I just read an interview and watched this fantastic clip of a meta-documentary about acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns.

In the documentary, Ken talks about storytelling, and the compelling truths that emerge from simple facts – truths that are somehow greater than the sum of a story’s constituent parts. He talks about Lincoln winning the Civil War and then going to the theatre that night. About Thomas Jefferson writing “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” but also owning 100 slaves. He talks about how these dissonances create a powerful desire in all of us to create stories that can reconcile and make sense of a world that can often be completely nonsensical.

It’s funny—I started my career in global health working on HIV/AIDS for Partners in Health because of a story. I read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder and was rocked to my core by its central proposition: moral necessity necessarily trumps commercial viability. In PIH’s words: if someone needs your help, you do “whatever it takes. Just as we would do if a member of our own family—or we ourselves—were ill.”

Over the years, I’ve tried to live by that philosophy. I worked for the Clinton Foundation using tools I previously had decried as those of a cynical culture – the forecasting models, flowcharts, graphs, and financial partnerships with pharmaceutical corporations – for real, effective change. I studied health system reform in graduate school. I even moved to DC to advance domestic health reform (it’s not only people in Africa that need and deserve access to basic health care) in the US Senate and later at Brookings.

I’ve now been at kglobal for the past five months, helping issues and brands develop compelling stories that inspire passionate advocates around a range of issues—including health reform.

However this past week I had a meeting with a potential client that for the first time completely and totally brought me back to that day—nearly 10 years ago—when I finishedMountains Beyond Mountains.The potential client we met with is looking to launch a global advocacy campaign around ending HIV/AIDS. They have a new tactic (something called test-and-treat) and some really capable people leading the effort. I left convinced they can save billions of dollars and millions of lives. But they need help figuring out how to inspire action.

People at PIH and the Clinton Foundation often talk about an African humanist philosophy called Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are."

As we spoke with this potential client about creating a global advocacy campaign, I was struck by how much cause-based communications work resembles storytelling around precisely this message.

Before I made the leap, I was warned by health policy colleagues that PR was a business full of morally corrupt and intellectually incurious assholes totally focused on money. My experience to date couldn’t be farther from that—I don’t think I’ve ever worked with a group of people who were more moral, humble, curious, and committed to making the world a better place. I actually think that’s why the majority of the people I work with left the big firms to come work here.

But particularly at this meeting around actually ENDING the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I was amazed at the depth – both in terms of experience but also passion – that my team displayed on these issues. And I was pleasantly surprised to realize that I’ve somehow managed to come full circle, working with amazing people to craft stories that can make the world a better place.

A lot of positive news has come out of New Orleans in recent weeks. A successful Jazz Fest, a local chef/entrepreneur featured in Inc., more restaurants than ever before, tourism numbers are on pace to match levels before Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the French Quarter and Central Business District look great.

Having spent a lot of time in New Orleans in the two years before and after Katrina, and having visited as a tourist many times before that, the city means more to me than just a place to drink and eat (not that I plan to give up that part). So I am very happy to see so many positive developments.

New Orleans’ success shows that no matter how bad a situation becomes, no matter how hopeless, you can get through it with clear thinking, hard work and tenacity. As we saw with many other aspects of the hurricane and its aftermath, waiting for someone to help you isn’t a viable strategy – so you might as well get on with it.

While every resident, elected official and others had challenges post-Katrina most of us can’t even imagine, tourism professionals faced an especially daunting task: how to win back conventions and tourists. They tackled the problem head on with imagination and hard work.

Clever advertising keying on New Orleans’ atmosphere of fun and food reminded people the city was open for business, particularly the French Quarter, which didn’t flood after Hurricane Katrina unlike many other parts of the city.

In addition, consistent hard work with the national news media paid off after extensive coverage of everything that had gone wrong and was wrong with the city after the hurricane. Drawing reporters’ attention to the bright spots amid the gloom helped shift attention from the disaster to the recovery – a critical step forward.

Although this fact sheet reflects progress only as of the six-year mark last August, and work remains to be done, of course, it shows that a lot of good has been accomplished. Note that tax revenue from tourism is up, the number of hotel rooms is edging toward the pre-hurricane level and there are half again as many restaurants as before!

That’s good news for everyone who enjoys a good food and a great city.

Twitter allows me to reach out to my favorite companies and brands, like Coca-Cola. Via Twitter, I can express my love for the beverage company and confess my excessive coke-drinking habits. This is because sites like Twitter erase the distance between brands and their customers. For better or worse, companies now communicate openly and directly with their consumers. Organizations used to be able to control communication with their customers, but that’s no longer the case. Regardless of whether you’re paying attention or not, people are on Twitter having a discussion about you. Listening and responding to this dialogue can lead to strong relationships and loyalty. Engaging your Twitter audience can have a positive impact on your reputation and your bottom line. However, all of this openness creates a lot of opportunities for disaster. Twitter conversations about your brand may take a turn for the worse. Negative trending topics intended to criticize organizations, known asbashtags, may take form and spiral out of control. In a lot of cases, the companies involved are responsible for creating these bashtags.

McDonald’s unintentionally created one of the most viral bashtags in Twitter history. In January, McDonald’s executives attempted to encourage positive discussion about their company by paying for the promoted #McDStories Twitter topic. They were hoping users would use the topic to share good McDonald’s experiences. Within two hours, it quickly turned into a bashtag. In a short amount of time, the company experienced a barrage of negative tweets about the quality of their food:

“Dude, I used to work at McDonald’s. The #McDStories I could tell would raise your hair.” (via Twitter)

“#McDStories I lost 50lbs in 6 months after I quit working and eating at McDonald’s” (via The Daily Mail)

“These #McDStories never get old, kinda like a box of McDonald’s 10 piece chicken McNuggets left in the sun for a week” (via The LA Times)

McDonald’s execs recognized the PR disaster in progress and ended the campaign after two hours. But it was too late. The trending topic had already gained a life of its own. Rick Wion, McDonald’s social media director, was quoted in theLA Times: “As Twitter continues to evolve its platform and engagement opportunities, we’re learning from our experiences.” Indeed, the #McDStories crisis is a learning experience and a cautionary tale for social media consultants everywhere. The following are three ways to learn from the McDonald’s Twitter disaster and avoid turning into a bashtag horror story:

1) Know your brand
The people at McDonald’s did a poor job of understanding public perception of their company before promoting the #McDStories hashtag. Learn from their mistake. If you think the Twitterverse is going to respond negatively to your campaign, find a different way to tailor your messaging to your true supporters.

2) Prepare for the worst
Before moving forward with a Twitter Campaign, look for any potential weaknesses in your plan. Prepare a plan of action to deal with and respond to your worst case scenarios.

3) Don’t force it
Promoted hashtags rarely make an impact on Twitter. And Social Media users tend to react negatively to insincerity. Instead of paying for a trending topic, try to encourage an organic discussion about your company.

