AOL.com
September 17
Two New York City Businessmen are engaged in a national advertising campaign encouraging Jews and non-Jews to turn off their cell phones on Yom Kippur. Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo — founders of the company Offlining — are communicating their message through ads with celebrities such as Tiger Woods that read, “You don’t have to be Jewish to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.” Read more at the Chicago Sun-Times.
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Ads: Put down the phone for Yom Kippur
Two New York executives are encouraging U.S. Jews as well as gentiles to give up their cellphones for a day to mark the high holy day, Yom Kippur.
Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, who founded company Offlining to encourage people to take breaks from cellphones and the Internet, are campaigning for those observing the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins Friday and ends Saturday, as well as non-Jews in need of a break from their gadgets to put down their phones during the holy day, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday.
The men have taken out ads in magazines and online encouraging people to keep their phones switched off during Yom Kippur. Some of the ads feature images of celebrities including Tiger Woods and Lindsay Lohan with captions including: “You don’t have to be Jewish to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.”
Mary Sobel, an Orthodox Jew who attends Sephardic Bikur Holim Congregation in Seattle, applauded the campaign’s message.
“I think it would be good for everybody to try,” she said. “Not just Jews.”
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Make Wealth History
September 13, 2010
18th September is Offlining Day
On September 18th, internet users have been invited to switch off and enjoy a day offline, as part of offlining day. It’s the brain child of New Yorker Eric Yaverbaum, who found himself checking his blackberry over dinner and following conversations on twitter more than the ones happening in front of him in person.
Inspired by the ten days of Rosh Hashana, when Jews look back over the past year and atone for sins before the new year begins, Yaverbaum decided to repent of his digital transgressions. He committed to ten dinners without looking at his blackberry, and then thought up offlining day along the way, teaming up with a advertising exec friend Mark DiMassimo to turn it into a broader campaign.
The website, offlininginc.com, has a pledge to sign and ads to send to friends to invite them to participate. One day doesn’t go very far in breaking a habit, but receiving an invite might be just enough of a hint to friends who are addicted to their online gadgets.
“It’s annoying to be in a room with people, and yet not be really with them,” as DiMassimo says. “My dad’s an electrical engineer, and he’s always said, ‘We invent this stuff to serve us, not for us to serve it.’”
As well as Offlining Day on September 18th, the campaign suggests taking a ‘sabbath’ from online devices once a week.
This is not the first creative social awareness campaign Yaverbaum and DiMassimo have dreamt up – they are also responsible for Tappening, which invited people to ‘start a lie about bottled water‘
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Jewish Week
September 12, 2010
When Technology Needs a Day of Atonement Too
I’ve been following the Offlining campaign pretty closely. It’s the brainchild of Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo. They partnered to launch Offlining, an initiative to promote unplugging that was introduced on Father’s Day, to ask people to make a pledge to have 10 device-free dinners between then and Thanksgiving. To date, more than 10,500 have signed on to this pledge.
Yaverbaum told Jessica Ravitz, a reporter for CNN.com, that he “is as guilty as anyone of making technological transgressions. He’s ignored family to check emails while at the dinner table and tuned out of actual conversations to tune into Twitter… I’m the guy who sleeps with his BlackBerry. I’m raising my hand and saying, ‘Yes, I’m an addict.’”
Perhaps that’s why Yaverbaum, who is Jewish, and DiMassimo, who is not, have decided to use the Jewish Day of Atonement as their next big day to get people to give their gadgets a rest. They encourage everyone, religious backgrounds aside, to make Yom Kippur (September 18) a technological device free day. That means that in addition to refraining from eating, drinking, showering, wearing leather shoes, applying perfume, and having sex, the Offlining guys are saying “no” to cellphones, Facebook, Twitter and texting too on Yom Kippur. Jews and non-Jews both use technology to do the precise things we ask forgiveness for on Yom Kippur, like gossiping, so I guess it makes sense to give those things a rest on this day.
As DiMassimo was quoted in the CNN.com article as saying, “It’s annoying to be in a room with people, and yet not be really with them. My dad’s an electrical engineer, and he’s always said, ‘We invent this stuff to serve us, not for us to serve it.’”
The Offlining campaign isn’t the first attempt to get people to give their tech gadgets a rest. If you remember, Reboot launched a Sabbath Manifesto a few months ago to get people to avoid technology and connect with loved ones for a 25-hour period. Signing the Sabbath Manifesto not only meant putting cellphones and computers on hold for the day, but it also meant getting outside, avoiding commerce and resting.
Offlining has a catchy marketing campaign. Using DiMassimo’s advertising company, they’ve created posters with images of celebrities who have gotten into trouble through the use of modern communication technologies. The tagline is that you need not be Jewish to amend for your tweets (Lindsay Lohan), give up drunk dialing (Mel Gibson), or atone for your texts (Tiger Woods, of course) on Yom Kippur.
When I spoke to Ravitz last week about her upcoming article on the Offlining campaign (my quotes apparently didn’t make the final edit), I explained that “it’s great that Offlining’s campaign is directed at everyone, not just Jewish people, because we all use our technology to sin sometimes. Whether it’s texting gossip or belittling someone on Facebook, we need to put technology aside to really atone on Yom Kippur. Plus, without the nuisance of our phones and computers we’ll be able to concentrate on the task at hand much more attentively on the Day of Atonement (prayer and seeking repentance).”
