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Test body copy Return. Return. Hey

Tumblr was very easy to use but I had two issues that my readers kept bringing up:

1. No way to comment on posts.

2. No secondary pages.

So, I’m out. I’m moving to Wordpress.

Check me out at www.andrewdouglaspr.com.

Strong eat local campaign courtesy of Unilever

The latest issue of The Grower, a trade publication sent primarily to members of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association, has a good front-page item in the September issue about Hellmann’s “Eat Local” campaign. The Hellmann’s brand is owned by Unilver. Apparently the Toronto office of Ogilvy & Mather executed the campaign targetted at the under-30 crowd. Ouch. I guess that’s why I hadn’t heard of it yet.

Check out the snazzy 3-minute video above. It’s a real eye opener. Did you know that for every apple we export we import about FIVE!

The site is full of web 2.0 apps — blogs, video, a link to their Twitter feed. It’s a great campaign with a strong brand message.

Karen Davidson took over the job publishing and editing The Grower about a year or so ago. She’s done a great job. She manages to find compelling stories and build a theme into each issue. This most recent issue was focussed on energy production and conservation.

Steve McCabe has joined the sales department at Top Crop Manager, an ag trade magazine owned by business-to-business publisher Annex Publishing and Printing based in Simcoe, ON. He’ll be sharing the sales responsibilities with Kevin Yaworsky who’s based in Calgary. Steve was with the Western Producer before taking a non-ag sales job last year. He’s filling the position opened up when Kelly Dundas joined AgCanada.com, the online component of Farm Business Communications, publishers of Grainews, Country Guide, Manitoba Co-operator and Alberta Farm Express.

Here’s an interesting nugget: If you do a Google search on Steve you get this story that ran a couple of years ago in the Toronto Star, “It’s every man for himself; Living in a house full of the opposite sex isn’t always fun, but it is always challenging.”

I had a chat with Jay Whetter, editor of Grainews. We worked at Country Guide together for years. We share a passion for good food and better wine.

Comments to his blog are starting to roll in but not through the typical comments field below the post. That’s probably partly because of the blog software they use and the number of hoops it makes you jump through to post a comment.

Instead, readers are emailing him directly. He’s been compiling their emails and posting a follow-up summarizing the responses. He got a whack of feedback after asking if anyone knew of a Western-based prepared mustard producer. And a number of readers emailed him after a recent post about hay bales blowing across the country.

I was at Guide for eight years. Fellow ag journalists and I would sit at the back during meetings and moan about how it felt like we were churning out copy and throwing it out into a void, especially in the dark winter months. I was always tickled pink the odd time someone would corner me at a farmer meeting and tell me about something I’d written.

Jay’s doing a great job at connecting with his audience. It’s good to see that they’re talking back.

Blair Andrews covered the new Ontario Corn-Fed Beef trailer. He’s doing communications work for the Ontario Cattle Feeder’s Association.

Check out this detail from his blog:

“The oven will generate a HACCP report, which we will give to the health units, so they know exactly what we have cooked, the time we cooked it and the temperature that the food was cooked it at,” adds Clark.

Cool.

Yesterday I skooted over to the OMAFRA building in Guelph to take a peak at the Ontario Corn-Fed Beef trailer.

A few years ago we did a taste test with friends. We tried grass fed, cheapo grocery store meat, another premium branded meat (I can’t remember which one) and corn fed in a blind taste test. Ontario corn fed won hands down. I was hoping to get a nibble of some steak for lunch.

As far as I know, there still isn’t a premium on corn-fed beef in the supermarket. That’s a shame, it’s great stuff.

I had to get back to work so I missed out on the meat. But the vehicle is gorgeous.

Cory Bourdeaud’hui called today. We both started in the editorial department of Farm Business Communications at around the same time — he at Grainews and me at Country Guide.

Funny, not long before I left Country Guide to jump back over the fence into PR he moved into the advertising deparment at Grainews.

He’s a good guy trying to balance a career with a busy family life. That sounds familiar too.