I have Twitter. This is something that I have never really been ashamed to admit. When I created my Twitter over two years ago I thought it was pretty stupid, so I sort of made a joke of it. Very few of my tweets from the moment I created my account to now have been even remotely serious. But while my tweets may not have been serious, I now do take my tweets very seriously. I know that when I tweet they are going to be seen by my 230 followers and since my tweets are unblocked they can be seen by any person who simply types my twitter name into Google. Since I know that each tweet can be seen by any person with an Internet connection, I have come up with a few steps to producing a fantastic tweet that people will enjoy:

1. The subject of your tweet should be something your followers can relate to. You shouldn’t tweet something like, “Don’t you hate it when you fall down an elevator shaft and break your leg?” Unless your followers are all people who have fallen down an elevator shaft, this is something that most people can’t relate to. And if you do ever find yourself at the bottom of an elevator shaft with a broken leg the only thing you should be doing on your phone is calling 911 - not tweeting.

2. Don’t tweet about something that no one cares about. This is a really big problem I have found on Twitter. People will tweet things like, “Out to lunch with mom.” Or “I am now walking the pets <3.” (The “<3” is supposedly a heart, though I don’t see it) This information is completely useless to me as a person unless I am looking to rob your home, in that case, thanks for letting me know you are currently not in your house. But really if you’re out to lunch with mom don’t tell me because while we may be friends I really don’t need to know about your lunch date. Also don’t tell me you are walking your pet, unless your pet is a lion and your tweet is a warning to tell the neighborhood to make sure all small animals and children are indoors.

3. Think before you tweet. It is really not that hard. If you think for even a second that what you are about to tweet is stupid, insensitive, or racist, just don’t tweet it. For instance if you were to tweet something like, “I think Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is the worst movie of all time.” Clearly the majority of people, including myself, will think lesser of you. That is why it is important think before you tweet because you can’t take back a tweet. Unless you delete it, but that’s not the point, the point is while on Twitter each tweet is something that can either build or destroy your reputation. So just think about it a little.

I hope my advice was sound and you will now be able to produce tweets on your own that are pleasing to others. But then again what do I know? I have tweeted 2,726 times and I have 230 followers, Beyonce has tweeted once and she has 4,160,938 followers. So you might want to go to her for advice.

This week, the Social Security Administration released it’s 2011 data of the most popular baby names in the United States:

According to the SSA, this is the thirteenth year in a row Jacob tops the list for boys and the first year for Sophia, who knocks Isabella to number two after a two-year stint at the top of the list for girls. There is only one new name in the top 10 on either list this year. Mason rocketed to number two from outside of the top ten to replace Anthony on the boys’ side.

Trends in baby names certainly don’t occur arbitrarily. Parents put a lot of time and thought into the naming process – sometimes looking to family, religious or cultural traditions for influence. But according to the SSA, many parents turn to pop culture: in this case, the rise of Mason can likely be attributed to the youngest Kardashian. And thisyear’s winner for biggest jump in popularity in the girls' Top 500 – Briella – may come from Brilla Calafiore, a blonde reality star hairdresser from cable TV’s “Jerseylicious.”

Let’s consider this from a brand perspective, shall we? Your name communicates a lot to the world, specifically, how your parents anticipate your future. Does your name sound like you’re ready for the boardroom or the surfboard? And if parents project future expectations through the carefully chosen moniker, then what is a parent wishing upon their offspring by naming them after a reality TV star? Let’s look at this account from 2005’s “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:”

In 1958, a New York City father named Robert Lane decided to call his baby son Winner. The Lanes, who lived in a housing project in Harlem, already had several children, each with a fairly typical name. But this boy—well, Robert Lane apparently had a special feeling about him. Winner Lane: How could he fail with a name like that?

Three years later, the Lanes had another baby boy, their seventh and last child. For reasons that no one can quite pin down today, Robert decided to name this boy Loser. Robert wasn't unhappy about the new baby; he just seemed to get a kick out of the name's bookend effect. First a Winner, now a Loser. But if Winner Lane could hardly be expected to fail, could Loser Lane possibly succeed?

Loser Lane did in fact succeed. He went to prep school on a scholarship, graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and joined the New York Police Department, where he made detective and, eventually, sergeant. Although he never hid his name, many people were uncomfortable using it. To his police colleagues today, he is known as Lou.

And what of his brother? The most noteworthy achievement of Winner Lane, now in his late 40s, is the sheer length of his criminal record: morethan 30 arrests for burglary, domestic violence, trespassing, resisting arrest, and other mayhem.

So maybe a name doesn’t really determine a child’s destiny. Maybe the Masons and the Briellas have a shot beyond reality television stardom.

Kglobal is proud to announce that we has been awarded a 2012 Communicator Award of Distinction for our work on the Gardein Party Tour. The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program recognizing big ideas in marketing and communications. The awards are sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consists of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms.

Our work with Gardein was awarded a Communicator in the integrated campaign category for social responsibility. This category recognizes outstanding advertising and marketing campaigns utilizing more than one form of media created for promoting social issues.

We have put a lot of effort over the past 12 months into refining our approach and positioning. We’ve evolved from a firm that was marketing ourselves and approaching problems as generalists into something much more targeted. We now like to say that we integrate our four service lines—grassroots advocacy, branding and marketing, public affairs, and digital communications—around campaigns that focus on creating issue or brand advocates that drive change.

In the case of Gardein, our first challenge was convincing non-vegetarians that meat alternatives could be easy, tasty, appealing to foodies and would-be flexitarians alike. In order to overcome this hurdle, the team created the “Gardein Party” healthy food truck tour, through which samples of three varieties of Gardein were made available at unexpected venues around the country and people were encouraged to sign up for the meat-free challenge. Supported by an extensive digital and social media strategy, the one-month tour also featured salon dinners with local health advocates, politicians and media in D.C., Boston, Chicago and Atlanta to insert Gardein into a larger, national conversation about the health benefits of reduced meat consumption.

Thank you IAVA for the acknowledgment of our efforts with Gardein.

Learn more about the kglobal approach:
Connecting issues + brands with passionate advocates

As human beings, our longing to connect with others is the driving factor that makes social media so popular and successful. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn satisfy the need to connect with family, friends and coworkers (people you are already acquainted with). However, a new wave of social discovery sites and applications serves an entirely different but equally important purpose: the need to connect with new people. Different from dating sites, these platforms offer users the opportunity to make new friendships or potentially find romance. A number of these sites and apps are quickly gaining ground and changing the social media landscape.

When asked which social media site is the most engaging, your gut response would probably be Facebook, or maybe Twitter. Recent ComScore report findings reveal a different reality. According to the social media stats from March, social discovery site Tagged was the only network to place in the top two for both engagement metrics. Tagged users made 18 visits to the site during March (second only to Facebook’s 36 visits). And on average, each Tagged visit lasted for 12.1 minutes (second only to Tumblr’s 14.7 minutes and better than Facebook’s 10.9 minutes). Considering the fact that I didn’t know what Tagged was two days ago, these numbers are very impressive.

Founded in 2004, Tagged has now become by far the most popular social discovery site, with over 100 million users. Intended to help you connect with real life acquaintances, Facebook makes it difficult to finding new friends. On the contrary, Tagged is designed to help you meet new people, which makes it okay to reach out to strangers. As opposed to competing with each other, social discovery networks and traditional social media go hand-in-hand. After connecting through Tagged, users could easily switch over to Facebook to develop a friendship.

