second ad with Chance The Rapper and Backstreet Boys as if it were a full feature film. Do you care? Should we care? Are Doritos even good???
 
Enjoy the game!
 
Cassidy

The Juxtaposition of Redwoods

I'm coming out of Loop retirement for a day to talk about my love of Redwoods ✌️

 

I don't venture out into the wilderness nearly as often as some of our other SlideBelts teammates, but Redwoods have always left me awestruck. Redwoods are like the greatest remaining ancestors we have left as a link from modern day planet earth to the densely vegetated, dinosaur-roaming planet from millions of years ago.

 

While there are countless amazing Redwood facts (like how they grow more than 300 feet high, they've been around for about 240 million years, and the oldest known living Redwood is about 2,200 years old), it's actually the less awe-inspiring characteristics of Redwood trees that fascinate me the most.

 

Like how the Redwoods are the tallest trees in the word, but its leaves are soft and small and its pine cones are roughly the size of acorns. It's amazing to think that the mightiest giants of the forest have the most delicate hands and tiny seeds capable of reproducing such Herculean trees.

 

Or how, for being the world's tallest trees, their roots only go anywhere from 6-12 feet deep. Yet they can withstand disastrous winds and ruthless floods because they extend their branches far away (more than 50 feet) from their trunk and often grow in groves and forests where they can intertwine their roots with other Redwoods. Community is strong for Redwoods, and is integral to their long lifespans.

 

And, perhaps most importantly, how Redwoods capture more carbon dioxide from our vehicles and power plants than any other tree on earth. They're truly the defenders of our planet.

 

It wasn't long ago (relatively speaking) that 95% of California's Redwood population was logged to build much of San Francisco and San Jose. Redwood is an ideal building material because there is no known bug or insect that can damage it and it has one-foot thick bark that contains tannins, making it impervious to fire, disease, and fungus.

 

Redwoods, with all their majesty and hulking grace, represent a sort of convening of the gods, protecting the forest and the earth and giving shade and cover to humans and wildlife alike. Now, the next time you come toe to toe with one of these magnificent beings, you can stand in awe of more than just its breathtaking size.