While browsing the Internet recently I discovered that earlier this year Leslie Buck passed away. It is quite alright that more than likely, you have no idea who Leslie Buck is. Leslie Buck, may be considered however, one of the more influential artists/designers of a generation. Leslie Buck, designed The Anthora. Again, it is excusable if you do not know what The Anthora is. You would know it if you saw it. The Anthora, is the name of the art that graced literally millions upon millions of hot coffee cups a year. The cup ,as described by the New York Times:

"Mr. Buck’s cup was blue, with a white meander ringing the top and bottom; down each side was a drawing of the Greek vase known as an amphora...On front and back, Mr. Buck emblazoned the Anthora with three steaming golden coffee cups. Above them,... was simply this: We Are Happy To Serve You."

On this blog, time and time again we talk about the power of an imprint on any given promotional product. According to the New York Times, the Sherri Cup Company sold 500 million Anthoras in 1994. 10 years later, when they had been taken over by the Solo Cup Company, in 2005, 200 million cups were sold. The cup became an icon of New York City, not just used by millions of New Yorkers a day. It could be seen on stickers and t-shirts, movies and tv shows.

Nowadays, paper cups are not seen to be eco-friendly. Sales of paper cups have greatly decreased. Now, what we see is the promotional eco friendly ceramic travel mugs, built to look like a generic disposable coffee cup. Think about it though, it may not be the Anthora, but the imprint you put on your promotional ceramic travel mug, is there to stay for much longer than a disposable cup would last. Maybe your imprint will be the next Anthora.

For the last month, Motivators has been running an accelerated version of our Plant a Tree program. We're not using magical tree seeds, but we have amped up our partnership with the American Forests ReLeaf program to give back even more trees to our environment. So with only one day left, get Earth Day interactive and order some of our Earth Day giveaways.

How will Motivators be going green this Earth Day? Tonight, like every night, our computers will automatically go beddie-bye and reduce the use of energy in our office while we're gone. Tomorrow, we will continue to use our promotional eco-friendly drinkware and to avoid plastic bottles. And we'll make sure to place any plastic we do come in contact with, in our recycling bin.
                               

I also invite every Motivators to take place in a bike to work day. Sure, we'll all stink, but it'll cut back on our carbon footprint significantly. While cutting back our negative impact on the environment, we'll also be cutting back the pounds by getting active.

My apologies to the New York State Highway Department for any traffic jams on the Northern, Southern, Wantagh, Meadowbrook or LIE; though Motivators is a fabulous name for a bike crew- we are not one.

Biking to work and sticking to reusable bottles are great ways to go green. The greatest way for us to spread sustainability is to give our customers access to the best supply in eco-friendly products.

Do you want to swim in a pool of sweet hazelnut syrup stirred into an iced coffee concoction? Have you dreamt of an exotic blend of coffee beans raining down from the sky? Then today is a close to that as you'll get...unless you plan on collaborating with Willy Wonka or the creators of MTV's Cribs in the near future.

Stop on by the nearest Starbucks and claim your free coffee! Except don't expect a cup. You'll have to open wide and let them funnel your favorite blend down your throat because this Starbuck's promotion is all about going cup free. Paper cup free that is. And the only way to actually redeem your free coffee, is to show up at a Starbucks with your promotional travel mug in hand.

Starbucks has run promotional discounts with the use of travel mugs before (As seen in the image below) but this is a rare oppourtunity to use your own travel mug and get a free coffee.
                         

Starbucks launched their Make A Difference campaign in March in the middle of New York City. The video shows the masterpiece they created as they all pledged to use promotional drinkware in an effort to reduce the waste and pollution contributed by paper cups. Check out this awesome eco friendly Starbucks promotion and enjoy your free treat made possible by promotional travel mugs.

This may be one of the most practical and simple uses of solar energy I've seen.  Made by Yanko Design, this Some Shine Solar Energy Storage System is an eco-friendly way to re-juice your electronics.  Simply hang the panel on your window during the day with the battery base attached at the bottom.  At night, plug your electronics into one of the two USB ports and you're all set.  No information about options or pricing yet but this is certainly something I would be interested in purchasing for myself.

For plenty of other eco-friendly electronics, look at the selection of energy friendly promotional items available at Motivators.com.  Some items comparable to the ability of the Some Shine Solar Energy Storage system are the Solar Charger Pack, Leeds Lunar Solar Charger, Leeds OptiSol Solar Mobile Charger, Deluxe Solar Charger, or the Gemline Catalyst Solar Computer Backpack.

It's been such a nice week! I honestly can't believe the difference two weeks have made. Two weeks ago, I was stranded at a gas station with a flat tire and a busted tire iron. I tried walking to an auto parts store to find a tire iron or some other custom auto accessories that could help, but since the snow was a foot and a half deep and the blizzard was still raging, I didn't make it very far. Yesterday, I drove past that same gas station. I had no jacket on, the window down, and there was no snow to be found. How did this happen?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Spring seems to be here. I can get outside again and get some use out of the promotional water bottles that we own. It just seems crazy that I went from struggling through snow drifts in my heavy winter coat to no coat at all so quickly!

