Super

According to the mission statement on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) website,

PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.

What this means is that they produce materials and campaigns that get people, companies and organizations to take note, talk and write about what they are doing.

A recent example is the ‘banned’ Super Bowl commercial, (video above). I don’t think they meant or wanted to have that aired during the Super Bowl. If it did happen, it would have cost PeTA $3 million; or roughly 10% of their operating budget. Not the best use of money as the viewers are likely not their target audience. However, by getting the spot banned, it caused countless news organizations, bloggers and other media types to write about it as well as creating a general hubbub around the spot.

PETA is one of the world’s best marketing organizations and knew exactly what it was doing when they submitted the spot to NBC. They’ve done this before and none of spots have been aired. However, because of the interest, they’ve been viewed millions of times – far more effective than spending $3 million.

The target audience of PETA is actually quite small because when people realize the connection between the treatment of animals and their dinner plate; many cannot deal with that and become quite defensive or are in denial about their food choices. Many never get beyond this point.

Regardless, the PETA campaigns are meant to shock – so they are quite effective. They are probably more effective than mainstream advertising because the effects of their campaigns last in the (emotional) minds of people for years. PETA does piss a lot of people off, including vegetarians, but I don’t know of any vegetarian that would start treating animals poorly or revert to eating animals again because of it. PETA takes the bad with the good.

The good is that they have made someone notice – that’s their first goal. Their second goal is to get people beyond that point. Most will never get beyond the campaign; however, a small percentage will and read further. The third goal is to get people to provide support (money) to carry out their campaigns.

Mainstream marketers can only wish they could have this kind of impact.

Religious

My first meal of 2009; a chocolate smoothie.

I’ve been eating food all of my life – and I’ve been eating a lot of it. Probably a combination of my high metabolism and the amount of physical activity that I do. When I was younger, I didn’t take any notice what kind of food I was eating – as long as it contained calories and was edible – sometimes these were not even factors. I often thought that eating this much and what I ate could not sustain me indefinitely.

When I was in university, I started paying more attention to my diet because of articles that I read and people that I spoke to. At this point, I drastically reduced and then stopped consuming refined sugar and caffeine. I even made an attempt at vegetarianism, but I think it lasted about a week because of the lack of information that I had.

Fast foward to the early part of the 21st century, I read the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Even before I completed the book, I stopped consuming meat because of what I read. I proceeded to read more books that collaborated with the findings in Schlosser’s book. I became vegetarian.

As time went on, I consumed (pun intended) as many books on the topic as I could get my hands on. I also attended a great deal of vegetarian events and potlucks. One of the potlucks provided me with the information to stop eating animal products altogether; this was early in 2005.

At some point in 2005, I met two people, Jeff Rogers and Brendan Brazier, that provided me with some interesting information about a raw food diet. When Jeff first told me about what he ate, I laughed. In the fall of 2005, I attend a raw food potluck. I had such a good experience at that potluck that I started the raw food diet as a test. A day turned into a weekend that turned into months that turned into years. It has been over three years and has worked out well for me. To date, I’ve eaten primarily raw food for over three years.

If I hadn’t tried these things, I wouldn’t probably have changed and my life would have continued down its narrow path. To many, it is not considered a diet, but a lifestyle where the diet is only a part of the whole package. Not only has my diet changed, my outlook on life has also changed in a positive way where I am living in a way that I think I should be living. A religious experience of sorts. Because of these positive changes, I’ve taken it upon myself to promote the diet and lifestyle. I’ve been doing this in Toronto since early 2006.

When I left Toronto in 2008, I wanted to continue the promotion of the lifestyle but wasn’t sure how. I didn’t have the time to do it the same way; nor did I want to do it all over again. That’s when I got the ideal to capture (in images) what I ate for a year (maybe longer) and blog about it. Doing it this way provides for easier access; reaches a greater audience and allows for feedback and interaction among viewers/readers.

With this, I present you with my new pages as listed above, What I Eat and the corresponding Recipes pages. The images are stored on my flickr photo page where you can see higher resolution images. The recipes pages will have links to blog posts where I will include the recipes.

It’s only been a week and a half and I haven’t eaten anything that has been too unhealthy – except for maybe some potato chips. I haven’t had any french fries yet, but that will come – wait for it!

Catwoman

Eartha Kitt, a talented woman who played Catwoman – and the best one at that – in the Batman series in the 1960s passed away yesterday at the age of 81. When I first saw her on Batman she was already a celebrity -  like all the other villans on the show. She was also a talented singer, actress and stage performer. However, I will remember her most for her sultry voice.

Effectiveness

I recently read some articles about the imperative for businesses to become green. It still seems that being green is still a fad among most people and that short term benefits and cost is a major factor – despite the potential savings over the long term.

Being green has been always been a focus for a small segment of the population because of the inherent desire to consume only when necessary, not be wasteful and ultimately save money. If all consumers had these ideals in mind when consuming, we likely would not be in the predicament we find our planet in today.

According to the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the main reasons for low adoption include:

• Lack of Awareness – people claim they do not have enough information
• Negative Perceptions – green products are less effective
• Distrust – people do not trust the message of government and business
• High Prices – people do not understand the long-term benefits
• Low Availability – business do not really want to sell these products

It is a bit of a chicken-and-egg game. However, the Internet is a wealth of knowledge and consumers can find the information with some effort. Consumers must also decide on their own what is right for them rather than wait for the market to decide what is right for them. Otherwise consumers will be at the whim of marketers – the very ones that help put us in the position we find ourselves.

Businesses that take a leadership role in such areas will be rewarded by loyal customers and not have to catch up when the mainstream realizes that being green is better (and essential). Whole Foods Market did this in the 1990s by stocking organic and local produce as well as other environmentally-friendly products. They are now a leader in the grocery business with strong growth by attracting informed customers.

I’ve worked in the retail business for more than 15 years (almost all of my working life) and I’ve seen what attracts customers. In North America, consumers are addicted to cheap stuff – period. We are intent on obtaining the best deal and not necessarily the best value or product. That’s why Wal-Mart is so popular.

Europeans are more concerned with obtaining the best value or product and not necessarily the lowest price. The North American strategy does not retain customers as they will flee once prices are not the lowest. However, the European method retains customers because of the value delivered through a superior product.

Unfortunately, marketers have created this problem because of the short-term pressures. Hopefully they can dig us out of this problem without more consumption. The actual answer is through reduced consumption.

A McKinsey & Company chart that illustrates that perception is very different that what is effective in reality. A surprising point at the first position is driving a more fuel-efficient car; driving less is at the fourth position. However, the biggest and most surprising gap is with eating beef – consuming less is the third most effective action people can take – vegetarians have know this all along.

Deep

I’ve got a goal to get to the office before 9am this week. I was a bit taken back by the crowds this morning. I’m not used to rush hour anymore. I’ll have to get used to it if I’m going to achieve my goal. I arrived at 9:02am this morning – not a bad start.

Spanky’s

Today was the third sunny day in a row at Whistler Blackcomb. It was also the busiest day because of President’s Day in the US. However, we did find a solution; we skied only double black diamond runs today which most people do not ski. We skied Spanky’s Ladder three times in a row.

Spanky’s Ladder starts with a hike up a steep embankment and then there is a choice of gemstone bowls or ski runs that are extremely steep, narrow or in some cases hazardous as we found out after we skied past a cliff.