It’s a day that most of us take off work. Some of us go to the pool, some of us start up the grill and some of us just sit around doing nothing much at all. It’s often relaxing and fun, but we need to remember what the holiday is all about. I found a pretty good brief description online at History.com, they said…

Memorial Day, which falls on the last Monday of May, commemorates the men and women who died while serving in the American military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades. Unofficially, at least, it marks the beginning of summer.

To see more photos, videos, and other interactive content online, check out the History.com link.

So wether you’re sitting by the pool, hanging out with friends and relatives, or marching in a parade, let’s all remember to give thanks to all of the the men and women who gave their lives over the years and to the men and women who continually help protect our great country.

Happy Memorial Day

Jason Davenport / Going Interactive

Follow Me - Twitter @GoingJason / LinkedIn Jason Davenport

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Of course it’s easy to find with a simple Google search on Earth Day. I headed to Wikipedia, and here it goes…

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in held on April 22, 1970. Many communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. The first Earth Week originated in Philadelphia in 1970 (starting April 16 and culminating on Earth Day, April 22.) Earth Day Network, a group that wishes to become the coordinator of Earth Day globally, asserts that Earth Day is now observed on April 22 on virtually every country on Earth.”

Read the whole Wiki

So now that you are so well informed, what are you going to do with that info? I’ll assume most of us will just think “green” but not change too much. Hopefully though there are some of you out there that will maybe make a change. The change doesn’t have to be big, just a small one will do. If you need some help deciding on what something simple might be, here’s a basic list of 10 of my favorite which I try to follow regularly.

1. CHANGE YOUR LIGHT BULBS (or a all of them!)
If every household in the United State replaced one regular lightbulb with one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs, the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road.

Don’t like the color of light? Use these bulbs for closets, laundry rooms and other places where it won’t irk you as much.

2. TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT NIGHT
By turning off your computer instead of leaving it in sleep mode, you can save 40 watt-hours per day. That adds up to 4 cents a day, or $14 per year. If you don’t want to wait for your computer to start up, set it to turn on automatically a few minutes before you get to work, or boot up while you’re pouring your morning cup ‘o joe.

3. RECYCLE (or almost everything you use!!!)
Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn’t recycled it can take a million years to decompose. (my personal note… almost everyone has this at their fingertips now. It’s always sad to see people’s trash sitting by the road overflowing, and noticing they don’t have a recycling bin next to their can. Or if that bin is almost empty. If you don’t have a pick-up, then check your local area as there are tons of places that can take stuff.)

Twenty recycled aluminium cans can be made with the energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one.

Every ton of glass recycled saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil needed to make glass from virgin materials.

4. GO VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK (one of my favorites – but I go 7 days a week!)
One less meat-based meal a week helps the planet and your diet. For example: It requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. You will also also save some trees. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed.

5. BRUSH WITHOUT RUNNING (I think I learned this from the Cosby Show or Fat Albert!)
You’ve heard this one before, but maybe you still do it. You’ll conserve up to five gallons per day if you stop. Daily savings in the U.S. alone could add up to 1.5 billion gallons–more water than folks use in the Big Apple.

6. RETHINK BOTTLED WATER
Nearly 90% of plastic water bottles are not recycled, instead taking thousands of years to decompose. Buy a reusable container and fill it with tap water, a great choice for the environment, your wallet, and possibly your health. The EPA’s standards for tap water are more stringent than the FDA’s standards for bottled water.

7. TURN OFF LIGHTS (love this one, especially if no one is around)
Always turn off incandescent bulbs when you leave a room. Fluorescent bulbs are more affected by the number of times it is switched on and off, so turn them off when you leave a room for 15 minutes or more. You’ll save energy on the bulb itself, but also on cooling costs, as lights contribute heat to a room.

8. GIVE IT AWAY (we’ve done this and it’s very fulfilling in the end)
Before you throw something away, think about if someone else might need it. Either donate to a charitable organization or post it on a web site designed to connect people and things, such as Freecycle.org.

9. PLASTIC BAGS SUCK (I think we all know this by now right?)
Each year the U.S. uses 84 billion plastic bags, a significant portion of the 500 billion used worldwide. They are not biodegradable, and are making their way into our oceans, and subsequently, the food chain. Stronger, reusable bags are an inexpensive and readily available option.

10. RECYCLE UNWANTED WIRE HANGERS (my wife is too smart, she’s been doing this for years!)
Wire hangers are generally made of steel, which is often not accepted by some recycling programs. So what do you do with them? Most dry cleaners will accept them back to reuse or recycle. (Cue Joan Crawford.)

Ok, so this is a simple list which almost any of us can do. I borrowed these ideas from a nice little site called 50 Ways to Help the Planet.

We’d love to hear your comments on things you do to help the Earth. There’s a million and one ways to be creative, learn some yourself and teach them to your friends, family and kids.

