Barbie’s big day got me thinking about my childhood. My friend Leah and I would play “Barbies” for hours on end, our record being somewhere around eight hours. I had Barbie’s home and office and a pink Cadillac convertible; Leah had the TV broadcast studio and an airplane.  Between the two of us and our modes of transportation, we had many amazing adventures together.

There is the never-ending debate about Barbie and body image. On the one hand, Barbie sets an unrealistic and unattainable expectation of what a woman should look like. Diversity has also been a point of contention in the Barbie world. The doll most think of when they think of Barbie is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed bombshell.  The argument is that this sends a powerful message to young girls who don’t fit this mold.  As an adult, it’s interesting to partake in this discussion of the impact this has on young people.  Though in thinking back to my experience growing up, I don’t recall Barbie in the light that adults debate.  What I remember is endless hours of playing with my best friend; of countless adventures in both real and make-believe locations throughout the world; of sorting through relationship dilemmas with Ken and Skipper; of carefree days cruising in my convertible; and the ever-changing careers in which we placed our dolls, from CEO to TV news anchor, flight attendant to rock star.

What I remember most about Barbie is the storytelling and imagination she inspired. It’s as if I envisioned what I wanted for myself- a successful career doing something I loved, a great relationship with a significant other, a life filled with adventure, and a never-ending supply of shoes — and created this through my playtime with Barbie.

I think there is definitely cause for the conversation as adults. We want children to grow up with healthy attitudes about what is realistic, but we also want children to actively use their imaginations and to create  life filled with dreams come true — even if that is just for one afternoon with a best friend. I was lucky enough to do this and I think I turned out OK. Would I like to lose five pounds? Sure. But do I blame Barbie? Absolutely not. I blame M&M’s for that.

So, out of respect to dear Barbie who brought me much joy in my earlier years, I thought I’d share a link where you can get to know Barbie a bit better. Then you, too, can partake in the great Barbie debate.  As for me, I’m glad I got to know Barbie. http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/09/barbie-trivia/life/

Happy Anniversary, Barbie! I look forward to all you’ll accomplish in the next 50 years.

Kudos, Mr. Haan, you value the "small" things

Bear with me here as I recount a dialogue that will reveal a marketing moral. It’s a conversation I had with my dad the other night:

Dad: “So, I bought a belt the other day.”

Me: “Yeah, so … I mean, could you have said anything more mundane?”

Dad: “Well, it’s brown and leather and I got it at Cole Haan.”

Me: “Guess what? I bought a new brand of dental floss the other day, too. Big whoop.”

Dad: “Yeah, but look at this letter I got in the mail today.”

Me: “I know what that is. Even when I give Macy’s a fake address they still find a way to send me that direct mail rewards program garbage.”

Dad: “No, this is different – it was an actual letter, read it.”

Me (opening letter, reading it with cynicism): “Wow, this guy actually wrote you a hand-written note saying that he enjoyed helping you find a belt and that he hopes that you are ‘rocking it’ right now?”

Dad: “Yeah, I figured because you work in consumer relationships that you might be interested, or do you actually work at the racetrack? Because that’s what I thought originally.”

Me: “Good point. I guess traditional forms of communication like writing letters can still be effective if companies do their homework on who they’re sending the note to.”

Dad: “What are you saying, I’m a dinosaur? I am on Facebook, you know.”

Me: “No, I’m not saying that, although when I said something about news on Digg the other day, you did make a hippie, ‘I can dig it’ comment.”

Dad: “Smartass.”

Me: “No, what this does is prove that little things like notes can almost be more effective than bus stop or banner ads, not to mention that it basically costs them nothing. Are you sure this wasn’t a Mom and Pop shop and not a fairly big retailer like Cole Haan?”

Dad: “Yes, I’m sure and I know I’ll go back there the next time I need some new socks because of this letter.”

Me (looking at my belt and noticing the extra holes I made with a mini-corkscrew): “You know, now that I think of it, maybe I could use a new belt. Let’s see if they tweet me about it, then I’ll really be impressed.”

My trusty ’97 Taurus wagon is a great machine. It’s been dependable for 115,000 miles so far. Although slightly battered now, it was a deluxe ride in its youth, with leather seats, a sunroof and all the goodies. And it’s a great highway cruiser, getting about 25 mpg on long trips.

But it’s kind of thirsty around town. I only get about 17 mpg if I drive really carefully, and if I’ve been leadfooted, that figure drops to about 15. So the recent drop in gas prices has been lovely.

I filled up the other day at the SuperAmerica on 25th & Hennepin in Uptown — shout out to SA, my favorite convenience store! The price for regular was $1.90 a gallon. And as I pumped, I watched the gallons tick off and counted up the money I was saving with each gallon compared to when it was $4.

When I finished pumping 13 gallons, I magically had $26 in my pocket that wouldn’t have been there a couple months ago. That will buy me lunch for most of a week, or pay for a couple of my daughter’s piano lessons, or cover my fantasy football losses for half a season.

