Not a typical Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and traditionally, I would get to spend quality time with family over Thanksgiving. I would eat so much turkey and stuffing, that I would have no choice but to sit down on the couch next to my other thoroughly stuffed relatives and swap playful banter and amusing stories. However, this Thanksgiving, tradition was broken.

This year, my youngest brother and his band were featured in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The whole family left Sunday the 19th and did not return until the following Friday. It was a wonderful experience full of sightseeing and lots of togetherness (a 16 hour bus ride both ways as well as a schedule of all activities for the week). We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Times Square, Chinatown, and Little Italy. We also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Seaport, the Museum of Natural History, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The parade was fabulous and I encourage anyone that is in New York City around Thanksgiving to attend. I had to get up at 4 a.m. but it was worth it to have front row seats on the street. The balloons were fantastic, as well as all of the clowns and various parade participants. There is so much to see that is not recorded on the television shows, and even though I am 21, I was as excited as the children around me. I even had several clowns come and give me some flowers and throw confetti in my face!

Even though I was nostalgic for my traditional Thanksgiving with the extended family, and change is not something I like much, it was one of the best Thanksgivings I have had. I still got to eat the traditional turkey and stuffing from our night cruise through the harbor and I got to talk more with my brothers and parents, which I do not get to do as often since I am away at college. I have enjoyed experiencing something new and hope that someday I can return to New York for another holiday.

Personality Hiring

I think that Ellen Simon brings up an interesting trend in her article, Employers Study Applicants' Personalities. After taking several business classes, I have come to realize the importance of relationships between coworkers and superiors in an organization.

Businesses are becoming more customer service and team oriented. Therefore, group communication and cooperation are becoming more and more important. The best way to ensure that a company will succeed is to select employees that can not only perform their job, but want to be there and can work well with others. Thus, personality can be a deciding factor for teams. People usually work better together when they like each other. It has also been found that job satisfaction is affected by the people that you work with. Retaining good employees has become a large focus for organizations today, so organizations have started to administer several different tests, including personality tests, in order to determine the best fit for their organization.

As mentioned in the article, personality testing can be biased. Thus it is important that multiple people are questioning applicants for employment to ensure that these biases are given as little weight as possible in the actual hiring decisions. Also, organizations do not want employees that have the same viewpoints, because then nothing innovative will be created, which will cost the organization a great deal of revenue. However, if the organization takes time to train HR professionals and other employees in effective hiring techniques, they can limit biases and still get employees with good personalities that will benefit the organization.

Dual Coding Theory

Dual Coding theory combines visual and vocal communication to better communicate a marketer's message. Two particularly effective commercials that use dual coding theory come to mind: Mazda and KitKat Bar advertisements.

Mazda's current marketing campaign involves their "Zoom Zoom" slogan. The slogan shows up in the commercial through several different mediums. It is sang throughout the commercial as Mazda's jingle. It is whispered at the end of the commercial by a child and also appears in written form. The road at the very end spells out the words "zoom zoom." The commercial conveys an overall sense of fun, so the consumer gets the idea that Mazda's are sporty and fun to drive.

KitKat commercials incorporate this theory as well. Like Mazda, KitKat incorporates a jingle in their commercials. The jingle is sung along through the duration of the commercial, with the lyrics coinciding with what is going on during the commercial. After the words "gimme a break" are sung, there a pause, or "break" in the song, followed by more lyrics. The visuals in these commercials often include people in ordinary situations, that are taking a break from an activity to snack on a KitKat bar. The group is shown breaking apart a KitKat bar to share. This shows its fun to eat the candy bar and share it with your friends.