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Catchy Coca Cola Christmas Classic

 This commercial is a classic from the 1970’s.  It’s a little hippy-dippy for me, but the song is one of those catchy classics that you can’t stop singing days later.

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Peter!

Over the next month, in addition to CELEBRATING our 5 year anniversary (stay tuned for details), we will be posting retro Christmas commercials.  It’s possible that we’ve posted this commercial before…Folgers’ 1 minute spot, “Peter Comes Home for Christmas” is an all time fave.

There are so many things that I love about this commercial.  I mean Peter actually says, “Merry Christmas.”  These two words have somehow become offensive in the 20 plus years since it first aired.

I’m not immune to marketing campaigns… Cabbage patch dolls, swatch watches, panama jack, I bought into the madness.  But in general, I can say that I’m not so easily swayed. However…PETER! has brainwashed me totally.  Today, I prefer a cheap cup of Folgers from my own Mr. Coffee to a swanky grande double, decaf mocha latte from any high end coffee shop.

 

Mobile App-Titude….

Most of us have dozens upon dozens of mobile apps on our smart phones and tablets that we never EVER use.  At another time, we can discuss eliminating electronic clutter…personally, I’m just not prepared to go there.

But I would LOVE to hear from you about apps that you really use.  I mean use all the time.  So much that if it disappeared, you would seriously go NUTS.

My Mobile App-Titude offering this week is my RUNTASTIC APP.  RUNTASTIC will Track your runs and activities, improve your performance. And you can receive live cheering during your workouts to stay motivated! If you are like me and you change your route during your run, but you still want to run a certain number of miles, RUNTASTIC tracks as you go along.  There is a very a friendly voice to tell you how long you have been running and how many miles you’ve gone.  You can have the voice speak in a variety of languages.  If you enable live tracking, your Facebook friends can click like and the app will give you a live cheering round of applause while your hitting the pavement.  Because I’m not nearly as organized as I pretend to be, I love the fact that RUNTASTIC keeps track of all of my runs and lets me know if I’m improving or slacking off.  RUNTASTIC has serious Mobile App-Titude.  I use this app at least 4 times a week.

So let’s hear from you.  What is your go to mobile app?

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…..schmiel schmazel hasenpfeffer incorporated

This theme from Lavern & Shirley has been a rally cry for us as we have grown our public affairs firm and partnered with a group of truly amazing clients.

We can hardly believe that our five year anniversary is just around the corner.  To celebrate, we have a number of new and rather exciting things planned.  What sort of new and rather exciting things, you ask?

Well we are partnering with Publicists Southerlyn Reisig of Newport Partners to launch a weekly podcast that will help small business owners and non-profit managers turbo charge their public relations and branding efforts.

We are crossing the pond for a week long global branding and marketing retreat.   (Email media@basspublicaffairs.com for details.)

And on this very site, we are launching a weekly series, Writing on the Wall to help get you through hump day and to the other side of an amazing week.

AND we are going to have a birthday celebration and client appreciation party fit for a FIVE YEAR OLD!

STAY TUNED,

Dee-Dee & Deana

The Bass Sisters

Company-wide Date Night

Every Thursday night my sister and brother-in-law have date night.  At first, I thought it was a little silly because they began this practice before they were married…while they were still just dating.

But all of these date nights later, I finally get it.  With demanding jobs, a blended family and a thousand other people, places and things fighting for their time, they recognize that it is important – no critical to schedule time for the things that matter most.  Date night is nothing more than a weekly relationship check-up.

As a small business owner, there’s a great need to schedule a sort of company-wide date night.  It doesn’t have to be weekly, but it should be a regularly scheduled opportunity for all employees, managers and consultants to tune-up and evaluate the success of their relationship.

A company-wide date night is more involved than a staff meeting and far less involved than a full-blown company retreat.

Don’t use the “date” as a time to sort through project updates and sweat over pending deadlines.  Use it to see if the people who are charged with protecting the integrity of your product or service are still happy doing so.  If they’re not happy, are there reasonable changes that can be implemented to improve their happiness quotient without compromising the quality of what you offer?

