Offlining: Saving families and lives. Hats off to artist Jay Shells for his creative work.

IT’S the song that made thousands of fathers feel guilty.That would be Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle,” which, as any baby boomer who ever owned a radio can tell you, recounts the story of an overworked dad who’s too busy to spend time with his young son, and lives to regret it. Since Chapin wrote the song in 1974, digital distractions have created a whole new universe of ways to be an inattentive parent. And that’s why Chapin’s hit has been on the minds of Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, marketing executives who last year launched a campaign called “Offlining, Inc.,” urging people to put their digital devices down once in a while and reconnect with their kids and other living, breathing humans. For more click Here.

For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Danielle Nacco
Ericho Communications
(347) 248-1677
danielle@erichopr.com

OFFLINING FOUNDERS LAUNCH CAT’S IN THE CRADLE REBOOT COMPETITON
THIS FATHER’S DAY

Marketing Gurus Mark the One-Year Anniversary of Offlining, Inc.
by Asking Singers and Songwriters to Rewrite the Famed Father-Son Song for Today’s Digital Relationship

NEW YORK (June 7, 2011) – New York City-based dynamic marketing duo and serial entrepreneurs Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, who started the famous Tappening movement, an environmental campaign to “make tap water cool,” and the political and educational ‘Read to Vote’ initiative joined forces for a third time and created Offlining in 2010. This highly talked about and very viral campaign encourages people to go offline, by turning off their mobile devices and computers in order to devote time to the traditional face-to-face conversation that we have all grown to miss in the wake of Blackberries, iPhones and working twenty-four/seven.

The initiative highlights America’s ever-growing addiction to technology and to mark the one-year anniversary since its conception, DiMassimo and Yaverbaum are thinking BIG again. They are calling all singer/songwriters to rewrite the famous Cat’s in the Cradle song – originally sung by Harry Chapin, which shows how a father and son grew up without ever having time for each other, with a modern refresh for the Facebook generation. more after the jump (more…)

Joe Burby, an amateur songwriter and former actor and playwright who works in sales, is the winner of the Cats in the Cradle Reboot contest. The contest challenged songwriters to update the Harry Chapin classic to reflect today’s always-online culture. Burby, who accompanied himself on acoustic guitar (unplugged, of course), is featured in an article covering the contest in the New York Post.

NY Metro

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, had a difficult challenge for the students in her honors seminar on the psychology of technology: Go a full day without texting, tweeting, posting on Facebook or otherwise surfing the Web.
Of the 31 people in the class, only 14 made it. One student failed first thing in the morning when he started his day the usual way, checking his e-mail. Another lasted until the afternoon, when she was stuck in a long, slow-moving line (“Angry Birds” was also on the “don’t” list).  To read more click here.

PR guru Eric Yaverbaum was at a Yankees game when he noticed more people were staring at their BlackBerries than were watching        the field. For Yaverbaum, president of Ericho Communications and author of “Public Relations for Dummies ,” it confirmed what he has  noticed around the dinner table: Technology is taking over our lives. Even couples out for a romantic evening are often more interested in their smartphones than in gazing into each other’s eyes.

Offlining.com suggests dedicating 10 device-free days by Feb. 14, 2012. Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, co-founders of Offlining Incorporated, persuade for a living by convincing people to call or click, which has created an addiction to cellular devices. Despite their love for marketing and respect for its power, the duo developed a way of giving back to the community. DiMassimo and Yaverbaum first introduced Tappening, by promoting to make drinking tap water more popular.
Then they followed a similar pattern by encouraging others to have a “No-Device Day” on Sept. 18 in honor of Yom Kippur. The Jewish New Year is a time for Jews to reflect on how they have lived over the past year and seek forgiveness. Advertisements with celebrities were used to influence others to take part in the device-free day, despite their religion. From CNN Belief blog, “If only Mel Gibson had put down the phone. If only Tiger Woods hadn’t had such easy tech access to other women. If only Lindsey Lohan had kept her thoughts, and tweets, to herself.” to read more click here.