Today is the day the world changed.

June 6th

Today is the day the world changed.

To be more specific, it was 75 years ago today when Operation Overlord began and the rugged Normandy coast produced names that will be honored for all history…Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, Gold Beach, Sword Beach, Juno Beach…as well as the names of the more than 150,000 brave American, Canadian and British soldiers, sailors and marines who stormed those beaches.

On that one day of the largest amphibious assault of all time, over 9,000 Allied troops were wounded, and over 4,000 were killed. Many of them are still there. Visiting the American cemetery at Normandy is one of the most solemn and moving events you will ever experience. June 6, 1944 witnessed a monumental effort as the mute testimony of countless rows of crosses and stars still reveals.

As General Dwight D. Eisenhower observed “The eyes of the world are upon you”, and so they were. And they still are.

To all the brave men and women who changed the world that day, who opened the gate in the heroic fight against fascism and the inconceivable evils of the Third Reich, we and future generations salute you, and neither we, nor the world, will ever forget.

Turkey Day Blues

Over the river and through the woods?

Thanksgiving is Doomsday if you are a turkey, but its a very good day if you are people.  Thanksgiving, regardless of which version of the real story you adhere to, is a day for pumpkin pie, stuffing, weird  looking casseroles that you have to smile about when you eat, and yes, our fine feathered friends.  But most of all, Thanksgiving is a day for family. So even if those dearest to you are thousands of miles away, or especially if they are in harm’s way, raise a glass, give a toast in their honor, and thank your lucky stars for all you have.

Happy Thanksgiving 2017 to all!

PS: The one that got away!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Immortal Chuck Berry: A Tribute.

I found about Chuck Berry’s passing totally by accident. Was offline decompressing and just happened to glance at the newspaper. Chuck dead? That has to be an oxymoron. Chuck Berry is immortal. His stamp is on every rock and roll or R&B song written since the mid-1950s. Forget about musicians being in his debt. Everyone owes Chuck for “Maybelline” and “Johnny B. Goode”. Everyone owes him for the cafeteria reminiscences in “School Days” and the exasperations in “No Particular Place To Go”. Everyone owes him for pronouncing rock’s ascendency in “Roll Over Beethoven”.

Time to give the master his due:

Whether it was for the seminal guitar licks that echoed in The Beach Boys “Fun Fun Fun” or “Surfing USA”,

Or Johnny Rivers’ version of “Memphis” or The Animals’ cover of “Sweet Little Sixteen”.

Or Neko Case covering “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”.

The Rolling Stones covering “Around and Around” (And the Beta Blockers too!)

Or Elvis doing “Too Much Monkey Business.”

Or Angus Young copying Chuck’s patented duckwalk.

Or The Duane Allman, The Kinks, Emmylou Harris, David Bowie, Simon & Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen, The Band, MC5, and literally thousands of others  through the years covering “Carol”, “You Never Can Tell”, “You Can’t Catch Me” etc.

The list goes on and on.

We owe Chuck for the scene in “Back To The Future” where Marvin Berry (of Marvin Berry and the Starlighters) holds the phone so his cousin Chuck could hear the wailing licks of time traveler Marty McFly.

We owe Chuck for the elegant brilliance of his lyrics describing not just a generation but youth across the globe in every subsequent generation.

Chuck’s personal life might have been a bit of a train wreck, but his work created the mortar for Rock and Roll, which has proved to be the springboard for just about every new genre since.

As Eric Burdon so poetically said of Chuck in the groundbreaking album “Winds Of Change” way back when:

“B.B. King wailed

Charlie Parker cried

Louis Jordan smiled

Ray Charles moaned,

Chuck Berry rock and rolled”

 

But no one said it better than (who else?) John Lennon when he was quoted as saying:

“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry”

The immortal Chuck Berry is gone, but his influence lingers proud and strong.

So Roll Over Beethoven… and tell Tchaikovsky the news.

 

 

 

 

Giants For Real?

