Did anyone hear about the door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman in Iowa who donated a kidney to a potential customer? (Who knew that door-to-door salesmen were still around?) When he solicited the 35-year old man, the salesman learned that he suffered kidney failure because of high blood pressure and was undergoing dialysis. During their conversation, it was discovered that they had the same blood type and the vacuum salesman decided, after a conversation with his father and wife, to donate one of his kidneys to the ailing potential customer. The surgery took place in August and was a complete success.

How’s that for spreading good will to your customers? Probably makes you wonder if it’s possible to spread good will without giving away a major organ…or perhaps you’ve already given away all of your spare parts. Well, rest assured, organ donation is a little played out now anyway isn’t it?

Here are some gifts that can send a positive message about your company or organization that don’t hurt:

First aid kits. Show your clients you care about their well-being by giving them a first aid kit for those just-in-case situations that always come up.

Lip Balm. Who doesn’t hate chapped lips? Your customers can spend the dry season with perfectly moisturized lips and it will be all because of you.

Aromatherapy candles. The perfect accessory for the end of day ritual. Your clients will love that you want them to relax and take it easy.

There are many other products available that will help your company or organization spread a little good will. (Even if you’ve already gotten rid of your spare kidney).

Now this is customer service: The Benjamin Hotel in New York City is so concerned about its level of customer service, they offer a sleep concierge. The service offers a mattress specifically created for the hotel and a menu of different pillows, including one with iPod capabilities.

The woman who has the job says that they have done a lot of research on sleep in order to better serve their customers. They offer services such as a pre-slumber massage and special treats that are believed to make people sleepy.

Some may find this extreme, but we here at Absorbent, Ink. think that it is a step in the right direction and that we could all learn a little something from the Benjamin Hotel staff. Which makes us wonder: what have we done for you lately? What more can we do today?

By the same token, what have you done for your clients and customers? We can help you improve your clients’ levels of satisfaction as well. Provide your clients and customers with a special gift to let them know you care. There is a slew of corporate gifts to choose from. If you need help, just let us know.

The Consumer Electronics Show takes place January 7-10 in Las Vegas. To fill you in on the history of CES here are products and technologies introduced at CES include:

Blu-ray disc and HD-DVDdual format player, 2007
HDTV DVD players, 2005
Microsoft Xbox 2001
Digital Video Recorder (DVR), 1999
HDTV, 1998
DVD, 1996
Virtual Boy, 1995
CD-i, 1991
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), 1985
Commodore 64, 1982
Compact Disc (CD) player, 1981
Camcorder, 1981
Pong home console by Atari, 1975
Laserdisc player, 1974
Video Cassette Recorder (VCR), 1970

What are you looking forward to?

According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the world’s largest pencil (on the right) is in Malaysia at the Faber-Castell company headquarters. It is 65-feet tall.

However, there is a dispute on who has the largest pencil. It seems some folks in New York recently celebrated spritual leader and teacher Sri Chinmoy’s birthday by constructing a gynormous pencil. According to Wikipedia, “He receives a flood of international visitors around April 13 and August 27 - dates commemorating his arrival in the West and his birthday, respectively. These are marked by celebrations lasting about two weeks, with a flurry of meditations, concerts, humorous skits and plays, races and picnics.” The pencil is supposedly 76-feet long. (source: Gizmodo)

When we mentioned that the Dropout Bear was wearing McFly 2015s, some people didn’t believe us. Welp, looks like it’s been confirmed that he is in fact wearing Marty McFly’s shoes. Check out the inside artwork:

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Ever since we’ve heard about the McFly 2015s in April we’ve been keeping up on them. It looks like MTV has taken notice.

MTV NEWS reports: “OK, it’s no secret the lengths sneaker heads go to cop a pair of exclusives, but the Maloof brothers, Michael and Charles, might be taking it to the next next level. The two Canadians launched McFly2015.com in April in hopes of getting the suits over at Nike to actually release the Web site’s namesake McFly 2015s, which Michael J. Fox sported in “Back to the Future Part II.” So far the brothers have attracted close to 9,000 MySpace friends and the endorsements of a few notables, including indie band Whirlwind Heat — who told their fans to check the site — and Kanye West, whose Graduation album cover features the Dropout Bear sporting the kicks. Step to that.”

http://www.mtv.com/bands/m/mixtape_monday/091007

This has nothing to do with promotional products, but everything to do with Elijah Wood scaring kids with his pathetic excuse for a beard. Watch the whole thing. Seriously. “Go crazy! Go crazy!”

Mickey of the McFly 2015 project sent me a heads up about the footwear of Kanye West’s trademark bear on the cover of his upcoming album. Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, best known for his Louis Vuitton work, designed the album packaging for Graduation, which is due out in September. Think Kanye can get Nike to produce a pair for him?

Kanye should make his bear into stress balls.

Morgan Valentine of Nashville, TN surprised her husband with an Optimus Prime cake for his 30th birthday. “The thing is the size of a toddler (and I’m sure has more calories ^_^). It has brownie dirt complete with fondant grass and the body is made of cake and rice crispy treats.” I’m guessing it wasn’t cheap. I wonder how many paper plates they would need to serve that…

Birthday Party Favors

Nirvana kicked Linkin Park’s butt today on a popular music subscription service called Real Rhapsody. Ever since I’ve used the service, most of Nirvana’s catalog was limited to 30 second streaming clips and available for purchase only. I was quite surprised to see Nirvana listed as the top artist on the service’s home page over Linkin Park today. My first thought was that there was possibly a new release, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of Nirvana’s catalog is currently unlocked for streaming. 18 albums and 154 tracks to be exact. Seems most of the world’s rhapsody users are rocking out to Nirvana today. I wonder what’s going on with the rights to Nirvana’s music. Has Courtney Love’s stranglehold over Nirvana’s music finally been released? It appears that is the case.
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