Announcement:

Re: Annual4th 2008

(Schedule)

(Location)

Get the picture?

America's FAVORITE Tradition

I love advertising and marketing. I am a big fan of Ernie Bernays, the fellow that brought breakfast to America, books to the middle class, soap to little boys, and cigarettes to girls. Some marketing and PR is carefully planned towards the BIG picture, not just a quick boost of sales for the month.
Some marketing is off the cuff, get it done, print it and ship it.

I saw one of these quickie marketing plans in the supermarket the other day.

This wasn't written by a huge marketing firm. This was designed as a grab-your-eye impulse buy, quick no-analysis, no deeper meaning marketing. Of course, I couldn't get it out of my mind and couldn't keep from snickering continuously as I wandered around the store. Let's analyze this...



The advertising copy read

"America's FAVORITE Tradition!".

Now where does your mind go when you think of America's FAVORITE Tradition.

Christmas Trees, Annual4th Party, Thanksgiving Turkey, Formal Weddings, Graduation parties, Valentine's day sex, Superbowl parties, Marching bands, waving flags, bike week, pumpkin festival, protesting, Town Meetings, drinking beer and shooting guns into the air, fishing in the spring, impossible to eat fruitcake, snow angels, (if you live in New Ipswich) burning tires in the road, caps and robes for graduation, (in you live in Cody) going to the Rodeo every night, carving jack-o-lanterns, milk at Indianapolis, standing on podiums at the Olympics, the pledge of allegiance, Halloween costumes, Sunday comics, cocoa on a snowy day, s'mores, group pictures, birthday candles, ...

Nope. That's not it. According to the marketing people in charge of the seasonal point of purchase display that I saw in the supermarket, America's FAVORITE Tradition, not "one of the traditions", or a "pretty good tradition", but according to the marketing person at PAAS "America's FAVORITE Tradition" is Coloring Easter Eggs. Listerine was not allowed to advertise for seven years because of false claims, AAMCO has to be constantly reminded by the court system what "free" means, and now everybody can get loads of money refunded because of "incorrect" packaging by the makers of AirBorne. If anybody would like to start a class action suit so that Americans are not deceived by the PAAS Easter Egg Coloring Company if indeed Coloring Easter Eggs is NOT proven to be "America's FAVORITE Tradition", I would like to get in line for my share. There are many of us that have colored Easter eggs in the past while being unaware that the joy that they were experiencing with vinegar and food coloring was the best tradition that you were likely to ever encounter. If this was true they should have told us sooner so that we could wallow in the full glory of the process, and if it isn't true then we as Americans are once again being flim-flammed by hucksters trying to trick us into having fun again! If it isn't the bestest and the favorite, then why bother.

But you know? It doesn't prevent colds, it doesn't attract women, and doesn't remove the horrible ravages of aging, but it does have a brand name. People do like brand names. And it's messy! Your fingers turn colors and the countertops get those cool colored stains...

You can hide the eggs so well than nobody can find them until August when they use their timed-release "see if you can find me" tracking-odor.

You learn that mixing ANY two food colors produces brown (I think that is why half of the eggs in the supermarket are brown, Easter egg seconds).

They are fun and a complete waste of time and ingredients. And there is those stains.

Well maybe that person in the marketing cubicle at PAAS knew what she was doing.

http://www.paaseastereggs.com/

The annual invitation to the Annual4th.

Well I haven't seen any emails darting around talking about the annual4th so I have nominated myself as party czar/ wagon master.

Seconded? (Beth seconds the motion)

Yays? (Unanimous)

Nays? (None)

Voted in the affirmative.

The next issue to be discussed is the dates for the party.

Mr. Shea has proposed that the party be held BEFORE Wednesday the 4th because of a sports-superstar-daughter related conflict.

The committee has proposed that the official dates shall be:

Saturday JUNE 30th thru Thursday July 5th, with adjustments for the usual early-birds and slow packers. The site has NOT been reserved for any other event, so it is available as needed or wanted.

Dates approved. Official dates: Saturday June 30th thru whenever...

Who to invite: The usual suspects.

Approved. (See this email, if you are reading this, you are invited)

Preparations: The place has been opened up on May 9th 2007

Final preparations: Mr. Shea will mow after his early arrival.

Supplies: Bring your own.

Friends: Bring your own.

Does anyone else have any proposals?

I now declare the official part of this meeting as closed.