On Yom Kippur we fast — refraining from food and drink — and it has a cleansing feel to it. I think that in the 21st century, a fasting from technology is a necessary cleanse as well.
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LaCrosse Tribune
September 10, 2010
Will you take the gadget-free pledge?
More than 10,000 people have signed on to a campaign by two New York advertising gurus to turn off their cell phones during family dinners. Now the creators seek to make Yom Kippur — the Jewish Day of Atonement, observed this year on Sept. 18 — a gadget-free day for all Americans. According to creator Eric Yaverbaum: “When it comes to overuse, misuse and abuse of our devices, most of us have some atoning to do. What better time than the Jewish holidays for all of us to follow the example of contemplation and reconnecting with the important things.”
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CNN.com Belief Blog
September 9, 2010
A time for all to atone for tech sins
Eric Yaverbaum is as guilty as anyone of making technological transgressions. He’s ignored family to check emails while at the dinner table and tuned out of actual conversations to tune into Twitter.
But the 49-year-old New York public relations executive isn’t afraid to admit his sins.
“I’m the guy who sleeps with his BlackBerry,” Yaverbaum says. “I’m raising my hand and saying, ‘Yes, I’m an addict.’”
He is trying to make amends, though, and thinks you should, too. It is that time of year, after all.
The Jewish High Holy Days began at sunset Wednesday with the start of Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year. They end at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on the night of September 18. These 10 days, often referred to as the Days of Awe, are a time when Jews take stock of their lives, how they’ve lived them over the past year and seek forgiveness from individuals they may have wronged, intentionally or otherwise.
Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, a New York advertising exec who is not Jewish, partnered up to launch Offlining, an initiative to promote unplugging that was introduced on Father’s Day. The challenge they put forth then was to ask people to make a pledge to have 10 device-free dinners between then and Thanksgiving. So far, more than 10,500 have signed on.
Now they have seized Yom Kippur to preach their message further.
Let this day, September 18, be a “No-Device Day” for us all, no matter our religious backgrounds, they say.
“It’s annoying to be in a room with people, and yet not be really with them,” says DiMassimo, 48. “My dad’s an electrical engineer, and he’s always said, ‘We invent this stuff to serve us, not for us to serve it.’”
What a difference unplugging might have made for some notables who’ve graced tabloid covers.
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.
It’s their tales that drive this new advertising campaign. Take this ad, featuring Gibson’s smiling face, as an example: “You don’t have to be Jewish to give up drunk dialing for Yom Kippur.”
The ads can be sent, for free, as e-cards from the initiative’s website. Yaverbaum says that about 100,000 e-cards have already been delivered.
The duo has partnered up before to promote behavior modification. They launched a few years ago Tappening, a movement to popularize the drinking of tap water. Offlining, says DiMassimo, follows the same kind of model.
“No one is selling the off button because you don’t make money,” he says. “We want to feel we’re using our powers for good.”
That an online advertising campaign, targeting everyone, would incorporate a Jewish holiday is significant, says Rabbi Irwin Kula, author of “Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life.”
“You don’t have to have any relationship with Yom Kippur at all,” he says. “It’s a mixing and blending, bending and switching. Whoever you are in the system, it makes sense.”
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HEEB Magazine
September 8, 2010
Jews Asking The World To Shut Down On Yom Kippur
New York based firm Offlining Inc. is asking people around the world to unplug on Yom Kippur.
The idea is simple: overuse of technology has turned humanity into dirt. So being that Jews are not the only grouping of people that fall under the category of ‘human,’ then on Yom Kippur, everyone – yes goyim’! – should ‘unplug’ his/her devices to enjoy some goddamn peace and penance.
In other words, the fact that yids are louder, more aggresive and slightly more prone to lashon hara when using their varying PDA’s, smart phones or android whatchamafucks is no excuse for tightlipped protestants to continue their terse texting on the holiest day of the lunar calendar. “When it comes to overuse, misuse and abuse of our devices, most of us have some atoning to do,” says creator Eric Yaverbaum, “what better time than the Jewish holidays for all of us to follow the example of contemplation and reconnecting with the important things?”
For those who wish to turn their backs on Yaverbaum’s suggestion, do the peace panderer a service and pass along the message of his campaign – which includes an irreverent enough ad with a photo of Tiger Woods that says “You don’t have to be Jewish … to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.” If you have to send the link via iphone, we understand.
Oh yeah and merry kippur, or whatever.
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Ads Of The World
September 7, 2010
Offlining 
Show the world your real face.
On Sept. 18th, turn off your mobile device and get some real facetime
The Offlining, Inc. (www.offlininginc.com) initiative highlights America’s ever-growing addiction to technology. Since its Father’s Day launch, well over 10,000 people have taken the Offlining pledge to have No Device Dinners with their families. The co-founders — dynamic marketing duo, Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, who took a stance on “Lying in Advertising” for their Tappening campaign (to make tap water cool) — are now fearlessly treading into the territory of… “Religion in Advertising”.
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Wired
September 7, 2010
Should You Give Up Gadgets For A Day?
Clearly, some of us make bad decisions with our gadgets (case in point: Mel Gibson). But even without having to live down a mobile-phone–fueled tirade of Gibsonian proportions, many of us have sought forgiveness for our gadget-enabled sins through a ritual purge.
