And eventually the effects of all that caffeine forced Kramer to swear off the java juice, netting him a fairly valueless settlement.

Which brings us to the story of George Ramsey the Cleveland hero.

Unlike the Seinfeld sidekick whose settlement allowed him free coffee at any location around the world, George Ramsey can only check in at a dozen locations in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania.  And he can only get a free McDonalds burger “whenever he wants one.”  No word on the fries or drinks or the ability to super-size.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, because the gesture is a nice one, but considering what George Ramsey did, it just feels like he deserves something more substantial than a beef patty on a bun.

And though I am certain he is grateful to the participating eateries, for my part, I am not “lovin’ it.”

In memory of my husband’s friends who he had the privilege to serve with, we will never forget their courage and dedication to our country:

Capt Phillip Dykeman, USMC
Capt John Maloney, USMC
1st Lt Joshua Palmer, USMC
SSG Kyle Wehrly, USA
SSgt Joshua Cullins, USMC
Sgt Garrett Misener, USMC
Sgt Michael Roy, USMC
Sgt Joshua Frazier, USMC
Sgt Joseph Bovia, USMC
Sgt Frank R. Zaehringer III, USMC
HM3 James Swink II, USMC
Cpl Carlos Gilorozco, USMC
Cpl Brett Lundstorm, USMC
SPC Daniel Sesker, USA
Cpl Joshua Synder, USMC
Cpl John Bishop, USMC
Cpl Stephen Sockalosky, USMC
Cpl Jacob Tate, USMC
LCpl Joseph Giese, USMC
LCpl Maung Htaik, USMC
LCpl Terry Honeycutt Jr., USMC
LCpl Dakota Huse, USMC
LCpl Michael Geary, USMC
LCpl Timothy Jackson, USMC
LCpl Joshua Twigg, USMC
LCpl Kyle Brown, USMC
LCpl Joshua Scott, USMC

What will you see?

1. A multi-column layout that can enable better viewing across devices (mobile, tablet, computer) that have different screen sizes. In our personal opinion… taking the Pinterest design approach.

2. New hashtag capabilities that corral text and images with related content. This way, your connections can see related content all at once. Auto tags can be removed or replaced.

3. A suite of photo editing tools and a identification tool that features your best, most important photos – eliminating duplication uploads or poor picture quality. Additionally, your storage space will increase to 15GB.

4. Hangout will now save all on-record conversations as history, allowing users to access it anytime.

What does this mean for businesses?

Google is simply enhancing the way businesses and consumers can use Google+ more efficiently. Now, industry content that is posted by a business can reach consumers through more accurate categories. Additionally, more visual content can be shared with the space increase.

Are you using Google+ for business? Consider exploring its use not only for promoting your business, but for keeping things organized. Use Google+ hangouts to brainstorm with colleagues and clients, or even incorporate hangouts in contests (e.g. Enter to hangout with…) or as webinars (e.g. Join us for our marketing 101 hangout!). Check out industry-relevant hashtag feeds to see who is talking about what. Keep track in Google Docs and share with your circles. It’s all about collaboration!

I mean seriously, what in the name of Neptune and Poseidon is going on at JC Penney?

First you fire the skipper (Myron Ullman) because the S.S. Minnow is lost at sea.  Sales are flat, the JCPenney image is out of touch and Ullman just isn’t getting the job done.

So you bring in the professor (Ron Johnson) and ask him to use his experience (as a research scientist and scoutmaster) to turn the ship around.  But only half-way through the second season you decide the professor isn’t making progress fast enough.

Then what do you do?  Why you jump into the way-back machine and set a course for backwards, and rehire the old skipper to save the sinking ship… even though he wasn’t getting the job done in the first place.  And, of course, the new old skipper can not act fast enough to undo everything the professor just did.

First order of business?  Fire the professor’s ad agency, hire a new ad agency and tell the world we made a mistake and we are sorry (we are not certain yet if the mistake was hiring the professor or bringing back the skipper, but that will become apparent in future episodes).

