S.F. FIRST CITY TO BAN PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS / Supermarkets and chain pharmacies will have to use recyclable or compostable sacks Charlie Goodyear, Chronicle Staff Writer Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Robyn Hunter of San Francisco, loads plastic bags full of groceries into the trunk of her car after shopping at the Marina Safeway in San Francisco, CA. She said she will purchase re-useable canvas bags in the future. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted today, March 27, 2007 to ban plastic bags at groceries and pharmacies, making SF the first city in the nation to pass such a ban. Robyn Hunter of San Francisco, loads plastic bags full of groceries into the trunk of her car after shopping at the Marina Safeway in San Francisco, CA. Photo: Michael Maloney S.F. Paper or plastic? The city's Board of Supervisors approved groundbreaking legislation Tuesday to outlaw plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets in about six months and large chain pharmacies in about a year. "I am astounded and surprised by the worldwide attention," Mirkarimi said. Plastic bags by the numbers 180 million 2 to 3 cents
This Too Shall Pass To Our Faithful Current.com Users: Current's run has ended after eight exciting years on air and online. The Current TV staff has appreciated your interest, support, participation and unflagging loyalty over the years. Your contributions helped make Current.com a vibrant place for discussing thousands of interesting stories, and your continued viewership motivated us to keep innovating and find new ways to reflect the voice of the people. We now welcome the on-air and digital presence of Al Jazeera America, a new news network committed to reporting on and investigating real stories affecting the lives of everyday Americans in every corner of the country. Thank you for inspiring and challenging us. – The Current TV Staff
Videos that pack a punch | The Tendo View We've been thinking a lot about video at Tendo. For example, what makes a video engaging, what's the right length, and when is it even appropriate to use video? My colleague Bill Golden just wrote a post about do-it-yourself video, and he has some good tips to share. While it can be tough to figure out why a certain video goes viral (for example, "Chocolate Rain" has more than 55.8 million hits on YouTube to date—who would've predicted that?), there are best practices based on the type of video you're creating, the audience, and the information you're trying to convey to that audience. Below are five examples of five different types of videos that I think are successful. The video: "The Majestic Plastic Bag: A Mockumentary" Video type: Mockumentary Why we love it: The video follows the "flight" of a plastic bag, which ultimately ends up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The video: "Small Business Going Green with UC and Video Conferencing" Video type: Corporate case study
Jelly Bean Stop Motion Video Music videos need to be memorable if they want to stand out from the crowd in the 3 minutes of play time they usually get. Some artists have the budget to hire a film crew and pile on the special effects, while others just get away with a camera focused on the band playing the song. But for me, the most memorable videos are those that try something different and don’t necessarily need a big budget. That is the case with the latest video from Kina Grannis and her song In Your Arms. As the video progresses the animation gets progressively more complicated and adventurous. You can check out the video here, I recommend watching it full screen HD if you can. As you’d expect, any video that takes this amount of planning and implementation time deserves a behind the scenes look at how it was put together. The director Greg Jardin got an animation created from a storyboard, which then formed a running animation of the whole video. via PetaPixel
26 jargon words to avoid (like the plague) | The Tendo View Buzzwords. Corporate cliches. Jargon. It's difficult to resist peppering these little turns-of-the-tongue into your documents, speeches, and everyday life. And that's fine. But what separates good jargon from bad jargon? 1| The 80/20 rule (noun) Definition: a widely adopted principle that 20 percent of something always produces 80 percent of the results. Why we hate it: Juran's legitimate management principle is co-opted so often that it's lost its original meaning, plus it's often used incorrectly. 2| Actionable (adjective) Definition: subject to or affording ground for an action or suit at law; in business terms, it's the idea of taking action toward a solution; e.g., "Let's take actionable steps to solve that issue." Why we hate it: Stealing lingo from wordy lawyers? 3| "Ah-ha" moment (noun) Definition: the moment when you get it: the solution, the realization, the answer Why we hate it: OK for use in conversation, but don't write it down; it's clunky and awkward-looking. 8| Cycles (noun)
Blossom Jargon-busters pick top offenders after 25 years of rewriting history | UK news The Plain English Campaign today celebrates the anniversary of a mission as vital, unglamorous and unending as sewage disposal. For a quarter of a century, it has been struggling to cleanse the muck of jargon and circumlocution from British official writing. The campaign was co-founded with the vehemence of a crusade by Chrissie Maher, a Liverpool woman furious because the official forms she received were indecipherable. Yesterday its 7,000 supporters in 80 countries marked the anniversary by nominating their choicest item of gobbledygook from the last 25 years. The winner is a sentence from draft national minimum wage regulations introduced by Tony Blair's government in 1998. John Lister, campaign spokesman said: "It shows that even everyday words of one or two syllables can cause confusion when they are poorly chosen." The campaign pays its costs by working as a consultant for organisations eager to improve communication with the public. The winners 1st 2nd 3rd
Marketing Blunders 1. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux." 2. Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish where its translation was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea." 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Translations that are Marketing Mistakes People forward translation and cultural mistakes to me, and I love them. I hope you enjoy these as well. Often I receive the same ones over and over. Also, take these with a grain of salt...They may be contrived and not true, or if true, unrecognizably transformed. The site About Spanish Language indicates many of these are patently untrue. Acknowledgements: Some of the original sources are credited here. Tex "I am a jelly doughnut" Texin Copyright © 1999-2009 Tex Texin. Translations That (Allegedly) Embarassed Their Marketing Departments If you like these signs, try this page of Odd Signs. Acknowledgements David A.
Cross Cultural Marketing Blunders and Mistakes Although cruel, cross cultural marketing mistakes are a humorous means of understanding the impact poor cultural awareness or translations can have on a product or company when selling abroad. Below we have provided a few classic cross cultural marketing blunders for your enjoyment. For more examples, please visit the 3 links at the end of the page. 1. Locum is a Swedish company. 2. The day before the huge marketing campaign, Panasonic realised its error and pulled the plug. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Other cross cultural marketing and translation blunders: Cross Cultural Blunders Results of Poor Cross Cultural AwarenessUsing a Translation Service Kwintessential Ltd