Boomerang

This February, during London Fashion Week, designer Anya Hindmarch unveiled her newest handbag.  Immediately after its catwalk debut, the bag was featured in fashion magazines and photographed in the hands of celebrities all over the world.  Inspired by the movement to reduce waste, the carrier is made out of lightweight white cotton, and only costs £5, or $10.   

The most remarkable part, however, is that the eco-chic tote sold out on Hindmarch’s Web site within hours, and reappeared shortly thereafter on eBay for prices up to £200, or $400!  I have a cotton shopping bag from Albertsons that cost me a whole 10 cents, and I thought that was a bit steep. Novelties aside, San Francisco has become the first city in the U.S. to ban the plastic bag.  Personally, I think it will be interesting to see what sort of solutions people come up with.  I predict shoppers in Chinatown will soon be rolling around mini-wheelie carts like they do in Europe. 

Mission hipsters on the other hand, will develop some sort of cooler, crunchier type of transport; baskets on the front of their fixies, perhaps? The SOMA crowd will enlarge the already popular messenger-style tote, that’s an obvious one.  But what about Richmonders? 

I see the end of the plastic bag as the beginning of a new form of self-expression.  Only having one expansive purse myself, I manage to carry an extra outfit, lunch, wallet, book and extra shoes around every day.  Throwing a few groceries in there will only complement my Mary Poppins strategy.  Looking at how people choose to carry their essential possessions will be like looking into their soul.  My “soul” takes the shape of a black leather satchel.  What about yours?

While I’m a relative late-bloomer to the growing trend of city car sharing, I’ve learned that there’s no need to worry about the expense and annoyance of finding parking in the city, paying high insurance premiums, or dealing with rising gas prices at the pump. I’ve experienced the “power of the fob” for myself, there’s no turning back. I’m hooked.  By sharing vehicles between a small and local “social network” of car-sharing members, people can really make a difference in reducing traffic congestion, parking problems, and our dependence on oil - while promoting cleaner air and more open space.

Back in 2001, City CarShare, a Bay Area nonprofit, introduced the city’s first car-sharing program — and others like Flexcar and Zipcar have entered the market since then. It’s pretty much the greenest way you can drive. A U.C. Berkeley study conducted in 2003 showed that each person who joins City CarShare saves nearly 100 gallons of gasoline each year, on average. When you add it all up, the current members of City CarShare in the Bay Area have saved more than 1 million gallons of gas. More recently, City CarShare has begun offering discounted programs to large local organizations like San Francisco City College to further increase its member base.

In my short time with City CarShare, it’s been easy and affordable to get around town to run errands, pick up friends and family at the airport, or conduct business in cities and towns nearby San Francisco. It does take a bit of advance planning to make sure you book the cars you need during certain times of day via the Web - but there are numerous “pods” (parking locations) to choose from, and all you need to do is wave your member “fob” on your keychain at your designated time - and the doors unlock, and off you go. Gas, insurance, pod parking and maintenance are all covered for you.

At $4/hour and 44 cents a mile, it’s really one of the cheapest ways to get around the Bay Area. And better yet, you can feel good knowing that membership in an organization like City CarShare is taking anywhere from 7 to 20 cars off the road for each vehicle they add to their growing fleet — and that’s having a very direct and real impact on the quality of life and environment in the cities that we live in.

Last week, a few members of the Cohn & Wolfe team attended the 30^th Anniversary celebration of La Casa de las Madres, a local shelter and counseling center for victims of abuse in San Francisco. I should mention that it’s also one of our pro bono clients. The event was hosted by Jessica Aguirre of ABC7 News, and featured a taped appearance by Senator Dianne Feinstein.  In addition, Linda Leary, one of the shelter’s first clients, gave a speech on her experience with abuse as well as her success in overcoming it.  Attendees raised money for the shelter while celebrating the triumphs of La Casa’s many survivors. 

Although I expected the ceremony to be inspiring, I couldn’t have possibly anticipated such an emotional journey.  Linda spoke of the abuses she suffered growing up, and subsequently in her marriage.  She traveled across the country to get help from La Casa de las Madres, where they welcomed her with open arms, and helped her protect her small children. 

After attending the event I felt a personal connection to those associated with this incredible organization. I felt as if the spirit of Boomerang (what goes around, comes around) had been present in the room.  It made me think that with the increased interest in social meda, community is becoming just as more important in our offline world.  I enjoyed the evening and wish them 30 more years of providing protection and opportunity to those in need.

If you’d like to donate to La Casa de Las Madres , see their online donation form.

When Leonardo DiCaprio (he’s Leo to me and Marty) said that for the first time the Oscars had officially “gone green,” it was hard to believe that he wasn’t referring to the sea of celadon gowns that hit the red carpet last Sunday. 

