Originally published in September 2012, this "Throwback Thursday" piece from Mike Schenker, MAS, is the first in a series of weekly installments of his most popular contributions to Identity Marketing from the past 20 years.
During a recent sales presentation, I uttered something along the lines of the following: "I've been in the promotional products industry for about 30 years, and no new product really impresses me anymore. There's nothing that I see at a show that makes me go 'Wow…I personally need that.'"
Believing in full disclosure, I need to state that I followed that statement with praise for an item I was about to discuss… something that I had received at a show prior to joining my present company, and not knowing that it was the manufacturer. Instead, I had seen this clever, unique, and practical item and said, "I can't wait to use that." Here I am now, selling this item AND using it regularly.
This episode made me realize a few things. For one, I am just as jaded as I pretend to be. For another, despite my “nothing-really-impresses-me” attitude, my life really does include promotional items everywhere I turn.
All this made me wonder if I could make it through a day without any interaction with promotional products. I decided to experiment over the course of one weekend day.
I chose a weekend because, well, obviously, doing this on a weekday wouldn’t work because I am surrounded by promotional products during the course of a work day. It’s kinda my job, you know?
So I woke up on a Saturday morning, determined to see how far along I could go into a weekend without any interactions with promotional items. "Woke up… got out of bed… dragged a comb across my head." Then I brushed my teeth… with a toothbrush which says, "Lawrence Sullivan, DDS" on it.
FAIL!
Five minutes into my experiment, and already it came to a crashing halt. I couldn’t make it out of the bathroom without using a promotional item. And that’s without imprinted toilet paper.
Being too dense to know when I'm defeated, I chose to continue the experiment, ignoring the toothbrush incident and pressing on in my day without promotional products.
I left the bathroom and went to get dressed. In that it was still the summer, I threw on a T-shirt and shorts… oh… wait. The T-shirt: Promotions East 2012, a shirt I'd helped design, to benefit the SAAGNY Foundation. Not only did the shirt have "Promotions East" and "SAAGNY Foundation" imprinted on it, it had the logos of 40 different sponsors.
Strike two.
Sure, I could have put on a different shirt, but nearly every T-shirt in my wardrobe is logoed in one way or another. Even my workout shirts have a Rawlings logo on them (just because I left that company several years ago doesn’t mean I can't still use their stuff!).
Clearly, if I was going to make this experiment work, I'd have to leave my bedroom and try to get on with the rest of my day. Although, in retrospect, it might have worked better had I just stayed in bed all day and not left the darkened confines of that room. But, being the intrepid reporter that I am (and one in need of coffee, at that), I chose to press on.
I went downstairs and put up a pot of coffee. The coffee scooper is an old Chock full o’Nuts item which, for the sake of making this experiment work, I chose to NOT consider as a promotional item, as it was more of a "gift with purchase" when we’d bought that coffee many years ago (I’m loyal to Dunkin’ Donuts these days).
Continuing, I made myself some breakfast (as the Trophy Wife has this annoying habit of being able to sleep late on the weekend) and poured myself some of that coffee… into a custom InterSource logoed mug.
FAIL… yet again.
Dejected, I glumly ate my joyless bagel, determined to prove to myself that my entire existence does NOT revolve around promotional items. I finished my breakfast and headed into my office to collect my thoughts. Since I knew that this exercise was going to become the column you're presently reading, I decided that I'd better scribble some notes about my efforts thus far. I sat down and took a pen from my pen cup.
DOUBLE FAIL… the pen cup is a replica of a porta-potty, with Rent-a-John printed on both sides. The pen is one of my favorite Sanford pens, with the CAAMP logo on it.
I'd been at this experiment for about an hour and half, and had already failed miserably any number of times. I'd optimistically hoped to make it through the weekend without any interaction with promotional items (admittedly preparing to just make it through that first day), and was tripped up immediately and repeatedly.
Now what? Do I continue this futile effort, or just get on with my day?
I went outside, dropped the top on the car, put my Mets logoed baseball cap on, and went for a ride, accepting the fact that, even on a day when I’m not professionally using them, promotional products are just a way of life for everyone.
That’s not such a bad thing for all of us, is it?