For decades, the flip-calendar giveaway ruled the arena of corporate sponsored swag, decorating our walls with glossy murals of power-tools, sportscars and bikini-wearing supermodels.

Yet somewhere along the way, the allure of 30 blank boxes and an NFL cheerleader turned into nature shots and terrible stock photography. What’s the deal? Where’s the effort? Heck, where’s the usefulness?
Every free calendar I get now is full of meaningless trivia and obscure holidays. The whole point is that I have a place to jot down my wife’s birthday.

I’ve received two calendars so far this year and neither of them are worth hanging. I honestly can’t stand to look at them.

One is from a local real estate agent and it is full of “seasonal landscapes”, none of which are local. Why not take photos of the 12 oldest houses in the area or the 12 best places to get a beer? Or at the very least seasonal landscapes of the town we live in.

The second is an obnoxious calendar from a local printer full of generic corporate photography and 15 shades of blue. There’s even a photo of a guy in a suit with a briefcase pointing out into the horizon. Wow. And this is coming from a printer. Nothing about inks, papers or the craft of printing. No personality, just a generic giveaway with the company logo “playing it safe”.

Aside from the Chic-Fil-A calendar (which you have to buy), the 12 month flipper is a dying breed, and that’s a shame. Because what other marketing tool offers you someone’s full attention, in the comfort of their home or office, every day of the year?

Posted by: Matt Schneider, Production Manager, Meridian Group

Watching Mr. Draplin’s video “America Is F*cked…….(Graphically at least)” made me notice this new sign for a recently renovated strip mall down the street from our offices.

Not sure who did this or why they were paid to do it but it’s horrible. If I was a store owner in this mall I would be furious. It’s obvious the designer never set foot on the property nor did they put more than 2 seconds of thought or effort into it. Shameful. If you know who did it, tell them they suck at their job. There’s a term called placelessness and this sort of stuff is the reason why it’s so prevalent. Placeless design is our new term for today. PLEASE stop doing this to our environment. And don’t get me started about the DSW Shoes logo.

If you don’t care about it, let someone else do it.

Hey, I love the folks at Elite Traveler, especially Doug and Associate Publisher, Daniel Wade but what are they trying to tell us here? They have been very successful in reaching a very elusive target audience for some of our luxury clients but the message coming across in this e-mail newsletter makes me think that everyone but the hedge fund managers are totally screwed. Read the rest of this entry…

Why run up the center when an end around might be a more successful approach to getting to the goal line?

Why not share something new with someone? You never know, it may change their life.

Why do people focus on the problem and not the solution?