Rockwell Thanksgiving: American All The Way

Hey Everyone,

So this week is Thanksgiving week and I’m sure we are all getting ready to cook the turkey and hang out with friends and family. Well, before that happens I thought I would share something with you that might make your Turkey day a little more meaningful.

Check this out.

 For many of us this painting is a classic piece of history and is very sentimental to those of us that grew up when the painting’s creator was around. However, some of us, myself included, may not have been around when this piece of art was still fresh in the minds and hearts of Americans everywhere. In this case, here is a brief history of this artistic jewel that is known by many as the Rockwell Thanksgiving.

Norman Rockwell was a 20th-century painter and illustrator with most of his popular work created in the 1940’ s-1960, as he was a key contributor to The Saturday Evening Post magazine during that time. Many of his illustrations for the magazine are considered a reflection of American culture and his work was greatly remembered for representing everyday life during World War 2.

The painting above is one in a series of four paintings appearing in The Saturday Evening Post in the year 1943. Its name is Freedom from Want, and the series in which it appeared was entitled Four Freedoms, a series Rockwell created from Franklin Roosevelt’s speech that spoke of four essential freedoms.

Today we have things like Instagram to share photos and modern day novelties. But back then, magazines and newspapers were the way new fads and tributes were shared. So this Thanksgiving use Twitter and Facebook and Instagram full blast, but if you have time, Norman Rockwell’s work should be kept in mind as well. Not because of his artistic work, but because of what many of his paintings represented.

Freedom.

Without freedom to share our individual and corporate beliefs and practices, there would be nothing to celebrate with each other during Thanksgiving.

So that’s my thought for this week. Leave comments and let me know if you are familiar with Norman Rockwell’s work.  

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Top 5 Holiday Commercials 2012

Well guys, 

Here it is. The top 2012 holiday commercials list. I could only come up with about 5, as it seems only select companies take the holidays seriously as opposed to competitors. I have added them in order of most views but typically I think the bigger the brand the better chance the video has of getting more views. 

While television commercials often get a lot more views than online videos or ads, Youtube was ranked 3rd most viewed site on the web this year. So I think it’s safe to say that if top television commercials are at the top, they will most likely be available on the world’s leading video site: Youtube. 

The best holiday ads made by known brands and their competitors are hard to choose for a top 5 list. Still, this is what I’ve attempted to do, so hopefully you’ll get a kick out of it. Here goes...

1.Connecting Flights-4,846,467 views

Coming in number one is of course, my latest personal favorite with 4,846,467 views. The Sears holiday commercial is what I call the Shannon and Eddie punch... Sears did a great job pulling viewers in before they knew it was an ad.

2.Another Miracle on 34th Street-129,666 views

Other than a photo shopped version of the original Kris Kringal, this video’s storyline isn’t exactly a new way of telling the old edition. It is however a great advertising stunt by Macy’s with a little humor and a ton of admired faces in the acting and music industries. 

3.Mayhem Snow Video-33,805 views

While this video wasn’t released all that recently it still hits wide popularity with fellow Allstate fans. 

4.Big Dog-18,342 views

This year Target didn’t go all that crazy with any big black friday ads but they did perform their typical advertising with an adorable video entitled Big Dog. 

5.Hallmark Tell Me Commercial-Holiday-485 views

While not an amazing amount of views this video gives you that warm feeling always associated with Hallmark gifts and cards, especially during the holidays, I just had to add it in for its adorability. 

Hope you guys enjoyed it. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. 

My Favorite Time of Year- SHANNON AND EDDIE

Hey everyone,

sorry I've been absent for a while. Now that the holidays are coming up I thought I could finally share something with you guys that hopefully you'll get a laugh from...

                                         EDDIE AND SHANNON

So what is my favorite part of the holidays?

Is it the presents?

The food?

The family getting together?

Well, all of these things are awesome and I sure do look forward to them. However, as a blogger and entrepreneur I have to say that I always look forward to one thing:

All the holiday commercials!

I know what your thinking... what? why would you look forward to that? I know I know, it sounds lame right.... but come on, let's be real for a second. At least for us younger people, we all are exposed to an enormous amount of advertisements during the holiday season.

I'm not sure that any of them really make us want to go buy what they are advertising but some of them sure do stick out more than others. How about the target lady commercial for black friday in 2010? None other than comedian Maria Bamford played the over the top black friday shopper who took it a little too far.


With youtube, tv, and facebook, we are all bound to run into some ridiculous advertisements at some point this season. Well, just yesterday I got my first round of advertisement while surfing youtube. It was one of those ads that doesn't have the "skip ad now" buttons. I'm sure you know what I mean.

Wow, Sears really got me with this one. If the ad would have been a movie preview (which at first I thought it was) I would have gone to see it.

Here's how it starts...

first, a female announcers voice says "due to weather all flights are canceled." Then two people say "what do you mean all flights are canceled?"

Next, these two people who have obviously been previously introduced end up sitting next to each other in the airport.... it continues.... "eddie?"..... "shannon?"...... "so what do you do?" .... well, I'm a blogger"..... that's the part that caught my attention..... "no way, I'm a blogger too!"...... and on it goes

it's a full blown airport love story until Eddie runs into (literally) a Sears refrigerator and then Sears hits you with the advertisement "you won't run into the top 10 appliance brands just anywhere"...

I thought, wow.... someone really got creative with advertising this year. :) Although this may sound a little phony, it happens to all of us.

It's a non-avoidable part of the holidays... except I tend to have a lot of fun with it.... I love to see what company got the craziest with their advertising and sometimes I laugh thinking about how much that company had to spend to shoot that 20 second video...

So that's one of my favorite parts of the holidays... crazy I know, but no crazier than the people in the ads... :)

check out this year's favorite:
Connecting Flights

oh... and be looking for another post soon... The top holiday commercials and advertisements for 2012


Happy Thanksgiving