I spent a few minutes this weekend on YouTube with my son watching some of the great ’80s chewing gum commercials.
And the best one of all, Big League Chew
Perhaps it’s just because I was reliving childhood nostalgia, but man, they just don’t write product jingles like they used to. I have tried for years to convince Derek to create a CMEpalooza jingle, but apparently, if it’s not a haiku, his brain simply can’t compute.
In the ’80s, it was these product jingles that set brands apart. You’d walk into the neighborhood drug store (Thrift Drug for me [Drug Fair for me -Derek]), scan the rows of gum choices, immediately set aside Trident and Dentyne (“Yuck”), take one step toward Bubble Yum Bananaberry Split before being rapped on the head by mom or dad (“It’s all sugar!”), and then head straight to the gum that represented your favorite jingle. They had the catchiest tune, so surely their gum must be good, right? We were such idiots.
It’s in that spirit of creativity that we present to you today the CMEpalooza Fall agenda. Back when we were the only virtual live event for the CME industry, we knew that we could trot out any old slop and people would watch (we didn’t, of course, but we could have [note from Derek: good save.]). Now, however, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to up our game. Everyone wants a piece of what used to exclusively be our domain, so we’ve been extra thoughtful in putting together a creative agenda for CMEpalooza Fall (Wednesday, Oct. 14 – mark your calendars).
We have our first-ever whodunit. Another winner-take-something (or nothing?) trivia contest. Project managers get put into the spotlight for the first time. And then, of course, we tackle some of the big issues of the day (social justice, COVID-19), but in an interesting, unique way that will hopefully keep your attention.
We’ll have much more information on each of these sessions soon (and hopefully will fill in the few remaining “TBA” slots) but for now, take a gander at the Fall agenda while you hum your favorite product jingle. If you are feeling really inspired, maybe you can save Derek some time and come up with the official CMEpalooza jingle. We promise to give you partial credit.
CMEPALOOZA 