The Conference will again feature renowned experts, policymakers and business leaders from some of the world's major brands. It will be taking place across two days, Nov. 20th and 21st, again at the Marriott Downtown on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. So not only will I be missing out of what's new in the promotional law arena and catching up with some of my fellow associates in the industry that I've known for years, but I won't be able to partake in some pre-Christmas shopping on Michigan Ave!!!

“The Message is the Medium: Consumer Marketing in the Age of Ubiquity,” is this year's theme and will cover the increased importance of creating successful and lawful promotions in a challenging economy. Visit PMA's website and you can listen to an audio interview with Marketing Law Conference Co-Chair Nancy Felsten ESQ, Partner at Davis Wright Tremaine given by Rob Fields, PMA Director of Member Development, which gives a great prelude to the conference.

Marketing executives, in-house counsel and firm attorneys will benefit from keynote speeches by William E. Kovacic, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; Deborah Taylor Tate, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission; and Mark Kroese, General Manager of Microsoft Advertising who's pictured here to the left.

Attendees will also hear from a diverse group of decision makers and top outside and inside legal counsel from leading law firms and companies such as American Express, Microsoft, Facebook, Burger King, Nike, Google, G.E., Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Target, GlaxoSmithKline, Visa, Sprint Nextel, Toyota, Yahoo! and Coca-Cola, among many others.

The 35 different sessions will cover topics on what marketers need to know to comply with the fast changing world of promotion laws, regulations and government enforcement policies. Special focus will be devoted to new rules and developments in marketing law nationally and globally with emphasis on incentive marketing, green marketing, mobile marketing with a concentration on wireless and text messaging, user-generated content, social networking, product integration, celebrities/talent/brand marketing, in-depth regulatory enforcement, and all forms of intellectual property.

“For the past thirty years, attendees have found PMA's Promotion Marketing Law Conference an invaluable resource to access the leading minds in the industry,” said Edward Kabak, Chief Legal Executive of PMA. “This year’s remodeled conference shows the breadth and depth of expertise and cutting-edge content that makes the Promotion Marketing Law Conference especially in this tough economic environment a ‘must-attend’ event for legal and advertising/marketing professionals.”

So even though I won't be there, I know many people that will be and I hope to catch up with them when they return and get their insight from the confernence and what their major take-aways were. Plus, PMA will be updating me on what was covered at the conference as well. PMA always puts on a great event. So please stay tuned. And if you're reading this post and you were there, please add your comments. Thanks.

Yesterday, President-Elect Obama featured his first weekly address which was released as a web video. It will also continue to air on the radio but will now utilize YouTube as the means to distribute the video and to communicate with the American public by. It will also be available of AOL, Yahoo! and MSN. President-elect Obama plans to publish these weekly updates through the transition process and then continue them from the White House.

The first address from President-elect was short and addresses the concerns of the current economic crisis. Check it out here:

You can also access this video through the website, www.change.gov. Unfortunately comments have been disabled on the YouTube page. I have no idea if this will change in the future, but I would guess that there would be so many comments that it would be impossible to keep up with them.

We have much to do in these trying times but social media is helping us to join together and communicate as one. I wouldn't want to be any place else in time but right here right now.

Today was again my day to guest blog over at Lipsticking.com. I took the opportunity to write a follow-up on the The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and their Say NO To Violence Against Women. I'm a bit disappointed with the initial response that I received to support this cause from both blogs, so I'm trying again.

In my new post on Lipsticking I have included some exclusive videos of Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman speaking about the campaign. We only have a couple of weeks left for them to meet their goal. So, RocketXL, the social media agency working on this campaign, is really pushing to get this message spread through the blogoshphere and via social networks. So please check out this post and add your voice today to this cause. Here's the widget again.

America has moved on with Election Day finally over and we're all now eagerly anticipating President-Elect Obama taking office. So it was a perfect weekend to launch a totally fun and highly anticipated animated movie sequel at the box office, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

My family are all huge Madagascar fans and we rank it as one of the best animated movies of all time, up there with Disney's The Lion King. I still laugh every time my daughter Alex (who happens to have the same name as the starring lion in the film) quotes one of the lines of the movie..."The penguins are psychotic!". Or when I hear that music..."You got to move it, move it".

