Caveat: This is fun and non-scientific and directional. It took me about 15 minutes. I created three groups of posts:
- all posts about Scott Brown
- all about Martha Coakley
- all posts about Scott Brown and Martha Coakley
And through the magic of Social Media Monitoring (thanks @Radian6)…
Both Candidates are Campaigning Hard
Looks Like Brown Has a Slight Edge in Voting
query: voted for Brown (and not Coakley) vs. voted for Coakley (and not Brown)
Brown’s Supporters Are More Passionate
query: Love / Like / Hate / Dislike Brown (and not Coakley) vs. Love / Like / Hate / Dislike Coakley (and not Brown)
It’s going to be interesting to see how this one shakes out. I am voting later today.
Are old product advertisements burned into your mind the way they are into mine? I randomly recall several every day. This morning, it was Keebler Suncheros. In fact, that one is on medium rotation. I hope someday that I will be able to access my brain as if it were a Linux drive mount so that I can delete a few things that I do not need.
Burger Chef
Like Suncheros, many of the brands and products that I recall have been discontinued. Often, they make me feel nostalgic. The other day I randomly recalled Burger Chef. Burger Chef was a 70′s franchise that competed with McDonald’s. Their mascots were Burger Chef and Jeff. They invented the kid’s meal and called it the Funmeal. Their prizes were second to none. As a kid, I remember getting a spooky Halloween record with a count and a Frankenstein’s monsters type. They even had Star Wars posters.
My parents did not take us out for fast food often. I remember Burger Chef as a treat. We would eat at the restaurant and talk about the stuff on the Funmeal box. It was one of the few times I actually got along with my brother.
Burger Chef had some quirky branding issues. They were Burger Chef, but their sandwiches were all spelled Shef. They eventually were sold to Hardee’s. One of their tags lines was Incrediburgible!
Fruitibix
Weetabix cereal used to have a smalled, crunchy, dried fruit infused cousin called Fruitibix. In the UK, these have been relaunched as Weetabix Minis, but they do not seem to have made their way to the US yet. Fruitbix had dried dates and Bananabix was made with pickles. They had a unique flavor. Each piece was round and about the side of a mini-wheat. They had a slight crystal-sugary layer and each piece had at least one dried fruit. They stayed crispy in milk, but were delicious when they absorbed a little milk. Alas, now they’re gone in the US. Apparently they were the masses found them both offensive and dreadful because I could not find a single picture of them in Google images.
Discuss
I kicked off the discussion with two obscure brands, but yours do not have to be. It can be something nostalgic, useful or silly. My kids were watching Ratatouille on a car trip. My favorite scene is the one where Anton Ego, the critic, eats the ratatouille and instantly vividly recalls being a little boy. Thinking about Burger Chef did that for me. (Is that sad?)
What brands and products that have been discontinued do you miss?
Why do you miss them?
Is there an alternative?
A public service message from Team Boston
Please support our efforts to cure cancer. http://bit.ly/bostonbeatcancer
What is Movember?
You may have noticed people walking around with additional (or in my case bigger and stranger) facial hair. These people are not trying to get in touch with their inner Joe Namath, they are involved in the fight against cancer. During the month of November, many of us have decided to band together and battle against men’s cancer. November is Movember.
The quick and dirty legend is that a group of guys were sitting together enjoying a few pints. Half were talking about giving back to the community and the other half were saying you know, I could grow a better Mo (moustache) than you can. You got your chocolate in my peanut butter and your peanut butter is in my chocolate. Wham. Movember is born.
Everyone Has a MOtivation
Everyone has their MOtivations. On the fun side, people style their Mo after someone ridiculous or famous. At the end is a gala where you dress up as your MOtivation.
We also have personal motivations. This year I learned that my uncle has stage 4 cancer throughout most of his body. It’s in his lungs, brain and spine among other places. He started with a melanoma on his neck and they thought they were able to take it all out. Unfortunately, it spread. I am fighting to improve treatments for others in a hope that we can keep them from suffering the way my uncle has and is.
Please consider donation of ANY amount. $1 $5 $10 $1000 $5000 $10000. If your company has a corporate giving program, I would love to talk to them. I will perform spectacle, create video or exchange time for donations. Want me to shave my head or go Brazilian? I’ll do it for $10K corporate donation. Be creative. Those of you who know me know that I am willing to do / eat just about anything for a laugh or just to create fun content to prove a point.
