Be Green!

Green Beer. No, not beer with green dye like they have on St. Patty's Day...green as in environmentally-friendly. My father pointed this one out to me. A UK brewery called Adnams made a beer called "East Green" which according to early figures has saved the lives of 5,483 people. Ok, I made that up...it's not directly saving lives but the brewing process of the beer is apparently very eco-friendly. How is it doing that?

• The brewery is an "eco-brewery" - it recycles the steam created while brewing into the next batch that is brewed
• It uses local hops and barley (cuts down transportation)
  
• The hops also are aphid-resistant (plant lice) which means less pesticide needs to be used on them

So the way I see it is...the more you drink of it, the more you are helping the environment. So drink up you bloody wankers!

Speaking of being "green," what's taken so long for supermarkets and retailers to do something about their plastic bags? I understand that out in California (go Arnold!) they have taken action against plastic bags (and possibly other cities/states), but why not all over the country? When I studied in Ireland, my first trip to the supermarket was the only trip that I got my purchases bagged in plastic. Why? Because they charge you per plastic bag - everyone brings reusable bags to the supermarket there - on my next trip, I bought one of their reusable bags (which probably paid for itself over a few visits) and used it from then on.

The fact is people (including me) may not take action when it's not the norm and the only benefit to them is knowing they are doing a good thing for the environment. But when it becomes cheaper to do that good thing? Everyone will do it and that becomes the norm. This just seems like such an easy solution that has taken way too long to happen.

Ok, I'm off my soap box now.

Awesome Nutrigrain Commercial

I don't know why, but for some reason today, this commercial popped into my head. I first saw it online about 5 years ago and I think it's probably my all-time favorite commercial...

Incentives

The classic incentives promotion: if you buy this, you also get this. Some of these involve more legwork than others - these are more commonly referred to as rewards programs such as the Coke rewards program - each cap, box, etc. has a code that you enter online for points which eventually can add up to a toaster oven (with the Coca-Cola logo on it of course)! Rebates fall along the same kind of concept - the consumer will have to do a little work to mail in something to get money back on their purchase - surprisingly, not everyone does, even if the big word "Rebate" is what attracts them to the product in the first place.

Some incentives are a little more straightforward, such as a product-specific coupon - a popular one that my brother takes full advantage of is the DVD packaged with a ticket to an upcoming movie in the theater. I saw Ocean's 13 courtesy of one of Dan's purchases - thanks dude.

I have blogged about the digitization of music and about the concert industry; this new promotion that I just recently noticed combines the two. I got an e-mail from iTunes advertising the recently released Weezer album. The kicker is that it offered me the option of buying the album from iTunes within about a 1 or 2 day time span in exchange for a code to buy Weezer pre-sale tickets. I think this is a great idea - it promotes the new album and the concert and allows real fans to win over on that flawed ticketing system that I previously discussed. Some of the real Weezer fans would gladly purchase the album from iTunes, possibly even if they already had a leaked copy, just to get a good shot at decent seats for a Weezer show. Win for iTunes, win for the artist, win for the fans (loss for the scalpers! score!)

Transformers 2 in Bethlehem, PA

Shooting of Transformers 2 began on Monday in China...scratch that, a place that looks like China: Bethlehem, PA. Ok, so maybe Bethlehem does not look like China...until you transform their old steel plant by putting up Chinese letters all over the place, which is what Michael Bay's crew did over the past few weeks. Shooting began on Monday and continued last night and into tonight as well. The transformed steel plant is supposedly the setting for the opening scene, which takes place in a Chinese city. Tyrese and Josh Duhamel have been shooting on scene, along with participants of a casting call, consisting of a large selection of people of Asian-descent. All of this a town away from where I'm currently living in Allentown. Of course I had to check it out.

