The Mac of Cheese

So, all you Mac and Cheese lovers – and I know you’re here because my site averages 20 hits from ‘macaroni and cheese’ search engine results – Burger friend Candis has found a restaurant that you all need to go to. It’s called Cheddars and is right here in good ole’ Cleveland Ohio. 20 different kinds of Mac and Cheese – really? I bet they appreciate flavored variety.

Remember Pineapple Express, Forget Sarah Marshall.

Did you guys know that the red band trailer for Pineapple Express was pulled off the Web?

You may have seen that I posted it a few days ago. I hope you got to watch it because it’s gone now. To fill your Judd Apatow, red band void, I’m posting the trailer to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It’s the red band version so that means it talks about naughty things and you not want to have your sound up if you’re at work. Enjoy.

F*#cking Funny, p.II

Jimmy Kimmel has fired back, and in the battle of who’s f##cking who, Jimmy (doing Ben Affleck)  is much, much funnier than Sarah Silverman (doing Matt Damon). But you decide:

Kimmel (I love me some McLovin Cameo)

Silverman

A 134 lb. burger? Now that’s a tasty burger!

It’s a great day for burger lovers.

You can now purchase a 134 pound burger, complete with 50 pound bun, from a restaurant in Michigan.

It’s about time that state up north started contributing to society.

Closing the loop on $200k

I received a lot of feedback, both in comments and from friends, on my post regarding the Shaw High School band raising $200k to travel to China for the Olympics.

Easy people. I never spoke out against it; instead, I simply asked a question regarding the use of the money. And that was never to pass judgement on it, rather, to think about how we raise money, why we need to raise money and what is used for. In this case, the community is extremely proud of the band and deemed that this is worth the donations / funds raised for it. Kudos to them for taking matters into their own hands and becoming a catalyst of change.

Absolut Innuendo

Absolut Vodka launched the new ad campaign for its pear flavor. And, well, let’s just say it is eye catching. See for yourself.

I’m not sure this evokes the feelings in me that Absolut wanted. Come to think of it, I’m not sure what emotions they’re trying to evoke period. According to popular opinion, it’s trying to tie itself to all things natural, including the er, mother of all things natural – childbirth.

It does serve as a nice reminder of what can happen nine months after you drink too much Absolut Pear. At any rate, it got me talking about it, so I guess they accomplished something.

Death of the retainer. Long live customer relationships!

I usually write  about what’s in my head at the moment I get around to posting. But I’ve had this little thought in my head for a few weeks. And that is the slow death of the retainer.

I’m referring to it in the marketing realm, of course, but it could apply anywhere. As more companies keep an eye on the impending / looming / non-existent recession, they are of course looking for places to cut budgets. If you’re in marketing, you know that most companies incorrectly look to the ad budget first. (They look at accounting next - bad news for me, the marketer, and my sister, the auditor….we’re smart kids, these two.)

Digging deeper within the marketing budget, the glaring issue, so they think, is that there is a fixed retainer cost. Lightbulb – if they can make that go away, they can defer attention. Whether you agree or disagree, this is fact. So my question to you is what have you done to transcend the retainer? What have you done to ensure that your account and your company is protected from a retainer cut?

Bottom line is that it all comes down to how you treat people. Fight for people beyond their traditional expectations and be amazed when they do the same for you.

Pineapple Express? More like Fineapple Express.

Not much happening out there. We need to be distracted as soon as possible. We don’t need people taking the time to investigate all of those UFO sightings in Texas.

What better way to distract than to share the trailer for Pineapple Express. Finally, we have a trailer.  Yep – if you like Superbad, et al, you’ll love this. (not ideal for work)

Side note: The music in the background is M.I.A’s Paper Planes.

If you still need more to do, check out Melt; the review was on Cleveland Foodie this morning and caught my eye.

By the way, this is a great site for getting the scoop on all the local flavor. My friend Michelle puts it out and she works hard at giving great reviews. Trust them. Try them.

What the french, toast?

 I know this is an old ad, but no matter how many times I watch it, I still find it hilarious. Does anyone else?

A conversation with myself about a $200,000 band trip

Crazy Friday morning so I’ll keep this brief.

 I opened up the Cleveland Plain Dealer to find that Shaw high school had raised the $200,000 necessary for a band trip to China. Thanks to the local readers in the Cleveland area, the school will be able to attend.

I then had the following conversation with myself:

-Wow. That’s a lot of money for a band.

-Yea, but they are reknowned

-But just think of what else could’ve been done with that money, in that community, at that school

-Yea, but as a former band geek, you have to be  happy for them – the geeks got their day

-True

-And, you know that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what schools spend on athletics

-Yea, but $200,000 - is that the best use of those dollars? I keep coming back to that.

-What – you don’t think kids should be cultured?

As you can see, I’m really torn. What do you think?