Here's the Widget for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa which is a DreamWorks film. According to early estimates it grossed a huge $63.5 mil from Friday through Sunday. That sum far exceeds the $47.2 mil that the first Madagascar flick grossed over Memorial Day weekend 2005, and it's the biggest for any movie since The Dark Knight's record-breaking $158.4 million back in July. It's also the second-best premiere ever for an animated movie that didn't open during the summer.

In conjunction with the release of "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" McDonald's has launched their largest global Happy Meal event since its “Shrek 3” promotion in 2007. They have also launched One Minute to Move It -- a global children's well-being program designed to encourage kids to see what a difference a minute can make.

The goal of One Minute to Move It is to empower kids to take an active role in their own well-being by creating a minute of joyful self-expression. McDonald's is engaging kids and families around the world with major family events in key markets; an interactive digital community for kids; specially designed, motion-activated Happy Meal toys; and in-restaurant displays. Movie characters are featured on a variety of food choices including fruit, vegetables and milk products to reach kids in a fun and responsible way. The program began in North America on Friday with the release of the movie and will continue to roll out around the world through the first quarter of next year.

"One Minute to Move It encourages kids to take the first step -- one minute -- to do something they love like dancing, planting a flower, reading or writing, with the hope that it will provide inspiration for many more minutes to come," said Mary Dillon, Global Chief Marketing Officer, McDonald's. "This 'fun-with a-purpose' program represents a fresh new approach to our ongoing commitment to children's well-being."

McDonald's One Minute to Move It program is based on key findings from a first-ever global research study, reaching over 5,000 children ages 6 to 12 and parents across Europe, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Through an independent research company, Just Kid, Inc., McDonald's conducted the study to determine what motivates kids to be active, both physically and mentally, and what role McDonald's can play in helping kids lead a balanced lifestyle. The results were clear and consistent worldwide -- "joy of life" such as laughing, having fun and experiencing new things, and feeling "empowered" to make their own choices ranked the highest for both boys and girls across all ethnicities, ages and geographies.

To extend the fun and excitement of the program, kids can experience One Minute to Move It online at McDonald's digital kids' community, available at happymeal.com in North America. The site includes characters from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and offers one-minute, interactive games; activity suggestions to stimulate kids' "minutes;" and a "Minutes Played" collector to track minutes logged around the world. For the first time, "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" Happy Meal toys in some countries will also feature codes that allow kids to unlock special content on the site.

For the first time in the United States, Nickelodeon is producing a 30-second feature about McDonald's One Minute to Move It with U.S. Olympic gymnast gold medalist Shawn Johnson. The feature is airing on Nickelodeon, Nicktoons networks and Nick.com. The Nickelodeon alliance expands in Australia with a One Minute to Move It event for kids and families at Dreamworld theme park in Australia's Gold Coast during the week of December 15th.

My daughter Alex is planning to go see the movie on Tuesday since they have the day off from school for Veteran's Day. I wish I also had the day off and could go with her. But, I'll have to wait. I hope it won't take me till it comes out on DVD, but if it does I'm sure it will be one of those that we purchase to own.

So, did you get your free Starbuck's yesterday? I didn't get a chance but my daughter Kelsey said she did. She was disappointed however that they ran out of "I voted" stickers because it was her first time voting. See the Starbuck's ad in my previous post.

Participating Krispy Kreme donut shops also had a free promotional offer and were giving customers a free star-shaped donut with red, white and blue sprinkles to those that showed their "I Voted" sticker (sorry Kelsey no donuts for you). Online they changed their traditional Krispy Kreme "hot light" sign signaling a new batch of donuts in stores "Hot Now" to instead read "Hot Vote Now".

If you didn't get free coffee or a donut, Ben & Jerry's was also "Celebrating Democracy" by offering a free scoop of ice cream between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. at participating scoop shops. Ben & Jerry's website has a link to a Facebook page that includes a special locator function that lists 24 colleges and universities around the country where company reps where scooping free Election Day ice cream in student unions and on campuses. Facebook profile pages have been created for each on-campus event with RSVP capability.

