Eat My Words - The Kitchen Sink

Alexandra featured speaker at City Club of SF "Secrets of Success" series

Next Tuesday afternoon. Alexandra will be the featured speaker at the City Club of San Francisco for their "Secrets of Success" series. She was invited to talk there after someone on the board heard her speak on how she broke into the naming business through some quick thinking on a Match.com date. Alexandra will be telling this hysterical story and many others (writing letters to prisoners in high school, launching the first line of retro greeting cards with Paper Moon Graphics, a juicy story of poetic justice for a boss who fired her 23 years ago, and more). Below is the copy from the announcement that the  City Club sent out...

Alexandra Watkins is the creative visionary behind Eat My Words, an innovative naming firm known for developing brand names that generate buzz and revenue. While she started out specializing in things that make people fat and drunk, her clients quickly discovered that she also had a talent for naming things you don't put in your mouth. Since then, her firm has generated countless evocative names and taglines for clients including Frito-Lay, Altec-Lansing, Guthy-Renker, Glu, THX, Clorox, The Sydney Opera House, Del Monte, and Stanford University. Her recent successes include a chain of frozen yogurt stores called Spoon Me, a home cleaning robot named Neato, a social networking site for investors called Cake Financial, and a nationally-advertised bacon cheeseburger, which ironically must remain nameless. (Hint: it was inspired by a Schwarzenegger movie.)

Throughout her colorful 20+ year career in branding and advertising, Alexandra, whose education includes an entire semester of community college, has used her unabashed creativity, charm, and fearless attitude to open doors, scale walls, and create endless business opportunities for herself. Her highly entertaining stories of success and perseverance will inspire you to tap into your own creativity and try bold and unexpected approaches to any personal or professional challenge you face. 

 

$35 for members/$45 for non-members

San Francisco City Club

155 Sansome Street

The Stock Exchange Tower

San Francisco, California 94104

 

RSVP to 415.362.2480 or reservations@cityclubsf.com

Oriental Mildew - a taste of Zimbabwe

If you have ever sucked down a mouthful of African river water like I did in Zimbabwe, where I nearly drowned in the Zambezi and ended up in Zambia, you will be delighted to know that that delicious taste has now been replicated (or at least it sounds like it has) in a new Zimbabwe juice brand, ORIENTAL MILDEW. The product has already flooded most of the retail outlets in Harare where it is high demand. (Okay. And Mugabe won the last election.) I can't track down a photograph of  the Oriental Mildew bottle, but the taste sounds so hideous that surely dictator Mugabe's mug graces the packaging. I know all of this sounds adventurous and exciting, but by all means, do not go to Zimbabwe, which from what I've seen is the most corrupt country on the planet. If you must see Victoria Falls on your way to the Okavango Delta, do it from the kinder, gentler Zambian side. And if you just want to live vicariously through me, here are photos of the mighty Vic Falls, the churning Zambezi below and what it looks like when your raft flips over on top of you in a class 4 rapid. 

Ghana: Heaven for Namers

Before I went to Ghana, I had read that I could expect to see the country's passion for Jesus reflected in the names of their businesses, but I didn't expect 75% of shop names to have some kind of religious reference. Some of the more unusual names included included Blood of Christ Restaurant, Holy Canteen, and Jesus Loves Fashion. Unfortunately, while Ghanaians love the Lord, they hate cameras, so I didn't get photos of most of the signs I saw as we whizzed by. Here are some snaps of some of my faves...  there's more in the official album.

 

 

 

 

Back from Ghana with a new name: Borley Atiaku

Little did I know when we booked our trip to Ghana and requested to take part in an African naming ceremony ($125 per person), that it would be a serious all-day affair that the entire village showed up for! We were adopted into the Royal Borketey Larweh family of the Ga tribe. My Ga name is "Borley Atiaku." The naming rites were performed by the Head of Family-Dr Sam Bortei-Doku (on right) who is a dead-ringer for Nelson Mandella. (Despite looking like my groom, the man in blue is our guide, Sam.) We spent a few days with the family and even went to church with them on Christmas where we danced by the collection box. Twice. More colorful photos here in the official trip album....

Ghana be closed during the holidays.

Alexandra is off to Ghana to adopt a baby monkey, bang some tribal drums, and eat every meal with her hands.  The whole Eat My Words crew is taking off to recharge our batteries so we can start 2008 with a bang.  We'll be back the week of January 5th, 2008. Thanks to all of you who have made this such a fantastic year for Eat My Words. We couldn't do it without loyal clients and cheerleaders like you. 

 

Warm regards and happy holidays,

Alexandra, Sherry and The Team

Eat My Words

Alexandra returns from China

Alexandra is back from a month in China. Here are some of the photos... there's more in the official album.

Jelly Belly Class Field Trip

My copywriting students have been working on ads for Jelly Belly Sport Beans, so naturally we had to go to on the Jelly Belly factory tour (about an hour from SF) to see how they are made. In addition to getting free samples, we enjoyed looking at the Jelly Belly portraits of Ronald Reagan and the Pope. Here I am with some of my students in front of the Jelly Belly VW bug.

No One Ditches My Copy Class

For the second year in a row, every Monday night this Fall I'm teaching Copy I at the Academy of Art University. My 18 students have already shown great promise, even those who want to be art directors. Right now we're working on ads and taglines to get tourists to come back to The French Quarter in New Orleans. (Best tagline so far: "Do you really need a reason?")  I have lots of fun surprises in store for my students including a field trip to a real client (Mani Pedi Nail Spa), and guest speaker Sherry Treitler the hot shot 24-year old with a killer NYC agency pedigree and portfolio who I now use as my sous chef on nearly every naming project.

What... No Chocolate River?

Joyce Guan from Charles Chocolates invited me to a tasting at the factory in Emeryville, where founder Chuck Siegel wowed journalists with his confections including a sublime lavender honey truffle. I asked Chuck to talk about his retail test store, which I thought was a brilliant concept... he had the opportunity to test a retail space in Laurel Village for  7 weeks. In that short time, they:
- established the brand & created a loyal following
- learned what sold best & got ideas for new products
- gained valuable insights from speaking with customers
This crash course taught them A LOT and if and when they do decide to take the plunge and open a permanent retail store, they'll know what to expect. Smart! Read about what we tasted that evening in Shuna & Kim's delicious behind-the-scenes report on KQED's Bay Area Bites. Above photo of Chuck (with me taking copious notes) by Jason Jao.

Food Addiction: Top Chef

                                                                                        If you missed the awesome reality series Top Chef, the "Project Runway" of the culinary world, check out the reruns on BRAVO. Every week the contestants are challenged with everything from a preparing a gourmet meal using only convenience store items, to catering a gay wedding overnight, to to having to make monkfish appetizing to picky school kids. The contestants run the gamut from uptight to unwound and the villian of the show is beyond redemption. If you're already a fan, the best line on the show, "I'm Not Your Bitch, Bitch" which Dave "Crying Chef" Martin says in his cattiest voice to Tiffani "The Snake" Faison, is now available as a t-shirt. And if you already know who the final Top Chef is, here's the Food & Wine article on the winner. The series was filmed at restaurants all over San Francisco from Aqua to Fleur de Lys and is hosted by the charming Tom Colicchio. It also features celebrity chefs including Hubert Keller and Elizabeth Faulkner. Let me know if you become hooked.