A few weeks ago I was preparing for a conference presentation and wanted to include some opinions of industry contacts on a number of subjects. One of them was about what is your favorite sales movie? When I thought of the question, I quickly came up with a few of my favorites:

• Glengarry Glen Ross

• Tin Man

• Boiler room

I especially love Glengarry Glen Ross and the Glengarry leads. I have quoted the movie a number of times during speeches and it always seems to reinforce the point I am trying to make. For me, the rain really adds to the story line and the acting is wonderful.

Your turn:

• What do you think of my choices?

• What is your favorite sales movie of all time?

• Is there a particular salesperson that you seem to quote all the time?

• Did you like Death of a Salesman?

I look forward to reading your comments

A few weeks ago I read that Cheetah the chimp from the Tarzan movies passed away. Cheetah was living in Florida at an animal sanctuary and died of kidney failure at 80 years old.

When I was reading the article a friend of mine called and the two of us discussed Cheetah and other animals on TV, which of course now has led to a blog.

My discussion with R.Z. was fun and we named a number of our favorite animals that we watched on TV. He went first and tossed out Lassie which might be the most famous and popular animal. I tossed out a few others, like Mr. Ed and Flipper, which were fun and popular animals but probably fell short of Lassie’s popularity

Let’s try and build a list of our top 10 favorite TV animals of all time. Assuming Lassie, Mr. Ed and Flipper are already on the list, what other animals should be considered?

I look forward to reading your comments.

Celebrity tweets that endorse products are on the rise – clearly no surprise, but what might be a surprise is how much they get paid per tweet!

• Lindsay Lohan $2,353 per tweet

• JWOW $2,353

• Mike Tyson $3,250

• Jose Conseco $3,900

• Khloe Kardashian $8,235

Seriously, that is a lot of money!  When I first read the article I thought, what company would pay any of these stars to endorse a product? That can’t possibly per worth it. Then, I paused for a few minutes and grabbed a calculator and thought that might not be a bad deal.

Here is my logic.

Let’s take Khloe Kardashian, who has over 5,000,000, yes, 5 million followers! Let me just say I am not a fan of the Kardashians, nor do I follow Kloe, Bruce or any of them.

So if Khloe endorses and tweets about a product, what is the ROI? Is it worth it? Well, this is where my hand dandy calculator comes in.

5,000,000 followers

If 1% take action because of Khloe’s tweet that would be 50,000 people. If you don’t like that number (which might be too high) lets use 10% of that number which would be 5,000 or .0001% of the original number (which might be more likely) and multiply the 5,000 people who buy the product (call it body lotion) for $25.00 generates $125,000 in revenue.

So the tweet cost you $8,235 and generated $125,000 – who wouldn’t take that ROI?

When I did the math I actually thought it was a pretty good deal for the companies and the tweet cost wasn’t that outrageous.

• What do you think?

• Where does my logic breakdown?

• Which stars do you follow on twitter?

• Have you ever bought a product based on a tweet endorsement?

• If you were in charge of marketing at a large company would you use celebrity tweet endorsements?

Crazy yes – but very interesting in my mind.

I look forward to your comments.

PS – here is a sample tweet from Khloe:
OMG… Wheat Thins has a new limited time sweet cinnamon flavor…. Why am I so excited about this?  LOL

Based on the title you may have thought I was talking about people. Surprise, surprise, I was actually talking about a different type of record holder. A few weeks ago the World’s Biggest Burger weighed in at 777 Pounds – yes, almost 800 pounds! It debuted at California’s Alameda County Fair, a record-shattering behemoth:

Here are a few other Guinness World Record holders:
World’s Longest Hotdog:
Stats:375.06 feet created in Monterrey, Mexico on September 27, 2008
World’s Largest Cheesecake:
Stats:4,703 lbs created by Philadelphia Kraft Foods Mexico on January 25, 2009
World’s Largest Cupcake:
Stats:1315.2 lbs created by Passion for Pastry in Boca Raton, FL, on October 3, 2009

Ok, I will admit I am a little hungry!

The Texas Fair is a few months away and there is always someone trying to break the world record for largest pumpkin, cow or pig. It is always fun to see if anyone has broken a record.

• Have you been to a county fair and seen any record holders?

