A few of my co-workers and I went to a restaurant for lunch today. While walking back to our cars, I started throwing snowballs at them. Ya’ know, just for some old-fashioned wintertime fun.

Three of them will be released from the hospital later today, but the other two are being held overnight for observation.

I’m sure they’ll be fine.

Check out these award-winning TV spots. They were produced for the Buckeye Express “Good. Better. Buckeye Express.” campaign by the very creative minds at Madhouse. And, oh yeah…our own Amy Scott is the voice talent.

BusinessVoice received one gold and two silver trophies at last week’s Addy Awards ceremony, presented by The Advertising Club of Toledo. I wrote the copy for each of the winning On Hold Messaging productions, and both Amy and I served as voice talents. Our thanks to clients Amazing Space and The Kellermeyer Company for just “letting us go” on the creative.

Our friend Mark Reiter has a new website up and running. Mark is the President and Chief Recording Engineer of Level 2 Audio, a recording studio in Perrysburg, Ohio. Not only is Mark a great talent, he’s one of the best guys you’re ever going to meet. I was happy to write the copy for his site. Check it out at www.level2audio.com.

By the way, Mark was involved in six Addy Award-winning productions in 2007, including the winner for Best In Show / Electronic.

I just finished a 30-minute phone call with one of my BusinessVoice clients. She’s the Marketing Director for a large multi-location company, and she asked me to call to provide input on a re-branding effort upper management is considering. In the course of the conversation she revealed new information to me - a key difference between her company and its primary competitor. This difference is such an obvious advantage for our client and, yet, the company has resisted making it the single focus of its marketing…to my contact’s dismay.

It got me thinking: how many other companies are not capitalizing on the specific differences that could help them stand out in the marketplace? How many companies even know what those differences are? These are important questions to consider if you’re involved with your company’s marketing.

Here’s the copywriting angle: Whether you’re writing for broadcast, print, outdoor or online, resist any temptation to “sell it” how everyone else does. Instead, emphasize what’s different about your product, especially if your company is in the middle of a crowded vertical market. When you do you’ll give prospective customers real reasons to do business with you.

I can’t remember the last time I was offended. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever been truly offended in my life. Either that makes me incredibly insensitive or just very practical. Ya’ see, I realize there are currently 300 million points of view in the land of the free and I’m okay if most of them don’t happen to align perfectly with mine.

So I had to laugh at the latest story about “offended Americans.” Driving home the other day, listening to NPR’s “All Things Considered,” I heard an interview with an author who has written a book about Chinese / American food. She talked for awhile about fortune cookies, how some people are actually offended by the fortunes they receive, and how their complaints have led to the elimination of certain “negative” fortunes.

In my most productive brainstorming session I would never come up with the concept of someone being offended by a scrap of paper that was stuffed into a cookie 30 days earlier and a half a continent away. I mean, the randomness of it all is off the charts, and yet, apparently, there are people who complain to waiters in Chinese restaurants that they are not happy with or troubled by their fortunes.

News flash for those folks: it’s…a…cookie! It isn’t really predicting your future. It’s supposed to be fun, a little hoot after you’ve crammed your belly full of crab rangoon.

So, why are these people so-o-o-o offended? I admit, I don’t have the answer. I’m practical, remember. Not necessarily all that bright.

Wait! I think I just offended myself.

Happy President’s Day! In celebration, here are a few little-known nuggets about America’s Chief Executives:

1) President James K. Polk’s CB handle was J. Po.

2) Alliteration was all the rage during the early 20th century. Between 1912 and 1928, Americans elected Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. It was FDR who put a stop to the annoying pattern by changing his name from Rudy Roosevelt.

3) Through DNA analysis we now know that Richard Nixon would have loved the prop comic Carrot Top.

4) Although George Washington did not really sport wooden teeth, historians are pretty sure he had bionic lips.

5) Our 10th president, John Tyler, sired 15 children, a feat that earned him several nicknames, including “Johnny Likes It,” “The Father of Half His Country,” and “Old Hot & Now.”

Amy and I have been asked once again to provide the voiceover for the Northwest Ohio Addy Awards’ winners program. The pre-recorded VO will be heard at the Addy ceremony February 21st at the Owens Community College Center for Fine and Performing Arts.

Won’t the audience be surprised when they hear that we cut the entire script in German, the happiest language on Earth?

Locally, the Addy Awards are presented by The Advertising Club of Toledo, and by the letter F.