Week 5 - Super Bowl Midterm EOC

I chose Oprah’s Jeep super bowl commercial. I love how it was truly an American commercial. In that form it was a success; it touched people’s hearts. It touched my heart in a different way. Yes, the troops are coming home but are they getting are the care they need? To me that answer is no, the commercial was good from a political stand point. “The two-minute Jeep ad started with a quote from Oprah ("We wait. We hope. We pray. Until you're home again"), and then proceeded to make us cry with clips of families awaiting the return of their beloved family members from military service, as Oprah recited a message of hope from the Jeep brand. The message: America will be whole again.” It is good to bring attention to this and that families are being reunited. There is more after that they come home but they aren’t in one piece most of them suffer from stress and other illness.  A quote from the nbcnews website, “The euphoria of a soldier's homecoming from Iraq often gives way to depression, stress and trouble dealing with family members during the first months home, a new Pentagon study finds.” This is followed up by another quote by them, “About 42 percent of the Guard and reserves, compared to 20 percent of active-duty troops, were identified as needing mental health treatment in two screenings. The first testing was immediately upon return from Iraq and the second six months later.” I feel the commercial was just covering up what actually was happening and that is what I took offence too, but from a marketing stand point I believe it was a success. So it is a win/fail for me.  

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21775434/ns/health-mental_health/t/soldiers-suffer-stress-after-coming-home/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FadwTBcvISo

Week 3 EOC: Making Money for Good

Hand in Hand soap is a website that follows the same business model as Tom's shoes do. For every bar of soap they sell they give a bar of soap away. When ask what was the thought behind selling a bar of soap they said, “The goal was to come up with a household product people use every day, that had the power to save lives.  After 3 years of brainstorming, we came across an article reporting that each year over 5 million people die of diseases caused by poor water quality and lack of proper hygiene.  After further research, we discovered that half of those deaths could be prevented with just a single bar of soap.  It was at that moment that Hand in Hand was conceived."  There company not only helps people in need they do it in way that is environment friendly way. "Understanding our environmental impact, we set out from day one to create a soap that was as eco-friendly as possible.  We wanted to be proud of our soap and develop a product that was made with sustainable resources, and harvested ethically.” They also wanted to make use there use of packaging was sustainable as well. “All Hand in Hand soap is shipped using eco-friendly packaging, comes with a free carbon offset, and a portion of all proceeds is used to save 50 square feet of rainforest for every bar sold.” This is truly a remarkable company.

 http://handinhandsoap.com