Team Boston
This year, we’ve assembled a group of marketers and social medialites in Boston to battle the forces of Team Austin. It’s billed as a competition, but it’s really a group of like minded souls who want to help bring attention to the need to destroy testicular and prostate cancer.
We started by shaving down to nothing
And we’ve all been shaving a little less than usual in an effort to raise money to fight this horrible disease. For the record, here are the team members and their Movember Space pages. You can donate to any of them and it supports Team Boston and cancer research.
Walt Disney World Epcot Food and Wine Fest 2009 from Schneider Mike on Vimeo.
I eat and drink my way around the (Walt Disney) world. Watch my big fat head take you through the festival. I get more and more lucid as the video goes on. “The wine is not lime flavored.”
People complain about #FollowFriday because people just throw out a bunch of names without giving any reason to follow the people on the list. My solution has been to provide a reason or theme with each person I recommend. For instance,
#followfriday @agrahamwilcox <- Must follow for NBA fans
Today, Brad Ward decided to take it all up a notch.
The story begins at SXSW. SXSW is the conference that keeps on giving. In the past I have equated it to cramming a whole semester of college into 2 weeks. The people that you meet are the people you want to meet, the experiences that you share are meaningful both in the “classroom” and in the bars and social events.
On the night of the mashable party, Not only did I sing Ziggy Stardust with a live band, meet Seth Rogen and Joseph “Cobra Commander” Gordan-Levitt, I met Brad J. Ward.
I was heading to the bar to pick up my 4th (or so) and I was in queue to sing with the band. Well, the video tells the story
Did I think he was going to gank my charger? No. But my own phone was low on juice and I couldn’t hear the bartender. The band was RIGHT in front of us and Brad was looking to disappear. What good is a business card if I can’t charge my phone later? I decided to chill out about it, sing my song and have fun at the party instead of worrying about whether I would be connected later. Glad I did. Brad is an amazing person that I met at the conference and I am having a good time getting to know him better through twitter. Follow him!
Rebecca Corliss and the Boston University Terriers are Elite from Schneider Mike on Vimeo.
I just wanted to proclaim that the Boston University Terriers are far superior to my beloved Miami University Redhawks. I would also like to encourage you to follow the incomparable Rebecca Corliss on twitter! . Which I would recommend whether I lost the bet or not. She rocks.
According to Volkswagen’s RoutanBabymaker3000, powered by Oddcast, this is what Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s daughter would look like. She’s a cutie!
And here’s their son. He’s a dashing young lad.
This thing is brilliant. I don’t know if it will sell minivans, but it will get people talking and making babies. Impressions Impressions Impressions!
Americans enjoy statistics, action and scoring in their sports. I think that Americans are not into soccer because they try to compare it to their own version of Football. Soccer is a thinking man’s game. It can be slow to develop, but the developments in the game are often as important, interesting and exciting as the actual attacking and scoring. Americans are thinkers so let me give you 4 great reasons to watch the English Premier League this season.
Big International Personalities
Soccer has huge personalities, all of them more famous Internationally than Brett Favre and Tom Brady combined.
- Kaka is a Brazilian midfielder who last year won an award called the Golden Ball, which means he was last year’s MVP of the WORLD. He plays for AC Milan in the Italian Serie A league. He walks on the straight and narrow, is a philanthropist and a devout Christian.
- Ronaldinho is a Brazilian midfielder who is one of the most creative players ever. He can do things with the ball that most people could not even conceive of let alone do. He play for Spanish giant Barcelona.
- Christiano Ronaldo is probably the best player in the game today. He plays for the New York Yankees of Soccer, Manchester United.
Not to mention Messi, Beckham, Fabregas, Robinho, Ronaldo, Sneijder, Ibrahimovic, Drogba, Lampard, Van Nistulrooy, Rooney, Van Der Saar etc etc etc
There is more at stake than just the League
Your favorite team’s league is only part of a season. There are other tournaments throughout the year that your team may be able to participate in. Imagine two to four March Madnesses at the professional level every season. Here are a couple:
Each morning when I come to work, I try to steal a few minutes of time to read four web comics. I have tried a bunch of others, but I find that these are the ones that give me a mental boost that kicks off my day in a way that caffeine cannot. In other words, “clever” is my morning drug of choice.
