Every week there are articles published that are of interest to promotional products industry professionals across the land. To save you time, a rotating group of PromoKitchen chefs have culled the internet for the ones you should read and the ones you should skip. This week’s Dish was authored by Chef Bill Petrie.

Federal Reserve Issues Interest Rate Increase – A Positive Sign for the Industry – “Must Read” Article of the Week

For only the third time since the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve an increase to the benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a point. In general, this is seen as a positive sign for the economy as the labor market continues to strengthen and economic activity is expanding at a moderate pace. In the announcement of the rate increase, the Federal Reserve forecasts that labor market conditions will further strengthen and inflation will stabilize – both of which are good news for promotional products distributors and suppliers.

Fire Damages Vernon Offices

The Ides of March has struck again! This time, however, the victim was the Vernon offices and not Julius Caesar. In the early afternoon on March 15, a faulty fluorescent light ballast started a fire which caused significant damage to the Top 40 distributor’s home office. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and Vernon was up and running at full throttle the next day.

50 Years Later, Heinz Approves Don Draper’s ‘Pass the Heinz’ Ads

Fix yourself an Old Fashioned to read this fantastic article about life imitating art as Heinz is running the famous ad campaign pitched 50 years ago by the fictional Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Pryce agency. In a union of advertising’s fictional and real worlds, the ads were greenlighted and will run exactly as envisioned by Don Draper. In an even cooler move, the ads were credited to the creative directors of both the fictional Mad Men agency in Don Draper and Heinz’s current – and very real – agency, DAVID in Tony Kalathara and Russell Dodson. A very well executed campaign that truly works because of its simplicity – something we can all learn from.

5 Rooke Branding Mistakes Every Entrepreneur Makes But Shouldn’t

This almost made the “must read” this week because it really speaks to many in our industry who are entrepreneurs IN the branding industry. We have all walked tradeshows and consequently snicker and shake our heads at some of the branding used and this article squarely addresses it. If I had to pick one thing out (and it’s hard because the article is THAT good), I would start with the mistake of the amateur logo. As the author says, “nothing screams ‘inexperienced’ more than a homemade looking logo.” I couldn’t agree more.

Pizza Hut Made Shoes That Will Order Pizza – “Don’t Waste Your Time Reading” Article of the Week

As a 47 year old man, I’ve lived through a lot of dumb products: Garbage Pail Kids, Furby, and ‘Baby on Board’ signs to name a few. When I saw that Pizza Hut made shoes with a button to order mediocre pizza, my brain went into complete hypnosis. While I realize that the “pie tops” are more of a marketing gimmick than anything else, it may be the most bizarre use of technology I’ve ever seen. Now, if these shoes could be reprogrammed to order a double jalapeno and cheese burger from Whataburger, that would be a completely different story.