I’ve noticed a couple ads lately selling women’s products that, as a lady myself, I find very disturbing.

Exhibit A: Clean lady parts will help you get a raise?

What does Summer’s Eve recommend is the first step you should take when asking for a raise? Cleaning “down stairs”. Seriously?!

I can see what they’re trying to do: You should be confident when you ask for a raise and Summer’s Eve makes you “feel your most confident”. Often when I’m running late (for things other than work, of course) I’ll choose to run later so I can get a shower, get some makeup on, and not have a wretched hair day, because that makes me feel better about…well…everything. But I still find the idea of Summer’s Eve helping you get a promotion laughable. I don’t think I find their message degrading, as some do, but it seems like a stretched connection.

Exhibit B: Your hott date has some feminine recommendations for you.

I thought this was cute until about 1:00, at which point I just got weirded out. Maybe it’s the awkward, forced transition from “I love a welcoming home.” to “I hate moisture. Let me demonstrate these pads’ absorbency for you so you will buy Stayfree.” This wins the award for Most Awkward Date I’ve Never Been On.

1. Work sober. (and/or) Take your time.
Despite the frequency of alcohol consumed around Sterling Cooper Draper Price, Don is a few sips past tipsy when he meets with Life cereal, and ultimately sells them the tagline from an awkward prospect he interviewed several hours earlier. Sobriety could have helped this situation, as well as patience. Brilliance is rarely instantaneous. Yes we need deadlines, but it’s okay to need some time to come up with good, original work. Don should have asked for a bit more time to come up with additional tags that met the client’s concerns.

2. Experiment with your working conditions.
I’m not saying you should strip down to get liberated and inspired, but it’s good to mix things up a bit when you’re in a creative rut like Peggy and Rizzo were. Take a walk, move to a new location, take a break, etc. Find new ways to jump start your creativity.

3. Share the love.
It doesn’t help that Peggy’s a woman in the 1960s, but show her some love Don (And not the kind you show to every waitress who wanders in your path.). She helped you win the Clio and deserves a pat on the back. And maybe a raise. Always say “Thank you” and always give credit where credit is due.

For past Mad Men Lessons: episode 1 episode 2 episode 4 and 5

by Susan Gosselin, Vest Director of PR

Sigh.  I just don’t know what to make of this study by the University of Kentucky.  The upshot of it is this:  work place gossip helps employees manage anxiety during times of change, get important social information they need to navigate corporate politics, and in general do a better job.  Being social animals, we can’t leave those traits behind when we enter our offices, they say. An observation that’s no doubt true.

There is such a thing as good gossip.  Talking to your fellow employees about what your boss’s priorities are, the sort of things they’re interested in, and so on, can help you do better.  Talking amongst yourselves about the impacts a new product or negotiation could have on your department could be good, too.  The study even notes positive gossip…such as praising a team member who stayed up until 10 to help you. “Gossip” like this helps employees put things into perspective.

Let’s not forget the dark side of gossip.  The personal kind… “Mary’s looking like she hasn’t gotten any sleep.  She’s probably fighting with her husband again.”  The “making up lies kind”, like the boss who ignores a deadline then says an employee or vendor were to blame.  The “bullying kind” where false rumors are spread to weaken a rival’s social standing in an organization.  And perhaps the most common, the “idle speculation kind” , where employees know something is wrong with, or going to change in their company, and they creatively fill in the gaps in their information.

The wrong kind of gossip can kill your company and its work environment.  That’s why it’s so important to:

• Communicate as much as you possibly can, from the top down, about what is happening in the company.  I recommend sending out “face to face communication briefs” for managers to share in their regular staff meetings.  A password protected online community for employees through Ning.com is a good idea for instant info.  Employees on the go can follow on Twitter.
• Train managers in what is and is not acceptable in how they deal with employees.  Have a zero tolerance for abusive, gossipy bosses, with public reprimands, if possible.
• Have a very strict policy about how employees are to treat each other.  “Problem employees” who make everyone else miserable should be reprimanded, watched, and fired later, if they don’t shape up.
• Have a good channel for employees to ask questions…either through their boss, through regular meetings, or through an employee network.
• Have a good channel through human resources for complaints to be filed when others don’t uphold the policies.

Do you agree with this study?  How does your organization deal with gossip?

Felix Baumgartner is going to free fall 120,000 feet from the edge of space, attempting to break the previous free fall record and be the first person to break the speed of sound with his body, as long as he doesn’t die trying.

And Red Bull is footing the bill for this.

Before we discuss this any further, you should know that I’m a huge chicken. And of all the things I’m scared of the one I hate the most is falling. I fail at the most ridiculous team building event: the trust fall. Just reading about this makes me want to vomit, cry and watch some 30 Rock to cheer myself up. But there might actually be some merit to this project.