"We want to thank you for voting by giving you a free scoop of ice cream," reads the Ben & Jerry's college site Facebook copy. "If you did not vote, we'll give you a scoop anyway, but no complaining about the results"¦or the size of your scoop."

Besides theses promotions, online sites, especially social media, where all buzzing last night. I was tuned into Twitter's Election Day page that had so many tweets coming through it was hard to keep up with them. It was amazing to read the tweets that announced when a network proclaimed a state's winner. When Obama won Ohio I read about it on Twitter first before ABC news proclaimed it.

CNN.com reported today that they brought in 27 million unique visitors to their site on election day, a record. Comscore says they averaged just 5 million unique daily visitors in September, so this is more than 5x normal traffic. The site also generated an record 276 million page views.

So I don't think anything could top a day that gave us free coffee, red, white and blue sprinkled donuts, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, great warm weather, record-breaking online visitors and the democratic election of America's first black president!! Let's keep the momentum going!

Halloween in now over and Election Day is around the corner. The election played a big role in the choice of American's Halloween costumes with an estimated 574,000 adults dressing up to resemble a political figure. Along with the candidates Batman was also a very popular costumes due to this year's blockbuster hit The Dark Knight according to the National Retail Federation’s 2008 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch. Batman came in at No. 6 for adults, No. 8 for children and No. 16 for pets.

The survey also estimated 2008 Halloween spending was to reach $5.77 billion, despite the economy. “Halloween is serving as a nice reprieve for many Americans this year,” said Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy at BIGresearch. “Whether they hosted their own party or hit the streets trick-or-treating with their children, consumers want Halloween costumes to reflect their creativity.”

Sarah Palin costumes were very popular among females this year and Tina Fey of course takes the prize as the No.1 best impersonation of the VP Candidate. Here's the spoof she did on Saturday Night Live last night with John McCain. It's just too funny. You have to give McCain some credit for being such a good sport, even when the script has "Palin" going rouge and promoting a Palin in 2012 t-shirt for sale!

NBC developed this widget with the video which was very easy to find online this morning and it encourages viral marketing by providing several options to easily embed into your favorite social media sites. I put it on my Facebook profile as well.

Starbucks teamed up with NBC on this widget and used the SNL hype last night to launch their Election Day promotion which they will be giving away coffee on Nov. 4th.  Voters simply need to cast a vote, then tell the barista at their local Starbucks and they'll receive a tall cup of brewed coffee at no charge. Starbucks says "In the best tradition of democracy, we are using the honor system for proof of voting. "All consumers need to do is visit a participating Starbucks on Election Day and say that they voted. The Starbucks TV ad automatically runs at the end of the SNL skit.

So we have a bit of pop culture working into both our Halloween and our Election Day this year. Google also got in on the Halloween fun this year and sent us at the agency this Halloween greeting created by their new Ad Display Builder. I haven't tried it yet, but they claim they made this ad in two minutes.

Lastly, before Halloween '08 is a faint memory, you have up until Nov. 7th to enter your pet in the Better Homes and Gardens Halloween Pet Costume Photo Contest. Judges will vote on round 1 on Nov. 14th and select 20 finalists who will be posted online. The public can vote on their favorite up until Nov. 23rd. The winner will receive a Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder, a Philips 9-Inch Digital Picture Frame and a $200 VISA gift card. Four runners-up will each receive a $75 VISA gift card. So get those pet photos in now. As of today there are 246 photo uploaded. I'm a golden retriever lover, so this is my favorite.

Happy Belated Halloween. I hope you had a good one. And don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

Since I launched this blog almost two years ago I've written several posts about Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty in an effort to help spread their positive self-esteem messages. One of the social media marketing firms that has helped Dove get this message out to us bloggers and into the social media word is RocketXL. I was recently honored when they contacted me about a totally new initiative that they're supporting that also involves empowering women.

So I couldn't help but utilize this blog as well as my guest blogging privileges on Lipsticking.com to help spread this message. Please visit my Lipsticking.com post to read about  The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and their Say NO To Violence Against Women which is the new movement that RocketXL is now working with. You can join this movement by just simply adding your signature to the widget found below.