That’s the idea behind Offlining, which proposes that we all participate in a one-day digital fast.
Initially, the call was for a collective fast on Sept. 18, Yom Kippur — the Jewish Day of Atonement, which calls for total rest (including prohibiting use of any electronic devices) and abstaining from food and drink. Now, the team appears to be targeting Thanksgiving instead.
It’s an unusual exercise — an advertising campaign for nothing in particular (besides signing up to “pledge” to participate in a no-device day) that can’t quite decide whether it’s holy or secular, just as it can’t decide whether life online does terrible things to you, or that a one-day holiday from them would be kind of nice. The site includes a bullet-pointed “Ugly Facts About Life Online” that would make me retreat to the mountains if I took it seriously.
But the two marketers behind Offlining seem to have tapped into an element of the zeitgeist that is strangely attractive to an increasing number of people.
In a post at the Harvard Business Review, “The Dirty Truth Behind Digital Fasts,” Alexandra Samuel argues that we flirt with giving up our gadgets because we feel uncomfortable with how much we’ve invested of ourselves in them. “We plug in because we like it,” she writes, but “we’re in a period of self-doubt and self-interrogation about our budding emotional lives online.”
The whole process of a “digital fast,” whether real or imaginary, turns into a kind of legitimation ritual. We all get to participate in the rite, even if we don’t actually fast, because we argue about it. Call (“can I have meaningful relationships mediated through this technology”) meets response (“Yes, I can and do”).
The New York Times‘ “Unplugged Challenge” is probably the best example of this process at work. Volunteers give up technology, then make videos sharing their stories with nytimes.com readers. We watch another ordinary human being give up the very technology that we are using in order to watch them — and that they used in order to share their story. The social fabric is literally disconnected and reconnected again.
Even more confusing is how you draw the line: How much technology is too much?
Times columnist David Carr, for example, looks back fondly at the time “when there were only three networks and I could let my mind go slack as I half-watched Diane and Sam circle each other on Cheers, because that was pretty much the only thing on.” With Cable, TiVo, BitTorrent, Hulu, Netflix, et. al, television, “which was once the brain-dead part of the day, had become one more thing that required time, attention and taste.” For Carr, maybe, Hulu is too much but broadcast TV is OK.
But for other people, broadcast TV is too much because that, too, is clearly technology. So how far do you go back in deciding what counts as technology? Automobiles? Electricity? Fire?
As Kevin Kelly points out, human beings have always been technological, and our biology and social structures have flexed to accommodate new technology as it’s emerged:
Our ancestors first chipped stone scrapers 2.5 million years ago to give themselves claws. By about 250,000 years ago they devised crude techniques for cooking, or pre-digesting, with fire.
Cooking acts as a supplemental external stomach. Once humans acquired this artificial organ it permitted them to evolve smaller teeth and smaller jaw muscles and provided more kinds of stuff to eat. Our invention altered us.
At every technological jump forward, we create mechanisms to establish and justify the new “normal,” integrating it into who we are.
That’s why Carr can feel nostalgic for the way we enjoyed technology 20 years ago. Even most “digital fasts” don’t propose that anyone do the full Yom Kippur abstention from lighting fires or using any electronic devices.
Instead, like Offlining, they promote something smaller: disconnecting from the internet. All the rest is grandfathered in: watching television (so long as it isn’t too complicated), talking on the telephone (so long as you don’t stop to check your Twitter account), or driving a car (so long as you leave your iPod at home).
But give Carr credit: Unlike the guys at Offlining, at least he doesn’t ascribe virtue to his nostalgia. Unless slack-jawed laziness is a virtue — in which case, consider me sold.
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Sun Sentinel
September 7, 2010
‘No Device’ Day Campaign
Will you take the pledge?
More than 10,000 people have signed on to a campaign by two New York advertising gurus to turn off their cell phones during family dinners. Now the creators seek to make Yom Kippur — the Jewish Day of Atonement, observed this year on Sept. 18 — a gadget-free day for all Americans.
According to creator Eric Yaverbaum: “When it comes to overuse, misuse and abuse of our devices, most of us have some atoning to do. What better time than the Jewish holidays for all of us to follow the example of contemplation and reconnecting with the important things.”
The campaign includes an ad with a photo of Tiger Woods and this text: “You don’t have to be Jewish … to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.” Similarly irreverent ads feature Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson.
For more information, go to OffliningInc.com.
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Green Prophet
September 7, 2010
Are Your Wires Crossed? Go Offline for Yom Kippur
Along with numerous other bloggers, we have argued that a culture of doing and spending creates an impetus to do and spend more than the earth can provide. What happened to the simplicity of art to ease our earthly cares? Or simple earth-based architecture that celebrates and enhances its natural surroundings?
The Industrial Revolution happened, and more recently, an explosion of technology without which people believe they simply can not live. Certainly some technology makes life easier – like these solar stoves used in Darfur – but how often does your boss need to contact you on your shiny new iphone while you’re supposed to be having dinner with your friends or family?
Disconnect
A pair of marketers working on a public service campaign in New York argue they don’t. Our busy-ness has encouraged us to neglect rather than prioritize family, to nourish addictions to cellular phones and nifty new laptops the same way we worship our morning caffeine and evening downers.
We need to slooow dooown. Disconnect.
