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Informative Articles

Storytelling For High Concept And High Touch
After hearing Daniel Pink speak about his new book A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age for the fourth time, I finally read it cover to cover (less than a day). I finally got what he's talking about when he says...

Top Inventory Keeping Secrets
Every business knows the importance of a proper inventory. Without one, a business would not have a proper tally of its assets and properties. They would not be able to keep their accounting books straight. Broken and lost equipment would...

Using Seminars to Bump Up Sales
Many of my clients are turning to speaking at chambers and other networking organizations to generate business. This is a wonderful method of building credibility and gaining free advertising, especially when you are in a creative business that...

WALMART AND THE RULES
Recently Kevin Pine shared an argument he uses with clients in his site design business. It goes like this. Picture the greeter in WalMart stores, the one that gives you a warm welcome, offers you a cart and a flyer announcing specials for the...

Want More Money & Less Stress? Set Some Boundaries!
At 2pm last Wednesday, I got a call from one of my clients. Before I could barely utter my "hello," she launched headlong into her story - "I am so frustrated! I have this client who has been dragging her feet at every stage of our project. I'm...

 
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Corporation Buys Texas Town

"DISH, Texas, Nov 16, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH), its DISH Network(TM) satellite TV service and the town of Clark, Texas, announced today that the town of Clark has accepted DISH Network's challenge to re-brand itself as part of the DISH City Makeover.

As of today, Clark, Texas, a small tight-knit bedroom community located a half hour north of Fort Worth, Texas, has legally changed its name to DISH, Texas. In exchange, DISH Network has agreed to provide every household in the town of DISH 10 years of free basic satellite TV programming, including equipment and standard installation. DISH Network introduced the DISH City Makeover as part of recent re-branding efforts and a new advertising campaign trumpeting "Better TV for All."" [http://dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=473745].

Our social fabric has been selling out to corporations for years, but more so in the past fifteen years. School District 11 located in Colorado Springs, Colorado was the first public school district to solidify a deal with a corporation, thus meaning they would receive funding for advertising. In the early 1990's, Coca-Cola struck a 4 year, 28 million dollar deal. The only catch was that the school district had to sell a quota of Coca-Cola products each school year, which resulted in [amongst other things] teachers allowing students to bring a 20-oz. Coke to class. Residents of Colorado Springs


still see Coke advertisements on the side of school buses. A woman in Connecticut attempted to sell the name of her unborn child in order to raise money. She solicited Pepsi and Starbucks...to no avail, so she then tried to auction the name on Ebay with a 10,000 dollar minimum bid. Ebay removed the auction. The list continues and the stories are too numerous for this editorial... Corporations have the money to do just about anything. They fund schools, universities, sports teams, and now they purchase townships. As a culture, we are weak in the presence of the almighty dollar. It would appear that the only way for institutions to raise a large amount of money would be to solicit corporations. Do private donations and fundraisers come close to comparing with the money that corporations offer? No, and such efforts normally yield little revenue for hours of work. As Americans, we have to ask ourselves at what point we draw the line. How about military vehicles blazing across the desert with Starbucks logos emblazoned on the side? What about McDonald's sponsoring the Catholic Church...could you imagine McNugget coupons falling out of a hymn book when opened? Only we can decide what we will and will not tolerate. However, as long as we remain a materialistic culture, we can be sure that the line will continually be pushed as we are pacified with free satellite television for ten years.



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