In the United States (and Canada) it is Black History Month.  It is also National Bird-Feeding Month.  Go figure.  And there are some cool days as well.

February 2 is Groundhog Day.  The first Sunday of February is the Super Bowl.  February 11 is Lincoln’s Birthday, and the third Monday of the month is President’s Day (banks will be closed).  George Washington’s Birthday is the 22nd.

February 14 of course is Valentine’s Day (guys, don’t forget this).  And February 29 is Leap Day; Tigger will be thrilled.

It appears that February was the last month to be added to the Roman calendar back in 713 B.C. (previously the Romans considered winter to be a “monthless” period).  Anyway, for the next 250 years it was the last month of the  year.  Then it became the second month, and at times it had as few as 23 days in it.  Eventually, between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, they worked out the kinks.

February even has its own poem:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone
Which hath but twenty-eight, in fine,
Till leap year gives it twenty-nine.

But perhaps most intriguing to me is that today (February 9… the day after my son’s birthday) is National Toothache Day.  In reverence for this important occasion, I ask everyone to stop what they are doing at 2:30 for a moment of silence.

But lately I’ve been feeling a little like Charlie from the first season of LOST, who notably asked his island pals, “Guys, where are we?”  After watching more than a few of the Republican debates and listening to the occasional Coast-to-Coast radio broadcast in between viewing new TV shows like Alien Storage Pickers of Atlanta and catching the endless hype over the SuperBowl, the Academy Awards and whatever other “celebrity” news is out there, my head is about to explode.

That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane -
Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn -
world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height,
down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for
hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn’t coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered
crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it’ll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its
own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the
reverent in the right – right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright
light, feeling pretty psyched.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o’clock – TV hour. Don’t get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn,
return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning,
blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle,
light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,
this means no fear – cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament,
a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives
and I decline.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite.
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,
slam, but neck, right? Right.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine…fine…

So who is winning?  

Right now Volkswagen’s The Bark Side teaser is leading with 10.8 million views on YouTube. But keep in mind this was launched on January 18.

Volkswagen’s Beetle commercial The Dog Strikes Back falls short with only 1.1 million views. The video was posted on YouTube on January 30.

Honda’s CR-V commercial with Matthew Broderick is a big hit with 8.3 million views. It launched January 26 on YouTube.

Accura isn’t far behind with 7.4 million views for its NSX commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld & Jay Leno, which was launched January 30.

The bottom line is while Volkswagen really made a big splash with its The Bark Side teaser, its actual commercial has fallen short on delivering something entertaining – although the dog is cute and the commercial did make me laugh.

The celebrity power is helping Honda and Accura move to the top. Given we still have 3 days until the big game, its highly likely Honda or Accura will win the battle.

When it comes to website design and functionality, there are myriad options and levels of complexity to choose from. However, no matter how large or small your budget, here are the top five things you absolutely need to get right when you undertake a website redesign.

1. Engaging Home Page.  If customers are not immediately intrigued by your home page, chances are they will immediately navigate away from your site without a second thought.  Using color strategically, incorporating exciting photography and visible callouts and presenting a clear picture of what your company actually does are key elements of an engaging home page.

2. Clear Call to Action. What is the main goal of your website – to sell product, build a long-term prospect database, provide a clear picture of your brand, show customers which stores carry your product?  Whatever the goal, your website should display prominent communication on every page that allows customers to accomplish that one goal.

3.  Properly Packaged News Coverage/Media Information.  First, this means providing media coverage (intended for review by consumers) and media resources/contacts (intended for use by media) in separate sections of your site.  Consumers want to see what media say about your product; media want to know how they can reach your corporate experts (see our recent post on media rooms for details on creating one).

To ensure an attractive media coverage section, provide visual elements (mastheads, cover pages and media logos) so big hits are easy to recognize.  Pair each visual with an excerpt from the news story and link the visual component to the full story (hosted online or in PDF format) that opens in a new navigation window.

4.  Intuitive Navigation.  If you have a clear call to action in place, this is simple.  Visitors to your website should be able to accomplish key tasks within 1-2 clicks of anywhere on your site.  While viewing the news coverage section, customers should see a clear link to buy your product or find a store that sells it.  From the products page, customers should be able to easily locate customer service contact information, shipping and return policies.  Think like a shopper when building your new site.