Asked why Eric Yaverbaum and his partner Mark DiMassimo chose Yom Kippur to highlight our desperate need to step off the whizzing world of breakneck information, Yaverbaum told the Jerusalem Post:
It just seemed to be the perfect holiday for anybody to make amends, to atone, to do something different…It’s a great time to think about their behavior and what they’ve done during the year, whether they’re Jewish or not.
Everyone can go offline
The pair make it clear that their campaign (http://offlining.com) to go offline and experience ten device-free days during the Jewish High Holidays has gathered 10,000 signatures, and not all of them are Jewish.
“You don’t have to be Jewish…to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur,” one ad reads, featuring a picture of shamed golfer Tiger Woods.
Everyone trying to compete has become more susceptible to narcissism, forgetfulness, and impatience, and it’s because we’re trying to do too much with too little time. So everyone can benefit from switching off.
Take back your self determination
Some New York rabbis are supportive of the measure, though some wish for something a little more meaningful than a fly-by-night ad campaign to get people to put their feet back on the ground.
Rabbi Dan Ain, rabbi in residence at 92YTribeca, told Jordana Horn:
We need to ask for more than a time-out every now and again…We need to think bigger and ask whether or not the price we pay – in the loss of our freedom, our privacy, and our self determination – is worth being able to watch the latest episode of Modern Family on the way to work.
This Yom Kippur, whether you’re Jewish or agnostic, why not take the opportunity to wean yourself off your favorite techno tool, and give yourself the chance to experience the peace and quiet of being. You might just like it.
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Jerusalem Post
September 6, 2010
‘Offlining’ campaign backs Yom Kippur ‘no-device’ day
“It’s time for us to recognize how wired we are and to take a breath;” US marketer launch an interfaith project for device-free family dinners
NEW YORK – Two US marketers are trying to start a revolution with the flick of a switch – specifically, the off-button on wireless communication devices.Eric Yaverbaum and his partner, Mark DiMassimo, call it “offlining” – deliberately being out of constant touch – and have started an ad campaign calling for Yom Kippur to be a “No-Device Day” for people of all faiths.
“You don’t have to be Jewish…to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur,” one ad reads, featuring a picture of shamed golfer Tiger Woods.
Another ad, accompanied by a picture of Mel Gibson, reads, “You don’t have to be Jewish to give up drunk dialing for Yom Kippur.”
What are these guys selling? Nothing, at least not yet, Yaverbaum said last week. Rather, they’re trying to influence behavior as a public service campaign.
Since starting their initiative in June, more than 10,000 people have signed the pledge on the Web site, http://offlining.com, to have 10 device-free dinners with their families. But, Yaverbaum said, this is just the beginning of the campaign to put a finger in the breaking dike of personal boundaries.
“In a culture that is getting faster and faster with technology, where people are working 24/7 and the multitasking has gone through the roof, you’re seeing the beginning of cultural changes,” Yaverbaum said, noting numerous studies that have suggested that excessive use of communications technologies renders us more impatient, narcissistic and forgetful, especially of the things that matter.“It’s time for all of us to recognize where our culture is going, how wired up we are, and to take a breath,” Yaverbaum said.
“We’ve got to sit down and talk to each other, and realize how all this technology will change the way people socialize, and not always for the better.”
So why attempt to persuade people to “turn off and drop out” on Yom Kippur, of all days? “It just seemed to be the perfect holiday for anybody to make amends, to atone, to do something different,” Yaverbaum said. “It’s a great time to think about their behavior and what they’ve done during the year, whether they’re Jewish or not.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many rabbis agree.
“I happen to think turning our phones and other devices off on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur would be a wonderful way to demonstrate to ourselves and others that we are serious about making people, not electronic tools, our priority,” said Rabbi Maurice Salth of Central Synagogue in New York, who plans on speaking about the role of technology in his 5771 High Holy Days sermon.
“I am hoping this New Year will be a time for those of us with a penchant for electronic and other personal technology to take the time to prioritize what is most important to us so that we can say hineni, here I am, to those most important to us,” he said.
Rabbi Dan Ain, rabbi in residence at 92YTribeca, teaches a class at New York’s Academy for Jewish Learning on “Faith, Technology and Halacha.” For Ain, the offlining initiative alone doesn’t do enough.
“Their hearts are in the right place, although these campaigns are not unlike fad diets,” Ain said.
“While the short-term gains might make us feel good about ourselves, we’ll more than likely yoyo to a place where we’re worse off than where we started.
“We need to ask for more than a time-out every now and again,” Ain said. “We need to think bigger and ask whether or not the price we pay – in the loss of our freedom, our privacy, and our selfdetermination – is worth being able to watch the latest episode of Modern Family on the way to work.”
And at least one rabbi took the idea a step further.
“I think that if people adopted one day when they would turn off all their cellphones, computers, etc., they might find it so exhilarating that on other days they might restrict their gadgets to certain times of the day,” New Jersey Rabbi Azriel Fellner said. “We’d all be healthier.”
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The Jewish Daily Forward
September 3, 2010
Atoning for Your Texts on Yom Kippur
At first glance, the ads echo the old “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s real Jewish rye” ads — the ones featuring distinctly non-Semitic faces in ecstasy over Jewish rye bread.
But in a $100,000 campaign that launches this week, the punims belong to scandal-bitten celebrities. And the look-alike ads tout the value of so-called “offlining” — shutting off hand-held devices — on September 18, otherwise known as Yom Kippur 5771.