Thanks and Happy Earth Day

Jason Davenport / Going Interactive
Follow Me – Twitter @GoingJason / LinkedIn Jason Davenport

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Even if you are a PC guy / girl, you gotta admit that the “I’m a Mac” Ad campaigns from the past few years are really good. Apple has always been a stand out organization who leads vs. follows.

In regards to the TV spots, it was and is always exciting to see a new one hit the screen. We all want to see what they were gonna do next! I’d guess that this “I’m a Mac” overall campaign will definitely go down in pop-culture history along with some other memorable campaigns from the past.

We here at Going Interactive definitely love our Macs (and yes we have PC’s too!). So I was happy when Phil sent me this link. It’s from AdWeek and it has every Mac commercial organized by year / date. It’s pretty neat to see how they’ve kept it going from 2006 – 2009.

Here’s the link to see them all on AdFreak (and thanks for gathering them all in one place guys!)

And here’s a few of our team favorites…
- #61 “Top of the Line”
- #13 “Better Results”
- #45 “Off the Air”
- #56 “Time Traveler”
- #8 “Touché”

Hope you enjoy.

Jason Davenport / Going Interactive
Follow Me - Twitter @GoingJason / LinkedIn Jason Davenport

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We’re excited that Atlanta participates in independent film. If you’re a movie buff but really enjoy some of the lesser known flicks then you might want to check this festival out.

The Atlanta Film Festival—one of only two-dozen Academy Award® qualifying festivals in the U.S.—is back. It is the largest and longest-running festival in the region, welcoming an audience of over 25,000 to discover 150+ new independent, international, animated, documentary, and short films, selected from 1,800+ submissions from all over the world. It is also the most distinguished event in its class, recognized as Best Film Festival by Creative Loafing, Sunday Paper, 10Best and Atlanta Magazine. Atlanta Film Festival’s executive director was honored as 2008’s Best Festival Director for a National Film Festival at the International Film Festival Summit.

Atlanta Film Festival screenings often include in-person dialog with filmmakers, providing audiences, artists and industry professionals with meaningful opportunities to network, interact and engage. Recent festival guests have included Josh Brolin (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Michael Ealy (BARBERSHOP), Jasmine Guy (DIFFERENT WORLD), Chris Moore (GOOD WILL HUNTING,), Howard Zinn (The Peoples’ History of the United States), Ray McKinnon (THE BLIND SIDE), Walton Goggins (THE SHIELD), Margaret Cho (DROP DEAD DIVA), comedian Jeff Foxworthy, Tichina Arnold (EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS), John Sayles (PASSION FISH), Hal Hartley (SIMPLE MEN), Carlos Cauron (RUDO Y CURSI) and Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers). *copy supplied by AFF website

“A must for movie buffs, this festival serves a feast of narrative driven movies, shorts, documentaries, and animation.” — Atlanta Magazine

“The Atlanta Film Festival’s Opening Night guarantees great film and a hip indie crowd” — Atlantan Magazine “Arts and Power Issue”

2010 Festival Dates: April 15-April 23
ATLFF is an Academy Award® qualifying festival for the Best Live Action Narrative Short and Best Animated Short categories
Voted Atlanta’s Best Film Festival by Creative Loafing, Sunday Paper, Atlanta Magazine and 10Best.com
The 2010 festival will be ATLFF’s 34th year
Over 21,000 attended the 2009 festival

Learn More at the Atlanta Film Festival Website

Fast Forward is a concept created by Google and the Wharton University of Pennsylvania. It’s tag line is…

Quick perspectives on the changing face of marketing. Watch. Engage. Debate.”

The website describes how “marketing is in the midst of a complex transformation”, which I guess it is, and probably always will be with the technology constantly changes. Fast Forward is geared towards multiple viewpoints from industry and academia leaders. There’s a ton of short videos which all relate to unique marketing topics. Through these videos the site hopes to show innovative ways to market to consumers, best practices for informed marketing and answers to pertinent questions which are on the minds of many agencies today.

What’s on the site?

Another section of the site is “Trends”, which shows more insight into consumer sentiment based on different types of searches through Google.

There’s also a “Future of Advertising” tab which has even more videos about the approach the site is taking on marketing topics.

A third tab labeled “Free Tools” is pretty much just that, free stuff. Don’t get too excited, it’s mostly from Google and it’s stuff that’s already out on the web, but for anyone who might be new to the land of online content and search, this is probably a helpful section. It covers ideas of search innovation, insights, speed, content and experimentation leveraging new opportunities with keyword tools.

The last tab of the site is called “Events”. This section seems to be compiled of short videos from Advertising Week in NYC. It includes roundtables with CEO’s both on agency and client side.

Final Thoughts

The whole concept of how consumers are now marketers and a conversation is not just one way, but multi-directional is really a pretty amazing and big idea to consider. Agencies and marketing firms can’t treat customers as an end result, but try to see them more as a partners. Technology helps us in so many ways, and Google is definitely near the forefront. It’s great they joined with Wharton and YouTube to create a mini destination for marketing insights.

Check it out for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/user/FastForward

~ Jason Davenport, Going Interactive

Follow me on Twitter @goingjason