Forget the dancing squirrels, Betty White and the Simpsons. What made this work was the element of surprise.

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The other night I noticed certain Mommy bloggers / tweeters hawking a brand of children’s lunch foods owned by a company not known for promoting eating this is – shall we say – healthy. This particular product (rhymes with “unchables”) has more sodium in a single serving than my driveway after a snowstorm and has about as much nutritional value as a cheesecake and a can of soda. And  you wonder why Johnny can’t even get out of his chair, let alone read.

The company behind all of this is owned by a conglomerate better known for pushing cigarettes to minors in any country that will let it get away with it.

The promotion itself was quite slick. They even asked respondents to put the appropriate hashtags in their responses. I’m sure it was all very well thought out by very smart and social media-savvy people and it will win scads of awards and be written up in all the social media marketing books that seem to arrive on the bookshelves with alarming regularity ….

But….

Are we really doing ourselves any favors when we stoop to this level? Giving crap away for free to mommy bloggers doesn’t make it any less crappy. And putting the veneer of social media hipness over it just makes the whole thing seem sleety.

At least to me.

But don’t let me rain on your parade by being so sanctimonious.

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Last night I joined a gaggle of New York’s most digital in welcoming SHIFT Communications to New York.

Here’s an interview with a obviously delighted Todd Defren who clearly believes New York is ready for SHIFT’s brand of social media savvy:

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moon, originally uploaded by david parmet.

My first attempt at astrophotography.

Basically I attach my D80 to the back of an LX200 using a special adapter and *presto* the telescope becomes a super telephoto with a 2500 mm focal length. This is actually three images combined into one so I could get the whole of the Moon into one frame.

I’ll put up a cleaner version tomorrow.

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Dad says that anyone who can’t use a slide rule is a cultural illiterate and should not be allowed to vote. Mine is a beauty – a K&E 20-inch Log-log Duplex Decitrig

Have Space Suit – Will Travel 1958. by Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

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While sitting at the bar, we met Brian. Sue offered him an idea for the next give-away, which he promptly used. And on Sunday morning we ran into Howard Greenstein who was on his way to meet with Aliza Sherman who I didn’t even know was in town.

All of which prompted Sue to observe that this was all getting a bit comfy.

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Image by Stuck in Customs via Flickr

In the world of restaurant reviews I’m squarely in the Zagat demographic. Moderately affluant suburban married spends time in major urban center dines out…  you know the type.

But yesterday, while out to lunch with a couple of my moderately affluent suburban marrieds who spend time in major urban centers, we realized that despite the ‘Reviewed in Zagat’ sticker on the restaurant’s front window, none of us have even considered consulting the little black book in ages. I’m pretty sure I haven’t even owned a copy since 2002 or thereabouts.

What has happened is that as more and more of my friends and neighbors are using smart phones for play in addition to work, they are relying on location aware services like Yelp to find a place to eat. Not because Yelp’s reviews are more or less reliable than the competition, but because they are available easily at the push of a button.

Simply put, Yelp has a free app and Zagat is behind a pay wall. The sense of participation that Yelp offers is icing on the cake for my more opinionated neighbors. The sense of community that comes from the social networking aspects of group reviews is also a neat value add.

Once again, free and open wins out over pay walls and closed gardens.

And please don’t forget to friend me on Yelp.

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Cover of London Calling

30 years ago yesterday, London Calling, A.K.A., the greatest rock and roll album of all time, was released.

I was a 15 year old sophomore at Ward Melville Senior High and primed for songs like “Death or Glory.” In fact you could pretty much divide up the whole student body between those who thought The Clash were the Second Coming and those who preferred “The Wall” and “In Through The Out Door.”

Maybe it’s because they just happened to coincide with my years of teenage angst, but I’ll always think of the years from 1978 to 1984 as rock and roll’s high point. 1979 was quite a year for music. Punk was winding down, turning into New Wave which eventually turned into Alternative and got boring. But even so, we had The Ramones, Talking Heads and the B-52s, all of whom that year came through and played in the college town in which I grew up.