Social discovery has also become popular in the mobile world. One application that is receiving a good amount of buzz is Highlight, an iphone application that aims to make the world more interesting. It works by making you aware of other Highlight users in your immediate area who share similar hobbies. Once notified, you can either walk up to a nearby user and start a conversation or highlight him or her as someone you find interesting.

The people at Facebook, who recently bought the popular mobile sharing app Instagram for $1 billion, have already taken notice of the social discovery trend. In fact, they recently decided to stake their claim to this new field. Two days ago, word got out that Facebook has officially acquired Glancee, a location-based social discovery app. Similar to Highlight, Glancee enables you to find new nearby people who share your interests. With this new acquisition, this app will likely become Facebook compatible in the near future.

A major reason social media sites like Facebook are so popular is because they take the anonymity out of the internet. The web used to be a place where strangers in chat rooms and forums communicated. Now it’s the medium for everyday conversations between real life friends and acquaintances. Meeting people you don’t know online is normally seen as a dangerous and risky activity. But with the advent of social discovery networks, that perception is changing. These platforms are now gaining popularity because they give you the opportunity to meet new people in a safe and acceptable environment. Coupled with traditional platforms like Facebook, social discovery could very well be the next phase in the evolution of social media.

Diving into the world of social media can be intimidating for any company, large or small. Marketing executives—particularly those who did not grow up in the Digital Age—are sure to wonder how social media can best be exploited to develop brand recognition and generate sales. Which networks work best for promoting website traffic? How about search engine optimization?

Thanks to the good people at CMO.com, surveying your social media options just got a little bit easier. Their highly intuitive infographic gives a general overview of the best strategies and networks to accomplish your marketing goals—whether they be customer communication, brand exposure, website traffic or SEO.

So if you’re wondering how Reddit or Instagram can help your business (or if you’re wondering what they are in the first place), check out the infographic and take your first steps in developing an effective social media presence.

Most Washingtonians would love to see “The West Wing” again—to see CJ and President Bartlet exchanging pithy quips while strolling through the storied halls of The White House. The humorists at Funny or Die recently made at least part of the dream come true with a West Wing reunion clip starring all of our favorite faux wonks. It’s fun to see, but the subject is a little disturbing.

America has an obesity problem. Our overindulgence in food, and under investment in activity, is something that gained nationwide attention in the 2004 Morgan Spurlock documentary, “Super Size Me.” Now, eight years later, it’s a topic that seems to make the news almost every week.

In her latest journalistic pursuit, Katie Couric is teaming up with Laurie David to produce a feature-length documentary about obesity. “The Big Picture,” as it’s called, will explore the childhood obesity epidemic through the stories of youth struggling with weight issues.

Is it any wonder that America is becoming obese? It’s hard to reconcile our uniquely American, go-go-go work ethic with the need to be more active, sit less and spend more time preparing nutritious foods. There are plenty of other factors, beyond sitting at a desk all day, that are part of the problem, but it’s one so large that not only have real members of the White House taken it on, but now our favorite TV president has reprised his role to send us a message about walking…walking!

Good timing, considering a Wall Street Journal article published in April (The Guide to Beating a Heart Attack) that notes that “spending more than four hours a day in front of a computer or television was associated with a doubling of serious heart problems,” and that “for people who sit most of the day, their risk of a heart attack is about the same as smoking.”

But not all hope is lost, and I like to think that returning to a few basic pastimes can help tremendously. Watch any episode of “Mad Men” and you’ll marvel at the leisurely afternoon lunches that seem like an ancient artifact in today’s working world. But should getting away for lunch be so stigmatized?

As Rachel Levy posits on Slate, taking real lunch breaks during the day—which provide an opportunity to get up and move while allowing us to be more cognizant of the food we eat—can actually increase workplace productivity. “By taking those few moments to breathe, you come out feeling refreshed and invigorated,” she writes. “At work, time spent chatting with colleagues can lead to great ideas and cross-pollination between departments. And if you’ve broken bread with colleagues at lunch, it’s going to be easier to approach them in the professional sphere.”

She’s right of course.

And at kglobal, where we have a number of clients in the health care and wellness space, it’s an issue we think about regularly. It’s evident in the yoga session at our company retreat, where we saluted the sun and folded into downward dog side-by-side; it’s evident in the number of us who walk to and from work each day; and it’s evident in our not uncommon group lunch outings, where we take the time to enjoy a meal, get some distance on the tasks at hand and mull over more creative ideas. One senior member of our team is famous for touting the importance of getting out of the office for lunch. Reads a manifesto he distributes to each new class of interns every semester: “Life is too short not to enjoy lunch. Take time for yourself.”

Kglobal is a team of dreamers, innovators and achievers—and so are our clients. What can we say, we like to surround ourselves with like-minded people. At some point in our lives, however, I’m sure many of us heard the discouraging voices of people who challenged our dreams. Pshhh…What did they know? The most successful people in this world made it to the top by endless drive and hard hard—not by listening to their naysayers, however smart or well informed they may be. The fact is, no one can predict the future and hindsight is always 20/20. So to keep you dreaming big (and to give you a few laughs), check out this list, compiled by Business Insider, of “20 Predictions From Smart People That Were Completely Wrong:”

"X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
- Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883.

"A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere."
- The New York Times, 1936.

"There will never be a bigger plane built."
- A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people.

"There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will."
-Albert Einstein, 1932.

"Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure."
-Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison's light bulb, 1880.

"The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad."
-The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford's lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.

"Television won't last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."
-Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946.

"Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia."
-Dr. Dionysius Lardner, professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, 1823

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home."
-Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in a talk given to a 1977 World Future Society meeting in Boston.

"The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most."
-IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying the photocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959.

"And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all, safaris in Vietnam"
-Newsweek, predicting popular holidays for the late 1960s.

"If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one."
-W.C. Heuper, National Cancer Institute, 1954.

"No, it will make war impossible."
-Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun, in response to the question "Will this gun not make war more terrible?" from Havelock Ellis, an English scientist, 1893.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?"
-Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter's call for investment in the radio in 1921.

"We are probably nearing the limit of all we can know about astronomy."
-Simon Newcomb, Canadian-born American astronomer, 1888.

"I am tired of all this sort of thing called science here... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped."
-Simon Cameron, U.S. Senator, on the Smithsonian Institution, 1901.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
-Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929.

"It will be gone by June."
-Variety, passing judgment on rock 'n roll in 1955.

"It will be years—not in my time—before a woman will become Prime Minister."
-Margaret Thatcher, future Prime Minister, October 26th, 1969.

"Children just aren’t interested in Witches and Wizards anymore."
-Anonymous publishing executive writing to JK Rowling, 1996.

I just read a fascinating book review on NPR about language. Here’s a choice excerpt:

The Pirahã are hunter-gatherers who live along the Maici River in Brazil's Amazon region. They fish, gather manioc and hunt in the forest. As is true with any human society, Pirahã communities are socially complex.

Everett first showed up among the Pirahãs as a missionary associated with the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL), with the goal of converting the natives to Christianity by translating the Bible into the local language. He left many years later as an atheist, knowing that the Pirahãs "were not in the market for a new worldview."