“You don’t have to be Jewish to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur,” reads the headline on a poster featuring a stricken-looking Tiger Woods. Lindsay Lohan’s exhausted visage adorns an ad whose kicker is “…to make amends for your Tweets on Yom Kippur.” And a wrinkly, smiling Mel Gibson stars in an ad that shares the same message about giving up “drunk dialing for Yom Kippur.”
The offlining movement isn’t exactly organic; the founders of an ad agency and a PR firm teamed up to launch it earlier this year, ostensibly to atone for devoting “much of the last couple of decades to convincing you to log on, click here, call now, surf, search, pay bills in your underwear, trade from the beach, add ‘friends’ to your digital network and … tuck your children in from your mobile device,” according to the Offlining website.
“Offlining, Inc. isn’t selling anything but a balance between offline and online time,” the ad executive, Mark DiMassimo, stated in a press release; his cohort is Eric Yaverbaum, a publicist. “It’s a vehicle through which Eric and I and others can exercise our free speech rights to try to persuade people to turn off their devices from time to time,” DiMassimo wrote. “We don’t know if we’re going to convince Tiger, Mel or Lindsay to join the movement, but we hold out hope that we will.”
Although the sentiments are admirable, we think DiMassimo and Yaverbaum “doth protest too much.” While we’re all for people of all faiths ditching handheld devices 365 days a year, forever, Offlining feels more like a slick reverse-psychology pitch for new business.
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Baltimore Jewish Times
September 1, 2010
Campaign Pushing Yom Kippur as Device-Free Day
A new campaign is promoting Yom Kippur as a day to disconnect from technology.
Offlining, Inc. is the brainchild of advertising and public relations CEOs Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, self-professed children of the Silicon Revolution who launched http://www.offlininginc.com just before Father’s Day in June urging dads to put down their mobile devices, turn off the TV and spend time with their families.
Now they are urging all Americans, Jewish or not, to do the same on Sept. 18.
The two friends created an online campaign to support the initiative. One shows Tiger Woods with his hand on his heart and the slogan “You don’t have to be Jewish to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.”
Yaverbaum and DiMassimo, who say they make their living by using technology, write on their site that putting away the machines sometimes may be the best way to go.
Visitors to the site are encouraged to sign an online pledge to hold 10 “No-Device Dinners” between now and Thanksgiving, and to use the time they would have spent online to notice the people in their lives.
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New York Blueprint
August 31, 2010
Offlining.com Calls For ‘No-Device Day’ on Yom Kippur For All Faiths
The ‘Offlining, Inc.’ (www.offlininginc.com) initiative highlights America’s ever-growing addiction to technology. Since its Father’s Day launch, well over 10,000 people have taken the Offlining pledge to have No Device Dinners with their families. Now, the marketing duo co-founders Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, who took a stance on ‘Lying in Advertising’ for their Tappening campaign (to make tap water cool) – are fearlessly treading into the territory of ‘Religion in Advertising.’
The new campaign for Offlining is calling for Yom Kippur, Sept. 18, to be a ‘No-Device Day’ for people of all faiths. The new Offlining ads use the line “You don’t have to be Jewish to…” and feature three pop culture icons – Tiger Woods, Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson – who have experienced the consequences of their respective reliance on tech devices. Each of these three ads also comes in the form of an e-card that can be sent (but not on Yom Kippur!) at no charge from the Offlining, Inc. website. There are also three new “Show the World Your Real Face” e-cards that feature blank human faces with text – LOL, (-:, and XOXO, respectively – that’s splashed across the faces instead of facial features.
Here’s what the ads say: (You can view the ads and e-cards by clicking here: www.offlininginc.com):
–The first ad features Tiger Woods, with copy that reads “You don’t have to be Jewish… to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.”
–A second depicts Lindsay Lohan, with the copy, “You don’t have to be Jewish… to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur.”
–The third pictures Mel Gibson, with the caption, “You don’t have to be Jewish to give up drunk dialing for Yom Kippur.”
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Jewish Journal
August 31, 2010
Campaign calls for No-Device Day on Yom Kippur
A new campaign is inviting you to add mobile tech to your Yom Kippur fast.
Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo—two marketing CEOs who have worked hard to convince you to log on, click here, call now, surf, search, pay bills in your underwear, trade from the beach, etc.—are hoping to make Yom Kippur a “No-Device Day” for people of all faiths.
In June, Yaverbaum and DiMassino launched their first campaign via Offlining, Inc., asking dads to unplug on Father’s Day. The group reports that more than 10,000 have signed a pledge for No Device Dinners with their families.
Borrowing inspiration from William Bernbach’s Levy’s Rye Bread ad campaign, which features the tag line “You Don’t Have to Be Jewish to Love Levy’s,” the new Yom Kippur campaign from Offlining, Inc., includes ads – as well as e-cards—that contain celebrities known for problems tied to their reliance on mobile devices:
• Tiger Woods: “You don’t have to be Jewish to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.”
• Lindsay Lohan: “You don’t have to be Jewish to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur.”
• Mel Gibson: “You don’t have to be Jewish to give up drunk dialing for Yom Kippur.”
