If you ask me, the best kind of promotion involves free food. So I'm pretty excited that today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's!

According to the Huffington Post, "The company will host Free Cone Day 2013 on Tuesday, April 9, from noon to 8 p.m., handing out more than 1 million cones as a thank you to its customers." That's a pretty sweet thank you gift.

And of course the Ben & Jerry's brand will get a lot of positive PR today. After all, who can resist a free cone of ice cream? I don't know anyone who wouldn't love this promotional idea.

Will every customer return tomorrow to pay for another cone? Definitely not. But the next time they do want ice cream, they'll remember Ben & Jerry's. That's promotional food done right!

At last week's ASI trade show, we all came back overwhelmed with new product knowledge, contacts, and promotional freebies. I do admit the best part about going to trade shows is the great new products we see and get. I came back with a personalized tote bag filled to the top with lip balm, promotional hand sanitizers, stress balls, promotional pens, promotional candy and so much more. Like most people, I am a weekling when it comes to the promotional food products they put out at the booths. Especially after walking around the show for hours, and once I get hungry, any booth that has food and candy, will get my attention! At last weeks show, after eating everything in sight, I have to rank this Chocolatier booth as my top choice. They had the best dark chocolate truffles I have ever had. After having a taste of their promotional chocolates, I felt like I was in Chocolate Heaven. Now, not only will this booth be embedded in my mind forever, they will surely by getting my business! 

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law

The above stanza is the Girl Scout Promise, an honor and code Girl Scouts have saluted and honored for generations. Today marks a very special occasion for the US-founded youth organization. One hundred years ago today, Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low created the Girl Scouts. The first group was comprised of 18 like-minded women. Today, that number has jumped to approximately 2.5 million youths (not to mention the close to 800,000 adults who consider themselves a part of the Girl Scouts.

The primary goal of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America is to empower women with life-long skills and values. Using a woman's individual practical skills and gaining a set of values, girls receive badges that showcase how involved in the program they truly are. The GSUSA is also world-renowned for its unconditional inclusion of girls with disabilities and trans-gendered girls and women of all races and ethnicities.

Although best known for their Girl Scout Cookie fundraisers, (founded in 1917) the Girl Scouts use the money to donate time and money to society. Be sure to continue your support with a box of Thin Mints, Trefoils, Tagalongs or even a box of Savannah Smiles - a new cookie introduced in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

With the membership of the Girl Scouts increasing annually, it'll only be a matter of time until the GSUSA celebrates 200 years. 

In the same way that Christmas and Hannukah creep up on you following Thanksgiving, New Years Eve also tends to creep up on you. As soon as you clean up your mess from your Holiday party, you find yourself putting out the nice dining set and inviting people over again. It can be very overwhelming if you do not plan this out in advance. 
Luckily, Motivators has a handful of products to help make your festivities memorable. Custom imprinted giveaway items for guests make great party gifts. (and excellent late gifts) But no New Year's party is complete without promotional noise makers and promotional food in large quantities. 

It seems that this is the weekend that many of my friends (and perhaps you) have decided to do haunted houses. I know a few people considering the haunted house in Bayville while a few select others are attempting to brave Blackout, a haunted house in NYC in which a person goes in one at a time and faces realistic, hellish experiences in the vein of tourture, abuse and sexual-violence - much of which can't be discussed on a company blog. (hint: you actually get waterboarded and you get handcuffed to a doctor's chair while [very convincing] actors put a sack over your head, hit you and demand you to bark like a dog) But instead of going to a haunted house for a few minutes, I will be spending this weekend completely immersed in the culture and legend.

I am heading up to Tarrytown, NY for a concert and am treating the weekend as a way to "get away from it all." If Tarrytown sounds familiar, you're either a big fan of Keeping Up With The Kardashians (Bruce Jenner was born in Tarrytown) or you know about the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Washington Irving was the brain behind the story of Ichabod Crane and his run-in with the now-legendary Headless Horseman. The town received a tip-of-the-hat in the book and (because of its popularity) would eventually inspire North Tarrytown to change its name to "Sleepy Hollow." (Sunnyside - Washington Irving's house - is located here) I am spending my weekend in both Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow.

There is a large Halloween celebration in Sleepy Hollow during the weekend. Everything from tours of Sunnyside to haunted houses to promotional candy tastings will be offered as well as a costume contest. I sure hope there is plenty of candy and promotional food. Note to self: bring a custom imprinted Halloween themed bag.

How are you preparing for the Holidays?