Time for the big decision: 24 oz. Custom Aluminum Bottle or 20 oz. Custom Recycled Bottle? Thoughts?

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.

I haven't blogged about football in a while. Shame on me. It's just that my football season peaked in October. The Giants completely fell apart. My one-time first place fantasy team fell apart. And my other fantasy team? Last place. I didn't get any cool football promotional items. Why would I want to write about football?

That's a poor attitude, though. Our little brothers, the J-E-T-S, are making some noise. Adorable. Are they changing the culture? Or are they setting up their fans for a typical Jets ending? I'm rooting for them. This isn't like Yankees-Mets or Rangers-Islanders.. the Giants and Jets play only once every 4 years. There's no true rivalry... they've never met in the Super Bowl or anything (which is hard to happen when one side hasn't made it there since the '60s). So why not? As long as the Jets fans that I'm friends with don't get too mouthy... go green! Wait, sorry. Go Gang Green!

The fans have been good so far. Following is the assessment of Jets vs. Colts from my good friend (and Jets fan) John: We don't stand a chance!

Ladies and gentlemen, the NY Jets!

Today I came across a site called One Billion Bulbs.  One Billion Bulbs is a division of Energy Trek, a company that aims to inform people on how to use less energy in the home.  One Billion Bulbs focuses on the lighting aspect of energy saving, specifically, changing to compact fluorescent lighting in the home.  This site encourages people to replace their bulbs by providing them with energy and money saving information.  So far, One Billion Bulbs has helped to change 169,036 bulbs to CFL in the United States.  When you think about the fact that there are over 100 million households in the United States, lets say there are 10 bulbs per house (although I'm sure that number is more like 40), that means there are one billion bulbs (hence their goal) in the country.  Unfortunately, 169,036 bulbs is less than 0.02%, but that is definitely a start, and also over 37 million lbs of greenhouse gas reductions.  I enjoy seeing a goal oriented group such as this that tries to make changes to the world in small, realistic ways, and they are certainly succeeding.  I believe they should succeed even more via the use of promotional items!

Ok, here's my vison.  Mail out the following Light Bulb Stress Reliever to the selected households...

Then a week or two later mail out an Energy Saving Bulb Squeezie Stress Reliever ...

The hope is that, even though they may throw it away because it says "throw this away", it should definitely be something they will think about and remember.  Two weeks later when they recieve the next item, they'll think back to the original mailer and realize the connection.  Then they will say "oh boy!  This is the most well thought out mailer I've even received!  I'm going to go change all of my incandescents to CFL's right now!"  Perhaps that reaction was exaggerated, but I think it would work out well.

Another great way to save the world one item at a time is by the use of eco-friendly promotional products from Motivators.

Information for this blog taken from One Billion Bulbs, Energy Trek, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The beginning of the new year means the end of the holiday season. It is the end of one season, but the beginning of another season, one that many people may not neccessarily think of. January is tradeshow season! In the US it is estimated that there are over 2,500 trade shows that occur every year, many of them in the first few months of the year so that vendors can unveil new products or services. In fact, the promotional products industry has its own trade show ready to kick off in Las Vegas on Monday, January 11th.  Anyone that has ever been to a trade show can tell you they are full of promotional products, you could imagine the amount of tradeshow giveaways there will be at the largest promotional products tradeshow in the country there will be. It seems to me there are going to be two major themes for tradeshow giveaways this season, eco-friendly items and anti-bacterial items. Environmental concern has grown in our society for the last few years so that should be no surprise to anyone, however, since the H1N1 scare many people have been much more aware of how easily germs can spread. Especially at a tradeshow, people are shaking hands and exchanging business cards, picking up a product and putting it back down only to be picked up by someone else, there is a valid concern about the spread of germs. So should you be going to a tradeshow any time soon, while you will still see the standard promotional lanyards, and promotional keychains, don't be surprised if you also see promotional non-woven tote bags, promotional recycled water bottles and promotional anti-bacterial sprays too. Happy trade show season everyone!

After work on Tuesday I successfully began and ended my Christmas shopping extravaganza. I was out for about five hours and was able to get exactly what I needed. I later thought to myself, "It would've taken five minutes if I just bought everyone gift cars." It's true, and the reason gift cards are so desirable is because everyone loves them. It's basically like receiving cash- with a motive. Except you don't have to provide any services or do any head hunting; just shop at the designated store.

Unfortunately, to some, these gift cards risk seeming impersonal or last minute. In fact, many people consider the entire gift-giving concept around the holidays to be to commercial. To help combat societies need for "things," TisBest was formed. The three year old company puts a new and very nice spin on traditional gift cards. Because when you purchase a TisBest Gift card, you are giving back to the community.