Perk Up Afternoon Business

Pass the Cheer...that is the current Starbucks tagline and part of the company's current, and first national ad campaign. If you have seen the ads, you were probably not motivated to run out and get the entire family a beverage, but you heard the name Starbucks again and had your mind rattle with what ever you think of Starbucks.

Being a marketing fan, I no longer watch ads for the sake of buying products but to analyze the value and quality of what is being thrown at me. I am not fond of the ads, and as an AdAge article's title suggests, we can "Forget the Cute TV Critters; Starbucks Needs a Happy Hour."

The article begins by stating that "What Starbucks needs isn't an ad campaign set in fantasyland (however tastefully executed). Maybe what it needs is a real-world idea that could actually get people to buy and share more coffee: a Starbucks happy hour. ..."

I could not agree more about this. I will not go on and on about this topic as I did on my buddy Otis' blog - you can read it at www.otiskimzey.com/2007/12/12/starbucks-happy-hour - but I will give you the gist of what I said below...

I do not know what Starbucks used to be like. From what I gather though, Starbucks shops and the idea from which they started - small, Italian cafe - used to be much more simple & organic & anything but corporate. Starbucks is now the corporate giant & lacks the local coffee joint vibe, feel, & scene. Maybe a happy hour is the kick in the arse that the company needs to increase its profits, (re)gain new customers, and resurect its falling stock price. I do not think the critter friendly ad campaign and Pass the Cheer will do the job.

Get Out And Romp

Kids Who Change Their Own Rules

I just looked at the newly released polls (before the BCS games are unveiled), so you know the joy ends here.

We know that seemingly every year, someone gets screwed, but the system stays together because we typically have at least 1 dominant team. In other words, the recipe appears to work even if the ingredients are not exactally the same from year to year, which is like figuring out your family's long, lost recipe for dressing, sweet potato souffle, pumpkin pie, etc. The unfortunate piece is that at least one team (or person in the family) gets jobbed.

Welcome to 2007 college football, which, from Appalachain State's week 1 upset of Michigan in the Big House, has been unlike any college football season that we have seen in anyone's memory. Therefore, why would we expect to have a BCS situation that makes senese?

When we watch any sporting event, one essential is consistancy from the officials. If you call it one way in the 1st qtr, you better call it the same way in the waining and critical moments of the 4th qtr. We can swap officials, calls, and qtrs for pollsters / computers, rankings, and weeks to get the concept that...

Since we as college football fans are going to be screwed by a flawed BCS system, then we as fans deserve to be screwed by pollsters (and a system) that rank teams after week 1 in the SAME manner that they rank teams after the season's last weekend. The situation in which we find ourselves is reminiscent of life when we were KIDS for crying out loud. Pollsters, BCS people, and fans all hated that kid growing up who SUDDENLY and UNBEKNOWNST to the whole world changed the rules in his favor when his winning situation looked bleak to non-existent. The end result was that if things did not change, tht kid took the ball and went home while everyone else got pissed. Are you following me here?

I really feel like we are in that situation...yes as a Georgia fan...yes as a college football fan, too. The pollsters have simply changed the way they vote for what ever reason they have...maybe to ensure that the national champion is also a conference champion, which does not have to be the case as AGREED upon by EVERYONE invovled the BCS system. Nothing is stated about conference champion in BCS 101 (rules) - http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/bcs_explained.html - so why does that argument suddenly come out now when the system is showing more flaws. Maybe because LSU vs OSU is sexier than UGA vs OSU. Mabye as additional repayment for the government's total botch of Katrina. Maybe the pollsters are really Cajuns. Maybe this is all about Les Miles giving ESPN great ratings for his impromptu press conference. My guess is that like all things inexplicable about the system that always screws somebody, we have we will never know...and they will decide to tweak the rules again to try to get that family recipe almost right without having a playoff.

No matter how you look at them, losses are losses...in regulation or overtime. Deal with it. Timing is (or used to be) everything with a loss. Now the pollsters will save those they want to save. Are the Dawgs better than LSU this year? We will never know, but the Dawgs have just as much right as ANYONE else to play for the national title.

"When you lose a game, you are at the mercy of the BCS system" Richt stated. Oh how true that is, but it does not make the pain any less bearable.

No matter how big or small the screwed helping your team gets, hopefully you can stomach your portion of another BCS heeping helping of Mush.

Get Out And Romp