Red Bull apparently sponsors a lot of stunts, which I guess is like sponsoring a race car. Or college football bowl game. And while my initial thoughts on this stunt revolve around it just being another ridiculous stunt and someone’s going to die and everyone’s going to watch it on TV, apparently this is good for science. If this free fall is successful, it will change our understanding of what humans can endure as far as emergency re-entrys from space. Or something. I’m not good at science.

So do you think this is cool? Or too risky? If things don’t go well, will it hurt Red Bull to sponsor someone’s death on live TV? I don’t think it will hurt Red Bull, because the whole idea of trying will appeal to the average Red Bull drinker (Which I’m guestimating is college age-ish boy.).

Here’s a good article on the status of the Stratos project and check out the video below.

It’s not that I’ve forgotten my weekly promise of Mad Men lessons but there was that New Year’s episode that had nothing to do with advertising and then I went on vacation. So here are some advertising thoughts related to the past two episodes.

1. Art or advertising?
At a party, Peggy meets a writer who was not convinced that Peggy’s copywriting made her a “writer” too. Peggy, I feel your pain. It might not be the next great American novel, but at least we get paid to write. Copywriters FTW.

2. Your gut or the consumer’s?
Peggy’s beauty routine concept for Pond’s is up against Freedy’s concept to connect Pond’s with marriage. After an intense focus group session ending with everyone sobbing over boyfriends, Freddy’s marriage concept wins out. Don’s not happy with the results (”Hello, 1925.”) and continues to question the merits of focus groups. Will he follow the focus group or do what he wants? My money’s on the latter.

3. To play the game or to not play the game?
Episode 5 largely revolved around trying to outwit Cutler Gleason and Chaough and win Honda. It made for great entertainment, but professionally, I think your work should stand on its own. But Don does excel at mind games and it’s fun to watch.

For past Mad Men Lessons: episode 1 episode 2

Right before I left for vacation last week, I posted about a guy going on a grammar-correcting trip around the country. While I was heading to the beach and back, I happened upon some errors of my own:

• Do “Adult Novely Stores” offer more adult novels than your average adult novelty store?
• Along Georgia highways there are signs discouraging drunk driving which say, with the quotation marks, “Don’t Do It”. Someone should let them know that in this instance the quotation marks denote sarcasm.
• Sadly, I saw a billboard for my beloved IKEA that said “IKEA home Furnishings”. Really?! No big H for “home”?

On a happier note, I have a strong affection for the design of the menu at Truffles Grill, one of our favorite dining spots from the trip. So simple and modern, and I love the font.

Susan Gosselin, our PR Director and fellow company blogger, shared an NPR story with me yesterday about two men who traveled our country’s perimeter on A Great Typo Hunt. (I can’t imagine why she thought I would love this idea. ) You might remember that I had some grammatical suggestions for the Lincoln Memorial a few months ago. I still have not heard about those getting fixed, but whatever.

The NPR article asked a question of its readers: what typos drive you crazy and do you do anything to fix them?

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Fortunately part of my job is to correct typos so I fix them several times a day. But what typos drive me crazy? My least favorite typos actually don’t have anything to do with the grammar or spelling because honestly, I’m not a great speller (I blame growing up with spell check.) and grammar’s hard. Since I was an advanced reader, the school system stopped teaching me grammar around sixth or seventh grade, which I understand. For most individuals, reading comprehension and basic writing (the focus of middle school and high school) are more important than the finer rules of dangling modifiers. And we all make mistakes. I make mistakes. The NYT makes mistakes. We type quickly. We know that we know the difference between your and you’re so we don’t always see the occasions when fingers move more quickly than minds. I can understand and forgive a few typos. (I caught an instance of write/right while typing this myself, but that’s why we have delete buttons.)

But my biggest pet peeve is inconsistencies on things that don’t have a right or wrong answer, unless you’re supposed to be following a specific style guide. A.M./a.m./am or U.S./US doesn’t matter to me. The AP Style Book will give you a best way, but for basic usage I don’t care, as long as you use it the same way every time. If not in everything you do, at least within one document.

How do you capitalize titles? What about headings? Do you punctuate headings? I don’t care, as long as it’s consistent. What about formatting lists? Doesn’t matter, but do it the same way every time. Do you put spaces around dashes? Do you want to use an en dash instead of an em dash because it’s prettier? Don’t care either way, but be consistent. (This is advertising; sometimes what’s pretty loses to what’s correct. I can cope with this about 95% of the time.)

There are a few secondary pet peeves:

In professional writing, avoid abbreviations most of the time. In depends on the situation, but spell out months, states, etc.

And people capitalize, space, punctuate business names in weird ways now, so just give it a quick Google, especially for web businesses. YouTube is one word with a capital Y and T. Facebook is one word with only a capital F. Tumblr has no E.