Certainly looks like the NY Giants, aka Big Blue, are for real.  They’re playing solid football. Shades of LT and Strahan, they’re playing great defense, and one can only hope they’ll get more offense. You can’t cover Beckham all 4 quarters. Wish them well. As New Yorkers, there’s no sense being green with envy this season. Let’s go to the Big Show Big Blue!!

Turkeys Beware!

Seems to happen around this time every year.  And curiously enough, it’s always on a Thursday. I’m sure our Founding Fathers carried the tradition of Thanksgiving from Europe to Plymouth Plantation. But how did they know about football?

I suppose turkeys could be delivered via the perfect spiral and I would imagine the Wampanoags were all too happy to intercept a roasted bird or a latch onto a shovel pass of sweet potatoes for a TD.  After all, they outnumbered the new colonists two to one.  Is that a fair match?  No, and it does’t matter.  What matters is that Thanksgiving is the day that everyone belongs to this glorious union of ours even if the gravy sometimes gets a little tepid.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

 

 

Today’s The Day

Today is the day.  Is it a day that will live in infamy?  No that’s Pearl Harbor Day, December 7.  Or is it a day when the whole country will be celebrating?  No that’s usually July 4th, New Year’s Day or Super Bowl Sunday!  Nor is today the day because in 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen discovered x-rays,

No, today’s the day to get out the door, get to the polls and vote.  Today’s the day to be heard, to put your two cents in.  After all the hubbub, the media hype, after all the name calling, fact finding (true and false) and allegations, it’s time to pick the people you want to lead this country national and locally.  Instead of the old wisecrack “vote early and vote often”,  please “vote early and vote wisely!”

And enjoy the day even if your ship doesn’t come in.

Jingle All the Way!

Well, it’s a little early for Christmas but never too early for jingle bells or in this case, just jingles. Jingles are often overlooked as effective marketing messages, but surveys show they can last almost indefinitely. In addition to TV and radio, they’re used online, in email and in multimedia. Why? Because they work. This issue of Marketshare Through Mindshare features some well known jingles. See which ones you recall. Please read and enjoy!

Read our latest newsletter here! 

Can Trees Really Smile?

Progressive Marketing Group’s paper-saving initiative has reached 50,000 paper pages saved!

Even in this Digital Age, businesses consume a great deal of paper.  PMG has maintained  a low-usage policy for many years. We use various papers for color proofing and general office applications.  We  try to use recycled at all times.  Not easy for signage or large scale graphics, but saving 50,000 8.5″ x 11.0″ sheets (not to mention 11″ x 17″ sized sheets or roll paper used for wide format graphics) certainly should make a lot of pine trees happy!

 

Conservation works! PMG is proud to contribute in our own small way.  Please join us!

Happy Thanksgiving To All

It seems to have been happening annually since 1621.  Whether it was an act of generosity as it is recorded by History or simply due to the fact that they were outnumbered two to one, the Pilgrims started our greatest American secular tradition:  Having family and friends over for turkey, cranberry sauce and a Thursday  afternoon of watching football on TV from the safety of an invitingly soft couch. It’s possible that the football part of the holiday may be just someone’s imagination, but the way modern marketing works, you never know.

In all seriousness, a happy and heathy Thanksgiving to us all!

Stanco Inducted Into Hall Of Fame

It may be quite different from his childhood dreams of enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall Of Fame at Cooperstown, or even the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, but Jamie Stanco is now officially a Hall Of Famer.

In recognition of his life-long contributions to the marketing and advertising community, Jamie Stanco, the President & CEO of Progressive Marketing Group, Inc. (PMG) in Melville NY, was recently inducted into the Direct Marketing Association of Long Island’s (DMALI) Hall of Fame. The recognition couldn’t be more fitting for the creator of the SMO concept and the strategist who has spent 40 years in the marketing wars.

“Few honors have more impact than recognition by one’s peers.” Stanco commented. “While I might admit falling short of my adolescent dream of batting .300 and hitting 750 homers, this makes up for it.  It’s a privilege to join the industry leaders in the DMALI Hall of Fame, and there’s still time to practice guitar for the Rock and Roll Hall.”