In between, Everett found that the Pirahãs have no words for "please," "thank you," "you're welcome" or "I'm sorry." They have no color words, but instead deploy phrases such as "it is temporarily being immature" for green. They have a limited kinship term system, one that does not distinguish between parent and grandparent or brother and sister. And their sentences lack recursion. This means there are no embedded clauses, as in the English sentence "Bring me the fish that Mary caught."

Everyone should read this review. I plan to read the book. But what I find fascinating, even from this small excerpt, is what the reviewer argues that this book indicates about language: humans don’t have a language gene. As she puts it:

There are no meaningful human universals when it comes to how people construct sentences to communicate with each other. Across the languages of the world (estimated to number 6,000-8,000), nouns, verbs, and objects are arranged in sentences in different ways as people express their thoughts. The powerful force behind this variability is culture.

This flies in the face of everything Noam Chomsky, the famous MIT linguist, posited about a set of universal language rules being inborn. However even more compelling and undoubtedly more relevant for a blog about marketing, branding, and public affairs is that it also reinforces something that I have been learning at kglobal about branding: there are no universals about the ways in which people assign value to objects or people. Language creates associations, and those associations create meaning. In other words, brands can create new conceptual categories where none before existed. They can create five shades of green where before we only had a sense of something “temporarily being immature.”  Or a sister—and all the associations that the word elicits—instead of simply a “female sibling.”

When phrased as such, I think the critiques of brands adding no value and only noise becomes less powerful. Nuanced conceptual associations crafted through words—brands—can change and deepen the ways in which we can appreciate and interact with the world, and with each other.

It’s happened to the best of us. You walk into a conference room prepped to deliver a presentation and there are three to five new faces of potential clients. Thinking about nailing the pitch is nerve-wracking enough without having to remember five new names of people who can be the difference between winning new business or walking away empty handed.  Introductions are made, handshakes given, and then the show starts. Depending on how the presentation goes, by the end of it a million different things could be running through your mind…except for the names of your audience. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

A new study by scientists at Indiana University has found that a face’s features, more than the entire face as a whole, are really the key to recognizing a person. Tying these features to their name will help you to recall it more easily later on.

According to Scott Hagwood, author of Memory Power and four-time National Memory Champion (yes, this a real thing [http://www.usamemorychampionship.com/]), here are some ways to help you never forget another name again:

Wordplay
Make a connection between the person you have just met and something that is easy for you to remember. Rhyming and alliteration are two simple tools that can be extremely helpful.

Pay attention
This seems like an obvious one, but if five names have just come at you rapid-fire, the odds of remembering all five are slim. When you are meeting someone new try to focus on just that person during an introduction instead of an entire group.

Put it into use
Merely shaking hands with someone new and repeating their name silently will not help it stick.  Use their name in conversation. The easiest way to do this is by asking a question. This will reinforce the name in your brain and also engage that person. But don’t overdo it.  Saying someone’s name over and over again could make for an awkward situation, maybe even more than forgetting it in the first place.

Related Article:
Never forget a name again: tips from a memory expert

In this economy, you are lucky to have a job. Period. But if you can afford the luxury of holding out for a job that you would actually love, then you are really lucky.

Ever since the birth of online job boards like CareerBuilder, Monster and Idealist were launched in the mid-nineties, millions of employment seekers have been given the hope of finding a job that won't make them feel like Peter Gibbons going into work in the 1999 motion picture Office Space. In return, advertisers were given the chance to connect to a brand new audience consisting of young and old and focused on the difficult task of finding the perfect day job.

DRAFTFCB Buenos Aires recently tuned into the conversation with a commercial for the Argentine job board Zonajobs, which seeks to reinforce the notion of 'never settling for a job you don't like' among job hunters. In this minute and a half long spot, we see little, old Grandma being subjected to an array of life-threatening accidents, including illness, lightning strike, and a bank robbery among others. The sequence is then followed by a shot of a man calling in to excuse himself from work due to his grandmother's death, and the commercial ends with the line "Let Grandma rest in peace. Find a job you want to go to."

Although eerily dark and sinister, "Grandma"reminds us of a simple rule in advertising and PR: In a world of promotional clutter, the best way to grab the viewer's attention, stimulate their memory, and positively influence their behavior is to shock the hell out of them.

The first was written by The Washington's Post Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) and was titled, "Twitter becomes a key real-time tool for campaigns." The piece begins with a scene from a recent press release with President Obama in which he encouraged Americans multiple time to use Twitter as a tool for objecting to the threat of a rise in federal student loan rates.

“Tweet them — we’ve got a hashtag," the president said. "Here’s the hashtag for you to tweet them: #dontdoublemyrate.”

The second was written by the Huffington Post's Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) with the headline, "Obama, Romney campaigns embrace Twitter-fueled news cycle." The piece focused on the new reality that everything a political candidate says and does will eventually, if not immediately, be shrunk to a 140 characters and over analyzed on Twitter.

"A long string of micro-controversies (have) come to epitomize coverage of the Twitter-fueled 2012 election — a media-soaked spectacle where political reporters jump on each gaffe, opposition research dump or morsel of manufactured outrage," Calderone wrote.

The facts are that Twitter may not have the number of accounts as Facebook today, but it is growing at double the pace and 90% of all senators and House members now have active accounts. That's triple the percentage at the beginning of last year states Twitter's Adam Sharp.

The reality is that if you are a political candidate at any level and in any country you need to embrace Twitter before is defines you. Twitter has reshaped how campaigns distribute information and receive real-time feedback. It has given ordinary people a chance to be part of the political conversation like never before. Now is your chance to convert these users into valuable advocates for your campaign.

Brainstorming is an integral part of the creative process. We hold brainstorms for all kinds of reasons: to help think of new ideas for clients, new business opportunities, as well as to find solutions to internal issues. As a participant of several stagnant sessions, I know first hand that they do not always produce results. So when I read about a study conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where the effects of drinking were tested against problem-solving and creative thinking, I was intrigued. When you think about drinking and the workplace, an after-hours happy hour usually comes to mind. Only in the world of Mad Men is consuming copious amounts of alcohol part of the creative strategy.

According to the researchers, moderate alcohol consumption can reduce people’s ability to pay attention—no big revelation there. But here is where it gets interesting, that lack of focus can open the door to creative thinking. UIC researchers theorize that alcohol causes people to pay less attention to distracting tasks giving them better access to “solution cues that would otherwise be ignored.” In a typical brainstorm, participants are bouncing ideas off each other or jotting down thoughts on a white board. This is a tried and true process, but after awhile, it can become a little mundane. Throwing a few vodka-cranberries in the mix every once in awhile might be the spark needed to get people to let their guards down and think outside the box.

I’m not saying that there needs to be a private bar in everyone’s office. But the next time we find ourselves having trouble generating a big idea, maybe we should think about raising a glass.

Brainstorming is an integral part of the creative process. We hold brainstorms for all kinds of reasons: to help think of new ideas for clients, new business opportunities, as well as to find solutions to internal issues. As a participant of several stagnant sessions, I know first hand that they do not always produce results. So when I read about a study [http://litd.psch.uic.edu/personal/jwiley/drunk.pdf] conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where the effects of drinking were tested against problem-solving and creative thinking, I was intrigued. When you think about drinking and the workplace, an after-hours happy hour usually comes to mind. Only in the world of Mad Men is consuming copious amounts of alcohol part of the creative strategy.

