I always thought corporate anniversaries were lame and unimaginative. Sort of a marketing cop-out. Unless, of course, you think about how to make it fun.
How refreshing it was to read about a brilliant idea from the folks at Unilever and Vaseline to celebrate their 140th anniversary. Contest, anyone?
Submit your creative, alternate use for the product via Twitter (you got it: 140 characters or less) or Facebook and they’ll select the top 140 ways.
Figures the product was developed by a guy from Brooklyn:
Vaseline Petroleum Jelly was first discovered in 1859 by Robert Augustus Chesebrough, a 22 year old chemist from Brooklyn, NY. Chesebrough travelled to Pennsylvania to study the oil extraction and refinement process and was immediately drawn to a by-product of the oil refinery process used by the riggers to help aid the healing of cuts and burns – petrolatum. The product was found to have remarkable skin-healing properties. He took some of the paraffin-like substance home with him and after testing discovered he could extract a skin-friendly version of the material. In 1870 Chesebrough introduced this product to the public as Vaseline Petroleum Jelly and by 1974 it was being sold nationwide at the rate of a jar a minute with most medical professions recognizing it as a standard remedy for skin complaints. Today it is triple purified and even safe to use on lips.
Love him or not, the Rev. Al Sharpton has managed to stay relevant and visible for years. Now he’s planning a new Sunday morning TV show, called Education Superhighway, according to The Hollywood Reporter:
The controversial civil rights advocate will unveil his 30-minute show, “Education Superhighway,” Thursday morning at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 40th Annual Legislative Conference. It’s already cleared in 150 markets, including KCOP in Los Angeles.
Sharpton’s media company, ESH Holdings (named after the series’ initials) will produce the TV show as well as a planned print magazine.
The TV show, which begins airing Sept. 26, consists of news and roundtable discussions primarily about education. Guests already lined up include Bill Gates, Newt Gingrich, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and president of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten.
Sharpton is a frequent commentator on cable news outlets, including The Fox News Channel, where he’s often highlighted as the voice of dissent on shows like “The Sean Hannity Show” and “The O’Reilly Factor.”
The new TV show will not cut into his time as a guest on other shows. “Bill O’Reilly and I can’t even agree that we’re on the same channel, anyways,” Sharpton quipped to THR.
As president of the National Action Network, he gets national press attention regularly. He’s set to hold a press conference on Thursday at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, according to Hip Hop Press.
How long has he been on TV? Check out this clip from 1974, when he was only 19, presenting a “black record” to James Brown on this “special moments” reel from Soul Train…