• Have you ever been driving and stumbled onto a record holder like in the movie Vacation where they stopped to see the largest ball of yarn?

I look forward to reading your comments.

Often I think about my childhood, the crazy things I did and the fun games I played. One of the games that I enjoyed was Mad Libs. In case you don’t remember, Mad Libs is basically a short story that leaves out words and asks you to fill in the blanks. The goal was to make the funniest and craziest story. Today will be no different. Whoever creates the funniest Mad Lib will win a $25 Amex gift card!

I will be the judge. The rules are simple. All you need to do is click on the link below and fill in the blanks. Unlike other contests on the blog, you can fill in as many entries as you like.

Good luck to all………..

Click here to compose your own Mad Lib!

It is a custom of mine to always check the Major League Baseball schedule whenever I have an out of town business trip during baseball season. So when the 2010 schedule was released last November I made a quick check to see if Merrill’s beloved Red Sox were going to be in town during June’s Marketing Research Association’s Annual Conference. Well sure enough they were coming home the last day of the conference to play the Phillies. Thanks to my good friend JM, I was able to get two tickets for Friday night’s game and took my friend GB. GB is a big baseball fan, but this was her first visit to Fenway Park. We got there early enough to walk around Fenway twice, soaking up the pre-game buzz, sample some of the local Italian sausages and spent time in Twin 47. The game was over by the 2nd inning as the Red Sox clobbered Jamie Moyer with 9 runs, but we still had a great time enjoying the views and listening to the crowds carry on with their hard “R’s”.

Then came the middle of the 8th and I realized I had not mentioned anything to GB about Boston and “Sweet Caroline”. For those of you who do not know, at every Red Sox home game, Neil Diamond’s classic Sweet Caroline is played on the ballpark’s PA system before the bottom of the 8th inning and all the loyal Red Sox fans engage in one of the most fascinating sing-alongs known to mankind. Sensing something special, GB whipped out her camera and recorded most of the audio for her family back home.

This incidence got me thinking of the different ways music and sports are connected. As many regular readers of this blog know I have a passion for both.

At first I thought of those classic team fight songs such as “The Notre Dame Victory March” or University of Oklahoma’s “Boomer Sooner”.

Then there are walk out or entrance songs like “Enter Sandman” by Metallica which is played as Yankee ace reliever Mariano Rivera heads out to the mound or Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra (theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey”) which many athletes, like pro wrestler Ric Flair, have adopted as their entrance music.

And of course there are songs about the athletes themselves such as Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs Robinson” with its classic line “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?”, Bob Dylan’s ballad “Hurricane” or The Marroons “Lester Hayes”

I gave this some thought and came up with my three favorite sport related songs.

“Ole Ola” by Rod Stewart. Now you have to be a very big fan of “Rod the Mod” or lived in Scotland during the late 1970′s to know of this song. Though he was born in England, Rod Stewart has been one of Scotland’s biggest supporters. In 1978 before the Scots made their run for the World Cup, the shaggy–haired one released this gem. Definitely up there with his classics “Mandolin Wind”, “Maggie May” and “Gasoline Alley” in my book. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4bqACNrVqs

“D-O-D-G-E-R-S Song (Oh, Really? No, O’Malley)” by Danny Kaye. Pure genius is all I can say. This whimsical song captures Kaye’s love of the Dodgers, details the classic Koufax/Drysdale Dodger teams of the 60′s and their epic battles with their dreaded rivals from San Francisco. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7qYcyUjDPU

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” started out as a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel. In England, the song’s most successful performance was recorded in 1963 by the Liverpool natives Gerry & The Pacemakers. It quickly became the anthem of Liverpool Football Club and is invariably sung by its supporters moments before the start of each game. In fact, the words “You’ll Never Walk Alone” are included in the club’s crest! I have not attended a game at Liverpool’s home, Anfield, but in 1981 I did see them play in Brighton and was just floored as their fans sang this song in unison without any formal direction. Click here and see for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I_crD6Oqsw
So now it is your turn.
Do you have a favorite song associated with sports or athletes?
Are you a fan of:

1. The Chicago Bears “Super Bowl Shuffle”
2. “Eye of the Tiger” from Rocky III
3. “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye”
4. “Rock and Roll parts 1 & 2″ by Gary Glitter

Do you have an old college fight song that touches your soul?