I headed over to Bethlehem last night, skeptical of being able to see any real action, but excited about it nonetheless. What happened was unbelievable. As I moved among a large crowd of spectators along the guarded perimeter, fans started cheering as Michael Bay came onto set in a golf cart. He hyped up the crowd with a megaphone, saying that he was so grateful to have some real fans at his set. I managed to get myself up to the front of the crowd, about 20 feet from Bay. He made eye contact with me and seemed to recognize me. I saw him talking to some security and then they came over our way looking at me. I thought, "oh shit, I shouldn't have taken those pictures earlier, I'm busted," but they motioned for me to come onto set. Michael Bay greeted me with a handshake, saying, "You're Kevin, right?" I slowly pinched myself and said, "how'd you know that?" He said, "Kevin's Blog...I love it! I read it all the time." I said, "really? thank you so much, that's awesome." He then asked if I wanted to sit next to him for the next scene he was directing. I did so, and mid-scene, he cut it. He said, "Hey Tyrese...go to your trailer, I got some fresh talent for this scene." After receiving dirty looks from Tyrese, Bay instructed me...

Ok, I'll stop. If you happen to suffer from extreme gullibility, I apologize but that was far from the truth. Truth is it was difficult to see any action from the handful of vantage points that were available, if there were even any scenes being shot while I was there. Most of what could be seen consisted of neon green and red signs of Chinese letters. I heard and saw the 3 apache helicopters come onto set, which had been taking multiple takes on Monday night. I missed Tyrese come onto set via white van by a few seconds but heard the 12-year olds screaming over him. Even though during my time spent there I did not see much action, it was very exciting knowing I was near where a scene of the movie will be and the fact that noone really knew what would happen next, considering Bay is all about explosions.

As far as unintentional marketing goes, I feel like this whole event will do a lot for what they have coined has Valleywood. Personally, I was all about Transformers when it hit the radar, saw it in the theater with my bros, and will most definitely hit up T2 next summer. However, for the Lehigh Valley and even extended surrounding areas, this news has created some big buzz. I'm sure people in the area who have never heard the word "transformer" are intrigued. Flipping through channels tonight, I personally turned on Transformers on one of the movie channels, something I did solely based on this whole event. I'm sure people are buying the DVD this week in the area and are probably going to be excited to see this scene in the movie next summer. As a director, I would definitely take advantage of areas outside of Hollywood that can fit the script...going directly across to the east coast to Bethlehem, PA is something I still cannot grasp...way to go Bay.

Here are some pictures that will surely blow you away:


(above left) I believe those Chinese letters translate to: you ain't gonna be seein' much more than this.

(above right) A helicopter...but not just any helicopter...a helicopter with Chinese letters on it!!


(left) Sign of the side of a truck parked outside

More pictures will be uploaded to my Webshots, sometime in the next century.

Subway $5 Footlongs

I'm currently eating a $5 footlong from Subway for lunch. I went in there, conscious of this $5 footlong craze, with the mindset that I would only get a 6-inch sub. In the past year, of practically all the times that I went to Subway, I got a 6-inch sub. So why did I budge? It was more economical to get a footlong for $5 than a 6-inch sub for somewhere between $4-5. Why would I pay $5 for something that I could get 200% of for the same price?

I understand this limited-time promotion of the $5 footlong is to combat the decline in footlong sales that had been happening due to more interest in the 6-inch sub. But how long is this promotion going on for? I'm guessing they are trying to build a restored interest in buying a footlong, but is that really going to boost footlong sales after the price goes back up? Not for me - I'm going straight back to the 6-inch sub, if I even go back anytime soon amidst all of this confusion.

On the other side of it, if buying from Subway with someone else, it can do wonders. This was the case on my last visit to Subway, when Kathryn and I decided that we both wanted an Italian sub so just split the 5 dollar footlong, thus both getting a 6-inch sub for $2.50. But it will fall apart if you are visiting Subway with someone with clashing taste buds. There is also the option of eating half and saving half for later...but who wants Subway for lunch and dinner?

Is this whole promotion idea reflective of the Subway brand? The brand that encourages people to choose them over other fast-food joints as a healthy alternative by even making the nutrition fact comparison on their napkins? What's Jared doing with this dilemma - still choosing 6-inch subs or getting footlongs? [scratch that - he probably eats for free]

And now I'm done lunch...with a few inches left to spare.