Metal Forms, Inc. 100th Anniversary
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Mannequin American
Metal Forms, Inc. Celebrates 100th Anniversary
I don't care who you are, you have to be impressed by a company that's able to celebrate being in business 100 years. So needless to say, there were a lot of impressed people at Metal Forms, Inc.'s recent 100th anniversary celebration in Milwaukee, WI ... and not just because I was there.
The event featured tours of the company's facilities, gifts (which included an impressive book about the company's history) and a party with roasted pig, libations and yours truly ... with what's his name?
After pointing out specific attributes of key Metal Forms personnel ... which, based on the laughter, must have been pretty accurate), I turned my attention to the president and owner of the company, Tom Miller (pictured on the right, below).
I asked Tom questions about the Metal Form's history (because that was in the script), and I asked some specific questions about his role in the success of Metal Forms (not in the script). Tom was a great sport and our exchange was a lot of fun. It was indeed an honor to be part of the event. Congratulations again to Metal Forms, to its employees and especially to the Millers for reaching such a notable milestone.
Comical Pixar Lamp Parody
From College Humor: Click here to see the Pixar lamp facing criminal charges for squashing the "I" to death in this amusing parody of the animation company's well-known intro video. Very funny. Really ... it's funny.
Funny Nando's Burgers Commercial
This commercial for Nando's Burgers is a little old, but it's a lot funny. I wanted to post it earlier, but Dale used his repressive censoring authority to reject it. But he's on vacation this week ... so laugh and enjoy.
Proof That Marketing Saves Lives
There was a flood in Mumbai and a billboard came to the rescue. TheChive has a gallery of photos telling the story of an AIRCEL billboard that literally saved lives. The billboard consisted of a fully-inflated life raft and included the copy "In case of emergency, cut rope."
Then it started raining ... a lot. Advertising to the rescue.
Fresh Step Ads
I'm not a cat person ... they tend to want to use me as a scratching post. But I do like the new Fresh Step ads (below) that show distressed cats with the cutline, "Cats everywhere are having a hard time smelling their litter boxes."
FCC's New Rules May Force "Jared's" Early Retirement
The long-awaited FTC guidelines concerning the "use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising" are out, and getting lots of buzz for their first-ever rules for bloggers, including mandatory disclosure of paid reviews. The same set of rules may also have destroyed some well know icons like Subways' Jared.
Specifically covered in the new rules is the use of social media, such as Twitter, by celebrities to endorse products. That's now a no-no unless the commercial relationship is disclosed. So, too, are celebrity mentions of products in other media, such as talk shows.
But the real game-changer may be the crackdown on the use of "Results not typical" disclaimers in advertising, a loophole that's enabled decades of preposterous claims such as, "I lost 50 pounds in a week!" and "I made $100,000 in my first month!"
Here's how the FTC summarizes the change: "In contrast to the 1980 version of the guides-which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as 'Results not typical'-the revised guides no longer contain this safe harbor."
While this could represent a much-deserved kick to the crotch of late-night snake-oil salesmen, it also seems to be bad news for mainstream brands like Subway, whose success stories (like Jared) center on rare cases of extreme willpower.
We'll have to wait to see how this all sorts out and if the FCC will actually enforce any of the new changes.