I just sat down to watch the beginning of the 4th game of the 2008 World Series. Pattie Labelle is singing the Star Spangled Banner who happens to be a Philadelphia native. Boy she's got some set of lungs!

Last night they we're going at it pretty late due to a 91-minute rain delay which left most of us this morning not knowing who won or if they even played. But they did play and the Phillies are now up two games to one against the Tampa Bay Rays. Even though I'm still getting over the fact that my team, the Boston Sox, aren't here, it still is the World Series.

Taco Bell is at it again this year utilizing its sponsorship of Major League Baseball with a promotion that will give everyone in the U.S. a free taco if a player in this year's World Series steals a base. Fans across the country again have the opportunity to be a part of the World Series experience through the "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion.

The rules of the promotion state that if the first stolen base occurs during Games 1, 2, 3 or 4, people can order a free Crunchy Seasoned Beef Taco on Oct. 28 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at all participating Taco Bell locations. If the first base is stolen in Games 5, 6 or 7, the tacos will be given away on Nov. 3 during the same time frames.

Well last night B.J. Upton stole three bases and Carl Crawford added another as the Rays collected four stolen bases vs. the Phillies in Game 3 of the World Series. Unfortunately even though the Rays tied the game with the steals, they sill lost the game. 

The supporting Web site now promotes the fact that a "stolen base never tasted so good" and "You watched. You waited. Now you get a free taste of Taco Bell".

This promotion has turned out to be a great way to get consumers to sample its products. It gave away millions of tacos last year after Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury stole second base in the bottom of the 4th inning of Game 2.

Fifteen-second TV spots supporting the promotion began airing last week and continue running during the series. I've seen the ad twice so far tonight and it's still the first inning. A full-page ad is running in USA Today and online media is also promote the effort.

Taco Bell is in its fifth year as the official quick service restaurant of Major League Baseball. The company also plans to donate $20,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the official charity of Major League Baseball as well as Taco Bell, in the name of the player who steals the base in the 2008 series.

“Last year we gave away millions of tacos to America, and based on the wild popularity with consumers, we’re bringing back the promotion,” said David Ovens, chief marketing officer, Taco Bell Corp., in a statement. “With consumer sentiment near all time lows, ‘Steal A Base, Steal A Taco’ is our way of extending the magic of the World Series to everybody by celebrating the game and rewarding fans, no matter which team you root for.”

So hop on over to your closest Taco Bell on Tuesday to get your free Taco. I just had this conversation with my daughter's boyfriend who's a high school senior and works at a local Taco Bell. It's reassuring that he still promotes eating at this fast food chain even though he's an employee. So, Taco Bell must be doing something right.

We just had bases loaded at the bottom on the first and they walked in their first run although they lost the opportunity to score more. Phillies up 1-0 now. Go Phillies!

It's still October, a very busy month. I wrote this post about October being the greatest month of the year for sports...my Boston Red Sox team is now history for this season. I guess it was never meant to be, so congrats to the Tampa Bay Rays. But how about those Buffalo Bills! They're on an amazing start to this year's NFL season.

I also wrote this post about October being the start of the holiday shopping season. October kicks off the 4th quarter which is such a crucial time for many marketers who count on this time of year to make their sales goals.

But what I haven't posted about yet, and something that is so relevant to my personal life, is that October is breast cancer awareness month!

I've  written about my mom many times in this blog and the fact that she has breast cancer. She was first diagnosed early in 2007, underwent chemo treatments, went cancer free for a few months, and now it's back. I believe I haven't written about it being back. My parents traveled up to New York State this past June for their first visit in over two years since they moved to South Carolina. Mom didn't seem quite right though so they decided to cut their stay short to get home to see her doctor.  The tests showed that the cancer seemed to creep back in, but this time it jumped from her breast to her lungs!