I did get to see The Clash twice. Once at the legendary Bond’s concerts and finally when I was at college on the Combat Rock tour. In the blink of an eye they went from outlaws to playing Shea Stadium, opening for The Who. Some of us thought they sold out. Most of us were reluctant to share our little secret with the rest of the record buying public.

Soon after that they were gone – victims of an intense schedule of touring and making records and infighting in the band. I always believed that if they just stuck it out – took that long deserved break after Sandinista!, they could have rode it out and become the band that U2 eventually became. And I hate U2.

Bonus video:

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Image by karen horton via Flickr

On New Years Day, Sue discovered (to her shock and horror) that Food Network and HGTV had been dropped from the Cablevision lineup.

Now my bride is a confirmed Food Network junkie. She’s even priming Twin Princess Number Two to be the Next Food Network Star. So this lineup change was not going to go over well.

A bit of investigation turned up this site, which as far as I can tell is Cablevision’s only statement on the subject. Read it and try to stay awake, I dare you. It reads like something written by the PR agency and run over by the lawyers. In other words, CYA and bland bland bland.

On the other hand, Scripps, the owners of Food Network and HGTV are not rolling over and playing dead. To communicate with Cablevision viewers, they’ve set up two web sites. They’ve been active on Twitter and Facebook. And their fans have been whipped up into a social media frenzy.

Now I’m not one to beat the ‘every company should be on Twitter’ drum but do you think Cablevision, who has set up and left unused several Twitter accounts, might want to be out there to intercept comments like these? I guess the same lawyers and PR bots who wrote the copy on that web page feel that they’ve done enough.

Unfortunately, in today’s media environment, “enough” isn’t good enough.

As for us, we’re voting with our wallets. Verizon will be at our doorstep on Monday morning to switch us over to FiOS. And finally I’ll get BBC America.

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The December 1999 Cover of Wired: Such Optimism

This was the decade that kicked us in the ass.

Of course this was also the decade of blogging, Social Media, the Open Web, Flickr, tagging, APIs, etc. etc. insert your Web2.0 buzzword here. But most of the really really good and smart stuff came out of the adversity, desperation and (post 9/11) panic we all went through as the new century dawned.

But even with all of these toys (hey look, I found out about Jon and Kate’s divorce before TMZ broke it! Yay Twitter!), I’m a child of the 60s and 70s. I’ve seen men walk on the Moon and I remember what the 21st Century is supposed to be like. We haven’t been to the Moon in almost 40 years, but we can tell all of our friends about our cat. Instantly. With video!

The decade has had some ups and downs. Personally my family grew larger, we moved to the house in which we hope our children will grow up. Being with my children, watching them learn and grow, has been such an amazing experience. I think on a good day, I learn more from them than I can ever teach back.

Sue and I have developed quite a juggling act, with one child homeschooled, the other two in public school and a constant list of activities and destinations I have to drive one or the other. This is what Martin Amis calls the “chauffer years” of parenting: conversations about Life, the Universe and Everything held through the rear view mirror.

Professionally I went from being out of work, to working, to involuntarily joining the ranks of social media consultants / freelancers. I met some wonderful people, participated in some amazing projects and grew as a professional and as a person. But like a lot of others in my shoes, the last year and a half have been rough.

This year started with me having to sue a former client who refused to pay me a five figure obligation. That experience, and the subsequent back and forth with this client over Twitter and elsewhere, knocked me for a loop, made me question my motives, working arrangements and if I even wanted to continue in this space. Thankfully new client work came along and now I’m working on a major project that’s far enough out of my league to be interesting and an educational experience, all the while being quite a blast. If you know what I mean. I also got back into political work – my college degree is in Political Science and I worked for the NY State Assembly and NY City Council before joining the PR world. So that was a return to my roots but bringing my social media chops to the table. I”m hoping to do more of that in 2010.

So for 2010 and the decade to follow – I want to continue changing, growing, evolving. I want to do more workshops, more video, more projects that don’t just involve blogger outreach but add something of value to the social media ecosphere. I’m looking for new projects and interested in getting back into the agency world, full time if possible.

If you are someone who is interested in working with me, or just want to say hello, please drop me a line. And have a great New Year.

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