It’s so simple.  But in both the business and the personal, we sometimes forget that relationships function best when we put sincere efforts into their wellbeing.

deana b.

Stop Talking About It… Be About It!

Corina’s Biscuits Logo

Fast Company recently released its list of the top 100 Most Creative People in Business.  The one thing that every single person on the list has in common is the fact that they are all finishers.  A chief complaint of both entrepreneurs and creatives is the tendency to have bright idea after brilliant idea without any tangible evidence of seeing things through to the end.

It’s been my experience that conceiving the creative idea is a vast deal easier than it is to see it through to fruition.  Space travel, television and the Internet are all bright ideas that became realities because after the thought, someone put shoulder to plow and made it happen.

My first experience in taking the creative idea and making it a reality was with Corina’s Dog Biscuits.  Corina’s Biscuits was a gourmet dog food company that I started with Jules Kim a friend from film school.  This was in the late 90’s just as people were growing comfortable spending $4.50 on a double decaf mocha latte.  The company ultimately folded, but it was far from a bust.  We made it into some of the most exclusive gourmet and specialty food stores in the Midwest.  Our ethnically flavored dog treats even got a nod in the Wall Street Journal for creative marketing.  Actually holding the lovely bags of Corina’s Biscuits gave me a sense of accomplishment that I carry with me these 15 plus years later.  Thanks to that early partnership with Jules, I learned an invaluable lesson about conceiving an idea and working at it until it is real.

No matter how grand and lofty (space travel) or how small and trendy (gourmet dog treats), there are a few basic steps that you must take to be a finisher.

1. Write the vision and make it plain – Express your business goal in plane uncomplicated terms.  You should be able to explain your product or service in 30 seconds or less.

2. Set realistic goals – Aggressive goals are great, but realistic, attainable goals can build confidence as you move to the millionaire’s club.

4. Tell somebody – If you keep it to yourself, you have no one to hold you accountable.

3. Do something – Stop Talking About It…Be About It!

–deana b.

Home the film is on Kickstarter

THE DIRECTOR: Jono Oliver, a DGA assistant director whose film and television productions include THE GREAT DEBATERS, NOTORIOUS, and SOUL FOOD recently announced that his latest film project Home is on Kickstarter.com giving fans the chance to become investors.  Jono Oliver is also a SpeakEasy Speaker!

THE STORY: We first meet 33 year-old Jack Hall in the midst of an exciting transitional period for him. Diagnosed with mental illness at the age of 19, he’s had some rough times over the years. But, having gone through dozens of arrests and hospitalizations, he’s brought himself to a point where he has a steady job, a stable place to live, has achieved a high level of recovery in his illness, and is ready to move on.  Of course, it’s never that easy.  What would be a simple goal for most of us is no less than a life or death struggle for Jack.

To see pictures from the stage reading with Donnie Wahlberg and S. Epatha Merkerson and to learn more about how you can become a part of the Home Team Click Here.

Let The Wild Rumpus Begin…

Spray-on Love Tonics

Yesterday, I was in my favorite section of Barnes & Noble (the decorative journal section).  And while there was no one anywhere near me, the air was still dominated by the strong potent aroma of some man’s crazy strong cologne.  I wondered how much did he have to spray on to have it linger with such a force!? When people over perfume or over cologne, are they desperately clinging to promises from advertisers and believe the more they spray the better chances they have of hypnotizing a prospective love?   Or do they just have an olfactory defect?

CoCo Chanel said,  “A women who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.”   But I think even she had to be a little amused by the ridiculous claims coming from Madison Avenue.   To be sure, some of the corniest commercials ever made are perfume commercials.  They make crazy big promises.  The goal is of course to convey in 30 seconds  the sentimental message if you spray this scented liquid, those around you will be weak to your charm and fall prey to your beauty.  That’s a tall an order…even for Madison Ave.

Below are some classics.  Tell us which of the spray-on love tonic commercials below rates a high corn-ball score in your book?  Send us links to more.

ENJOLI

WINDSONG

WHITE DIAMONDS