"You're with the government? Don't worry…they only eat people with brains."

So the CDC just posted a new Preparedness Guide...In Case Of Zombie Apocalypse.

Forgetting for a moment that we totally called this, we find it notable that the post not only didn't get anyone at the CDC in trouble, it was the possibly most popular thing they've ever posted – and a good way to get Americans to think about overall disaster preparedness.

"The blog post went up on Monday. “A typical post gets 1,000 hits,” (CDC spokesman David) Daigle said. “We got 10,000, then 30,000 on Tuesday, and then it crashed the server.” The server then reportedly came back to life and ate the IT guy's brain."

OK, we made part of that up. But it wasn't the "30,000 hits" part. Our point is, See how much traction a little well-placed, unexpected humor can get you? Particularly if you're known for being boring?

Think about it. While you still can.

Via The New York Times (And Zombie Flanders.)

Happy Holidays from Mortar:

Did you ever see Rocky III?
Remember when Mr. T's character, Clubber Lang, is training to take down the champ? In a classic 1980's Sports Montage we see the glitz and glamour of Rocky's 5-star hotel "training regimen" juxtaposed against Clubber doing pull-ups in an abandoned building; his bleeding hands gripping exposed rebar.

When we see this year's crop of Agency Holiday Cards, we pity the fools.
We look at those overfed, pampered agencies, and we say: "You tell Balboa I'm comin' for him!"

See, like Clubber, Mortar comes from the streets. And like Clubber, we'll whup any fool tries to take away what we got. So there will be no high-budget holiday extravaganzas from us. No Mad Men homages. No singing pickles. Just a simple Mortar Recession Kit. It doesn't have fancy production values, or spa memberships. Just the things people like us need to survive times like these: Liquor, fire, and a spork.

MORTAR PUTS THE "MR. T" IN "CHARITY."

Let us return to our reading of The Book of Clubber, which tells us: "My prediction? Pain."  As usual, he's right. It's rougher than ever out there, folks. So pick up a Mortar Recession Kit of your very own on eBay right here. It's for a good cause.

EVERYONE–IS–TALKING.

Just yesterday, I was sitting in Union Square (San Francisco) listening to those around me spreading “the word,” talking up a storm about this and that (blah-blah-blah).

Word of mouth (WOM), a popular PR and marketing strategy has spun out of control making its way through blogs, across websites, into chat rooms and of course back to the daily dish of those out to lunch in Union Square (typical, old fashion lunch gossip – aka- WOM).

The whole world is now involved in PR, but little do they realize (the public) how quickly a buzz can become a “buzz kill.”

How much do we trust what we hear? With so many channels to gather our information and get “the scoop,” how are we measuring what’s real, fake, BS or not? 

The public has taken the concept of WOM (see wikipedia), maximized it via the Internet, and made it a thousand times easier to create a “buzz” (or "buzz kill" for that matter) and deliver it to an unlimited amount of people.

According to many, the public relations industry is taking the heat for the very public campaign of what I like to call: “have mouth, will travel.”  Thanks to this ‘virtual’ generation, WOM is traveling at a rapid speed.

The bottled water industry is booming—last year, this rapidly growing sector raked in revenues of an estimated $11 billion.  But as Slate points out, there is a growing conflict between those who want to drink clean, pure water and those who want to breathe clean, pure air.

Several Bay Area restaurants are boosting their environmental street cred by giving away tap water instead of offering marked-up bottled water to customers.  Among the restaurants pioneering this new trend are Chez Panisse, Incanto, Poggio and Nopa.  Kudos to them.  From a PR standpoint, it not only shows that they’re taking into account global warming issues (like environmental costs of bottling and transporting water, and reducing the amount of plastic in our landfills) but also that they’re taking their customer’s values into consideration rather than just how to make a profit.

Certainly this is a stark contrast to the flip side of the spectrum, with some manufacturers offering hyped-up “luxury” water products like Bling H2O, with bottles that come bedazzled in Swarovski crystals and a steep price tag of $35 a pop.