According to the researchers, moderate alcohol consumption can reduce people’s ability to pay attention—no big revelation there. But here is where it gets interesting, that lack of focus can open the door to creative thinking. UIC researchers theorize that alcohol causes people to pay less attention to distracting tasks giving them better access to “solution cues that would otherwise be ignored.” In a typical brainstorm, participants are bouncing ideas off each other or jotting down thoughts on a white board. This is a tried and true process, but after awhile, it can become a little mundane. Throwing a few vodka-cranberries in the mix every once in awhile might be the spark needed to get people to let their guards down and think outside the box.

I’m not saying that there needs to be a private bar in everyone’s office. But the next time we find ourselves having trouble generating a big idea, maybe we should think about raising a glass.

I remember my mom as very a loyal Avon customer. Winters in our home found an ample supply not of ChapStick® but of Avon’s “Care Deeply” brand of lip balm. When the doorbell rang, a sales agent dropped off orders. It was simple, it was effective. It was a loyalty intact for 50 years. Today, Avon sits outside of the tech trend that’s sweeping the world while it faces an unsolicited takeover bid and loses market share.

Among the telling aspects of their position, Avon’s U.S. twitter account, @AvonInsider has a following of just over 35,000. A total less than @SECSportsUpdate with 68,000 fans or even actor @Fred_Willard at 48,000. In case you’re wondering I’m a huge college football fan and I love the movie Best in Show.

Avon can still make up that ground but its challenges are not limited to just the twitter platform. It can use a boost in social and digital communication efforts from Facebook to improved online commerce. With the business world in the midst of this tech transformation, Avon, or any company not embracing its customers could be left wanting.

A recent Wall Street Journal article made several points about Avon’s loss of market share. Slow adoption of new technologies and a web commerce site that doesn’t easily link sales to seller (no sales code = no sales credit) has led to issues that demand broad strategies. Now, to be fair, some of the independent sellers are making great strides, but the norm is a sales force still learning their way around social media. That takes both tools and training.

To see a company like Avon so far behind the power-curve with such an overwhelmingly cost-effective way to increase market share, customer communications and marketing at their disposal is, well, kind of like leaving a doorbell unanswered.

Avon, I can be reached at @JimGwinner.

Posted by Carter Dunkin, Managing Director

Bacon has enjoyed a spectacular surge in popularity in recent years. I’m still trying to figure out why and how.

A disclaimer: I like bacon; sausage, too. Generally speaking, I like anything that tastes good and is bad for me, even though I’m more careful these days about what and how much I eat. Regardless, I grew up with bacon and for a long time never heard a disparaging word.

Over the last few decades, though, bacon has been branded as “bad for you.” That’s why I’m so puzzled by this Bacon Backlash. Not long ago I learned of a diner in Texas that prepares chicken-fried bacon, which sounds a little scary but looked quite tasty in the Youtube clip I saw. Earlier this year, a friend introduced me to a wonderful new bacon sensation: Tactical Bacon. While I can’t attest to Tactical Bacon’s taste after five or 10 years on the shelf, fresh out of the can it is nothing short of incredible. And a couple of weeks ago, BaconFest in Chicago attracted more than 3,000 bacon enthusiasts; other bacon-nalias elsewhere in the nation are just as popular.

The reason I’m so intrigued by this bacon bonanza is that none of the usual suspects is scolding anyone for having so much fun with what used to be a staple of the American breakfast. It can be tough these days to champion a product or organization that has a liability or two, such as being “bad for you,” yet the bacon bunch is bellying up to the trough proudly and acting as happy as a pig rolling in mud on a hot day.

When working with similar matters in the past, I’ve always had to put them in context such as saying a tasty food or beverage, “in moderation, is consistent with a healthy lifestyle” or that a longstanding practice is or has been “embraced by millions (or generations) of Americans.” And my clients still faced criticism from some nay-sayers.

Fortunately, the bacon bunch’s unabashed joy and good humor seems to enable them to revel in their favorite food without any trouble. I think it’s another example of how beneficial it can be to focus on the fun and not take yourself too seriously.

Does accumulating Facebook “likes” equate to hitting the marketing jackpot? Anyone with a company, organization or cause wants to see that magic number increase – so what’s the secret? Follow this keen (and hilarious!) advice from The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, which I’ve paraphrased and provided below, or check out the uncensored comic here.

Don’t do this:
- Don’t oversaturate your website with opportunities to “like” it on Facebook. One icon is enough. If they like it, they will come.

- Don’t pester your entire online rolodex (random friends, long lost relatives, that girl you sat next to in high school chemistry) with requests to “like” your page. Keep the desperation to a minimum.

- Don’t shamelessly promote self-interests – What’s in it for them?

Do this instead:
- Do produce content that people actually want to like!

*All images courtesy of TheOatmeal.com

Apple has been taking a lot of heat lately.  Whether it be here on the Juice or in the media at large, Apple has been accused of forcing Chinese children into hard labor, destroying the environment, and killing the entire puppy population of North America.  How do we reconcile all of these terrible deeds with our love of Apple products (while reading about them on devices we can’t put down)?

As the resident Apple evangelist and nerd news enthusiast, I’ve followed Apple very closely over the last 15 years. I’m here to allay most of your fears and let you get back to playing Angry Birds on your shiny new iPhone 4S with only a slight pang of conscience and not overwhelming sense of guilt.

Apple and CSR

While the audience member at Ed’s event posited that Apple has “no social mission whatsoever,” I’d argue that it does.

Apple was among the first companies to offer equal rights and benefits to employees’ same-sex partners, and donated a significant sum to oppose Prop 8. in 2008. They’ve donated over $50 million to hospitals in Stanford, were an early member of (Product) RED and have donated over $50 million to that cause as well.  Recently, under Tim Cook, Apple has implemented a new employee matching program in which the company will match up to $10,000 of charitable contributions a year per employee. I realize these charitable contributions are not necessarily commensurate with their profits or to the level that the audience member would like, but to suggest Apple does nothing socially responsible is misguided (Oh and Apple has a free take back and recycling program similar to Best Buy’s).

Apple and the Environment

Because Apple is the most profitable company in the world and any story about it garners significant media attention, Greenpeace has attempted to make an example of Apple to advance their agenda for the last 10 years.  Every couple of years Greenpeace will release a chart detailing Apple’s shortcomings in their cause du jour comparing Apple’s actual practices with other companies’ planned or announced practices. Invariably Apple will reevaluate or change its practices, whereas there is little or no follow up on its competing companies’ plans.

Using Apple to make a statement can draw immediate attention to an issue that needs to be addressed, however not holding other companies accountable for the same (or worse) offenses not only does Apple a disservice, but likely the issue as well.

In truth, Apple has made great strides in the last 10 years significantly reducing their packaging, virtually eliminating the use of PVC and completely eliminating the use of BFRs in its products, and moving almost their entire product line to recyclable materials such as aluminum and glass.