Anyway, here we are just two weeks into the new voyage (the second half of season 2), and the skipper is claiming to have escaped the island and reached dry land. “We’re happy to say you’ve come back to us,” declares the company’s new TV spot.  Apparently the castaways have returned home (which you will recall is the place they were originally at that resulted in the skipper’s first firing two years ago).

I am fairly certain at this stage of the game that  Mary Ann or Ginger or Gilligan or even Benjamin Linus could make better decisions for the USS Minnow. Or maybe not. In any event, I think the JC Penney show is almost as much fun, and definitely as campy as Gilligan’s Island.  So if nothing else, it will be fun to watch until they actually get rescued in season 4… assuming they continue to follow the script from Sherwood Schwartz.

Comments from Tide’s YouTube page include:

“After seeing this commercial, I will never purchase the product again.”

“Just get to the point in English.”

“I LOVE this spot (no pun intended). This is a fact of life. Join the 21st Century and understand that the world is changing.”

“These are awesome! Nevermind the racist bafoons who think “America” means white. It’s about damn time major advertisers started bothering to treat more Americans like humans.”

A recent post on LatinoRebels.com agrees the ad was well done.

“… it totally reflects a true bilingual and bicultural family. The abuela is also a bit hip, and come on, how many of you remember having to translate for your family?”

The ad is certainly soliciting feedback among consumers, but I’m sure Tide did its homework with its target audience to ensure it was well received among all Americans. After all, if people are talking about the ad, Tide did its job.

No matter how you sugar-coat it, the truth is always the truth.  Chris Christie has always been obese and proud of it.  He once boasted to David Letterman that he is the healthiest fat person on the planet.  Likewise, Coca Cola Chief Executive Muhtar Kent has been promising for several years to create a healthier product line for the marketplace.But he has also been quoted as saying: “There is a place for all of our beverages in a healthy lifestyle.”

That’s a lot of waffling… with syrup.

So Chris Christie, who is apparently proud of his weight, but now – at age 50 – admits it may be a problem in the future, is making a change.  And, of course, he is NOT doing it the old-fashioned way or the hard way.  Instead, as a lesson for all Americans who aspire to greatness, he is taking the ultimate shortcut, opting for weight-loss surgery.

Meanwhile, Coca Cola, who under Kent’s leadership is determined to become a healthier organization, is making a pledge… a commitment… something just short of a promise. The pledge involves listing calories on the front and back of cans and fewer commercials and limiting ads directed at kids. You can almost see the pounds being shed.

Chris Christie once said: “Today, the biggest challenge we must meet is the one we present to ourselves. To not become a nation that places entitlement ahead of accomplishment. To not become a country that places comfortable lies ahead of difficult truths. To not become a people that thinks so little of ourselves that we demand no sacrifice from each other.” We can only assume he was not talking about cutting corners on the road to reduced weight.

Likewise, Muhtar Kent recently said: “Obesity is today’s most challenging health issue, affecting nearly every family and community across the globe. It is a global societal problem which will take all of us working together and doing our part.” For their part, Coca Cola has absolutely no intention of removing sugar-packed beverages from store shelves.

So, what can we learn about obesity from Chris Christie and Coca Cola?  Pretty much nothing.  So if you want to lose weight and be healthier – and I emphasize “want to” – buy yourself a pair of athletic shoes and start walking or riding or running or whatever works.  Big businesses and larger than life politicians are not, never were and never will be the solutions to your problems.

• Media Meetings: Secure the show media list and reach out to schedule meetings with priority media and bloggers. Give them a tour of new products/services that are most interesting to their subject matter and readers.
• Press Kits: Develop press kits containing your latest news and background about your company. This may be in an electronic or print form. Keep in mind what your target media would prefer. Drop these in the press room and hand out at your appointments!
• Press Events: Consider hosting a press conference or breakfast during the show if you have something significant to announce.
• Speaking Opportunities: Showcase your experts! Tradeshows often have education sessions for attendees to learn about the latest in the industry. Keep in mind that tradeshows post the call for speakers well in advance of the show, so make sure to check on deadlines for submissions and requirements.
• Multimedia: Tradeshows can offer the opportunity to capture video and photos of customers, partners, new products, experts, etc. that can be used for social media, sales meetings, website(s) and more.

