As the biggest sporting event of the year is upon us in just a few days, all I’m thinking about are… the commercials! Personally, I have no interest in the football game. None whatsoever. Yet, I spend every year watching it – just so I won’t miss those much anticipated commercials. Companies spend millions of dollars for this coveted air time. This year it will cost an estimated $3 million for a 30-second slot. With prices like that and hundreds of millions of people watching, companies spend countless amounts of time, energy, and resources to create their ads to ensure they are memorable and entertaining.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Snickers® – 2010
Betty White came back into popularity almost overnight last year. And people love her! So why wouldn’t they love her in an ad? In this hilarious Snickers commercial, Betty gets tackled during a game of football with the guys and turns into a young man who scores after eating a Snickers bar.

CBS – 2010
It was quite a surprise for viewers to see David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, and Jay Leno sitting together at a house party watching the game. What more could you ask for?

Bud Light® - 2006
A man hides his Bud Light from his guests by creating a revolving wall with a hidden fridge. Little does he know, the fridge spins into the apartment next door. One of my favorites!

Reebok® – 2003
Reebok debut a series of ads featuring “office linebacker” Terry Tate who tackles his officemates who don’t obey office etiquette. With hilarious lines like “You kill the joe, you make some mo,” it became one of the most talked about ads.

Doritos® – 1998
Ali Landry, a former Miss USA, was featured in this commercial. All she really did was walk through the room eating a bag of Doritos but it sure got every guy’s attention! It was so popular that the company had her star in other ads too.

Budweiser® – 1995
Sometimes all you really need are a few animated frogs croaking “Bud…weis..errr.” Somehow, it stuck and the frogs came back in several spinoff ads.

I can’t wait to see what new ads this year will bring. Best Buy® is expected to announce some exciting news - wonder what that will be! CareerBuilder® is returning with their hilarious chimpanzees. The E-trade® baby is rumored to return again. GoDaddy® will be featuring a surprise celebrity. Snickers® will be continuing the same campaign as last year but with Roseanne Barr. And Doritos® is continuing its popular ad contest. And that’s just a small selection of what’s expected for this Sunday!

Which ads will be a hit? Let us know what you think! After you watch the commercials on February 6, visit paladinstaff.com on Monday morning and vote for your favorite!

*Trademarks: All trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

I’ve been fortunate to deal with some great recruiters, both as a client and as a candidate.  And I’ve been unfortunate, on occasion, to have run across some who clearly should have pursued careers in trench digging, coal shoveling, grape stomping or other fields requiring aptitude in wielding a blunt instrument.  The lack of functional expertise, responsive service, and simple finesse in professional staffing is sometimes laughable, and not in a funny ha-ha way.

True story:  A recruiter, who maintained he “knew marketing up one side and down the other,” asked if I had experience in preparing advertising and brochures, promotional materials and the like.  I said I’d developed numerous integrated campaigns with advertising and collateral.  He replied, “Collateral is fine, but what about brochures and promotional materials?” He wanted me to drop everything and immediately re-write my resume, which I did, and then he didn’t follow up for weeks, even after repeated phone calls and emails.  When he finally called, he said he’d never presented me to the client, and commented snidely, “you’re not a good fit but do you know anybody else who is?”  The problem wasn’t that he’d decided not to present me — my issue was that he refused to explain why, that he took so long to do it, and that his attitude reflected the clear assumption that he held the more important position in our relationship.  I was disappointed — but more importantly, I was unimpressed and vowed never to work with the guy in the future.So here are just a few basic tips I think could potentially be valuable for both recruiters and candidates as we all navigate the (hopefully) soon-to-come swell in recovery-related hiring:

 Know the WorkCandidates should know something about the client’s business, even if industry experience isn’t required. Recruiters should know something about the actual responsibilities – don’t just take the client’s job spec and dump it into your template. Ask questions until you get what’s really required.

Follow Up ProperlyThis is so simple, but it’s amazing how many candidates can’t find the right balance between staying top of mind versus being a stalker.  Recruiters should tell candidates when they expect to present to/hear from the client. If the recruiter doesn’t discuss a follow up plan, candidates should simply ask “how/when may I re-connect with you on this? Both clients and candidates should return phone calls promptly; it’s basic courtesy.

Respect the ConnectionThe best recruiters and candidates know that establishing a strong relationship is key to years of future success for both. If you’re a recruiter, try to remember that candidates (especially those who are in transition) are not commodities – they’re flesh-and-blood humans whose lives may well depend upon your engagement; if you’re a candidate, remember that your recruiter works for his/her client, not for you, and has to pay attention to the buttered side of the bread.  If you can unite — finding that middle ground of mutual respect — you can cement those relationships effectively and enjoy many successful placements as a result.

Monica Levy blogs about the good, bad and ugly in marketing and communications at http://www.monicaonmarketing.blogspot.com.  You can follow her on twitter at http://twitter.com/mjlevy.

It’s hard enough sitting through a chart-dense PowerPoint presentation on the state of an industry or how to streamline operations at a client.  So why do we continue to make presentations so unnecessarily cluttered and complicated?

You could pass out cans of Red Bull as I have when I was making a presentation after lunch (who knew it came in regular and diet versions?).  That might keep people in your audience awake but it won’t necessarily get them to pay attention to you.

But even if people are paying attention – in fact, especially if they’re paying attention – every one of them is multitasking.

Your audience – sitting still, hanging on your every word – is actually pretty busy.  Parsing it out, here’s what they’re doing as you speak:

• Listening to you
• Reading your slides
• Taking notes
• Deciding whether or not what you’re saying has an impact on them

That’s quite of bit of work for your audience, so naturally we make it harder for them.  Not only do presenters often cram each slide chock-full of ideas and information, many of them suddenly consider themselves to be graphic specialists and they develop layouts that would make Jackson Pollack look like a minimalist.  By the time the audience can figure out where to look, the presenter has moved on to the next slide.

The drive to put everything possible on each slide isn’t entirely irrational.  Presenters usually have a limited amount of time to get a great deal of information across that knowledge gulf to the audience.  So on one level it’s understandable that if there is any white space on a slide, we fill it.  Ironically, instead of informing an audience this approach can go a long way towards confusing it.

So here are five basic but critical points to keep in mind as you develop your next presentation:

1. What is your governing thought? Also known as the “so what?”  This is a deceptively simple question that you must ask of every slide (as well as your presentation as a whole) to focus your message.  You should be able to state it in one sentence in the heading.
2. Support the governing thought. If the content below the heading supports the governing thought, great.  If it doesn’t support the governing thought, it doesn’t belong on the slide.  When in doubt, leave it out.
3. Keep it simple but not simplistic. Say what you need to say but don’t clutter up the message by using more than you need to make your point.
4. One idea at a time. It takes just as much time to present five ideas on one slide as it does to present five slides with separate ideas.  For your audience, presenting one idea at a time makes it more likely that each one more will be understood, remembered and incorporated.
5. White space is your friend. It can be easy on the eyes but also help to direct your audience’s attention to what is important.  Have a graphic specialist help you, if possible.

Let’s not forget that the audience could also be doing other things entirely unrelated to your presentation.  They might be checking e-mail, revising their itineraries, wondering how they’re going to network with the group, whatever.  You may not like it – it may be rude – but there it is.

This just makes it more of an imperative to simplify.  Remember, the audience is busy.  Save the Red Bull for that next all-nighter.

Contributed by: Frank McGee
Business writer, trainer, coach