An appropriate question if it is December or even November. But in September? How can one even think about the holidays in December when we barely made it through August? And yet, the folks at Ben & Jerry have channeled the spirit of the holidays into their newest flavor.

After months of rumors spiraling out of control, Ben & Jerry's made an official announcement just hours ago saying that there will be a Schweddy Balls flavor of ice-cream hitting shelves sometime in the near future.

Inspired by the hilarious holiday skit on Saturday Night Live back in 1998, this ice-cream includes vanilla ice-cream with a hint of rum loaded with rum balls and chocolate malt balls. Based off of the description and the excitable statements made by actors Alec Baldwin and Ana Gasteyer, it's sure to be a hit flavor.

And Ben & Jerry's sure knows how to promote. I was in Bonnaroo the summer they created the Bonnaroo Buzz ice-cream. There were throngs of people who were trying to get their hand on promotional food samples, promotional t-shirts, promotional beach balls and other promotional incentives. So keep an eye and ear out for how Ben & Jerry's will promote their Schweddy Balls ice-cream!

Once in a while, I will completely forget my lunch. Since I take one of the last lunch breaks at Motivators, I am completely famished by the time 2:00 rolls around. And when I do head out for lunch, I end up eating more than I can stomach. It's a never-ending cycle of hunger and overeating on those days.

Luckily, I learned to eat some of the promotional food we have lying around the office. My favourite food to snack on is promotional nuts, specifically cashews. This salty treat is the perfect alternative for promotional chocolate, promotional candy and some of the other alternatives that are perfect for one's sweettooth. But cashews tend to fill me up sooner (especially with cold water from my promotional water bottle) than the other foods and healthier above all. By the time lunch rolls around, my hunger is satisfied and I end up eating less than normal. These promotional products help in keeping me satisfied and will have your co-workers' hunger kept to a minimum too.

One of the most recognized sounds as a child is the jingle played over and over by the local ice cream truck. All sorts of ice cream and promotional food are stacked in the ice cream truck and available for sale to happy kids and their wallet holding parents. 

Many of the ice creams offered from the ice cream man are staples of our childhood. The baseball mitt shaped ice cream with a gumball stuck in the middle. The traditional snow cone and a chocolate dipped soft serve cone. While these all sound appealing, I can think of something they're lacking. Nutrition. Don't fret you health freaks, there's a new guy in town, he's stolen the ice cream mans truck and disguised it wonderfully as, the vegetable truck!           

                
It drives around much like your typical ice cream truck, but instead of cavity and diabetes inducing treats, this is a healthy source for all of your vegetable needs driving at 5 miles an hour down your block. Detroit has been called a, "Food Desert," and a statistic showing that one neighborhood had 25 liquor stores compared to one grocery store, didn't help its reputation. Thankfully, a nonprofit Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corporation is working on getting food out to the urban areas. “Peaches and Greens” runs out of a more rural area in Detroit and grows its own produce. Now, the corporation has decorated their own vegetable truck and is cycling around the urban area of Detroit.

                                  

I can't say if they have their own jingle, but I can imagine the sadness a child might feel when they run out to the front yard telling, "Ice Cream!" and instead find lettuce and string beans. But it's about time eating healthy goes mainstream. Two Detroit teens hired to help with the vegetable truck service were presented with zucchini and had no idea what it was.

Perhaps they can start giving away custom stress balls in the shape of vegetables and fruits to educate those that are both knowledge and food hungry.

It's just a little baby novel. But since I'm not Shakespeare or Stephen King, there's no publishing company that's eager to put this little wonder out there. So I thought, why not make some handmade books? There are printing and binding “How-Tos” online and I'm going to use recycled paper to cut back on pollution.

Also, if you ever get a copy of my book, and you decide to chuck it, I ask that you chuck it into the nearest paper recycling bin!

My idea of an eco-friendly book came to life in sorts when I checked out one of my favorite Ad websites.

This advertisement, for Eco- Systemes in France, urges the people to recycle everything! That parrot doesn’t want a plastic and metal tape recorder getting all rusty and corroded in his rain forest! Likewise, Motivators believes in an eco-friendly community. That’s why there are a ton of eco-friendly promotional products here.

That parrot would be so happy to know that we even have electronic pieces made from recycled materials. He’d look good sporting a custom imprinted Port Authority recycled fleece jacket. And if I ever go visit him in the rain forest I’ll bring a sweet promotional organic shoreline drawstring back pack filled with my new eco-friendly book, some parrot treats and well, maybe some promotional food for me too.