Really, every other word in Oscar fashion coverage was celadon. That’s because Kate Winslet and Beyoncé wore celadon like it was meant to be worn, as an exquisite porcelain glaze, while poor Melanie Griffith got hammered for wearing it like the color of stale celery a few years back.   

Let’s face it. Green can’t easily be worn by everyone. And next year, skeptics say that green could easily fade to black if Hollywood stops watering the cause. 

I’m going to go with the optimists on this one. Green looked spectacular on Oscar this year. And in fact, organizations like Global Green USA started the greening process several years ago when celebs formed limo carpools and started driving hybrid, fancy, upscale electric cars like the Tesla Roadster. Conspicuous consumption done in a sustainable way… Only in Hollywood!  

So here’s the question for Hollywood’s corporate counterparts: can you wear green and wear it well in all its different shades? And can you find a way to wear it every season in new and innovative ways so that it becomes both a competitive advantage, as well as the right thing to do? 

With the right accessories – some bling, some vintage and perhaps a new twist or two – we think anything is possible.   

These days the only thing that gets between me and the dozens of blogs I peruse each day is my thin framed glasses. I consider social media the main focus of my work life, and it wasn’t until my recent visit to Brazil with some friends that I realized blogs and social networks are an integral part of my personal life as well.

Before leaving for my dream trip, my “travel planner” and dear friend told me countless travel tips and personal stories she read on various travel blogs. In Rio de Janeiro, we met some wonderful people who appeared to be close buddies, but we learned that they met just a few days prior through social networking sites while looking for travel companions. What a great way to have some new friends to hang out with upon arrival.

As our trip came to a close, eight of us exchanged contact information and promised to “MySpace” each other once we returned home. In addition to email addresses, we shared personal web pages, IM screen names, and the URLs to shared photo sites where we agreed to upload the evidence from our crazy time at Carnival. Of course there will be a filtered set of photos for the family and coworkers - don’t want to have any of those online persona issues.

Now that we are all back in our respective countries, I’m interested to see how our in-person friendships translate to cyberspace relationships. We started the trip using social networks to find information and people, and now we return to those same networks in an effort to maintain our connections. We’ve come full circle using social media - just like a Boomerang to Brazil and back again!

Lately I’ve been hearing myself say “Hang in there!” an awful lot. It’s what I said to a client who recently started a new job and managed a $43M acquisition in her first week. It’s what I said to an employee who is overloaded with client work because she is that good and in high demand. It’s what I said to my nanny who has a full week of taking care of not only the baby, but also my 5-year-old while his school takes winter break.

While it’s meant to be hopeful and empathetic, I realized that it’s actually the opposite. Not only does “Hang in there!” sounds defeatist – like you’re already Ziggy hanging from the rope with no options but to let go or be stranded there forever – but it also offers no real help. You might as well say “suck it up!”President Bush, for example, has essentially been telling the world to “hang in there” and continue to fight an unjustified war. AT&T clearly expects its customers to “hang in there” while it goes through yet another convoluted branding exercise.

The more impressive way to handle a “hang in there” situation is the JetBlue approach of facing the problem head on, apologizing for circumstances beyond its control, and offering a solution at the same time. JetBlue CEO David Neeleman’s apology letter not only reflects the true JetBlue brand of “bringing humanity back to air travel,” it requires nothing – no more suffering but also no more complaining – from customers.

Saying “hang in there” is an avoidance tactic for me, and one that I now promise to avoid.

If you’ve been around more than a random seven years in marketing and have worked with big companies, you’ve heard ‘em all say, “Oh we can’t do that! It’s like turning the Queen Mary! It’ll take forever. No, it’s impossible.”

Yet, in our very own spectacular San Francisco Bay, they turned the Queen Mary - the Queen Mary 2.0 that is. Beautifully did she turn, with a navigational margin for error of less than 70 feet and just 28 feet worth of clearance under the Golden Gate Bridge. (And if you don’t know our Bay, it’s grounded many vanity toys of far less consequence.)

So I grabbed my camera and headed to the bay to see it for myself (photo above). Cuz frankly, I am super sick of hearing that cliché.

But Captain Tom Miller, for whom docking the ship was “the challenge of a lifetime,” modestly said that while she was big and heavy, “she’s a good ship and maneuvers well with all the latest technology.”

Isn’t that like the best companies in the world? They might have started out like the original Queen Mary, near impossible to turn, but they reinvent themselves using new technology, often a modest, new captain, and hopefully end up as light on their feet as our new grande dame the QM2.

So the next time I stare down a bunch of nay sayers whether they’re in start up chaos or orderly corporate sterility, I will channel the spirit of Cap’n Tom. Because yo’… I know that dame can turn.