Who Wore It Best?

Account Executive Jon Fruman (AKA Jean Shuman, AKA Single White Frumale, AKA A Boy Named Fru) faces off with a bottle of Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male. Who do you think wore it best?

24-hour interview-fest of job interviews, with Jim Walls

Are you tired of not sitting at a desk for eight, maybe seven hours a day? Does your life lack a substantial amount of general office camaraderie and semi-awkward coworkerly anecdotes? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you’ve come to the right blog post. That’s right, it’s Jobathon!

At this point you’re probably asking yourself, “what is Jobathon”? And you’d be right. Which is why we’ve laboriously prepared this short informative video. Take a look!

Basically, we’re hiring. Designers, art directors, copywriters and just about any other job you can think of (as long as you are thinking of “designer, art director or copywriter”). In order to fill all these job openings, Executive Creative Director Jim Walls will be conducting interviews non-stop for at least 24 hours, or until he collapses.

Will he collapse during your interview? There’s only one way to find out.

Jump on over to http://72.10.33.187/jobathon to fill out an application, read more about Jobathon, or to just check out some mind-boggling, eyeball-searing, awesome-ness web design. It will probably be fun!

The Food Network gets a taste of 160over90

We are eaters here at 160over90. We may fill our days with thoughts of creativity, consideration, and dedication to our clients and our work, but simultaneously we are thinking with and about our stomachs. Often, our Boomerang Table is adorned with treats including gourmet sandwich spreads, individually wrapped icing-frosted sugar cookies or a colossal chocolate volcano. So, when a local sandwich shop reached out to one of our employees with the opportunity to appear on a Food Network eating challenge, we as an eating (and living and learning) community could not resist.

160over90 employees are frequent customers at Jake’s Sandwich Board (shout-out to Mike, Kyle, Jon and Brendan) and it is their frequent visits to – and Mike’s tweets about – the restaurant that gave us our big TV break. In preparation for their upcoming feature on the Food Network’s Outrageous Food, Jake’s reached out to 160over90 in search of  “eaters” to participate in food-tastings, introduction scenes, and the infamous “5-lb Philly Challenge.” So although the taping fell on a particularly busy day in this office, we knew what we had to do.

On the morning of the shoot, Kyle and Marci headed down to Jake’s bright and early to taste five of their cheesesteak varieties: the Philly Wasabi, Charlie Brown (a peanut butter and bacon special), Fire Steak, Steak & Egg, and your basic cheesesteak with onions. If that isn’t the breakfast of champions, I don’t know what is. Then, later in the day, Jenny B. and our design intern Shannon enjoyed some of “the best sandwiches in Philadelphia” during the show’s introduction scenes.

To round out 160over90’s national television debut, I competed in Jake’s Ultimate Philly-Themed Challenge:

1 2-foot cheesesteak

4 soft pretzels

12 Butterscotch Krimpet Tastykakes

24 Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews

1 Champ Cherry Soda

…in 45 minutes or less

Typically, this challenge is meant for just one person (a feat once attempted and failed by our very own Justin LaFontaine, but for entertainment’s sake, I competed in a 3-on-3, girls versus boys, all-out food war. In order to plow through the monstrous serving of food, I channeled my inner college-student-post-bars eating habits, developing tactful digestive strategies including the creation of Peanut Chew and Tastykake sandwiches and soft pretzels topped with cheesesteak meat.

Curious about who won? Make sure you tune into Outrageous Food in the upcoming months and look out for the episode featuring Jake’s Sandwich Board. I will tell you one thing, though: The challenge was a tough fight, but definitely worth the participatory t-shirt and subsequent stomach pains that may last me until the show’s airdate.

A BIG “Thank You!” to everyone who came out to Jake’s last week to participate in the eating extravaganza and provide moral support (through bouts of laughter) to the challengers. I think it is now safe to say that 160over90 can officially expand its agency profile to include (not-so) professional acting spots. Anything for food and friends!

The Ultimate Fist Pumping Machine

Its no secret that a small agency contingent has watched MTV’s Jersey Shore with morbid fascination since the beginning. Our fixation has manifested itself beyond water cooler conversation: blog posts have been written, names have been entered in the Jersey Shore name generator, a Situation talking bobble head is bobbling (and rambling) away on my desk right now alongside Sparty and The Wilkes Colonel, and we even developed a TV spot for our client De’Longhi to run during the season one finale (De’Longhi ultimately demurred). Perhaps this is because many of us have northern New Jersey roots and have shared much of the same sand and surf as the cast members. And we are not alone in our viewership, as ratings continue to skyrocket; The show’s third season premiered on January 6, 2011 to record ratings, making it MTV’s most viewed series telecast EVER.

One of the (many) things that jumped out at me during this premiere was the choice of vehicles among the cast. For while it appears most of them still live at home, their rides include a Range Rover, a Cadillac and two BMWs.  Which begs the question:  How do the marketers at these luxury car makers, most notably BMW, feel about theirs being the brand of choice for the likes of Ronnie and Snooki?