5. Collecting Customer Contact Information.  Visitors to your website are already engaged and interested in learning more about your company, products or services.  Make it easy for them to stay connected with a clearly visible email sign up forms, a link for creating an account, or links to social media pages (Facebook, Twitter and company blogs).

Need help developing your new website? Contact me at Kayleigh (at) sweeneypr (dot) com.

As an anemic economy continues to grind down many of America’s longest standing corporations and institutions, it is refreshing to see one of them fight back.  JCPenney is one of our oldest and largest retailers, and it is taking a very bold risk.  In the true spirit of transparency, JCP is launching an entirely new approach to retailing called the “Fair and Square” pricing strategy.

Awesome.  The new model is designed to offer appealing initial prices that are not confused by multiple promotions, deep discounts and daily sales.  In other words, no more smoke and mirrors, no more dog and pony shows, no more bait and switch.  No more couponing, no more inflated discounts on inflated full retail prices.

In the words of J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson, “To think you can fool a customer is kind of crazy.  People are disgusted with the lack of integrity on pricing.”

He is right, of course.  And he ought to know, since his company is part of the problem.  Still, if JCP has seen the light and is willing to invest heavily to make important changes, then good for them.  And ideally it will be good for consumers.

I’m not going to say I am doubtful or even skeptical, because I am actually hopeful. But I am taking a wait-and-see attitude.  Teaching old dogs new tricks – like being earnest – can be a difficult task.

“I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence…”
- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 1

A pair of 22-year-old activists for girls, Bailey Shoemaker Richards and Stephanie Cole, launched a petition to get LEGO to commit to gender equity in marketing. So far they have generated 50,040 signatures. Not really something I would be worried about if I was in LEGO’s marketing department.

However, this gender specific marketing debate has sparked media and blogger attention. NPR, Huffington Post, New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle are among the media covering the story.

The argument is pink LEGOs are preventing girls from being creative. Stephanie Cole of SPARKmovement.org wrote on her blog, “I can speak from personal experience and assure you, LEGO, that girls do like minifigs. They also like Star Wars and Harry Potter, and they like being creative and making up stories that involve adventures and good and evil and things blowing up. But if you keep on excluding them from your marketing vision, soon they will start to believe that they would rather have hot tubs and little plastic boobs.”

But what about girls who would play more with LEGOs, and would be more creative because they are pink? And no one is stopping girls from playing with traditional LEGOs because now there are pink ones. Just like no one is stopping boys from playing Barbie and girls from playing GI Joe.

In fact, coming from a family of three girls and no brothers, we never even owned a box of LEOGs. Sure we might play with the neighborhood boys, but it was never a toy my sisters or me wanted. If there were pink ones, I’m sure we would have been more interested.

On January 12 2012, LEGO responded on their website. Mads Nipper, executive vice president, marketing, the LEGO Group, provided the company’s rebuttal. “We want to correct any misinterpretation that LEGO Friends is our only offering for girls. This is by no means the case. We know that many girls love to build and play with the wide variety of LEGO products already available. LEGO Friends joins this global collection of products as yet another theme option from which parents may choose the best building experience for their child’s skill and interest.”

While pink LEGOs are sparking more interest (positive and negative) than the company probably anticipated, it is not enough to stop them from stocking the shelves. Sales will be the real determining factor, but with 4 years of research to back up their product line expansion, plan to see pink LEGOs on shelves for years to come.

We watch The Middle pretty regularly, and I don’t recall many product placements. So the constant Passat plugging was a bit out of the ordinary and over the top. It was basically a 30-minute commercial for Volkswagen.

About two-thirds of the way through the show, my husband stopped fast forwarding through the commercials. He loves dogs, and tends to watch any commercial with the lovely four legged friends.

The commercial featured about a dozen dogs barking an iconic tune from Star Wars. At the end, there was a very quick plug for Volkswagen and to stay tuned for their 2012 Super Bowl commercial.

We absolutely loved the teaser. And all the Passat product placement (aka the 30 minute Volkswagen commercial) began to make perfect sense.

