PAN Communications prSPEAK

February 29th, Leap Day, it comes just once every four years and with it, the birthday I rarely get. Don’t get me wrong, my parents still give me a present every year and the family always gathers to celebrate, but I’m not going to say it was fun fielding questions in kindergarten, when my ‘Birthday Tree’ wasn’t up on the tack board (you don’t get over those things). The positives do outweigh the negatives, though.

When I turned twelve (three in Leap years), I was interviewed by the Lowell Sun for a piece they were doing on Leap Year birthdays. It was at that time I realized the perks and privileges that come with being born on Leap Year, not to mention there’s only 684 people born on Leap Day per 1 million, according to leapzine.com.

It’s a great conversation piece, as well. The most common question I get is, “So when it’s not a Leap Year, when do you celebrate your birthday? Is it the 28th or March 1st; which is it?” I usually tell some people the 28th and others the 1st that way I get two days out of it during the off years to make up for things.

I’ll have to say too that pulling the “but I am two” card when Mom would point out my childish antics, was invaluable all the way up through age eleven. But, let’s get serious for a moment. I’m turning six tomorrow. That’s a big step, and it’s going to take a bit of adjustment. When you’re five, let’s face it — no one expects much, but six, six, now that’s where you have to make it happen.

For all of my fellow Leap Year babies, Happy Birthday and enjoy the day! It won’t be around again ’til 2012.

As we rapidly approach Earth Day ( April 22) The world has once again fallen in love with the word ‘green’. This is fabulous that we are embracing change.

Everything is again turning green, going green and being green. Our cars, paint, personal products, food, clothes, shoes and cleaning products are all being encompassed into this green revolution. With all this greening, ‘ green washing’ is on the rise.

According to IdealBite.com,” Greenwashing is the practice where a company tries to make it seem like it’s greener than it actually is.” We the public are aware of this every time we see a commercial for bottled water. Just because there is a tree on the bottle, doesn’t mean we should feel good about buying it. There is a delicate balance between ‘green’ marketing and greenwashing.

Now that everything in our daily lives is coming up a twinge of green we can make better choices, it is just a matter of education. Here are two sites that make it all a little easier:

Co-op America :economic action for a just planet.
Treehugger: a daily dose of easy green.

In order to curb slumping business, Starbucks closed its doors (all 7,100 of them) nationwide for three hours Tuesday night in order to “educate and energize” its workers. According to an article from MSNBC, this move comes directly from Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz to try and slow the gains competitors like McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts have made over the last few years.

I find this a bit curious. Not that Starbucks would want to switch things up to boost sales, since they are no longer the only game in town featuring double-mocha-choca-lattes with extra foam. But rather why it would think that a three-hour shutdown is the answer. Other than restocking all the Norah Jones CDs, what exactly can be done in that amount of time?

Schultz’s apprehension recently has been that his company has become too “watered down” and generic. Too, well, everywhere. He has a legitimate concern. We were all riding on sugar high from Krispy Kremes for a while, too, until they were placed between the Tic Tacs and gossip magazines in every grocery store line across the country. Sooner or later the novelty wears off. Don’t get me wrong, I like Starbucks and think Schultz is a pretty stand-up guy. It’s just hard to make your organization unique when the number of units per square mile rivals the number of people.

You have to hand it to Schultz, though, for caring enough to try and do something different and special with his business. It’s nice to know that everyone isn’t content with a one-size-fits-all outfit.

Former Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist of Oregon’s MySpace page is a hot topic in her community. As a PR professional, the first thing that I think of when a politician has a MySpace page is, “Excellent, they are expanding their reach and making an effort to connect with multiple generations through a medium that is continually growing in popularity.”

Well, this mayor was doing something a little different. She was posting pictures of herself wearing only a black bra and panties on her MySpace page. But wait, it gets better… in the pictures she is sitting on one of the town’s fire engines.

The former mayor has responded to the situation by making it clear that the pictures were taken before she became mayor and that it is her personal life and has nothing to do with her position as a the mayor. She also noted that she is not going to take the pictures down.

I think it is horrible, that a public figure has pictures of herself in her underwear on MySpace, but I also don’t think that anyone should have pictures up in their underwear, there has to be a line between appropriate and pornography. Imagine if the pictures were of your 5 year-olds teacher, your doctor, the president. I think that many of us would be upset about it.

We all know that public officials have less privacy then an ordinary person and that they lose many of the aspects of everyday life that we all enjoy like taking a walk, grabbing a coffee or attending a sporting event without interruptions. Maybe having a personal MySpace page should be added to the “off limits” list for public officials.

And the reason that she is no longer the mayor is that a vote took place on Monday night, resulting in her position being recalled. The reason for her being recalled was the pictures and an issue involving the management of the town golf course.