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Gear Log
August 30, 2010
Mel Gibson’s Visage Co-Opted For Yom Kippur “Offlining” Initiative
This is Mel Gibson. Odds are you know him already, perhaps work in such blockbuster films as 1979’s Mad Max, 1981’s Mad Max 2, 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and 1990’s Bird on the Wire. You may also know him from the bizarre anti-semitic rants he’s been known to go on, from time to time.
Back in July, phone calls surfaced online in which Gibson made some truly upsetting to his Russian artist girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. )You’ve no doubt already heard and read them enough. We will spare you for the moment.) It’s for this reason that marketing duo Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum have borrowed Gibson’s likeness for their new campaign, Offlining.
The campaign is asking computer users to make this Yom Kippur (September 18th) “a ‘No-Device Day’ for people of all faiths.” Naturally, when they thought of a Jewish high holy day, Mel Gibson immediately sprang to mind. The text accompanying Gibson’s image reads, “You don’t have to be Jewish… to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur.”
Also included in the campaign are fellow tarnished celebrities Tiger Woods and Lindsay Lohan. Their “ads” read You don’t have to be Jewish… to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur” and “You don’t have to be Jewish… to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur,” respectively.
The images are available now as e-cards. The campaign itself may be enough to make you want to shut down your computer and just walk away…
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CNET.com
August 30, 2010
September 18 deemed ‘No Device Day’
Click, send, call, text, Like, tweet, undo, reset, delete… it just doesn’t end. Which is why a couple of marketing guys are dubbing September 18 “No Device Day” for consumers who might be too involved with their gadgets.
Though the idea of dedicating an entire day to shutting devices off may seem silly (or virtually impossible) to some, Mark DiMassimo, CEO of ad firm Digo, and Eric Yaverbaum say they believe Americans need to be reminded to turn off their electronics from time to time. Thus, their “lifestyle intervention.”
They didn’t randomly choose September 18 for the latest installment of the larger Offlining ad campaign, though. It’s also Yom Kippur, considered by many Jews to be the holiest day of the year. On this day, also known as the Day of Atonement, observant Jews disengage from things like playing on their BlackBerrys, as well as other daily activities like writing, playing instruments, and even eating.
DiMassimo and Yaverbaum are applying the same tradition to No Device Day, but here’s their shtick–”You don’t have to be Jewish…”
Offlining is making examples of celebrities in their No Device Day campaign.
In an attempt to further their persuasion, they’ve taken photos of Lindsey Lohan, Mel Gibson, and Tiger Woods and plastered on phrases like, “You don’t have to be Jewish… to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur.” That sentiment specifically addresses Lohan’s infamously provocative tweets.
To be clear, the aforementioned celebrities haven’t signed on to the campaign. Although after Gibson’s embarrassing meltdown, he might want to consider it.
The Offlining campaign originally launched on Father’s Day of this year to urge people (dads were specifically targeted initially) to turn off their mobile devices and computers and devote some time to good old-fashioned face-to-face interaction. Offlining’s founders aren’t hesitant to call it a “guilt-tripping campaign.”.
The idea isn’t to eliminate gadgets from our lives altogether, they say. Instead, they’d like to encourage a healthy balance of online and offline activity.
In addition to No Device Day, the Offlining campaign also encourages families to have 10 no-device dinners between now and Thanksgiving. People who commit to the dinners are asked to take the pledge on Offlining’s Web site. More than 10,000 people have already signed up.
Not everyone will participate in No Device Day, to be sure, but the campaign day some food for thought: are we too dependent on our gadgets?
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Orlando Sentinel
August 30, 2010
Addicted to technology? Take a day off for Yom Kippur
The folks at Offlining Inc., who have dedicated themselves to curing Americans’ addiction to cell phones, laptops, iPods, iPads, texting, web-surfing, and Facebook-obsessing, are promoting Yom Kippur on Sept. 18 as a “No-Devices Day” for people of all faiths.
Since Mark DiMassino and Eric Yaverbaum started their off-line campaign on Father’s Day, more than 10,000 people have taken the pledge to have No Device Dinners with their families.
“Offlining, Inc. isn’t selling anything but a balance between offline and online time,” DiMassimo said. “It’s a vehicle through which Eric and I and others can exercise our free speech rights to try to persuade people to turn off their devices from time to time.”
Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days of the year for Jews, is devoted to atonment and repentance. It’s a day of fasting and prayer for forgiveness for sins committed during the year, which the Offlining folks contend includes excessive texting, tweeting, and web-surfing.
To learn more check out www.offlininginc.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Mary Clare Jensen
Ericho Communications
(P): 612.353.4846
(E): maryclare@erichopr.com
With over 10,000 pledges for “No Device Dinners,” Offlining Inc. shifts to a little RELIGION IN ADVERTISING for the Jewish holidays
Calling for Yom Kippur to be a ‘No-Device Day’ for everyone!
NEW YORK (August 30, 2010) – Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum – the dynamic marketing duo who took a stance on “Lying in Advertising” while their widely acclaimed backlash against bottled water, ‘Tappening,’ spread through the country (and helped make tap water cool: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/media/29adco.html) – are at it once again with a “lifestyle intervention,” this time branding the Off Button in their new initiative, Offlining, Inc. The new marketing campaign includes cutting-edge satirical ads and e-cards that tread fearlessly into the territory of…Religion in Advertising.