The teaser was an excellent continuation of Volkswagen’s stellar 2011 Super Bowl commercial with the “kid” Darth Vader. But the company has certainly set the stage for another leading Super Bowl commercial. Let’s just hope Volkswagen meets our expectations, or we will all be very disappointed.

“That’s interesting,” I thought to myself.  “I wonder what its objective is?  Is McDonald’s trying to help the little guy during these tough economic times; you know, help him make is dollar go a little further?  Or is the company doing its best to make you fatter and unhealthier by giving you twice as much food as you want for half the price?”

Okay, so maybe I let my imagination get the best of me.  Then I see an Arby’s TV commercial later in the evening.  You know, the Good Mood Food people.  “For a limited time, buy one fish sandwich and get another for free.”  And we aren’t even close to the Lenten season.  That’s peculiar.

I am probably making a mountain out of a mole hill.  But then, just before I turn in for the night, I decide to watch the Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue.  And Jimmy (yeah, we are on a first name basis) reports that Burger King is testing home delivery service in target markets.  Home delivery of fast food for that segment of the marketplace that’s either too busy or too lazy to use drive-thru?  Great; now you can get massive calories from flame-broiled cows, deep fried potatoes and chocolate pies delivered right to your doorstep.

This is war.  These fat food companies, sorry, fast food companies, need to learn the hard way that their billions of marketing dollars will not allow them to lure poor unsuspecting consumers (aka, baitfish) into the treacherous shark tank.

If the likes of Google and Wikipedia can successfully black out content and service in protest over anti-pirating legislation, American consumers can effectively turn off the faucet of fast food companies by refusing to buy their unhealthy offers.  Yeah, I said it, “they made us an offer that we can refuse.”

We need to unite and galvanize.  I am calling on all weight-challenged Americans to rally around the date of Thursday, February 2, 2012, and cast a giant shadow over the fast food industry by refusing – for one day – to patronize these bloated establishments and their insidious offers.

“Don’t go, just say no.”

“Don’t go, just say no.”

“Don’t go, just say no.”

This seems like such an easy solution that it is a bit perplexing none of the laundry detergent manufacturers have launched this previously. In fact, Tide has been selling these “Pods” in Europe for more than a decade. And US consumers have no issue with dishwasher detergent packets. So why should laundry be any different?

I certainly think this concept will catch on, and other manufacturers will soon be jumping on the bandwagon for a few reasons.

First, detergent is messy. We use liquid detergent and I hate it when my husband doesn’t thoroughly clean the liquid detergent cup (although I don’t gripe about it because afterall he does help with the laundry). Also, it is annoying when the detergent drips from the large containers that feature an easy to pour spout.

Second, both liquid and powder detergent takes up a lot of space. Reducing this space will be useful for both large and small households alike.

Third, it reduces our carbon footprint by eliminating the shipping of heavy liquid or powder containers.

Finally, you don’t have to lug a big laundry detergent box or bottle from the store to your house any more.

Love it… I’m sold!

They are both right.

There are a lot of important physical and mental and emotional issues that need and deserve national attention.  And there are good ways and bad ways of going about it.  Machiavelli would suggest that the direct and provocative approach is not only acceptable, but good if in the end it gets people to pay attention.  More seasoned and learned experts would suggest that the damage caused by the approach actually exacerbates the problem.

As a human and a parent, here’s what I know:  It is never – never – a good idea to berate, belittle and shame your children.  And forget for just a moment that this type of personally insulting hyperbole is hurtful.  It is ineffective.

Yes, it may get national attention, which may also result in awards for the agency creating the ads (yippee), but it will not change anything.  It’s like using a hammer to loosen a screw from a piece of wood; you’ve got the wrong tool in your hand.  You may eventually beat the screw out of its place, but you will destroy the wood in the process.

Child obesity is a very serious issue.  As individuals and as a nation we need to start making a difference; first with ourselves – in our perceptions and our behavior – and second with those dealing with the issue.  Help, don’t hurt.

You know that old saying, “Every time you point your finger there are three more pointing back at you”?  Pointing your finger and telling a child he or she is stupid will not make them smarter.  And it won’t make a fat kid fit.

Be part of the solution, not the problem