For all of those LOST fans out there, the day we have all been waiting for finally arrived last Tuesday. This being the final season of LOST, I am extremely saddened, but at the same time, extremely excited knowing that I am finally going to get answers to some major questions I have about the show. Last week, I made sure that my entire night was devoted to LOST, and that I paid 1000% attention to every single detail in the 2 hour premier. The finale of the show is scheduled to air on May 23, 2010, and already I am counting down the days. Even though I am more confused than ever before, watching the show, at least I know that I will eventually understand. Being an obsessive compulsive fan of LOST, I am also completely in love with Motivators' LOST series, starring our very own Anthony Zuaro, promotional Sonic Rocks and Survival Compass.

LOST is not just a show about being deserted on a "unique" island, or weird theories about physics and time travel. It also shows how promotional items come are an important part of our everyday lives.  For instance, the very first episode showed how usefully a promotional sewing kit and a promotional pen are when you are stranded on an island, and need to "stitch" something up. It would have probably been better to have a first aid kit available, but sometimes you just have to do with what you have. Also, another important promotional product that everyone of the islanders tends to carry around with them is a promotional backpack, which they use to store their belongings. Yes, you have to find (or hunt for) your own food and protect yourself from the OTHERS - and that is when the promotional pocket knife comes in handy. In many of the episodes, you can see many of the characters with their pocket knives, and wonder if everyone who fell on this island just so happened to have a Swiss Army knife in their back pocket - just in case...

After this season, it is said that every piece of prop used on the show is going to be auctioned off. Hopefully, it will not cost an arm and a leg and I can afford to maybe purchase one of the promotional products used on the set. Who knows, maybe I can purchase the golf clubs they used on their first days on the island to "relieve" stress (which they would not have needed if they had some promotional stress balls). 

 

 

The Burj Khalifa opened its doors to visitors only a month ago, boasting itself as the world's tallest tower. It is quite beautiful. Built as a major tourist attraction in Dubai, the tower cost over $1.5 billion. It's already drawn in the crowds and is the main reason for many tourists' trips to the Persian city. Over 12,000 residential tenants and offices are to move in this month and a hotel is in the works.

However, it's just been announces that the tourist attraction tower, is no longer open to tourists. This temporary shut down has been blamed on electrical issues- a very scary claim considering that electrically powered elevators transport visitors up the 160+ tower. Building owner, Emaar Properties, attributed the closure to both electrical issues and "unexpected high traffic."

Sorry guys, but when you spend half a decade building the world's tallest tower for over a billion dollars and advertise it's grand opening - you'd better expect, "high traffic." I'm hoping they get their electrical issues straightened out soon or I won't ever be able to purchase a, "I reached the top of the World's Tallest Tower," promotional t-shirt.

It is Ski season! My family has been booking ski vacations ever since I could walk. Our favorite spot is Okemo Mountain in Vermont, and while it is impossible for us to all get together my parents still go often. When it comes to packing for a ski trip my mom tends to pack on the heavy side..."just in case." She also needs to know where everything is at all times (where's the chapstick??). Luckily Motivators carries an array of toiletry bags for anyone who needs to stay organized while traveling. Her old bag broke to she browsed our site and is now a proud owner of the Gemline Deluxe Hanging Amenity Kit, just in time for her next trip!

For my god-daughter's 2nd birthday, I flew down to North Carolina, baked her a cake and gave her a kitchen set. In return, she gave me a plastic egg in a pan, a plastic fork, and her cold. I'm not one for getting sick, and when people around me at the office have a cold, the first thing I do is reach for one of the many promotional hand sanitizers that we have here. Occasionally, I'll pop a Vitamin C drop, but for the most part, I can avoid germs. Fact: you cannot avoid germs when you're around a baby. They sneeze and you're wiping their nose. They're coughing and they're not covering their mouth. The germs fly freely and there ain't nothin you can do about it. Unless of course, you have some hand sanitizer with you.

Two years ago, when I met Bella for the first time, her mother had a bottle of Purell and I openly admitted on this blog that I was an antibacterial addict. I think it had to do with the fact that she was so little and I more concerned with keeping her healthy, than me getting sick. I mean really, can you imagine this precious little face with a cold, all cranky and miserable?

