Food, food, glorious food

We have been in a food rut in this house.  Same ole' same ole'.

We've been trying to stir things up a bit.  We had Greek turkey burgers last week, and hot turkey sandwiches tonight, and not too long ago we had Asian Slaw with Teriyaki Chicken.

You can read our review of that delicious dish at www.giveeverynightnewflavor.com.  Our review, and others, plus reviews of other great recipes like a beef taco skillet, hero joe, and chilled spaghetti salad are all there for your enjoyment and inspiration.

Give Every Night New Flavor is hosted by the Kroger family of stores and you can go there by clicking on the widget in the left sidebar.  (The widget is best viewed with FireFox or Chrome.) Once you click and arrive at the site you can pick from a few different criteria and get recipe suggestions for your week night meals.  There are many great ideas on there and it even allows you to input how much time you have to whip it up.

So if you are at a loss so many nights like I am, click on the widget and see what pops up, and enjoy something new for dinner tonight.

Disclosure: This post has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions stated are mine and mine alone.

New Year, New Glasses SALE! - GlassesUSA.com

When was the last time you decided to buy glasses? Many people are lax on the idea because the thought of shelling out $500 for frames is simply out of the question. Fear not! With thanks to the Internet, you can buy glasses online - for less!

GlassesUSA.com is having a sale! Looking for designer glasses or looking to buy glasses frames that cost under $50? There are three ways to save when looking for glasses frames online:

1) Take $10 off all orders of glasses online over $100 with the code: FS10

2) Buy fashion glasses over $150 and take $15 off with the code: FS15

3) Take 15% off any order with the code: WhatIfs

Even if you’re looking for prescription sunglasses online or reading glasses online - you can save a lot! You can also win a free pair of eyeglasses from GlassesUSA! They are giving away four free pairs of glasses in January. Just try glasses online using their Try-It! Virtual Mirror and then send your choices of frames using the form provided! How easy is that?? Check out their Facebook page for more details: http://www.facebook.com/glassesusa.com.

Disclosure:  This post was sponsored by GlassesUSA.com.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

IMHO

The goodbyes get easier, the ideas get fewer and the state of the advertising industry in Detroit just isn’t the same compared to other major advertising cities in the U.S.

Those in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have experienced downsizing, years without raises and the decline of television ad dollars in favor of email pushes and viral ads. But none of those cities have felt the sting of the decline like the Motor City.

Motown advertising and its undeniable dependency on the Big 3 for billings spent the first decade of the 21st century on edge.

The end of the 20th century saw Ford move its national Lincoln and Mercury business from Young & Rubicam in Detroit to the Y&R offices in Irvine and San Francisco. Those that were willing to relocate could interview for their jobs positioned out West. If leaving Michigan wasn’t an option then they found themselves unemployed.

In 2001, DaimlerChrysler consolidated its advertising services to one agency. This movement gave birth to a new entity, briefly called Pentamark, and it marked the end of the Detroit chapter of Foote, Cone & Belding. While Pentamark was supposed to be a merger of FCB and BBDO, the foreign nature of the name left many vendors dazed and confused and before long BBDO Detroit had made a return.

Half way through the Decade of the Aughts Ford moved its Lincoln Mercury business back to Detroit and BBDO, with DaimlerChrysler’s help, began its descent from over 2000 employees to just over 400 before it closed its doors in January 2010.

Layoffs in masses, and the wildfire-like spreading of the news has taken its mental toll on Detroit and morale has gotten lower and lower. The tumultuous decade saw the Detroit office of D’Arcy change their name to Chemistri, and then to Leo Burnett. J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather, “Pentamarked” themselves into Team Detroit; and finally, the third owner of “Chrysler” decided that not one, not two, but four agencies would suffice to handle their national advertising, only one of which is in Detroit. The doing was undone, and redone, and so on, and so on.

The advertising industry, as shown in AMC’s hit series Mad Men, had its heyday, and it was worthy of every “remember when” it receives. But the decline of the U.S. economy and the greed of others have prompted the best to work for less, and the need for their expertise to become obsolete. The Creative Directors and Account Managers aren’t making the decisions and their ground breaking ideas are being ignored. The clients have taken over, and it doesn’t take a Harvard MBA to see how that’s working for them.

It’s sad. Unemployment is unbelievable in the Detroit ad community. If you’re on the creative side and you can’t leave the state, the jobs that are available won’t compare to what “you used to do”. But there’s still a longing, a longing for what used to be. For what once was, and there’s hope. Somewhere at an intersection between Auburn Hills, Dearborn and the Renaissance Center in downtown, there is a glimmer of Hope that someday they will all work together once again.

If you blinked

you may have missed it.  But here is my favorite ad from the Superbowl.  Ok, it's more of an ad-ette, and Boost Mobile's Superbowl Shuffle was classic, but I love me some Dave, and Oprah, and ok Jay can come to this party too.