Finally - Apple and China

Much of the heat Apple has been taking over its labor practices stems from an episode of This American Life entitled “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory.”  Monologist Mike Daisey performed a one man show terribly named “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” and gained notoriety through his theatric story telling and the controversial topic.  Over the course of time, “Mike the Monologist” morphed into “Mike the Journalist” and Daisey would appear on news broadcasts passing off bits of his theatric performance as fact.

Daisey appeared on episode 454 of This American Life and recounted in detail his experience meeting underage laborers and people crippled from working long hours on assembly lines.  The episode has been liked over 40k times on facebook, tweeted over 15k times and spurred many online petitions.

As it turns out, Daisey’s story was completely fabricated.  This American Life completely retracted the episode and caught Daisey in numerous lies in a subsequent interview.  This “Retraction” episode has been liked 27k times, and has been tweeted fewer than 4,500 times.  Needless to say the truth wasn’t nearly as compelling as Daisey’s story.  Sadly, to this day - weeks after the retraction - people still cite Mike Daisey as an expert in Apple’s China manufacturing process.

The truth is conditions at Foxconn are not great.  Workers there are subjected to long hours, extremely tedious, boring, hard work and little pay.  But that’s not the entirety of the truth.

Foxconn offers higher wages and better conditions than many other foreign-invested factories in China, and significantly better conditions than most domestic factories.  In fact, when there are job openings at Foxconn, there are often thousands of people lined up to apply for those jobs. By our standards the working conditions at Foxconn are entirely intolerable; however, the working conditions at Foxconn are entirely better than most options available to a majority of Chinese workers. While it is easy for Americans to say “nobody should ever have to work like this” it is also easy to forget that we’re 150 years past our industrial revolution while China is still in the midst of theirs.

As Paul Krugman notes:

“First of all, even if we could assure the workers in Third World export industries of higher wages and better working conditions, this would do nothing for the peasants, day laborers, scavengers, and so on who make up the bulk of these countries' populations. At best, forcing developing countries to adhere to our labor standards would create a privileged labor aristocracy, leaving the poor majority no better off.

And it might not even do that. The advantages of established First World industries are still formidable. The only reason developing countries have been able to compete with those industries is their ability to offer employers cheap labor. Deny them that ability, and you might well deny them the prospect of continuing industrial growth, even reverse the growth that has been achieved.”

I think Ed raises some good points about the ability of a company to succeed without robust corporate social responsibility programs. However, I would respectfully make the case that for a variety of reasons, it is problematic to make generalizations about any corporate practice based on Apple. By whatever metric you use to judge its successes—market share, brand equity, or profitability being three examples—it is a complete outlier. Consider this observation by PayPal founder Peter Thiel:

“On balance sheets, Apple has about $98b (and is growing by about $30b each year). Microsoft has $52b. Google has $45b. Amazon has $10b. Consider gross margins for a moment. Gross margins are the amount of profit you get for every incremental unit in marginal revenues. Apple’s gross margins are around 40%. Google’s are about 65%. Microsoft’s are around 75%. Amazon’s are 14%. But even $0.14 profit on a marginal dollar of revenue is huge, particularly for a retailer; grocery stores are probably at something like 2% gross margins.”

Entirely apart from it being difficult to generalize best practices from a company that is so unique, I would like to put forward the following argument about the success of its brand: you can’t forget about a company’s history. Apple did more than make great products and control its brand image; when Apple was small, it went after the largest company it could—Microsoft. And not only did Apple survive—it triumphed as the protagonist in one of the oldest stories we tell each other: David versus Goliath.

Moreover, social impact can be measured in many ways. I am not certain if Apple is doing as little as Ed attests around social issues; however, I would wager that by making such an explicit commitment to merging education with technology (something I would view as a social commitment that was also commercially brilliant)—Apple positively influenced the lives of millions of children (and future loyal consumers) by enabling them to interact with the world and each other in new and novel ways. 

Of course, leaving Apple aside for a moment, let’s take a look at the following image:

Enlarge +

This chart provides a rough depiction of how many well-known consumer brands are connected to one another through parent companies. Some may look at this chart and see a lack of real choice. However, I see the opportunity for a very powerful choice to be presented to the corporate CEOs of these parents companies as well as the consumers of these products--choices just as applicable to Tim Cook and to consumers of Apple products. 

To the CEOs: Why would you ever not want to have a double bottom line? Why wouldn’t you want to make money while helping people? In a landscape that is dominated by only a few large parent companies but thousands of subsidiary and competing brands, what is the mark you want to leave and how can you market your company as different across your entire portfolio of products?

To the consumers: If you could, through a simple purchasing decision for a product that you want, help people—why wouldn’t you choose that product over another, identical good without that social mission?

The Polaroid SX-70

We all remember the old Polaroid SX-70. The first single-lens reflex model camera, introduced by Polaroid in 1972, was unlike any other camera anyone had seen in the days long before the advent of digital photography. Foldable into a 1" thick leather-encased brick that was (barely) pocketable, the SX-70 came with a built-in battery pack, ten-bulb flash bar, a viewfinder that showed exactly what you could obtain, an automatic focus and, most importantly, a printer that would deliver a beautiful, sizable print of your photo the instant after you snapped it.

Since the production of these beloved gems ceased in 1977, there have been a series of subsequent models that have come along capable of similar feats, namely the Model 1000 One-Step of 1977, the Spectra released in 1986, and the more recent Z340 instant digital camera. However, no matter how many more features they add to each generation, the Polaroid SX-70 remains the one of the most sought after models due to its classic and sophisticated exterior design.

Christopher Makos, Andy with SX-70 and Konica (undated)

Selling anywhere from $49.50 to $350.00 in today's economy, New York photographer William Miller thought he scored big when he found a barely worn SX-70 at a yard sale for $20.00. Excited to start shooting, he took it home only to discover the camera had one major flaw: it was broken. “It sometimes spills out two pictures at a time and the film often gets stuck in the gears, exposing and mangling them in unpredictable ways,” he says. “The image as it is exposed within the camera becomes pulled and stressed by these violent mechanisms, often to abstraction.”

He contemplated returning it but soon realized that the camera's defects were capable of turning ordinary pictures into intriguing works of art. Vividly colored and abstract images were soon being delivered from the vintage camera's thin mouth, pleasantly surprising the photographer with magical compositions after each shot. “I’ve figured out how to control and accentuate aspects of the camera’s flaws, Miller says, "but the images themselves are always a surprise. Each one is determined by the idiosyncrasies of the film and the camera.”

William Miller, Ruined Polaroids, 2012

As writers, designers and like-minded professionals using our creative abilities to make a dollar, one can often feel pressure to come up with the next big idea that will make the client swoon or gain recognition from respected critics within our community. However, as we have learned from Jonah Lehrer, sometimes the greatest works of art aren't those that are meticulously thought out, refined and/or reworked. Rather they are mysterious products of the serendipitous encounter between our imagination and the world in which we live. Be it through a simple brainstorm session with colleagues, a buried memory finding its way back to the surface, or a mishap with a broken camera, accidental masterpieces can arise at any given moment. And you know what? That is totally, 100%, A-O.K.

William Miller's full 'Ruined Polaroids' collection is available for view at www.williammillerphoto.com. Prints are available for purchase in sizes 30"x36" and 58"x45". Contact artist for pricing.