I am confident, based on past seasons that the show is headed somewhere, but after four hours of pandering and meandering, I have already bailed on the show.

Quite frankly, I am bored to death with Don’s narcissistic behavior and all the sleeping around and all the backstabbing and all the whining and all the grandstanding.

It’s as if the show has become a parody of itself… a caricature.  And it’s too bad.  I really bought into some of these characters and story lines.  But the show has become all “mad” and no “ad” and that sucks.  Yes, last week we got one morsel as two agency’s pitched the Heinz account, but it was a set-up and an afterthought.

Turns out, TV shows are a lot like ads; if you don’t respect your audience, you won’t have them for long.

• One-third of the 195.3 million Internet users in the U.S., adults aged 50+ represent the Web’s largest constituency (Jupiter Research).
• Two-thirds of Americans 50+ buy from e-retailers online (Pew).
• 89% of seniors 65+ have personal email and use it regularly (Nielsen).
• 72% of baby boomers have broadband Internet in their homes (ThirdAge and JWT Boom).
• 36% of adults 50+ own a smartphone (Pew).
• 44% of smartphone owners age 50+ access the Internet or check email daily from their device (Pew).
• Adults 45+ account for 34.7% of current tablet users (comScore TabLens).
• From 2004 – 2009, the number of seniors age 65+ actively using the Internet increased more than 55% (Nielsen).
• 27.4 million people age 55 and over engaged in social networking with nearly 19 million of those people using Facebook (comScore).
• Adults 50+ spend an average of $7 billion online annually (SeniorNet).
• 72% of adults 55-63 and even 47% age 73+ shop online (Forrester).
• 41% of Internet users 50-64 and 27% age 65+ say they watch videos online (Pew).
• The Internet is the most important source of information for baby boomers when they make major market purchases, such as automobiles or appliances (Zoomerang).
• 42% of all travel industry purchases happen online, and adults 50+ account for 80% of all luxury travel spending (Pew Internet and American Life Project).
• 82% of adults aged 50+ who use the Internet to research health and wellness information online (Pew Internet and American Life Project).
• The top four online websites for people over 60 are Google, Facebook, Yahoo and YouTube (AARP).

Consider how you can use the web, mobile and social media to reach this influential market.

Allow me to just say this:  Duh.

Every customer or prospective customer has his or her own pre-existing expectations about what they want from a company, brand or product/service.  And often (thanks to marketing) these expectations are altered (increased, lowered, etc.).

So initially I expect “A” from a product, but after seeing a lot of TV commercials and reading product reviews and talking to friends, my expectations are “A+”.  So the product now needs to meet my new expectations… or I will move on to another product. It’s not complicated.

According to a news release distributed today, “Fleishman-Hillard and London-based research partner Lepere Analytics focused on the growing struggle companies face in closing the gap between the brand they project and the reputation and perceptions they actually hold in the minds of their audiences.”

Allow me to say this:  Seriously?

What is the struggle?  Understand what your customers expect and either deliver on the expectations or exceed the expectations; any other alternative leads to failure.  If you unrealistically hype your product, raising expectations, and then do not deliver on those expectations, you will fail.  Global research is not required to confirm this.

Consider JCPenney’s recent debacle.  They spent a century building consumer expectations about sales, then took their sales away.  How did they think it was going to turn out?  Or consider Apple’s iPod revolution.  Consumers expected to be able to play music from a portable device; and they were satisfied with a Discman.  But Apple exceeded their expectations with a portable media player, then exceeded that by making it smaller and more powerful, then exceeded that by adding a phone, then exceeded that by creating a tablet.  And that’s how your stock gets to $400/share.

It’s not complicated.