When you have a close family member with cancer you start to learn all this medical stuff that you wish you really never had to learn. Here was not a classic case of lung cancer, but breast cancer in the lungs. The lesser of the two evils they tell us. So, she's on her 2nd round of chemo right now. The latest scan was positive, it doesn't appear to be growing. So they'll continue the current chemo treatment and check again in December. As they tell us families of cancer victims, you go day by day and count your blessings.

It is quite amazing when you think about how much Pink you see during the month of October. I wrote about Pink Promotions last year, those promotions created by marketers that contain the pink ribbon symbol that tie their products and services to the cause.

Pink is more than just the color for breast cancer awareness; it represents the promise between two sisters to find a cure for breast cancer. That promise started Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the word's largest grassroots network of survivors and activists and the largest source of non-profit funds dedicated to the fight of breast cancer.

Passionately Pink for the Cure is a program in which participants can pick any day in October, make a $5.00 or more donation and wear pink to share the promise. UPS continues to be the official sponsor of this program and in addition to donating $50,000 last year UPS is shipping all participants kits free of charge. Susan G. Komen for the Cure is proud to have UPS as the Official Shipping Sponsor of Passionately Pink for the Cure.

One of the most famous long-time partners is Yoplait who is the National Sponsor of the Komen Race for the Cure. Their highly successful Save Lids to Save Lives program takes place throughout September and October each year in which Yoplait donates 10 cents to Komen for every pink lid a consumer mails in with a guaranteed donation of $500,0000.

A Pink online programs that I'm currently working on in my new role at Butler-Till Media is for Bausch & Lomb. They are raising awareness for breast cancer this fall by creating 40 limited edition pink CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski Elements contact lens cases which are being given away exclusively at ReNuCares.com this month. The limited edition contact lens cases are created with 646 hand-applied crystal components and feature the hallmark Susan G. Komen for the Cure ribbon. Each case has a retail value of approximately $350.                    

Visitors to the website who download a coupon for ReNu MultiPlus® contact lens solution are automatically entered to win one of the limited edition CRYSTALLIZED contact lens cases. Bausch & Lomb is also donating a $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for every coupon that is redeemed. A paid search advertising campaign which I have been monitoring helps to generate awareness and traffic to the site. They have committed to raise up to $400,000, with a minimum guaranteed donation of $300,000, for the organization through sales of its ReNu MultiPlus solution.                    

“Now when people do something as basic as care for their contact lenses, they can help fight breast cancer,” notes Lisa Van DeMark, VP Marketing, U.S. Lens Care for Bausch & Lomb.

One other promotion that I still have in my inbox to personally follow up on is a consumer-generated contest sponsored by Self Magazine. They have partnered with Komen for the Cure on a program called Who's Your Suzy? to honor women who have inspired us to take action and get involved in the fight.

The roots of the story go back to 1982 when Nancy G. Brinker founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure to fight breast cancer as a tribute to her sister Suzy's struggle with the disease. In 1992 SELF magazine founded the pink ribbon to raise awareness and funds in the fight against breast cancer. Now they are inviting readers to tell them about our own breast cancer hero for a chance to win a $5,000 donation to Komen, a once-in-a-lifetime luxury vacation and the chance to appear in SELF!

We all need to hurry though since they're accepting uploaded entries to this website till just next week, October 27th. Judging will then pick the top 8 finalists and public voting will then take place January 20th through February 25th.

So, I better get my story together soon. My mom's fighting attitude along with the help and dedication of my sister Fran is my story that I'd like to share.

This year here on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure website I counted 82 corporate sponsors. That is truly amazing and a topic that I could write several posts on to cover what each one of these sponsors are doing this year. So please check out who they are and support their initiatives and promotions to help raise awareness and funds for this cause.

Today was my turn to be a guest blogger on Lipsticking.com, so I wrote about this event in a post here which lead to a bigger discussion about women leaders, marketing and volunteering. I usually post every other Wednesday on Lipsticking for those of you that may be following me, but Yvonne DiVita (Lipsticking.com founder), wanted to write this post specifically on Oct. 15th in honor of Blog Action Day. I didn't get a chance to post on Wednesday, but I did follow up today with a somewhat related topic.

So, please check out both our posts. In the meantime I'm watching what looks like the end to the Red Sox's season. We need a miracle!