Consumer Escapes - Grabbing the Remote

Last week I was hopped up on DQ Blizzards. Now I'm excited about an online promotion from Klondike Bars.

The Klondike Everyman Challenge states that since the dawn of time, mankind has worked unflaggingly to expend as little energy as possible. Innovations such as the lazy susan and the moving sidewalk — the inventors of which are now both, of course, household names — are proof that an enduring legacy is only earned through a lasting contribution to one's own lethargy and the lethargy of future generations.

In their "Grab the Remote" video contest, can you reach the remote control without getting off your duff? The site says, watch Adam Corrolla show you how to harness your man-genuity. 

While I'm not a huge fan of user generated content (UGC) when home alone I've been guilty of watching something unwanted on television 'cause I was too lazy to get up and find the remote. Guess I've got about a week to experiment with duct tape, a AAA battery, and a small fishing rod. Enjoy ...

Consumer Escapes - DQ

In our SMZ Consumer E-scape research study fewer than 13% of respondents said they considered their diet to be very healthy. I work hard to make my diet be healthy. With my family away the past few weeks I've eaten ridiculously healthy. (Little choice when there's no one else around to help do the shopping.) Last night I hit a great escape, the new DQ on Orchard Lake Road for a Blizzard®. I had the small Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Boy, that less-than-healthy stuff really tastes great on a 93 degree summer night. Considering that there was a line out the door, I'm not the only one who felt that way. So ignore the research and do "something different" as DQ's themeline urges. Maybe I'll see you there.

Consumer Escapes - Digital Disconnect

Yesterday I helped my sister activate her new Blackberry. Bye-bye to her pink Razr phone. Just after taking some responsibility for placing her in the "always on" mode I happened to read in the Wall Street Journal David Harsanyi's review of Hamlet's Blackberry by William Powers. I'll let his review and the one from Publisher's Weekly be screen reading for you. Me, I have to escape from the digital devices to find time to read the book. Or I should say, "the rest is silence."

From Publishers Weekly

Our discombobulated Internet Age could learn important new tricks from some very old thinkers, according to this incisive critique of online life and its discontents. Journalist Powers bemoans the reigning dogma of digital maximalism that requires us to divide our attention between ever more e-mails, text messages, cellphone calls, video streams, and blinking banners, resulting, he argues, in lowered productivity and a distracted life devoid of meaning and depth. In a nifty and refreshing turn, he looks to ideas of the past for remedies to this hyper-modern predicament: to Plato, who analyzed the transition from the ancient technology of talking to the cutting-edge gadgetry of written scrolls; to Shakespeare, who gave Hamlet the latest in Elizabethan information apps, an erasable notebook; to Thoreau, who carved out solitary spaces amid the press of telegraphs and railroads. The author sometimes lapses into mysticism—In solitude we meet not just ourselves but all other selves—and his solutions, like the weekend-long Internet Sabbaths he and his wife decreed for their family, are small-bore. But Powers deftly blends an appreciation of the advantages of information technology and a shrewd assessment of its pitfalls into a compelling call to disconnect. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Consumer Escapes - A refreshing shower

It's hot, it's humid and I'm showering twice a day. That's why we all need the Old Spice Guy. Thankfully he's back with another "great smelling" TV spot, asking all sorts of questions that women and men can both answer. Now take a swan dive ...

Consumer Escapes - Ideal Getaways

The Financial Times weekend edition had an article entitled "Summer loving - Leading cultural and business figures reveal their ideal getaways." Read the whole article if you get a chance. As we're in summer vacation season play along as well. Answer the questions that interviewer Victoria Maw asked of folks like Alan Greenspan:

• Where are you going on holiday this year?
• What do you think about during your holiday?
• What will you be reading on holiday?
• What will you be listening to on holiday?
• Who is your ideal travelling companion - dead, alive, historical, fictional?
• Will you switch on your "Out of Office"?
• What do you most, and least, enjoy about travelling?

I look forward to hearing some of your answers. Mine to be posted at a later date.

Consumer Escapes - Nike Free

The current running craze is all about barefoot running. Somehow the amazing technology in running shoes has gotten to the point where they're supposedly hampering training. All of the shoe manufacturers now have these minimalist shoes (at maximalist prices) that attempt to mimic running barefoot. I just got a pair of Nike Free shoes. I hit the trail this morning and have to say that they're awesome. Light, comfortable, quiet. I did feel like I was running barefoot but without worrying about stepping on rocks.

My morning runs serve as a daily escape. Only time will tell if running near barefoot enhances the experience. Or simply enhances Nike's bottom line.

Consumer Escapes - A Great Shave

I'm an every-other-day shaver. And even at that schedule I hate it. I've tried electrics, disposable razors, shaving in the shower, three blades, four blades, five blades, ... Nothing made the experience smooth. At Costco last week I purchased (with a coupon) Gillette's latest entry in the shaving arms race, the Fusion ProGlide Power.  The promise is that “shaving becomes gliding.” After a few shaves this skeptic has become a believer. In fact while gliding I can think about the day ahead. Now that's an early morning escape.

I learned on the Gillette You Tube channel that the average man spends over 1,000 hours of his life shaving. Might as well make it smooth. (Just please don’t let my wife shave her legs with my new Fusion ProGlide!)