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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Mary Clare Jensen
Ericho Communications
(P): 612.353.4846
(E): maryclare@erichopr.com
With
over 10,000 pledges for “No Device Dinners,” Offlining Inc. shifts to a little
RELIGION IN ADVERTISING for the Jewish holidays
Calling
for Yom Kippur to be a ‘No-Device Day’ for everyone!
NEW YORK (August 30, 2010)
– Mark
DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum – the dynamic marketing duo who took a
stance on “Lying in Advertising” while their widely acclaimed backlash against
bottled water, ‘Tappening,’ spread through the country (and helped make tap
water cool: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/media/29adco.html)
– are at it once again with a “lifestyle intervention,” this time
branding the Off Button in their new initiative,
Offlining, Inc. The new marketing campaign
includes cutting-edge satirical ads and e-cards that tread fearlessly into the
territory of…Religion in Advertising.
Launched on Father’s Day, 2010,
Offlining, Inc. highlights America’s ever-growing addiction to technology. This “guilt-tripping,”
in-your-face campaign urged people (dads were specifically targeted initially)
to turn off their mobile devices and computers, and devote some quality time to
good, old-fashioned face-to-face conversation and PDA-free family dinners.
The new Offlining, Inc. ad and
e-card series calls for people of all faiths to make September 18, 2010 –
Yom Kippur – a No-Device Day. Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is the
holiest day of the year for religious Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. It’s a day of fasting and
prayer for forgiveness for sins committed during the year. Says Yaverbaum,
"When it comes to overuse, misuse and abuse of our devices, most of us
have some atoning to do. What better time than the Jewish holidays for all of
us to follow the example of contemplation and reconnecting with the important
things."
One of the Offlining, Inc. ads
features a rather well-known American sports figure with copy that reads “You
don’t have to be Jewish… to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.” (Not all tigers will love that
ad.) A second depicts a young,
‘much-tabloided and mug-shotted’ blonde actress, with the copy, “You don’t have
to be Jewish… to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur,” and a third
pictures an Australian actor with the caption, “You don’t have to be Jewish to
give up drunk dialing for Yom Kippur.” (Mel Gibson will likely turn down any TV offers to play
the part?)
Each of the three ads also comes
in the form of an e-card that can be sent from the Offlining, Inc. website. The ads/e-cards can be viewed
by clicking here: (www.offlininginc.com)
and sent for free from the Offlining, Inc. website.
"Offlining, Inc. isn't
selling anything but a balance between offline and online time,” DiMassimo
explains. “It's a vehicle through which Eric and I and others can exercise our
free speech rights to try to persuade people to turn off their devices from
time to time. We don't know if we're going to convince Tiger, Mel or Lindsay to
join the movement, but we hold out hope that we will.”
With a combined 50 years of
experience in the fast-paced world of marketing, Mark DiMassimo and Eric
Yaverbaum are the serial entrepreneurs behind the ‘Tappening’ (www.tappening.com)
environmental movement and the political, educational ‘Read to Vote’ (www.readtovote.com)
initiative. DiMassimo is CEO and Chief
Creative Officer at the advertising, design and digital Agency for a Social
World, DIGO (www.digobrands.com),
which Fast Company cited as one of the 10 “Foremost World-Changing Agencies.” Yaverbaum, CEO of PR hot shop,
Ericho Communications (www.erichopr.com), was called a “fast-talking,
quick-moving New York public relations guru” by Forbes this past year.
About DIGO – The Agency
for a Social World:
Founded in 1996, DiMassimo
Goldstein (DIGO) is a leading full-service brand- and business-building agency
focused on helping clients build deep, lasting, and profitable relationships.
At DIGO, every dollar is put to work to build client business in a measurable
way. The agency’s Social World Audit is part of a mission to lead the
integration of word-of-mouth, buzz, and social media strategies into the total
marketing communications mix. One (or more) of the country’s top PR brains vets
every campaign idea for story value. Brand- and business-building initiatives
encompass strategy, research, brand development, design, innovation,
advertising, and direct, digital, and social marketing.
Connecting with human truths on
serious topics in highly regulated categories, DIGO has helped clients such as
Comcast, Crunch Fitness, Kinkos.com,
Pfizer, Gateway, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vitaminwater, Instinet/Island, Starwood,
ESPN, thinkorswim, Investools, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, J.H.
Cohn, eBay, SunTrust, Citibank, Barclays Capital, and Mission Skincare, among
others. Public relations services are seamlessly integrated through
ErichoInside. For more information, visit www.digobrands.com
.
About Ericho Communications:
Founded in 2007 by best-selling
author Eric Yaverbaum, Ericho Communications is a full-service public relations
firm where green meets the latest that technology has to offer. Ericho’s
projects range from the launch of the first-ever mobile video text messaging
company to a highly acclaimed identity-theft software launch to the
introduction of the largest peer-to-peer video-sharing college website and the
first-ever direct-to-consumer title insurance company. Ericho’s roster of
clients are consistently covered in the news.
Yaverbaum is the former
president of Jericho Communications, where for 21 years,he managed a who’s who
of brand names that included IKEA Home Furnishings, Domino’s Pizza, Subway
Sandwiches and Salads, Progressive Insurance, TCBY, Sony, H&M, Bell
Atlantic, American Express, and many more. Yaverbaum served as President of CollegeClickTV.com
and is also a co-founder of Tappening, a “drink local, think global campaign,”
whose products were credited by GMA as the “hottest of 2008.”
Yaverbaum is also the author of
six books, including “PR for Dummies,” which is required reading in marketing
classes at 57 U.S. universities. His sixth book, “Life’s Little College
Admissions Insights,” was published in January 2010. Ericho Communications has
offices in New York City and White Plains. For more information, visit www.erichopr.com .
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Mark
DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are available for interview.
Copies
of the ads are available.
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