Dude, It's Beef!

Woo hoo - 4 plants closed as demand disappears.  You've got to love Rick Perry.... consistently leading the charge for ignorance.  I will say, having watched Charles execute crisis management campaigns for other clients, someone is doing a decent job on BPI's behalf.  However, I don't think there's any chance of turning this ship around!


http://news.yahoo.com/dude-beef-governors-tour-plant-reject-pink-slime-152946398--abc-news-topstories.html

Rock On Brother

Self explanatory : )

Fascinating Deck on Mobile Growth

Every time I find a statistic that illustrates the explosion of technology,  another one comes along and dwarfs it.  This presentation is astounding, particularly b/c it's before the fact rather than after:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-mobile-deck-2012-3?op=1

A case study highlight:

"Draw Something" (an app) launched in February - 6 weeks ago
 - It's the number #1 app in 79 countries
 - It has been downloaded 20+ million times
 - It generates $100k+ of revenue per day
 - It has 12+ million users a day

On Feb 12th - "Draw Something" users drew 3  drawings per second
On Feb 26th, 333 drawings per second
On March 7th, 1,660 drawings per second
On March 8th, 3,000 drawings per second

It took AOL 9 years to get to 1 million users
It took Facebook 9 months
It took "Draw Something" 9 days

I'm sorry, it doesn't get any cooler than that!

Don't Get Snowed

This is old but so important as the GOP tries to snow America.  If only it wasn't so easy to do...

I'll admit this is a lot to pay attention to but it DIRECTLY affects all of us.  The most important part is to spread the word.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4713382n

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/opinion/krugman-paranoia-strikes-deeper.html?_r=1&smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto

Victory! The Power of the People

Not that I trust any grocery chain who ok'd it's use in the first place, BUT it sure is nice to see good reporting and the power of social media dial these money hungry monsters down a notch.  Kroger stumbled a bit but made the right call in the end.  Interesting that Stop & Shop (I grew up with that chain) is a Dutch corporation - I never knew that.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46824961/ns/business-retail/#.T2xqsM2uHu0

Don't Get Slimed

Follow up to earlier reporting by ABC News.  It's so totally and completely disgusting, I can't seem to look away.  The first day I heard about it (about a month or two ago from Alyssa) I was literally gagging every time I thought about it throughout the day.  How much of it I've probably eaten over the years...how much of it I've fed to my kids - oh God - make it stop!  I've been told the next stop in my education should be the movie, Food, Inc.  I'm a little scared to watch it but I think I'm more scared not to!  At this rate, in a year I'll be living on an organic farm, homeschooling the kids and consulting ancient shaman for medical advice : )
  

And a Side of Pink Slime Please

Been hearing a lot about this lately.  Just another one of the lovely things I've learned about meat AND another reason why we only buy "clean" meat these days and ask about what we're being served at restaurants.  I love how this stuff gets ok'd by officials - much like the way that many drugs get ok'd at the FDA - with complete and utter disregard for others and their health.  So insanely disgusting...

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/70-percent-of-ground-beef-at-supermarkets-contains-pink-slime/#.T1pcwJp83xA.twitter

Ex-Employer Being Investigated by the Feds

While working for Smith Advertising, I once received a $50 international transaction surcharge from my bank attached to my direct deposit.  When I inquired, I was told by my bank that the fee was due to my paycheck having been wired from an offshore bank account in the Dutch Antilles.  I took note and noticed that shortly thereafter senior officers in the company begun to jump ship one after the other.  I was about 8.5 months pregnant with Blake at the time and furiously began gathering freelance clients : )  Last week Smith advertising closed unexpectedly and my former bosses all but disappeared overnight.  Check out this link - I sure am glad I haven't worked there in awhile!  Sounds like when and if Gary and Todd do turn up, they may be headed to the big house!  Yikes.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/10832481/#/vid10832481

Would You Could You In A Tree?

Blake's getting big.  And he loves to climb trees.  I have pics of Devlyn climbing this same tree around the same age.  You can't really tell from these pics but Blake, not surprisingly, took the climbing to a whole new level and nearly gave me a heart attack as I begged him not to go any higher!  He's growing up so fast and it really is a little teary when your baby isn't much of a baby anymore : (  He's still content to be "only Mommy's" though so I'm good : )  Charles had the boys trace each other last night so I woke up to life-sized birthday cards of D & B.  Pretty cute.  I had a physical this morning and when I returned to my office Nina was sitting in my chair next to a beautiful bouquet of purple tulips, dressed in a beautiful purple blouse with other nice birthday surprises for me.  What a wonderful birthday surprise!  It really made my day!  So Happy Birthday to me and here are some cute pictures of Blake which was the whole point of this post : )

I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke....

Our amazing intern strikes again with this marketing gem.  It made me cry!

http://www.projectrebrief.com/coke/

Not Quick But Definitely To the Point : )

Sometimes it's hard for me to sum up the litany of astounding things I've learned while researching our food supply here in the U.S.  I'm met with a lot of blank stares and "You've been talking for 5 minutes and I no longer care" faces.  Robyn O'Brien (in video below) does a much better job!  If you care at all about your health and/or that of those around you, please watch this video.  It barely scratches the surface regarding the widespread use of antibiotics in our mainstream food supply today, but is chock full of answers and facts regarding other truly shocking decisions the USDA and FDA have allowed major corporations make for us over the last 10-15 years.  This woman (Robyn O'Brien) is particularly adept at extrapolating that info. out into what it really means for us as a nation, why it really matters and will continue to matter until enough of us decide it's unacceptable, as they have in most of the rest of the world.  Sickening in the best of ways.