Switzer always liked the pitch
Barry Switzer has hired on as a spokesman for Dunkin’ Donuts, and a new set of ads trades on his willingness to do crazy stuff, along with his intensity as a coach — even when he’s coaching chess. (via Sporting Press)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
The new phones are here!
AT&T uploaded a short video of its Fort Worth, Texas, distribution plant processing the new iPhone 3GS models. Customers are expected to line up Friday to buy the new gadget. The AT&T store at Penn Square Mall will open at 7 a.m. today, and the Apple Store there will open at 8 a.m. Mall doors open at 5 a.m. if you really want to get your geek on.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Logos that require a second look
Graphicdesignblog.org posts a selection of corporate logos that contain hidden messages. All are clever designs that reveal aspects of the company other than just its name.
The most famous is the Federal Express logo. As I learned not too long ago, once you see the arrow created by the space between the ‘E’ and ‘x,’ you can’t not see it.
The Hartford Whalers logo has long been a personal favorite. It contains the first letters of both words in the team’s name, and the image of a whale tail.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
McDonald’s meat, straight from the OKC
Ed Sanchez, president of Oklahoma City-based Lopez Foods.
Lopez Foods, a longtime provider of meat to McDonald’s, also has been a fixture in Oklahoma City for years. The company produced a video showing the inner workings of its plant. While watching chunks of meat become ground beef isn’t the most appetizing experiences, the place does appear to be very clean — tidier than most McDonald’s stores that I’ve been in.
Lopez Foods also supplies the Canadian bacon that McDonald’s uses in its Egg McMuffins. And here’s how an Egg McMuffin is created. I have to admit that I’ve never tasted one (are the yolks supposed to be broken or not?) The McDonald’s Web site also answers submitted questions about its offerings, including some sarcastic ones. My favorite question: “What is Chicken McNuggets?”
McDonald’s response:
Chicken McNuggets® are made with white meat chicken, lightly coated in a tempura batter to ensure that they are crispy on the outside, and juicy and tender in the inside.
They also address the eternal question of which came first, the Egg McMuffin or the Chicken McNugget? (It was the Egg McMuffin, by 10 years).
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Vigilantes Rick roll telemarketers
Everyone has had it with the vehicle warranty calls. Oklahoma authorities have filed several legal actions to stop the annoying telemarketing pitches. Their counterparts in other states have tried similar tactics. The feds have gotten involved.
Yet the calls — “This is your second and final call notifying that your vehicle warranty is about to expire…” — continue unabated.
Michael Silveira called out the big guns, the Wall Street Journal reported. He Rickrolled them:
So last week, Mr. Silveira began calling back an auto-warranty company that has become the focus of an Internet crusade. He left it voice-mail messages that contained nothing but a recording of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
Using phone numbers for Auto One Warranty Specialists Inc. that users posted to a Web site called Reddit.com, Mr. Silveira joined dozens of activists who have peppered the warranty company with messages including elevator music, threats and offers of rude services.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Telemarketing trevails
Oklahoma officials have filed several legal actions against three out-of-state telemarketing firms that have beseiged Oklahoma consumers with illegal phone calls offering vehicle warranty deals. The calls have been made to people whose phone numbers are on the state and federal “Do Not Call” lists. The companies are using automated dial devices, which are illegal, and are using recorded messages.
A reader today shared his experience with his attempt to stop the calls.
I have received at least 3 of these calls in the past two weeks, the last of which was last night around 8 or 9 PM. Having heard some of the details on previous TV news reports, and being registered on the National Do Not Call database, I was incensed at the content of the pre-recorded message. My anger did not reach the boiling point until after the message ended and a live body came on line.
I intentionally waited for the “human” as I was going to see if a direct message would help stop the calls. I immediately asked that person for her full name, the name of her employer, her location, and her return phone number. I also advised her my number was on the National Do Not Call database, that she and her company were in violation of Oklahoma statutes, and federal statutes and that their calls needed to stop immediately. She arrogantly said “Goodbye a – - – - – - ” and hung up on me.
Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s ability to make these annoying calls cease could go a long way toward getting him elected governor.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
First-class stamps: getting your two-cents’ worth
The price of a first-class postage stamp rose 2 cents today (unless you stocked up on “Forever Stamps” ahead of time). I’ve always thought a first-class stamp was one of the modern era’s great bargains. Or at least I thought so until I read this article from Georg Jensen.
Just as General Motors has in effect subsidized Big Oil by continuing to build gas-guzzlers in recent years, so has the USPS continued to subsidize Big Mail by shaping its operations to encourage what it now calls, revealingly, “standard mail”—that is, advertising junk mail. Most American citizens are blissfully unaware of the degree to which USPS subsidizes U.S. businesses by means of the fees it collects from ordinary postal customers. For example, if you wish to mail someone a large envelope weighing three ounces, you’ll pay $1.17 in postage. A business can bulk-mail a three-ounce catalog of the same size for as little as $0.14.
The price of a first-class stamp has risen a bit faster than the rate of inflation, but it tracks fairly well. A look at the consumer price index calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 44 cents today has the same spending power as 4 cents in 1919. But a first-class stamp in 1919 cost only 2 cents.
To look at it from the other direction, a first-class stamp that cost 2 cents in 1919 would cost 25 cents today based solely on the rate of inflation. The 3-cent stamp, which originated in 1932, is roughly equivalent to a cost of 47 cents today.
A first-class stamp hit the 10-cent mark in 1974, which is equivalent to 43 cents in 2009.
A look at stamp prices between 1919 to present.
Year — Postage, per ounce
1919 — 2 cents
1932 — 3 cents
1958 — 4 cents
1963 — 5 cents
1968 — 6 cents
1971 — 8 cents
1974 — 10 cents
1975 — 13 cents
1978 — 15 cents
1981 — 18 cents (March)
1981 — 20 cents (November)
1985 — 22 cents
1988 — 25 cents
1991 — 29 cents
1995 — 32 cents
1999 — 33 cents
2001 — 34 cents
2002 — 37 cents
2006 — 39 cents
2007 — 41 cents
2008 — 42 cents
2009 — 44 cents
Source: U.S. Postal Service
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Baby shaker iPhone app yanked
An iPhone app that required the user to shake the device to quiet a crying baby has been pulled from the iTunes store after at least a couple of groups raised a stink about it.
The Associated Press reports:
The iTunes description included the line, “See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!” Once the iPhone owner finishes shaking the device, the on-screen baby is depicted with large red X’s over its eyes.
Apple has refused to sell other iPhone applications it has deemed objectionable, including one that allowed the user to manipulate a woman’s breasts and an application based on the show “South Park.” However, “fart buttons” are among the most popular items stocked at the iTunes store. Go figure.
Edit: Now that I’ve seen the video, this is offensive in addition to being pointless.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Remarkable commercial freezes time
I wonder what the budget for this two-minute production was. It’s an impressive work, but I’m not sure it makes me want to buy anything.
The first time I saw this, I knew it was an ad; I just didn’t know what the product was. Turns out it was produced by Philips to help sell a new line of HD televisions. If you’d like to see a higher resolution version (or see some “behind the scenes” takes), go to the company’s Web site.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Sale whale
I use Twitter. It can be a valuable tool, and has helped me land a couple of stories sooner than I would have before I started spending some time with my tweeps. But I’m not always a fan of Twitter, particularly the marketing that takes place so frequently. Here’s a suggestion from Matt Haughey about what companies should do before they spend a lot of time thinking about their social media agenda:
So maybe instead of getting your company on twitter, paying marketers to mention you are on twitter, and paying people to blog about your company, forget all that and just make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products, hire people that represent the company well, and when your stuff is so awesome that friends share it with other friends, you may not even need “social media marketing” after all.
Perhaps the best, most concise primer on how to market through social media is www.howtousetwitterformarketingandpr.com.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