I don’t believe these prices will hold. In fact, for the overall good of our future economy, it’s probably better that they don’t. The truth is that worldwide oil supplies will continue to tighten in the long term, and we’re going to see $4 gas again. It would be unwise to make plans based on the idea that cheap gas is back to stay.

But I won’t lie to you — right now, I’m lovin’ it.

Foreclosures and credit card debt are skyrocketing. The savings rate is zero. The jobless rate hasn’t been this high in almost 20 years. Layaway purchases are making a comeback. Economists are making comparisons to 1929. People are running out of money and they’re cutting back.

This situation won’t turn around quickly. Why? Because the workers of America simply aren’t making enough money. This is not a political observation, merely stating a fact. Wages, adjusted for inflation, are flat or even down slightly over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, the wealthiest people in our nation are raking in amazing sums of money — measured not in six figures, but in eight, nine, even 10.

I always look at the example of Dr. William McGuire, the former chief of United Healthcare. McGuire made more than $1 billion in a 10-year span: an average of more than $100 million a year. Was he really worth that much money? Is anyone? I know such compensation has been explained by pointing to growth in the stock price and the value of the company during his tenure. But that ignores the contributions made by all those United Healthcare workers who weren’t making $100 million a year. Didn’t they have anything to do with the company’s growth?

Again, let me stress: I’m not getting political here. But if the American economy is to thrive, the people who do most of the buying and consuming have to get a bigger share of the pie. To see how that can work, look at the example of pioneering American automaker Henry Ford.

One hundred years ago, in 1908, Ford introduced the Model T. At that time, cars were expensive luxury goods for the well-to-do. Many autos cost upwards of $2,000 — more than the average annual wage of a typical worker.

Ford realized that he could sell more cars if the average worker could afford to buy one. In 1914, Ford announced that he would start paying his assembly line workers $5 a day — more than twice as much as the average factory wage. The news caused a sensation. Now an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with about four months’ pay.

By 1916, Model T sales had more than doubled, to nearly 500,000 cars. And the price dropped from $850 to $360. Other factors were at work; the country was prosperous, the farmers were doing well and the car became a must-have gizmo — the iPod of its day.

But if American companies are looking for ways to turn around their sales, they might start by putting more money in the pockets of their consumers.

In the 90-second clip above, Coca-Cola Racing Family drivers Jeff Burton (pictured), Jamie McMurray and Elliott Sadler promote “Taste of Victory,” a program we helped Coke develop and execute for last weekend’s inaugural Coke Zero 400 NASCAR race.

It was a truly integrated campaign, which offered to give everyone in America over the age of 13 a coupon for a free, 20-oz bottle of Coke Zero if one of 13 Coke-sponsored drivers won the July 5 race at Daytona International Speedway. That’s potentially 250 million bottles, or enough Coke Zero to power Niagara Falls for more than a full minute.

Alas, none of the Coke-sponsored drivers won, but Coke driver Kyle Petty, who was guesting in the TNT broadcast booth, offered to make good on the offer. So, it’s still free Coke Zero for everyone in America from now until July 13. Go to www.cokezero.com for instructions on how to get yours.

It was an interesting program to promote.  It’s not every day that your target audience is every person in the U.S. over the age of 13, so engaging consumers required a wide variety of tactics, including:

o        Viral video

o        Media Tours with drivers Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton and Kyle Petty

o        Press conference with driver Clint Bowyer

o        Integration into the TNT race broadcast

o        Spots and live reads on the MRN Radio race broadcast

o        Content for Daytona International Speedway’s jumbotron

o        Video message to Bluetooth-enabled cell phones

o        At-track appearances and Coke Zero sampling with drivers Clint Bowyer and Elliott Sadler

o        Blog relations

o        Media relations

Our NASCAR drivers were great assets to work with, but we still had to work strategically – and pretty darn hard – to get the word out.  In the end, our race was won before the green flag ever dropped, with millions of impressions to show for our efforts.  We secured excellent pickup from sports and racing blogs and Web sites (many of them embedded the video you see above), as well as print and broadcast media ranging from ESPN to the L.A. Times.

The LAT did a marketing story on the Coke Zero promotion, which was picked up by the Boston Globe and other newspapers.

An interesting point about this promotion versus others mentioned in that article: Taco Bell’s free taco giveaway during the World Series last year, and Dr. Pepper’s offer of free soda if Axl Rose releases his long-awaited “Chinese Democracy” album.  To me (and others), it looks like those two offers were designed to minimize the amount of product being given away.

The beauty of this program for Coke Zero was that it wasn’t all about the media impressions. Coca-Cola makes no bones about it: they want as many people as possible to sample the real Coke taste and zero calories of Coke Zero. When one of its drivers didn’t win the race, Coke went ahead and honored the offer anyway. In fact, they’d be thrilled if they got millions of people to try Coke Zero for the first time.

So, all these free-to-everyone offers represent a grand gesture of sorts. But I’d argue that some gestures are grander than others.