Monday, March 23, 2009

A Personal Goal

I am starting on a new goal for myself. I do not intend to drink pop (that is, sodas) for one month, and quite possibly much, much longer. A friend of mine gave up drinking sugar-drinks for New Years, and he still is sticking true to his resolution. My senior year of high school I gave up carbonated beverages for over 200 days. I think I can do it again.

However, I am a huge Mt. Dew drinker. All people from Kentucky are huge Mt. Dew drinkers. The fall of 2007 I got a job marketing Mt. Dew on campus. Mt. Dew was doing this throughout the nation, involving around 50 campuses to see who could promote Dew the best. This was decided by having students submit Dew inspired art, in fashion, visual art, and Dew Games, and the best students received monetary prizes from Mt. Dew. I had around 60 cases of Dew to pass out on campus, plus any that I wanted for myself. At the end of the semester I hosted a campus wide event to attract folks to the new artsy aluminum bottles. There was even a giant ice sculpture!

Overall, though, I hated the job. It was marketing, and it required a lot of work. We had to set up booths and pass out fliers and Dew to students. We had to put up posters all around campus. We had to meet with campus officials in order to even set up stuff and have events. There were two of us working that semester, but my partner did not do much at all. Seriously. I don't want to moan and complain about it, but suffice it to say that my wife and I did practically everything in order to fulfill our contract. Sure, I could have told my manager about my partner's nonchalance and lackluster attitude, but I didn't want my partner to lose out on making money. So I stuck with it. I would not have gotten through without the extraordinary help from my wife and my great friends, and I still say thanks.

In the end, the University of Louisville came in around 4th or 5th out of all the campuses, which was just shy of making extra money. However, I made my dough and said I would never work in marketing again.

Another bummer about the job: taxes were not taken out of my lump sum from Dew at the end, which totaled around $2500 or so, and so I wound up owing quite a bit in when it came tax time.

I realize that this post evolved from my personal goal of not drinking pop to a revelation about me working for Mt. Dew. Regardless, Dew or not, I shall abstain henceforth.

Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.

3 comments:

Sailor Matt said...

I love your final words. Laughed out loud, I did.

Good luck on your new resolution. I'll drink a Code Red in your honor tonight.

marky said...

I've never really been a Skoosh drinker. (Skoosh means fizzy drinks in my world.)
I've always been a water or beer or whiskey or vodka or cider or mentholated spirits, kind of a guy!

And I'm with Matt, Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana, is a touch of brilliance! Bravo.

logankstewart said...

Ah, fellas, if only I could take credit for that fantastic line. Unfortunately, it was quoted by the esteemed Groucho Marx. But, indeed, I do love the words.