We’re longtime supporters of balls. But there’s one breed of ball in particular that inspires us like no other. If you don’t know what Buckyballs are, you may not even want to find out. These Rare Earth magnets attract and repel each other with a seemingly supernatural force, which makes them more addictive than bubble wrap and Bejeweled combined.
What does this say about our country? That we’re a valiant, vigilant people, dedicated to protecting our vulnerable youth? No. It reveals that we’re much too eager to latch on to the next cause for fear, without stopping to question whether that fear is rational or not. A mere 22 children have been injured from Buckyballs, out of 2.2 million Buckyball sets sold. As the Huffington Post astutely points out, dog bites, tennis, and household chemicals are all significantly more dangerous than our beloved magnetic balls. What’s next, banning tennis balls from every American home? Before we know it, we’ll be completely ball-less, in every sense of the word.
We mustn’t give in to the irrational demands of a mindless few. If we all did that, we’d find ourselves trapped in a world full of moronic ads like this one:
Parents, we know you’re scared. But instead of trying to keep adult toys out of adult hands, why not be adult enough to keep your kids away from them in the first place? So that the rest of us may enjoy rare beauty like this.
Untitled #4, by Alexa Leung, Account Coordinator at Mortar. Of course it’s work-related. We’re a “creative agency.”
Questions are an inescapable part of our existence – particularly so if you’re a student or faculty member at Golden Gate University. These people spend hours picking apart the heated questions and issues currently affecting our lives. So when GGU asked for a website overhaul, it seemed only natural for their online presence to mirror that ethos.
Landing on the idea, “The biggest questions need answers,” we turned GGU’s website into a digital classroom of sorts. It puts current affairs front and center – the healthcare debate, high-tech patent wars, and white collar crime – and reveals what GGU faculty and students are saying about them. The site also uses Twitter hashtags to create related “conversation channels,” allowing anyone – from GGU’s professors, students, and 68,000+ alumni, to people on the street – to speak up, chime in, or start conversations of their own.
In addition to brains, the site has dashing good looks to match. As Mortar PR Account Executive Daniel Ray opines, “Those perfectly symmetrical lines and warm, earthy tones…it’s like Ryan Gosling died and came back to Earth in the form of a website.”
As the now-extinct Juicy Campus taught us, letting college students run wild in the online social-sphere can be a highly risky affair. But GGU’s students are smarter than that. The majority of them already leaders in the working world, these people are serious about succeeding. They’d rather debate how to stimulate green jobs than rip on Trisha’s new perm any day (although just for the record, that was totally the world’s worst perm ev-errr.)
Based in Vancouver, our new client Westport Innovations designs natural gas engines that produce up to 27% less emissions than gasoline. Vehicles powered by the Westport WiNG Power System can travel 650 miles before having to refuel, eliminating the range anxiety caused by the latest crop of electric vehicles. Because natural gas is domestically sourced, it’s helping reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil. To top it off, natural gas costs about half as much as gasoline or diesel. (The benefits pretty much sell themselves.)
Later this quarter, Westport will introduce two natural gas-powered trucks to the consumer market: the Ford F250 and Ford F530. To celebrate (or maybe just because it sounds like a crapload of fun), the Westport WiNG Team is embarking on a four-day road trip powered entirely by compressed natural gas. The team started in Detroit yesterday and will be trekking 700 miles to their final destination, Times Square.
They’ll be making pit stops along the way and letting people take the new trucks for a spin. If you want to be one of the first to test drive these bi-fueled babies, below is where you can find ‘em. (Just please try to display more maturity than we would and restrain from making any fart jokes.)
The Route:
Valley Ford Truck Sales, Cleveland OH: May 21, 12pm-3pm
SARTA-Clean Energy, Canton, OH: May 21, 4pm-5pm
Allegheny Ford Truck Sales, Pittsburgh, PA: May 22, 11am-2pm
John Kennedy Ford, Pottstown, PA: May 23, 10am-1pm
Times Square, New York City, NY: May 24, 1pm-5pm
In case sustainable resources don’t excite you, they’ll also be BBQing mountains of pulled pork at the dealerships. Ahh, now we have Nok’s attention.
If you fancy moving pictures, here’s a 3-minute explanation of how Westport is driving the future of transportation. (We’re keeping our fingers crossed for natural gas-powered Hoverboards.)
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a man named George wanted to build a massively sized, commercially outfitted movie studio in Marin County.
Normally, the neighbors would respond with a big fat “F U,” but this man happened to be the creator of a ludicrously successful space opera you may have heard of. So the neighbors had to be somewhat civil about it, and funnel their complaints through the local homeowners association. This is Marin, where the residents break out in hives at the sight of a Starbucks. You can imagine their reaction to the prospect of years of nearby construction activity, not to mention the increased foot traffic the movie studio would bring.
After 25 years of vehement resistance from the locals, Mr. Lucas decided to abandon the studio construction altogether. And in the end, all that whining led to the birth of a beautiful idea. Lucas now plans to transform the property into affordable housing for low-income families or seniors. Talk about a turn for the better.
And who is Lucas working with to make this goodness happen? None other than our friends at the Marin Community Foundation. Looks like that pretty website we made for them years ago is still reaping fruitful returns. As always, MCF is a living example of how change happens. And we heartily approve.
Just please promise us the doorman will be Chewbacca.
Here at Mortar, we love us a good slow jam. And we’re not talking about Grandma Jean’s twice-boiled apple butter. We’re talking jamz, real sloooow. Takes us back. Which is why we loved Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, when he got the Commander-in-Chief himself to perform spoken word artistry over buttery smooth tracks laid down by none other than The Roots. The result was a match in hit factory heaven. We’d love to see Obie slow-jam the State of the Union, unemployment reports, or maybe a nice recipe for mushroom chicken piccata. We’re pretty sure the world would be a happier place.
