Liquor Stores on Wheels

A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet

I know it's hard to believe, but I made a mistake in Friday's blog post. The ventriloquist cartoon was given to me by Jeff Bakula, a loyal reader and one of Dale's racquetball league buddies. I incorrectly identified another member of Dale's racquetball league as the contributor. They all look alike to me. But to set things straight, let's pretend that Jeff submitted the following cartoon. Thanks Jeff! (Now please go beat the snot out of Dale on the racquetball court. It can't be that difficult.)

Snickers' "Get Some Nuts" Ad Features "Me!"
Okay, this isn't as good as my Carmen Electric affiliation, but it's fun. Just click on the clip and you'll be taken to the Snickers "Get Some Nuts" site and you'll see me and Mr. T in the candy bar's latest commercial.

If you go to the home page you can put yourself in the commercial and send it to friends. Our astute IT staff noticed that the commercial must have been made for distribution in the UK based on the cars in the ad and the fact that they used soccer instead of football. I guess "Get Some Nuts" was too edgy for American candy consumers.

Three Interesting News Notes

1. With rising gas prices, the auto industry is taking it on the chin. Ford may have "a better idea" on how to keep its name out there until the economy stabilizes. Published reports say the carmaker is joining forces with Estee Lauder's Aramis brand to produce a "Mustang fragrance." No word on exactly what it might smell like, but I can only assume it will lean more toward that "leather and new car" scent and away from "sweaty horse butt."

2. Web domain-name broker, Moniker, recently sold the Parn.com (substitute the "a" with an "o"; I'm trying to slip by your spam filter) Web domain for a cool $9.5 million. Guess what? That wasn't even a record. The record price for a domain name goes to Six.com (substitute the "i" with an "e"; same reason), which went for $11 million last year, according to the L.A. Times. It's not too difficult to figure out which industry is able to thrive and grow even during these tough economic times. 

3. And finally ... portable liquor stores? The state agency that regulates Pennsylvania liquor stores is considering the idea. Nick Hays, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board says the idea of mobile liquor stores is just one of several possibilities the agency is weighing to make wine and hard liquor more available in rural parts of the state. More available? I wasn't even aware that a lack of alcohol is a problem plaguing rural America. Note: I grabbed this photo from the internet. It's not Pennsylvania's "Booze on Wheels" trailer. But if it were, it would be funny wouldn't it?

Here to Serve You ... or Are We?
Here is a very clever, but potentially annoying method Papa John's uses to advertise its pizza delivery service in large cities. It may be something your company could consider for use at trade shows by putting similar items on the hotel doors of convention attendees. It would certainly get talked about.

Let me know what you think of the idea by commenting on this post or emailing me at chip.martin@bmpr.com