Luxury and specialty brands often run the risk of becoming “too” popular, or even worse co-opted by an audience outside of their intended demographic.  Its safe to say that Miuccia Prada never envisioned her name on the backpack mean girls everywhere.  One must wonder if Christian Louboutin is laughing all the way to the bank while the bridge and tunnel moms gone wild dance the night away in his trademark red soled heels, or plays the role of Hamlet in pondering the future of his brand.  Cristal Champagne managing director Frederic Rouzaud commented to The Economist that the shout-outs rappers give to his company’s beverage in their music are “unwelcome.”  Jay Z returned fire “It has come to my attention that the managing director of Cristal views the ‘hip-hop’ culture as ‘unwelcome attention’ … I view his comments as racist and will no longer support any of his products through any of my various brands including the 40/40 Club nor in my personal life.” Jay has also asked the hip hop community to support him in boycotting the pricey beverage.

In Chasing Cool by Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman, the authors illustrate in detail how Ralph Lauren has been able to maintain relevance in the retail clothing industry by staying true to the brand’s vision, while Tommy Hilfiger, by chasing market trends and courting the urban demographic, lost brand value and, subsequently, relevance.  Hilfiger has staged a masterful return to form, battered and bruised nonetheless. In the trend spotter user manual The Tipping Point, author Malcom Gladwell explains similar meteoric rise and near cataclysmic fall of shoe brands  Airwalk and Hush Puppies. Airwalk’s former president Lee Smith opined “We had this little jewel of a brand and little by little we sold it off to the mainstream” (Note along the way somebody got quite rich, as the brand was packaged and sold for $200 million at its peak of viability).

My first real client (circa 1995-1999) was Michel Roux, the mercurial President of Carillon Importers and steward of the Stolichnaya Vodka and Bombay Sapphire Gin brands. In the 80’s and 90’s Monsieur Roux held exclusive distribution rights to Absolut Vodka and was one of the visionaries behind the brand’s iconic ad campaign. As legend has it, he once paid $100 a slovenly gentleman in an airport to remove his Absolut T-shirt .  Roux famously quipped in his outrageously appropriate French accent: “We moost protect zees brand.”

Its clear that many luxury and specialty brands ultimately pay a heavy price for their 15 minutes of fame, whether the masses move on or the niche ultimately turns when the brand asserts its true intentions in defense of the crown.  Some brands eschew trends altogether: “I love looking at trend reports because then I know exactly what I shouldn’t be doing,” declares John Demsey, group president, Estee Lauder, MAC Cosmetics, Prescriptives, Sean John, and Tom Ford Beauty

In BMW’s case, the options may be few.  Perhaps two Lexus, supersized red bow and all, magically arrive in Ron and Snook’s driveways in the hopes they turn in their leases.  Though it might be too late: At a dinner party I attended this weekend at an upscale Italian restaurant called GoodFellas in Garfield, NJ, the parking lot held of 18 cars…11 were BMWs.

And the whistles go “wooo-wooo”

Over the holidays, some of the Gorgeous Ladies of 160over90 came by to have a look at my electric train set. It was strictly look-with-your-eyes-not-your-hands territory for these gals, but I did patiently answer their somewhat tedious questions about my meticulous recreation of pre-60s Reading Line rail stock.

If you’d like to schedule a look for yourself, limited appointments are available in 2011. Please e-mail your request to me personally. If you are selected, you will be notified of the specific date and time of your viewing. Note that I receive many more requests than I can possibly accommodate, so it would be in your best interest to begin the tempering of your disappointment.

Cheers to 2011

In the spirit of the New Year, I figured I’d poke my nose in other people’s business and try to find out some of the 2011 resolutions made by my co-workers. Before asking, however, I did a little research on how long the typical New Years Resolution lasts. According to Dr. David Katz, the Director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, fewer than half of our personal promises will see March 1^st. Yikes, right? But those are better chances than what New York Times blogger Tara Parker-Pope discusses in her recent article, Will Your Resolutions Last Until February? In it, she tells readers about a survey that found that a third of all people making New Year’s resolutions do not even keep them through the end of January!

I, on the other hand, believe that we can do better. In fact, I know we can.

I will admit that upon asking my esteemed colleagues about their resolutions, I was expecting – if any responses at all – unoriginal and generally lame answers, which include any of the following:

• I will be nicer to my parents.
• I will stop ferociously stalking on Facebook.
• I will stop eating cups of chocolate chips after dinner each night.
• I will only spend money on the things that I need.
• I will do more community service.

Don’t get me wrong: these are all nice ideas, and I am so honored to know anyone who engages in more community service endeavors, but I wanted eclectic, funny, and inspiring feedback. And thanks to the personalities at 160over90, that is exactly what I got. The following are some of the most noteworthy resolutions made by 160over90 employees:

I resolve…

• To have a healthier life—spend more time with friends, get to the gym, prioritize the things I like doing
• To not make any more resolutions – because I never keep them [sidenote: so did Oprah!]
• To drink more water than beer, take more photos, read more books, sit up straight, and try yoga
• To be 10% less grumpy
• To trace my family history and put together a family tree
• To show a little more leg
• To trust my gut and not second-guess myself
• To stretch more. Muscles, limbs, dollars, truths
• To close my dresser drawers. And keep my nails painted. And to continue making random resolutions throughout the year. Why use only New Years as a time to make a positive change in my life?
• To stifle the overuse of the word “literally”
• To learn the name of each and every intern [second sidenote: this came to me in an email addressed to Vicki… my name is Nicole]

And my resolution? To stop eating cups of chocolate chips after dinner each night… and to help my co-workers keep their resolutions throughout what I am sure will be an exciting, successful, happy, and healthy 2011.

Happy New Year!