Any other items to present to the group?

Warren (no longer acting as the leader) timidly raises his hand...

Warren is acknowledged by Mr Witherell (now being slightly schizophrenic)

Warren continues:

"Hi gang, I am glad that you are all coming to the Annual4th this year. The house is opened up, there was no damage this winter. The road is being rebuilt by the town. Everything is ready to go."

"I think it is REALLY going to be fun this year..."

he pauses... there is an uneasy silence....

.

.

"Unfortunately my duties as President of The Marmon Club require that I be at the Mighty Marmon Muster being held in Sonora California at the END OF JUNE."

there is a small gasp as the crowd interprets what this means...

now the backpedaling begins...

"Now I didn't schedule the Muster, the dates were settled BEFORE I was elected President or I surely would have vetoed it... I really had no control, the lame-duck president that I replaced was powerless to change anything either..."

the small crowd begins grumbling among themselves...

"Beth and I will NOT be able to get to the Annual4th because we will be DRIVING to Sonora instead of flying, because of the rising cost of jet-fuel nowadays."

time for the whining...

"This will be the FIRST one that we have missed in more than 25 years! We aren't doing it on purpose! We will be back NEXT year! Trust us. While I am president The Mighty Marmon Muster will never again conflict with the Annual 4th!!!!!!!!"

the group seems totally unimpressed by the grandstanding, I think the dog fell asleep....

"We are all adults here, we will find it easy to forgive Beth and Warren for missing ONE little party. It will be fun. Everybody knows what to do. Have fun. Take pictures for us."

.

a few start heading for the door...

.

"Oh and there is one more little thing..."

...they stop and turn back towards the podium...

"Beth and I have sold our house and everything we own and will be living out of our van for the foreseeable future"

"We are going to try to figure out what we want to do when we grow up and figure out IF we want to grow up."

Warren has their FULL attention now...

"We don't know where we are going, and are open to suggestions. We don't know how long we are going for. No clue. We have cell phones, email, and a BLOG so that you can contact us. Write this down:"

there is a scrabbling for pencils and pens...

His confidence seems to improve, he seems to be hitting his stride again...

"OK our phone numbers are:

Beth xxx-xxx-xxxx (censored by the spam police)

Warren xxx-xxx-xxxx call either one, we will usually be within earshot of each other.

"Most importantly: The BLOG"

"go to http://bethandwarren.com/ to see where we are. It's a little boring right now because we haven't gone anywhere yet, but be patient. Add your suggestions, remember we ARE clueless."

Leave a comment on ANY post and the system will email us to tell us that you were there.

OK, now he's starting to ramble again...

"We are NOT planning to drop off the face of the earth, we will be on a vacation. A nice LONG vacation.

"When we start getting low on money, we will react accordingly. By the way, the little advertisements that pop up on the blog are yet another small source of income for us. Feel free to test the advertising links just to make sure that they are working correctly ("good night and be sure to tip your servers")."

"Please add suggestions, send us emails, and call us on the weekends."

"We love you and wish we could be at the 4th."

"Thank You"

Joyous clapping and hugs all around. Champagne and beer cans popping all over the place.

Wow, this is great.

Meeting over.

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tiger said...
Why don't you just move to the Pine Hills retirement community in Plimouth...much easier, albeit less adventurous.Hope to reach you in cyberspace. Just remenber that it doesn't exist between NY and LA. Stamps are still a great buy. Send me a card from the world largest ball of twine, frying pan or buffalo turd....

jeff
May 10, 2007 2:26 PM

Brae Mar awakens, 2007

We went to Brae mar to open it up for the summer.

The views were great.


Mt Washington


We turned on the water. No leaks.

From 2007-05-08

The work I did on the driveway last summer paid off....
The was NO water erosion, while most of the road coming up the hill was wiped out.


We took some pictures to get used to this whole BLOG thing.

From 2007-05-08 Brae Mar (Click to check them out)

Miss Chocorua

From 2007-05-08 Brae Mar...

We were able to spend about an hour there before we had to run off to Martha's for dinner.

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Vicky ;o) said...
Ok, this, you are going to get a kick out of. I'm looking at these pictures and I'm remembering some lobster races on the kitchen floor of the house there. I remember the view. I don't remember a lot from my early childhood because of the chemo I went through, but you guys always bring fond memories to mind.
September 3, 2007 1:37 AM