Last weekend Danny Seo discussed the question that most environmentally conscious people ask themselves when they are presented with that inevitable choice at a grocery checkout counter – paper or plastic…

Which once is better for the environment?

In his blog, Daily Danny, the greener option was revealed…

A: Paper: Because trees are a renewable resource.
B: Plastic: Because trees are not cut down to make them.
ANSWER: Surprisingly, plastic is the greener choice, but by a very slim margin.

Check out his blog to find out why.

And as I concluded in one of my last posts, Danny also points out that “The real winner here is a reusable bag. ”

Awards season is upon us, and we’re busy getting ready to submit for the Publicity Club of New England’s Bell Ringer Awards. A year goes by quickly, but looking back, it’s always fun and interesting to see what great work your agency has done. Work from all three of our portfolios – technology, consumer and professional services will be submitted for the Bell Ringer Awards and we’ve been having a ball reminiscing about all the great times and hard work we put into each and every campaign. As tedious as entry guidelines may be, it’s a good time to look back, reflect and appreciate all the great work that was done as a team. I can only imagine what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences does to prepare for its industry awards (which by the way was a total bore)!

Good luck to everyone, and remember to have fun!

For those of us who have WordPress blogs and found it difficult to post over the past couple of days, don’t throw your computer out the window, it’s innocent… this time. In fact, the popular blog hosting service WordPress.com was hit with a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack that flooded the site with incoming data requests and basically knocked out peoples’ access to their own blogs.

I know I had some issues that involved some not-so-kind words to my computer as I tried to post to my blogs yesterday. I believe some others had trouble as well.

My issue isn’t the attack however, I understand these things happen and the folks at Automattic worked quickly to resolve the problems, but I am upset that they didn’t notify all the users. This IDG article claims they let all their users know, but those I spoke with were left in the dark. Hopefully WordPress will be more organized next time (oh yes, I’m sure they’ll be a next time) and won’t leave their bloggers glaring angrily at their computer screens, oblivious to the real reason the post they just spent an hour on got lost.

Deep inside every one of us, there is a voyeur. One that longs to peek into someone else’s journal, read juicy tidbits about his or her life and to discover some deep, dark secret that he or she is hiding. All in the name of good fun, of course. Now, there is a place/Web site/kind of blog where you indulge in these voyeuristic desires. At Postsecret, you can anonymously read about other peoples’ secrets. Postsecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. Postsecret is updated every Sunday with new secrets/postcards. Some secrets are hilarious, some are heartwarming, some are painful and some bring a tear to your eyes. Check out “A Valentine Video” and “A Lifetime of Secrets” on Youtube. There is something artistically raw and humanizing about Postsecret. It tugs at your heartstrings, slaps you across the face and leaves you flabbergasted at times. Let that “peeping Tom” in you break free. Visit Postsecret and let your jaw drop.

Over the weekend, I reunited with my childhood first love – the Spice Girls. Our love rekindled during their reunion concert held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Although it has been almost 11 years since I last idolized them, waves of nostalgia hit me as I entered the arena, filled with thousands of screaming girls, most of college age. There was this strange connection among all of us. We were from that era of girl power. During the concert, I felt like I was 12 again. Despite not having “revised” any of the songs beforehand, I was able to belt out every single word to all their songs. When “Wannabe,” “Say You’ll Be There” and “2 Become 1” came on, it was déjà vu. . I was essentially re-living 6th grade again. A time when boys were still annoying, the Backstreet Boys were still hot and Bill was still president. I was only jolted back to reality toward the end of the show when I got tired of standing and had to sit. 11 years on and I definitely lack the energy of a 12-year-old girl. Before I left Spice World, I spent an obscene amount of money on Spice Girls merchandise, but I figured it was a small price to pay for a trip down memory lane.

According to BIGresearch the average man will spend $163.37, which nearly doubles the $84.72 that the average female plans to spend on Valentine’s Day.

Traditional gifts, such as candy, flowers and jewelry are expected to see a slight decrease in popularity this year with more consumers preferring gift cards and gifts of experience such as a fancy dinner or a spa gift certificate.

The next statistic will blow you away… total spending for Valentine’s Day 2008 is expected to reach $17.02 billion and $367 million of this figure will be spent on our pets!

Think of what could be done with this money… save a rain forest, feed the hungry, build homes for the less fortunate, research cures for cancer, the list goes on and on.

Personally, I shop the sales and found my husband a very nice shirt and tie in Macy’s and only ended up spending $46.74. In retrospect, it might have been more worthwhile to make a donation in his name to the ASPCA or Breast Cancer research, something with a longer lasting effect than a few days of looking snazzy at work.

So, how much did you spend? Any regrets?