State Farm is There … with Ralph Macchio

I follow several insurers on Twitter, including State Farm, in an attempt to keep up with their latest news and happenings. But it was much to my surprise when suddenly Ralph Macchio (of Karate Kid fame) suddenly started popping up on the AGRR™ Twitter feed.

I scan this pretty quickly each morning and afternoon, so at first I thought State Farm was simply as fond of the Karate Kid as I once was (I don’t know any other girl who was 10 in the ‘80s who wasn’t fond of him), and then I realized what had happened—they’ve teamed up together on a safety campaign that focuses on safe teen driving. Macchio is now teaching his own teenage son to drive.

I couldn’t help but think this is a brilliant idea—teaming up with a celebrity who really hasn’t done a lot acting-wise in recent years but is still very well-known. But, he’s getting attention I’m sure, and, as Lauren Fix pointed out during the recent Auto Glass Week™ event, safety sells.

And, as Ben Kelley pointed out during the same event, teen driving is a hot-button issue.

“If I had my way nobody would be getting a license before age 20,” said Kelley, “and we’d have a lot less loss of life on the highways.”

So, kudos to the Karate Kid for trying to make a difference in this area, and good luck to his son as he learns to drive.

Have you thought about incorporating teen driving into your marketing plan? Some have even suggested that volunteering at local schools is a great way to reach today’s youth about the importance of proper windshield installations, and chances are those teens will go home and share with their parents. And, who might their parents call then, when they need a windshield replacement? There’s a good chance it might be you.

Pumpkins Galore

In an unrelated note, I’ve heard that this was a tough year for farmers and that the pumpkin crop supposedly has been affected, but you wouldn’t think so by the number of stories we’ve had lately about pumpkins flying through windshields. I seem to have seen at least one of these a day over the last few weeks. In one case, a pumpkin truck accidentally dumped an entire load of about 200 pumpkins on a Michigan highway, breaking a windshield and leaving behind a mess of debris and pulp. Watch the video below for what it did to commuters there:

But, what I never hear about is the companies that replace all these broken windshields caused by childish pranks and pumpkin-hurlers. So I’d like to know, how many of these do you encounter? What types of stories do you hear from the customers that bring them in? Are they as frequent as local news reports make them out to be?

Happy Halloween

Amidst the surge of pumpkins busts, Halloween is upon us and as usual many of my fellow employees are dressing up this Monday; I’ve not yet decided whether to don a costume, as my sweet six-year-old niece advised me during a recent family Halloween gathering that my costume is “great for home, but just a bit too silly for work.”

What are your company Halloween traditions? Do you celebrate the holiday at all, or is it just another day? Do you adapt your hours at all to make it home for trick-or-treaters, or to take your own trick-or-treaters out on the road?

If you do head out, be sure to be safe. AAA suggests that Halloween is one of the deadliest nights of the year for pedestrians.

And Halloween isn’t the only holiday being celebrated this month. A much lesser known holiday occurred last week, Boss’s Day. I know many of you, our readers, are your own bosses, and, as many auto glass businesses are small in nature, I wanted to be sure to wish you a belated Happy Boss’s Day, in case you didn’t hear it from your own employees.

In light of the day, my own boss and publisher, Deb Levy, included one of the saddest and funniest anecdotes about an employee firing that she once observed in her own blog; I actually laughed out loud when I read it, and I hope you will too (with apologies to Bryant, who was on the receiving end of a really terrible phone call—as you’ll see). I hope you’ll read it here.

Happy Boss’s Day to all of you bosses out there, and we’ll see you next time. Thanks for reading.