 

This past visit I was more concerned about keeping her from ending up looking like this.

 

So in an attempt to keep myself and her clean, well-fed and out of trouble, I paid no attention to antibacterial hand sanitizer. I didn't think twice after wiping her nose about going to Purell myself, since I had to immediately run after her and stop her from jumping on the cat. And when she sneezed on me, I didn't stop reading Cars and Trucks. I just sat there and continued on about Ma and Pa Pig and their picnic.

Fast forward to two weeks later, as I sit here at my desk, doped up on Advil Cold (Thanks Maria!) with a box of tissues by my side. Bella's mom's facebook informed me that she too was sick but Bell was on the mend. As I said in a comment, she loves us so much she gives us her germs. And honestly, I love her so much, I'll take the germs anytime. But for future reference, it's reasons like this that they put hand sanitizers on keychains and attach them to carabiners. Yes, they're great for keeping you germ free when you're on the subway, but they're also good for when your too busy keeping sneezing babies from getting into trouble.

Note: I did not Navi the baby. Her cousin did. I do not promote turning your children into Avatars, regardless of how cute they may or may not look. Why? Because someone's gonna have to clean that up.

Last night I was in for a treat, my wife had let me know that she was going to make dinner.  I work late on Thursdays so this was great, but I had my suspicions, take out, sandwiches, cereal, what was it going to be?  Two steps into the door and I knew I was in for something good.  My wife scored a gourmet italian dinner kit that was branded with a company logo. It had pasta, sauce, breadsticks,  everything you needed except the vino!  It was from the Sportsman Channel (I had never heard of it before) promoting a new show they were doing.  What more could I ask for, a full stomach and some tv after a day of work.   Like I said I had never heard of the channel before but later that night I looked them up on the local cable network.  We have all kinds of Food Products you can use for your next promotion.

 

Things were different in 1959. NASCAR was only in its infancy, crowning its first winner that year and imprinting significantly less NASCAR promotional products. The plane carrying rock n roll legends Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, went down and influenced one of music's most legendary songs, American Pie. And in the woods of Cuba, promotional hats and beards replicating Fidel Castro's signature look were worn by children - before the people grasped that he was oppressing them.
                   
Castro gained popularity among the people early on and promotional products helped to reinforce his power. In the same decade, Disney also used custom caps to promote one of their own leaders, Davy Crockett. While they were first made over fifty years ago, you can still find Fidel Castro hats and actual full masks. He was even a popular Halloween costume. And like all notable Disney character costume, a cool Davy Crockett hat is always available too.What other historic person or famous characters have cool hats? Try to guess these ones. I'll give you a one word hint for each.
                                                   
Penny

Dr Seuss 

Banana

Winner gets a dollar in the shape of George Washington with a hat on! Okay, I don't actually have the time to fashion it into a hat...so you just get a dollar.
                                                 

Well, maybe it’s not the amount of re-branding that gives you the headache as much as when a company’s re-branding attempts seem misplaced. You would think that major corporations put plenty of time, effort and lest we forget money into the research and development of their new branding, but examples such as Blimpie’s recent logo change really make me scratch my head. It almost seems like logo change such as this one was done simply to just change it to something new. It reminds me of when I used to rearrange my bedroom when I was younger just because I felt like a change of scenery would be cool. There was no logical or purposeful reason to rearrange the furniture, but I suppose it added some kind of excitement to the room until it eventually wore off in a few days when I was used to it.

 

As far as an outdated appearance is concerned, I don’t even think that the original logo seems that old looking. Sure, it has been around and unchanged for quite some time so technically one could make the argument that it is outdated, but what they changed it to is no more modern looking than what they already had. Not to mention it gets zero style or originality points from me. When I saw this it near boggled my mind because it is very likely that Blimpie paid a decent amount of money to a reputable designer, only for them to simply choose a font. To be fair, the font that spells out the company name is often the main element in many effective and modern logos, but this one just screams downgrade to me.