Launched on Father’s Day, 2010, Offlining, Inc. highlights America’s ever-growing addiction to technology. This “guilt-tripping,” in-your-face campaign urged people (dads were specifically targeted initially) to turn off their mobile devices and computers, and devote some quality time to good, old-fashioned face-to-face conversation and PDA-free family dinners.
The new Offlining, Inc. ad and e-card series calls for people of all faiths to make September 18, 2010 – Yom Kippur – a No-Device Day. Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for religious Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. It’s a day of fasting and prayer for forgiveness for sins committed during the year. Says Yaverbaum, “When it comes to overuse, misuse and abuse of our devices, most of us have some atoning to do. What better time than the Jewish holidays for all of us to follow the example of contemplation and reconnecting with the important things.”
One of the Offlining, Inc. ads features a rather well-known American sports figure with copy that reads “You don’t have to be Jewish… to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.” (Not all tigers will love that ad.) A second depicts a young, ‘much-tabloided and mug-shotted’ blonde actress, with the copy, “You don’t have to be Jewish… to make amends for your tweets on Yom Kippur,” and a third pictures an Australian actor with the caption, “You don’t have to be Jewish to give up drunk dialing for Yom Kippur.” (Mel Gibson will likely turn down any TV offers to play the part?)
Each of the three ads also comes in the form of an e-card that can be sent from the Offlining, Inc. website. The ads/e-cards can be viewed by clicking here: (www.offlininginc.com) and sent for free from the Offlining, Inc. website.
“Offlining, Inc. isn’t selling anything but a balance between offline and online time,” DiMassimo explains. “It’s a vehicle through which Eric and I and others can exercise our free speech rights to try to persuade people to turn off their devices from time to time. We don’t know if we’re going to convince Tiger, Mel or Lindsay to join the movement, but we hold out hope that we will.”
With a combined 50 years of experience in the fast-paced world of marketing, Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are the serial entrepreneurs behind the ‘Tappening’ (www.tappening.com) environmental movement and the political, educational ‘Read to Vote’ (www.readtovote.com) initiative. DiMassimo is CEO and Chief Creative Officer at the advertising, design and digital Agency for a Social World, DIGO (www.digobrands.com), which Fast Company cited as one of the 10 “Foremost World-Changing Agencies.” Yaverbaum, CEO of PR hot shop, Ericho Communications (www.erichopr.com), was called a “fast-talking, quick-moving New York public relations guru” by Forbes this past year.
About DIGO – The Agency for a Social World:
Founded in 1996, DiMassimo Goldstein (DIGO) is a leading full-service brand- and business-building agency focused on helping clients build deep, lasting, and profitable relationships. At DIGO, every dollar is put to work to build client business in a measurable way. The agency’s Social World Audit is part of a mission to lead the integration of word-of-mouth, buzz, and social media strategies into the total marketing communications mix. One (or more) of the country’s top PR brains vets every campaign idea for story value. Brand- and business-building initiatives encompass strategy, research, brand development, design, innovation, advertising, and direct, digital, and social marketing.
Connecting with human truths on serious topics in highly regulated categories, DIGO has helped clients such as Comcast, Crunch Fitness, Kinkos.com, Pfizer, Gateway, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vitaminwater, Instinet/Island, Starwood, ESPN, thinkorswim, Investools, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, J.H. Cohn, eBay, SunTrust, Citibank, Barclays Capital, and Mission Skincare, among others. Public relations services are seamlessly integrated through ErichoInside. For more information, visit www.digobrands.com .
About Ericho Communications:
Founded in 2007 by best-selling author Eric Yaverbaum, Ericho Communications is a full-service public relations firm where green meets the latest that technology has to offer. Ericho’s projects range from the launch of the first-ever mobile video text messaging company to a highly acclaimed identity-theft software launch to the introduction of the largest peer-to-peer video-sharing college website and the first-ever direct-to-consumer title insurance company. Ericho’s roster of clients are consistently covered in the news.
Yaverbaum is the former president of Jericho Communications, where for 21 years,he managed a who’s who of brand names that included IKEA Home Furnishings, Domino’s Pizza, Subway Sandwiches and Salads, Progressive Insurance, TCBY, Sony, H&M, Bell Atlantic, American Express, and many more. Yaverbaum served as President of CollegeClickTV.com and is also a co-founder of Tappening, a “drink local, think global campaign,” whose products were credited by GMA as the “hottest of 2008.”
Yaverbaum is also the author of six books, including “PR for Dummies,” which is required reading in marketing classes at 57 U.S. universities. His sixth book, “Life’s Little College Admissions Insights,” was published in January 2010. Ericho Communications has offices in New York City and White Plains. For more information, visit www.erichopr.com .
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Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are available for interview.
Copies of the ads are available.
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BeliefNet
August 12, 2010
Does Your Electronic Device Own You?
When I walk down the streets of NYC, I get annoyed at people who don’t look where they’re going because they’re too busy texting. They get in my way as I speed along and sometimes I almost get hit my one. When I do talks, I’m astounded at seeing the tops of people’s heads instead of their eyes watching me. Some actually come up to me after to say they were tweeting about me while they listened. I’d rather they shut their devices and just listen. Many people are consumed with electronic communication, like someone is cutting their blood supply if they turn it off. Addictions come in many forms.
