Good to the last drop

The other day I asked my sister-in-law a trivia question? Who is credited with Maxwell House's famous line, "good to the last drop." She didn't get a chance to answer me yet given that she's been swamped at her new job. That's at Kraft, seller of Maxwell House.

But all that trivia ceased to matter hours later when my wife rang me from the pediatrician's office. Our daughter Brooke, who's 14 years-old had developed a serious infection on her leg. Later that evening we found ourselves rapidly admitted to Huron Valley-Sinai hospital. Within 90 minutes my daughter had received an I/V and started on a course of antibiotics. She was in the hospital for three days receiving wonderful care every second. Those antibiotics may have saved her life and, while contributing to the high cost of health care, they were certainly good to the last drop.

To bring all of this together, our coffee sloganeer made national health insurance one of the major planks of the Progressive party during the 1912 presidential campaign. If you answered Teddy Roosevelt, you're right on both accounts.

Being a Givergetter

While working on holiday ideas for the Michigan Lottery we had a simple strategy: good to give, great to get. That approach held true as SMZ looked for a way to commemorate our 80th year in business.

The article from the Oakland Press tells the story best.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2009/12/05/business/doc4b1a54e0486dd329319111.txt

The Fortune Cookie Game

Remember sitting around the table at a Chinese restaurant and the fortune cookies are served? Someone invariably reads their fortune and adds, with a giggle, the words "in bed" to the printed fortune. (Example: Tomorrow will be a great day in bed.)

Imagine accenture's surprise when this ad appeared in Forbes Magazine earlier in the week. (Maybe it was in "Fortune" too?) Play the fortune cookie game and the Tiger Woods double entendre takes on multiple meanings. I am NOT jumping on sensationalist tabloid speculation around a private issue. Rather, as an ad guy, I'm simply recognizing that celebrity spokespeople are fraught with danger regardless of how squeaky clean they might appear. The spokesperson can represent something one day and something entirely different the next. So be careful who you allow your brand to get "in bed" with. You might just end up OB (that's out-of-bounds to the non-golfer).

Breaking The Cycle

My friend Mike Fezzey, president and general manager of WJR Radio in Detroit tells a story.

I have a new neighbor. He just moved here from Chicago and he's excited about the move. So my neighbor goes to the dry cleaner and tells the woman at the counter that he just moved here. "Why would you do that?" she says. He goes to the supermarket and the same thing happens.

Here's a guy who relocated his business and employees to Michigan to take advantage of our skilled workforce, low cost-of-living, quality healthcare system and world-class educational institutions. And the very citizens of his new community are asking him why he came here. So Mike got fed up. And rightly so. That's why he's using his radio station to launch a bold initiative called Breaking the Cycle.

Breaking the Cycle will recognize Detroiters who are doing something to break the chain of negatives about Detroit. These are individuals who otherwise wouldn't be recognized for their efforts. I'm behind this initiative 100%. If we don't have internal champions for the Detroit Metro area, how can we expect anyone to be an external champion.

Whenever the chain comes off my bike I think that fixing the cycle is hard. What's really hard is breaking the cycle of negativism that surrounds Detroit. But I have my helmet on and am along for the uphill ride.

Going to Blog School

Last weekend my daughter passed her driving test. In a month she will be a licensed driver. For the last few months I've been an unlicensed blogger. Cutting people off, flipping the finger, texting while blogging, eating and drinking, listening to music ... You get it, I'm a distracted, untrained blogger. That's why I'm going to blog school on November 10th. Put on by GasPedal (hence the driving link) I will get practical, how-to advice on creating content, educating folks at my agency, keeping the lawyers happy, and engaging fans. Maybe you can join me. If not, be careful out on those Michigan roads.

100 Best Global Brands

Every year I study with interest Business Week's 100 Best Global Brands issue. Coca-Cola, IBM, Google, Toyota, Disney, Intel, etc. They all vie for the top slots. Deservedly so. But last weekend I was in Providence, RI with my wife and daughters. We were visiting family at RISD and took the prospective student tour at Brown. While doing the obligatory visit to the Brown bookstore (Brown logoed everything was for sale!) I realized there are some global brands conspicuously absent from the list.

I would argue that Harvard deserves consideration on Business Week's list. As the oldest university in the nation it's certainly "Built to Last." Put the Harvard name on anything and there's instant credibility. In fact many of our top U.S. colleges and universities have brand values greater than Prada or from the title of this blog, say Nescafe.

Dogging it at Work

Visitors to our agency know Webster. They seek out Webster. They guard their food from Webster. Who's Webster? Some hot-shot new creative talent? No, he's my father's dog who comes to our offices every day. A sometimes too-smart-for-his-own-good Labradoodle. Why is there so much fascination about the symbiotic relationship between ad people and dogs at work?

It's a given that advertising is a stress-filled profession and it’s well known that reducing stress is a key to a healthy life. So why dogs? Well, for every complex stress in life, it helps to balance it with a simple pleasure. Pets in the workplace reduce stress among owners who worry about home-alone dogs, they are a calming presence, and they often provide a welcome distraction. So come visit us at SMZ. I won't be offended if you're really most interested in Webster.