 

The font used in the original logo had additional style applied to it and further interest was created by using a second color to dot the i’s. The font itself on the original logo also seems like more of a calculated decision, as the nature of each character is bubbly and sort of gentle, which goes very well with the most common feelings one gets from the word Blimpie. Aside from being the name of a well known sandwich shop, for many people the word Blimpie instinctively reminds them of an actual blimp, which is what you might describe as bubbly but certainly rounded and smooth looking. That being said, it seems like a curious decision to choose such a bold, firm and rigid font for the new logo design. Neither of them seem to have anything to do with sandwiches unless you consider the yellow dots atop the letter i’s in the old design to be conceptual representations of olives on toothpicks. Even if that wasn’t the intention, it is just hard for me to get behind a logo design that is nothing more than a common font that has no creative elements introduced to it.

 

Maybe their motivation was to rid their logo of two colors so that they didn’t have to think about how two different colors would look on various promotional products. Although if that were actually the case, they could’ve simply changed the dots above the i’s to green. So despite my best efforts to come up with an acceptable explanation for this logo change, I simply cannot do it. Maybe in time they’ll wind up pulling a Tropicana and restore the old logo, but in the mean time I can’t help but wonder if I have seen a more generic, unoriginal and purposeless logo change than this one.

 

I have a confession.. As Laurie knows, I tend to make confessions when I feel I need to be honest with myself and those around me. This week, my confession revolves around The Tangler (as I have named it). On Monday morning, I stole it from Rachel's office, with no intention of giving it back. However, I found out -this minute - that she actually had stolen it from someone else (hint - Anthony Zuaro). Now, I feel bad. Therefore, I am going to use this blog to personally apologize to Anthony for double stealing his Tangler AND to ask him if I can please keep it (pretty, pretty please?).

 

Anyways, for those of you who do not know what the Tangler (also known as the Tangle Junior Puzzle) is, it is my new MOST favorite promotional product. This promotional product takes the stress reliever to a whole new level. Although I am a HUGE fan of Motivators large variety of Stress Relievers, the Tangle Junior Puzzle is a fun little game and stress reliever all in one! You can take it apart, roll it up, twist it, throw it, or anything you may desire to relieve your stress. This is a great tradeshow give away because it is different. It stands out as an original item that your target audience will become addicted to! An additction to the item you give away can transfer into an addiction to your brand! How's that for TOP OF MIND??!!! :)

 

 

If the sneaky little cameras throughout the office creep you out, then you're not going to be a fan of Google's latest technology. Named, "Google Store Views," the service will be incorporated in the already innovative Google Maps product. Though Google has not yet confirmed, Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land's News Editor, received a tip from retail store, "Oh Nuts!" about "Google Store Views." A woman entered the New York based store and snapped photos every six feet, making sure to capture some particular product pictures as well.
                           
If Google does release "Google Store Views" you can imagine the hype that will surround it. However I haven't heard how often the photographs will be edited and if they aren't edited regularly, chances are the images won't be extremely accurate. Stores change displays according to the season and holiday so if I want to see what's going on at Best Buy this July, I may virtually walk into a snowman iPod display. This could be a problem.
                            
One thing's for certain, "Google Store Views" will give tons of products free publicity. Logo items will be seen in every one of the images, but I wonder what items the woman was taking particular images of. I bet stores will be able to more easily keep tabs on competing business with these images. Have any ideas of how, "Google Store Views" will assist you? I'd come up with some kind of scavenger hunt to find particular logos. It could be fun and I'd most definitely include some sweet promotional products as prizes. Prize numero uno goes to Adam for finding this content. Good stuff.

Tragedy struck the O'Sheas recently. We lost an important part of our lives. The external hard drive stopped working. We unplugged it for the Christmas season to accommodate the tree, then tried using it again in early January. No sound, no nothing. I brought it in for tech surgeon Danny to take a look at, to no avail.

We lost some documents, saved web pages, Mad Men Season 1, and music (and music and music and music). Luckily, I'll be able to recover the music. A friend backed that up for me. I'm not sure exactly what documents were there, but they are gone forever.

We'll eventually get another hard drive, but I've learned my lesson here. Any important documents will be saved to both a computer's hard drive and custom USB flash drives. I can get a promo 8GB USB flash drive, which is more than enough space for documents. I think I'll go with the 8GB Bamboo Flash Drive. If there's an option, might as well go with an eco-friendly promotional giveaway.

 

The lesson here, folks, is this: Do your best to save your important files in two locations. You never know when tragedy will strike.