So I bought a Nike+ Fuelband the other day. It’s essentially a bracelet that tracks and measures your activity level throughout the day. Kind of like a pedometer, but it tracks general activity in addition to steps.

This purchase didn’t come as a surprise to any of my friends, because I always impulsively buy new and untested technology products. But what has surprised me is how much I’ve enjoyed using it. They say it measures “oxygen kinetics.” I don’t even know what oxygen kinetics means, let alone how a company would go about measuring it—or commit the resources required when the target market doesn’t know any better and, more importantly, doesn’t even care.

And so I assumed that “oxygen kinetics” was marketing BS, and that I was essentially buying a $150 pedometer that I could talk about all the time.

I actually think my basic assumptions were right—this is a fancy pedometer that has beenmarketed extremely well.
But what I was wrong about was the extent to which the marketing is BS. The marketing is the entire point, and the reason why I think this product actually works. Nike calls an arbitrary amount of physical activity “Nike Fuel”, and tracks your “Fuel” expenditure throughout the day. And though it’s essentially just a marketing tactic, what I’ve realized is that marketing is precisely what the consumer is paying for with a device like this: a systemic nudge toward a certain set of behaviors. They’re marketing an active lifestyle in their advertisements for the product, and the product itself employs behavioral nudges to realize it. Which makes the entire juxtaposition of marketing pitch and product feel surprisingly authentic and seamless when I buy into their marketing and take the stairs instead of the escalator to accumulate more “Fuel.”

Since Ed Walters got us started on the idea of "beauty" in his blog post titled, "Beautiful People Travel for Free," I thought I would continue the trend…

The business of design may be the most subjective field on the planet. Everyone has an opinion of what looks good, or rather what does not. It makes for a unique challenge with every client and every new project. The normal question arrises are we designing for a specific audience or those who pay us. It can sometimes be the same but in most cases very different.

The same could be applied to a person's beauty. What makes someone universally beautiful. According to recent study in the U.K., beauty is all about mathematics.

Florence Colgate, 18, was chosen from thousands of entrants to officially be crowned the most naturally-beautiful woman in the country. Really?

I would admit she is quite stunning but how does mathematics prove this case?

According to extensive studies of 'attractiveness', researchers believe the 'beauty' of a woman's face can be summed up in a series of simple ratios.

1. The 'perfect' face has a distance between the pupils of just under half, or 46 per cent, of the width of the whole face from ear to ear - pretty Florence's ratio is 44 per cent.
2. The distance between eyes and mouth should be a third of the overall length from hairline to chin on the perfect face - Florence's face has 32.8 per cent ratio.
3. Florence's youthful, feminine features, such as her large eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips, are subconscious tell tale signs of fertility, health and good genes.

But what happen to the age old saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

Like design, i would argue beauty is within the imperfection - that one element of an ad or a website or a person's face that jumps out. Isn't that the uniqueness that grabs our eye? As author Ashley Cardiff wrote, "What we’re saying is… we’ll take the weirdos any day."

We knew it would come to this. First there was Match.com and eHarmony. Then there were the free dating sites like OKCupid. Now there is an incredibly creepy site called MissTravel. Their tagline: “travel dating for generous and attractive people.” Even creepier is their marketing video:

Language aside, what is fascinating about this website is that it looks pretty good. It has the same general layout and color scheme as the other online dating platforms, but essentially is an escort service with the potential of being something much, much darker.

I used to work at Brookings on health information technology policy, and it was often easy to forget that technology is completely agnostic. It isn’t good or bad, and it’s not a solution—it’s simply a tool to facilitate a solution. Likewise, I’m learning that marketing and branding can be incredibly effective at creating a certain perception around a product, but at the end of the day, marketing isn’t the product—it’s simply a tool that can be used to change the way people perceive your product.

The Daily Beast published an article the other day entitled “The 13 Most Useless Majors, From Philosophy to Journalism.”

Here’s the full list:

1. Fine Arts
2. Drama and Theatre Arts
3. Film, Video, and Photographic Arts
4. Commercial Art and Graphic Design
5. Architecture
6. Philosophy and Religious Studies
7. English Literature and Language
8. Journalism
9. Anthropology and Archeology
10. Hospitality Management
11. Music
12. History
13. Political Science and Government

I think that this list leads to an obvious question: useless to whom? Two of the five metrics focus on salary, and another focuses on growth of certain associated industries. The other metrics focus on employment. I don’t want to sound Marxist, but isn’t there more to an advanced capitalist economy than filling cookie-cutter job functions that generate maximum capital? How do we measure great ideas and the impact they have on innovation?

While I do think college tuition is rising at an unsustainable level at private and public universities, I feel profoundly uncomfortable dismissing the arts—writ large—as “useless” majors. Particularly when I can’t help but think that Economics majors—by the metrics used to generate this list—are probably nearer to the top of the most “useful” majors list. Do we really consider esoteric products like derivatives trading to be more “useful” than a good book or a great piece of journalism? They may lead to more money for the Finance major, but are they generating more value for society as a whole—not only now, but over the long term? I honestly have no idea. Which is why I’m happy that there’s an event taking place at Brookings in early May focused on exploring precisely this question: what is the impact of art and culture on the U.S. economy?

When it comes to productivity, caffeine is my best friend. But depending on who you ask, methods for getting things done at the office vary. It could be a certain kind of music or a particular type of food. Some prefer to stand up while working. Others find it helpful to sit on exercise balls as opposed to office chairs. In our line of work, multitasking is common. But there are those who like to zone in on one task at a time. There are lots of ways to set yourself in motion. Some of these strategies might surprise you. According to recent research, the following are four proven methods for increasing productivity:

Coffee

Healthy or not, coffee is an addiction for a lot of people (including myself). At this point it’s an essential part of my day. Truthfully, I base my happiness and my productivity on the amount of coffee I consume. Apparently, a lot of professionals share the same predicament, especially in our field. According to a recent study, public relations is the second most caffeinated profession in the United States.

As it turns out, we drink coffee for a good reason. A different study shows that nearly half of people (46 percent) are less productive without coffee. Coffee also lowers your chances of heart disease, liver cirrhosis, type II diabetes, depression, stroke and gout. So continue drinking your two cups a day. There’s no reason for you to quit that coffee habit anytime soon.

The 40-hour Work Week

Working long hours is a trait of passionate, productive and successful people. However, research suggests that long workdays aren’t in the best interest of you or your company. According to an essay by Sara Robinson, 150 years of research prove that working more than 40 hours a week reduces productivity and profits. Time and time again throughout history, shortening hours has led to improved productivity. It may be that working eight hours a day holds positive mental and physical health benefits that in turn lead to increased output. Less stress generates better work. So if possible, consider taking some time off for yourself.

Bringing Your Dog to Work

A recent Virginia Commonwealth University study suggests an even more unconventional tactic for improving workplace productivity. The research shows that, like working fewer hours, bringing your dog to work leads to less stress and better results. Having your dog in the office may improve job satisfaction for you and your employees.  If you’re a dog owner, you might want to try out this new technique. But you may want to check with your boss first.

