The Tip Jar – 6/5/07 | Weinreich Communications

Here are this week’s odds and ends:

The American Cancer Society has raised $75,000 in their third annual Virtual Relay for Life, which will take place in Second Life July 27-28. Yes, that’s real American dollars (converted from an impressive L$20,172,791 in Lindens). It’s great to see how this has taken off, and the event hasn’t even happened yet!

When CBS’s New York office was bombarded with tens of thousands of pounds of nuts sent to them by fans upset about its cancellation of the TV series Jericho a couple of weeks ago, the network redeemed itself by donating the peanuts to City Harvest, a hunger relief program and State Island Project Homefront, an organization that sends care packages to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But there are still 6,388 pounds of nuts sent to the LA office that are unaccounted for. Guess the staff there is nuts for nuts. Kudos also to NutsOnline, the company that is coordinating the nutty assault, for collecting donations and giving a percentage of the nut orders of over $13,500 so far for the Greensburg, Kansas Rebuilding Fund. Jericho is set in Kansas, and during the same week the season finale aired, a tornado hit Greensburg and destroyed 95% of the town. Lots of good is coming out of the series cancellation; hopefully the show’s fans will end up having a reason to be happy as well.

Dutch smokers who are thinking about quitting can send an approximation of their smoker’s cough to their friends via email with a note announcing their intention to quit (and nonsmokers can send a hint-hint note to their friends who smoke). A clever way to use social pressure to get it to stick in this promotion for Pfizer’s smoking cessation medicine Champix. The site is in Dutch, but the language is similar enough to English that I was able to figure out what the words meant (een paffer = a smoker (puffer), and among the cough qualities you could choose from were “droog” (dry) or “slijmerig” (slimy?)).

Staying in the same part of the world, Danish PhD student Malene Charlotte Larsen lists 25 different perspectives that people take on online social networking, such as the consumer perspective, the youth perspective, the friendship perspective, the identity perspective, the body and sex perspective and more. It’s a very interesting way to look at the how people could see the same tool from different angles. (via Alison Byrne Fields)

Ad Age is looking at who is blogging and has a great graphic summary of blogosphere demographics (pdf). Some interesting stats include that 19% of kids age 12-17 have created blogs and 38% read them; 54% of bloggers are younger than 30; and 59% of blog readers floss their teeth daily (a social marketing opportunity to reach the other 41%!). Bloggers are also more racially diverse that the general online population, where 60% of bloggers are white (vs. 74% of all internet users).

Here’s a nearly endless list of graphics you can customize with your own words when you need a picture that says exactly what you want — a Dummies Book cover maker, Tarot card generator, license plate maker, ketchup bottle label, even a tattoo on a woman’s tush. Now next time you see a cool customized graphic here, you’ll know where I got it.

Roger von Oech shares what designers can do when they put their talent toward solving life and death problems rather than luxury cars, soda cans and cell phones. An exhibit called Design for the Other 90% at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum displays inventions like a circular jerry can that holds 20 gallons of water and rolls so easily that a child can pull it behind her, and the Lifestraw, which contains a drinking filter that kills bacteria as water is sucked through it. Think of what amazing strides we could make if the world’s best designers gave some thought to addressing the needs of the poorest instead of the richest.

Supply and no demand… Algeria has 10 million condoms to give away to its citizens, but nobody wants them. The government is working with imams to preach about the HIV virus and the risks of unprotected sex, but a combination of misconceptions and negative attitudes is keeping people from choosing to use condoms. Any Algerian social marketers out there?

According to MarketingVox, a new “exergaming” gym will offer over 20 videogames and other equipment to get kids moving while having fun. If I were looking for a franchise to open, this would be it — what a great concept.

Speaking of exercise, I was flabbergasted when I figured out that this product was for real. Are people really paying $60 for a “ropeless jump rope” (two handles with little attached balls that twirl around when you swing them)? Apparently people who have problems jumping over a real rope have not figured out that you can swing your arms around and jump up and down for free (Look! I can even do it backwards and on one foot!). Do they really need to hold something that makes a fake swishing sound to keep their rhythm? Am I missing something here?

And finally, in how many ways is the situation shown in this video just wrong? It’s the Lindsay Lohanization process. No need to wonder why some young women have body image problems and look for the meaning of life in shopping, partying and drugs. The news bulletin that goes across the screen toward the end of the clip is priceless.

Photo Credit: beatnikside

The Tip Jar – 6/5/07