Or have a heavy metal favorite that is played as your favorite player enters the game?

I look forward to hearing what is on your hit parade.

It seems that almost every movie I go to over the past few years involves some type of animals. It got me to thinking about what are some of my favorite animal movies. So here is a list that I put together:

• Jaws – I always liked Roy Scheider and of course that big Great White Shark
   
• Turner and Hooch – I love Tom Hanks and even though the dog drooled all over the place I thought he was cute!
   
• Andre – Come on every animal list needs a seal! And it doesn’t hurt that it was filmed in the northeast!
   
• 101 Dalmatians – Come on 101 cute dogs that all look the same with Glenn Close
   
• Beethoven – Big clumsy St Bernard who shares the spotlight with Charles Grodin
   
• Dr. Doolittle – Eddie Murphy with tons of cute, fluffy talking animals!
   
• Harry and The Henderson’s – A comedy with Bigfoot and John Lithgow. I still laugh when bigfoot rips a big hole in the roof as he gets into the car

And I think my favorite of all time animal movie is

K-9 – with Jerry Lee (German shepherd) and Jim Belushi. I thought this movie was very funny, It had a pretty good story line and kept my interest.

Ok your turn:

• Do you like animal movies?
   
• What do you think of my list?
   
• What movies make your all time list?

I look forward to reading your comments.

So there I am walking on the streets of Chicago with a co-worker on our way to the conference hotel. As we were walking I asked R.W. if he had ever eaten at the Billygoat Tavern. He said he hadn’t and I followed up with do you know what it is? After he gave me that perplexed look I explained it was the restaurant that was featured in the Saturday Night Live (SNL) Skit “hamburger, cheeseburger” over 30 years ago. He remembered that and we chuckled at how funny Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner were in the skit

Our conversation then morphed into what are the funniest SNL skits of all time? When I think about that a few more come to mind:

The Chippendales dancers featuring Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze was absolutely hysterical. I still crack up thinking about it.

The other one I remember was Christopher Walken and Will Farrell with Blue Oyster Cult in more cowbell – very creative and funny! Watching Farrell dance around pounding the cowbell…is well…ridiculously funny!

• What are some of your favorite skits of all time?
   
• What do you think of my choices?
   
• Who were your favorite characters on SNL?

I look forward to reading your comments.

I was watching the remake of the Longest Yard last week that starred Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Michael Irvin and a number of former NFL stars and it got to me thinking about what former NFL players tried to make it on the big screen — in Hollywood. Quickly I came up with a list in no particular order:

• Jim Brown
• Brian Bosworth
• Michael IrvIn
• Bubba Smith
• Deacon Jones
• Alex Karras
• Fred Dryer
• Howie Long
• Brett Favre
• Jim Kelly
• Dan Marino
• Dick Butkus

Funny . . . the list is a little longer than I thought. 

• Who did I leave out?
   
• Who is your favorite NFL player turned Hollywood star?
   
• Who do you think is the worst actor that came from the NFL?
   
• I wonder if anyone of them won an Academy Award or another award

I look forward to reading your comments.

A few weeks ago I was in a restaurant in Greensboro, NC and while I was in the restroom I noticed a signed autograph picture of "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. I’m not sure if Hacksaw is still on the wrestling circuit as a professional wrestler.

Seeing the autographed picture made me think about growing up and watching professional wrestling on TV.  Thinking back I remember watching World Wide Wrestling Federation’s All-Star Wrestling with lots of wrestlers like: Andre the Giant, Bob Backlund, The Undertaker, Bret Hart, Big John Studd, Mick Foley, Bruno Sammartino, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Ravishing Rick Rude and Jake "The Snake" Roberts. All great ones growing up. I must admit over time I watched the show because I think Vince McMahon is a marketing genius. I was always impressed with the way he ran the company, the story lines and how he marketed the "sport".

I think my favorite was Macho Man Randy Savage. He was funny, got really excited when he was doing interviews, was a crowd favorite and always was in the biggest matches. 

• Did you watch wrestling as a kid?
   
• Who were your favorite wrestlers?
   
• Did you ever go to the live shows?
   
• Do your kids watch it now?

I look forward to reading your comments.