TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Highlights of Thursday's American Marketing Association, Honolulu Chapter Marketer of the Year luncheon can go untold no longer. Agency creativity
adds spice to lunchKaiser Permanente Medical Care Program was the winner, and no effort toward making the event memorable was spared.
A health fair in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom foyer measured body fat, told about Lasik vision correction surgery and offered a putting green.
Kaiser registered dietitian Christine Olinghouse was involved in menu preparation and provided a personal lemon tofu pie recipe for dessert.
Lunch was served by a banquet staff clad in blue surgical scrubs. Server Jean Toguchi said it was the most comfortable function she'd ever worked, "Oh yeah, it's like pajamas!"
The placemat detailing the menu and each of the four courses' nutritional values was produced by Kaiser's ad agency, Starr Seigle Communications, which also printed 4-by-4 inch cards with other details. According to the placemat, if the meal were eaten as presented, fat grams totaled only 14 (three from the pie). The placemat also indicated that burning the calories contained in the lunch would require roughly two hours of tennis or more than eight hours of TV watching.
One of the cards indicated that, "Salt's not the bad guy experts once thought," but that those with high blood pressure should, "put the salt down now and slowly back away."
Pepper, on the other hand, was said to add possible nutritional value as "piperine, a phytochemical in pepper -- accelerate(s) the body's absorption of some nutrients."
Diners were informed that "1 roll = 1 serving" and that six to 11 servings of the "bread, cereal rice and pasta group," is allowed.
Meanwhile a headline on another card blared, "Whoa!" It was the admonition to take it easy on the butter, which "pretty much goes to places on your body you'd rather it didn't."
Many diners were seen rebelling, then avoiding the five Kaiser-sponsored body-fat measuring stations in the Coral Ballroom foyer after lunch.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4757, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com