That is all my pet peeves. I think. For now. What drives you crazy in the world of grammar and writing?

by Susan Gosselin, Vest Director of PR

Bad managers beware.  Social media gives your employees more, and better, ways to get even than you imagine.

Here, for instance, is a long-suffering assistant to what appears to have a real pig of a boss.  She decided to quit through a series of whiteboard photos she sent to her co-workers, since her boss was too busy chatting up his friends and calling her a HOPA on the phone for her to deliver it face to face.  This hilarious, yet sincere and truthful, resignation has now become a viral sensation, being covered on Mashable and many other blogs.  She outed her boss not just for his horrible behavior, but for laziness, too…with stats to back her up.  Every company should show this to their managers during training.  Yes, they can monitor their employees.  But their employees are monitoring them, too.

While this kind of public humiliation campaign isn’t exactly corporate protocol, I feel it will help her job hunt in the end.  I would hire this girl in a minute, for her ethics and creativity alone.  Wouldn’t you?

by Susan Gosselin,

Vest Director of PR, and certified stealth geek and vidiot

Everybody has those things that just make them happy.  Language is one of those things for me.  I love to write.  More important, I love the power and rhythm of words.  So I was delighted to discover that the Oxford English Dictionary folks have been keeping an 100 year old archive of words that have been submitted for admission to the dictionary, but rejected each year.  In an age where proper English is supposedly on the decline, it’s fun to see the creativity that went into these words.   Some of them are really terrific.  My vote is for “nonversation,”  when you’re talking to someone who is making noise but not providing you with interesting content.  How many of THOSE have you had lately?

If you could submit a word for the dictionary, what would it be?  Mine would be Awesomitude.  My 10 year old son used it the other day to describe his day. Priceless.  Keep reading to see the list of rejects from this year..

DICTIONARY OF NON WORDS;

Accordionated – being able to drive and refold a road map at the same time

Asphinxiation – being sick to death of unanswerable puzzles or riddles

Blogish – a variety of English that uses a large number of initialisms, frequently used on blogs

Dringle – the watermark left on wood caused by a glass of liquid.

Dunandunate – the overuse of a word or phrase that has recently been added to your own vocabulary

Earworm – a catchy tune that frequently gets stuck in your head

Espacular – something especially spectacular

Freegan – someone who rejects consumerism, usually by eating discarded food

Fumb – your large toe

Furgle – to feel in a pocket or bag for a small object such as a coin or key

Glocalization – running a business according to both local and global considerations

Griefer – someone who spends their online time harassing others

Headset jockey – a telephone call centre worker

Lexpionage – the sleuthing of words and phrases

Locavor – a person who tries to eat only locally grown or produced food

Museum head – feeling mentally exhausted and no longer able to take in information; Usually following a trip to a museum

Nonversation – a worthless conversation, wherein nothing is explained or otherwise Elaborated upon

Nudenda – an unhidden agenda

Oninate – to overwhelm with post-dining breath

Optotoxical – a look that could kill, normally from a parent or spouse

Parrotise – a haven for exotic birds especially green ones

Peppier – a waiter whose sole job is to offer diners ground pepper, usually from a large pepper mill

Percuperate – to prepare for the possibility of being ill

Pharming – the practice of creating a dummy website for phishing data

Polkadodge – the dance that occurs when two people attempt to pass each other but move in the same direction

Pregreening – to creep forwards while waiting for a red light to change

Quackmire – the muddy edges of a duck pond

Scrax – the waxy coating that is scratched off an instant lottery ticket

Smushables – items that must be pack at the top of a bag to avoid being squashed

Spatulate – removing cake mixture from the side of a bowl with a spatula

Sprog – to go faster then a jog but slower then a sprint

Sprummer – when summer and spring time can’t decide which is to come first, usually hot one day then cold the next

Stealth-geek – someone who hides their nerdy interests while maintaining a normal outward appearance

Vidiot – someone who is inept at the act of programming video recording equipment

Whinese – a term for the language spoken by children on lengthy trips

Wibble – the trembling of the lower lip just shy of actually crying

Wurfing – the act of surfing the Internet while at work

Wikism – a piece of information that claims to be true but is wildly inaccurate

Xenolexica – a grave confusion when faced with unusual words

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I read today on Mashable that Google Wave is dead. It seems like only yesterday people were begging for invites and getting all hyped up about this new gadget. I know we were excited. But personally, once I got an invite, did my happy dance, and began to explore, I was kind of lost. My friend and I tried to use it for a project we were working on, but in the end just relied on our Gmail and Gchat and phones.

On first reading the news today I was surprised, remembering how young the product still is and all the excitement around it, but it’s been so long since I’ve heard any mention of it that it’s not that shocking after all.

Did you Wave? Are you surprised or saddened by its end?