Social Media Breaks

It is common practice at many companies to ban social media-use from the work place. Many CEO’s see social media as a time-wasting distraction. However, an interesting infographic from Keas (based on research) says otherwise. As a part of a study by the Academy of Management, workers who were given 10 minutes to browse Internet news, social networking sites, entertainment sites and online games completed their work more effectively than other participants.

Experts such as Dr. Brent Coker of the University of Melbourne’s Department of Management and Marketing agree with the idea: “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a day’s work, and as a result increased productivity.” So the next time you take a break to check your Facebook updates, don’t feel guilty. You’re being productive.

As we celebrate Earth Day on today, I thought we could all use a short refresher on simple ways to do right by our planet. Growing up on the west coast, recycling was not merely a suggestion but rather a way of life.I still cringe with guilt when I can’t find a recycling bin and am forced to put my soda can in the trash (The horror!). Now that I’ve migrated east, I’ve noticed that not all communities have that same engrained sense of need, but that’s ok! That’s why I’ve posted below some helpful recycling tips so easy a kid do them (No, really – this list can originally be found on KidzWorld.com):

10. Reuse Plastic Bags
Often plastic shopping bags get used once and thrown away, but that bag can be used for future groceries or as a garbage bag.

9. Buy Rechargeable Batteries
Batteries are filled with toxic materials that are terrible for the environment, so go green by buying batteries that you can recharge. There are also special companies that will collect your old batteries and recycle them safely.

8. Recycling at Work
It’s easy to remember to recycle at home, but what about work? If your place of employment doesn’t already have recycling bins, ask management if they can get them or make one yourself – in fact, recycling can be a great project for the whole team.

7. Spending Green
Support eco-friendly companies by buying products made from recycled material – this could be anything from pencils and paper to wallets and clothing!

6. Electronics and the Earth
What do you do with yourphonewhen it finally goes kaput? Don't just toss it in the trash, many cellphone providers will recycle your phone for you when you get a new one and if not, go online and find your nearest electronics recycling depot. They can recycle everything from laptops to phones!

5. Compost the Most
Start a compost. All your biodegradable food garbage – like egg shells and banana peels – will soon turn to soil that is great for planting.

4. Sheets, Towels and Clothing
Old sheets, towels and clothing can be donated to charity to be sold in thrift stores, or to an animal shelter as bedding and cleaning materials.

3. Get Crafty!
If you’re artistic you probably already know that there are a million ways to reuse jars, tubs and paper. A few crafts that include recycled materials are painting using old jars, tin cans and plastic containers and using old magazines to make collages.

2. Green Thumb
If you’re not just green but also have a green thumb, you might want to try making old 2 liter pop bottles and empty jars into planters for flowers and herbs.

1. Recycle Every Day
The best way to recycle is to do it every day in your home and wherever you go. Remember to sort newspapers and magazines, plastic containers and bottles and assorted paper into your recycling and urge your friends and family to look out for ways to recycle too!

I have been in several meetings on Capitol Hill representing several different advocacy groups. Preparing business owners to meet with Members of Congress I would often say “today we are only here for the purpose of creating jobs, strengthening our economy and securing America’s independence; if we so happen to fight climate change that’s great but let’s keep it to ourselves and celebrate at the bar later.” This is because messaging on climate and energy is essential to making the public policy shift. The arguments that are working are the ones about the economy and the corporate bottom line. The ones about climate change and the environment have been tried for nearly 30 years and they have made significant progress but the message needs to be modernized. Here are some messaging and poll results from the American Lung Association.

72% of people wants the government to take action to reduce asthma; premature newborn and other respiratory diseases, according to a new study from the American Lung Association. Furthermore, an overwhelming amount of the public does not buy the argument that clean air will hurt the American economy.

The American Lung Association, respected for research, education and awareness about lung disease like childhood Asthma shares some interesting information with us:

• Nearly three quarters (73 percent) of voters, say that we do not have to choose between air quality and a strong economy – we can achieve both.
• A 2-to-1 majority (60 to 31 percent) believe that strengthening safeguards against pollution will create, rather than destroy, jobs by encouraging innovation.
• About two-thirds of voters (66 percent) favor EPA updating air pollution standards by setting stricter limits.
• 72 percent of voters support new standards for carbon pollution from power plants and support is strong (63 percent) after hearing arguments from both sides of the issue.
• 60 percent of voters support stricter standards for gasoline and limits on the amount of tailpipe emissions from cars and SUVs (particularly strong given all the recent attention to high gasoline prices). #A measure that will take place starting in 2020, with new fuel efficiency standards

While these high numbers have held for some time among Democrats this poll shows a trend of increased support with an overwhelming number of Independents and a growing majority of Republicans support government action.

The American Lung Association conducted a recent public opinion poll conducted by Republican strategists Perception Insight and Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinian Rosener Research. For the full report and slide show.

Posted by Thomas Frank, Managing Director

An article and radio piece featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” explained the battle between the dollar bill and the dollar coin. It's an issue that we have certainly spent much time helping to explain. This piece is extremely well done and describes how any cost benefit to the government is actually a tax on the American people. Even the economist interviewed, who was referred to NPR by the opposite side of the coin, so to speak, sides in favor of the dollar bill.

Listen to the radio piece below and tell us what you think.

Read the full transcript +

This Tuesday, Washington, D.C. got a visit from the Denim Fairy.

Parked in front of the George Washington University gates, with its silver metal glistening under the warm April rays, stood a 1970s airstream tour bus filled with the latest of Madewell's spring denim collection.

Sister company to the New York based clothier J.Crew offering vintage-inspired clothing for women, Madewell closed 2011 with 266 stores in operation across the United States. As it announced earlier this year, its plan is to add 15 more stores to that list by the end 2012, with half of those expected to open for business within the next month. The Madewell Denim Road Trip is thus the retailer's latest marketing venture, seeking to grab the attention of not only female shoppers who might not have had a Madewell store in their area, but also those young fashionistas who might have simply been unfamiliar with the store's brand.

Despite its deceitfully small exterior, the nomadic pop-up shop came fully equipped with a braid bar where girls could sit down and get their hair braided in three different styles; a denim bar serving colorful tastes of this season's denim pant and shirt collection; several personal Madewell stylists who could assist you in assembling the perfect Madewell look; three dressing rooms where you could pull it all together; and iPads galore where one could visit the Madewell site to instantly order all your favorite items. 

At the end of it all, one could participate in a scavenger hunt to find one out of the five golden tickets hidden around the airstream bus, each worth a pair of free Madewell jeans; enter a sweepstakes to win a lifetime supply of jeans; and walk away with a pair of Madewell sunglasses, which included a 15% off coupon on a purchase of $100.00 or more (plus free shipping) on the website.

For those of us here at kglobal who joined the retailer on its adventure, the Madewell Denim Roadtrip experience did more than serve as a quick getaway into a girly-girl's fantasy land (read hair stroking and dress-up). From a marketing and branding perspective, the Madewell bus was an important reminder to not only maintain a fresh approach towards engaging your consumers, but also to do so in a way that strengthens the corporate identity you are striving to achieve. In Madewell's case, I believe they successfully managed to attract new and existing customers aboard their bus, all while reinforcing their image of being a youthful brand with originality and a whole lot of playfulness up their sleeve.