53,000 Words to Go

Thanks for asking. My word count yesterday was 7,000.

I'm aiming for a 60,000-word novel. If you divide that over the three days of the contest, that means I should be writing 20,000 words a day. Yikes.

Back to work.

Wish Me Luck, Please

As I embark once again on the 3-day novel contest. Writing a novel is intimidating; I don't believe I can get it perfect so I'm reluctant to start. If I know I only have three days, how perfect can it be? I lose that fear.

In fact the novel I wrote for the contest in 2007 was rather dull, but how proud I was for completing it. Let's hope for better results this time.

Today's ad for Sunday School Registration

The ad is due today: a quarter-page in the local paper. It's a lot of money for one church, but if I can get four to chip in it's a little over $100 apiece.

So far, three churches have agreed to participate. Wish me luck.

Now all I need is ad copy. How does this sound?

Increase your child's life expectancy by 8 years

• Improve her attitude at school
• Increase his school participation
• Reduce her risk from alcohol, tobacco and drugs
• Reduce his chance of committing a crime

The benefits of Sunday School go way beyond learning Bible stories. Bring your child to a local (denomination name) church for a Sunday morning education with lifelong advantages.

This September, the (denomination name) churches below are beginning a new Sunday School year. Please visit the churches or call the numbers below to learn more about the valuable lessons waiting for your child in Sunday School.

I have to add this, because my denomination goes by a different brand name outside the United States: The Episcopal Church is known in other parts of the world as the Anglican Church. Remember, wherever you are,

The Episcopal Church Welcomes You

I am writing this to collect my thoughts because I will be throwing the actual ad together quickly during my lunch hour.

If the facts above interested you, you may want to visit The Life Benefits of Regular Church Attendance

I Wish I'd Said That

(T)he more you look at Gerrymandering and partisan redistricting, the more egregious it is: it enables representatives to choose their constituents, instead of the other way around.

Dennis Kucinich likened himself to spinach because they were both good for you. And look how far that got him.

When I opened What You Should Know about Politics...but Don't by Jessamym Conrad, I was afraid it would be as edifying and unamusing as spinach. I can't say that What You Should Know is the perfect beach read, but it has enough insights and witticisms like the one above that I am enjoying it.

Semantic Stretch II: Low Redefinition

Julian Baggini has another name for semantic stretch: low redefinition. In The Duck that Won the Lottery: 100 New Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher, Baggini writes.

The advertising industry often uses low redefinition to make the ordinary sound extraordinary. My personal favorite is the wide use of "passionate."....This devalues the truly passionate, whose ardor is now put on a par with a corporate desire to make good curtain fittings.

You could say that semantic stretch or low redefinition is the act of appropriating a word or symbol that people have learned to respect (such as "passionate") for one's own personal gain.

This just in-- Tiffany Sharples tells us in the August 10 Time Magazine that words really do have power. Using profanity allowed study participants to withstand greater discomfort, and it decreased their perception of the intensity of pain. "(P)eople should not overuse profanity," Time quotes Richard Stephens, lead author of the study in question. "...it blunts [swearwords] of their power when you do need them."

So, you semantic stretchers and low redefiners, stop sapping words of their power. Appropriating words to promote your product is just as dishonest as counterfeiting LiveStrong bracelets or concrete certification tests or antivirus software.

Ps. No one is more surprised than me that this is my 100th blog posting. Thank you very much for continuing to read and post comments. kh

I wish I could hear this speech

It may interest you that in my valedictory address to my graduating students (I was Program Director of the Master of Science in Information Assurance in the School of Graduate Studies... from 2002 to 30 April 2009), my topic will be _kindness._ I will specifically be mentioning the unpardonable rudeness of some professionals (!) towards public relations personnel. I have never understood why anyone would wantto be rude to someone doing her job.

An editor sent me this email on Friday. I sure wish I could hear the speech!

Clever Swag

If as a marketer I am going to hand out a promotional item, I want it to have three attributes,

1. I want the item not to cost too much, because I want to hand out a lot of them
2. I'm willing to pay more for an item that is so clever that I believe people will hang on to it, or even show it to their friends and family
3. Most importantly, I want the recipient I give it to to pause for at least a microsecond and think about the organization I am promoting.

I once directly stole an idea from a church in Colorado, figuring that no one could accuse me of poaching in their intended market. At a street fair on a hot a dry day, the church set up a booth and handed out cups of cold water. My church did the same thing. We still don't know if we had extra Sunday visitors because of the booth, but it was so inexpensive that it really didn't matter. The fairgoers appreciated it, especially the bagpipers, who guzzled the stuff.

On Saturday I saw two more clever ideas for swag. I attended the Self Magazine Workout in the Park in Central Park in New York. I intended to arrive early because I recalled that the lines for the free give-aways were very long when I attended two years ago. Getting in line for promotional items would have kept me away from the exercise classes. I preferred to take the classes, but I didn't want to miss any good promotions, either.

Actually, I did not get their early, but it didn't matter. The lines for promotional items were much shorter. Marketing departments are cutting back on spending. Last time a plastic surgeon gave away handbags. This time my most expensive gift was probably the Asics backpack. Last time Physicians Formula gave away compacts. This time they gave away lip gloss.

I am looking forward to using both of these gifts. But the gifts that made me say, "Wow!" as a marketer were the ones that the users really appreciated and that cost next to nothing.

The Jell-O people had a challenge. The Workout in the Park took place on a warm day at 105% humidity (according to my personal barometer). They could have arranged for refrigeration and handed out thousands of 2-ounce cups of Jell-o with teeny spoons, but that would have been a lot of work.

I'm not even sure I took one of their give-aways; it was a coupon for your next purchase of Jell-O. Yawn. And yet their booth was one of the most popular at the event. Why? Because they invested $50 in Hula Hoops. Women flocked to the booth to twirl their hips and recall their baby boom childhoods, days of Wham-O and Jell-O.

"Where did you get that?" I importuned a fellow attendee. I had just finished an exercise class. As I said, it was 105% humidity. Instead of perspiration cooling me down, the moisture in the air was condensing back on my brow. This young woman had a bandanna. It clashed with my shirt but I didn't care. I wanted that bandanna, to stop the sweat from dripping into my eyes. She pointed me to the Ford booth. Way to go, Ford! Other than the fact that it was a special Ford calico print, this was a very ordinary inexpensive bandanna, but that does not stop me from being grateful for it.

I'll have to try hard to think of give-aways that inexpensive and memorable.