I refuse to get caught up with this. When I’m out, I want to be out and not bring my work and everyone else with me. When I’m having dinner, my attention is on the people I’m with. We’re hurting personal connections by putting so much into electronic ones. So I’m delighted to have Eric Yaverbaum, CEO of a NYC public relations agency and Mark DiMassimo, a marketing executive, as my guests today. They’ve launched a campaign called Offlining, to get people to spend time with family with technology turned off. On their website, Offlining, you can sign their pledge to have 10 No-Device dinners between now and Thanksgiving Day 2010. Take control of your technology so it doesn’t control you!
NEW “Guilt-Tripping” Campaign Asks Parents to Turn Off PDAs and Spend Time with Family Sans Technology:
Co-Founders of ‘Tappening’ and ‘Read to Vote’ Launch Initiative with Satirical Ads
by Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo
People have been asking us why we–an advertising CEO and public relations CEO–decided to launch ‘Offlining, Inc.,’ an in-your-face campaign nudging everyone to turn off their mobile devices and computers for a while, in order to devote some time to good old-fashioned face-to-face conversations and PDA-free family dinners.
With a combined 50 years of experience in the fast-paced world of marketing, we know how pressing business demands can be, coming from all directions and at all hours. It was not until recently that we ourselves started enjoying the advantages of sometimes completely disconnecting our tech devices and devoting more undivided and focused attention to the people that matter most in our lives.
Now that we have experienced the benefits of “offlining,” we feel a strong desire to use our combined resources to try to positively influence America’s perspective.
Well, yes, we’re marketers. We’ve devoted much of the last couple of decades convincing people to log on, click here, call now, surf, search, pay bills in your underwear, trade from the beach, add “friends” to your digital network and, as AT&T once famously promised in their “You Will” campaign, tuck your children in from your mobile device. We’re still doing that. But now we’re also going to be selling the ‘off button!’
In addition to being marketers, we’re also husbands and fathers. (Mark is the father of three children; Eric has two.) So, we’ve now chosen to launch ‘Offlining, Inc.,’ an initiative that urges dads and moms to boldly turn off all of their mobile devices and spend time with their families; with those that matter most – sans technology.
Two of the most gratifying accomplishments of our careers were partnering to influence America’s perception of bottled water (with our “Tappening” campaign to ‘make tap water cool’) and, more recently, encouraging more than one million people to read bills before they become legislation (with our “Read-to-Vote” campaign pledges). Now, we want to help restore some balance to what we see as today’s way-overly-wired communication methods.
The distraction that technology has created will only get worse with time.
With Offlining, we’re asking that people take a pledge to have ten No-Device Dinners between now and Thanksgiving Day 2010. Be sure to make Thanksgiving Day a No-Device Day! We’re urging (some say guilt-tripping) that you use some of the time you would have spent online to really notice and engage with the people in your life!
We’re currently in a bubble of technology enthusiasm. We don’t believe we’re starting a trend. We think we’re naming one that’s already in progress, and we’re using our marketing skills to accelerate it and raise more awareness about it. We’re hoping to add fuel to a national conversation that’s already begun.
If you want to get involved in Offlining, Inc., you can send a card from the site to your favorite ‘tech addict’ and/or sign the pledge promising 10 device-free dinners from now until Thanksgiving Day (definitely include Thanksgiving Day!). And, you can make whatever additional vows to abstain from technology that would work for you. Tell your friends and colleagues about Offlining and contribute to the conversation!! I signed the pledge. You should too!
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Whom You Know
August 2, 2o10
ABC Another Brilliant Campaign: Offlining, Inc.
We have heard of Another Brilliant Campaign: Offlining! We love that you love Whom You Know, but we encourage you to have lives as well.
Mark DiMassimo & Eric Yaverbaum Co-Founders, Offlining Inc.
Why Offlining?
Short answer: We persuade for a living.
We’ve devoted much of the last couple of decades to convincing you to log on, click here, call now, surf, search, pay bills in your underwear, trade from the beach, add “friends” to your digital network and, as AT&T once famously promised in their “You Will” campaign, tuck your children in from your mobile device.
Then one day we made a mistake — we looked up. We took our eyes off the screen long enough to see. We noticed we had kids and wives. We took in the way leaves open their faces to the sun. We reacquainted ourselves with the sounds birds make. And we realized these things could no longer compete.
We marketers had won!
All around us, all the heads in all the malls, airports and train stations seemed bowed in reverence to the device. Life had become multi-screen, multi-task, multi-plexed, mashed-up, an unrelieved contest for diminishing attention. And those who use the media professionally were perhaps the most inundated of all
We are children of the Silicon Revolution. Eric’s Mom was one of America’s first female PhD’s in Computer Science. She still writes textbooks on this stuff. Back in the 70s she told Eric everyone would one day have a computer in their home – and he was pretty sure she was crazy. Mark’s dad designed integrated circuits, from the first speed dial to a giant particle accelerator. He used to say,
“We invent technology to be our servant, not our master.”
So, we decided to strike a blow for mastery, with the aim of tilting the balance and putting humanity back on top where we belong.
We’re not fundamentalists. We’re not anti-marketing. In fact, we love marketing and we respect it’s power, which is why we’re committed to applying our expertise to the important things. And we’re not anti-technology — on the contrary, we love technology and all it can do for us. But we’re only going to enjoy those benefits if we learn to use the Off Button.
So, this is our way of giving back and of helping you take back. Join us. Try making an Offlining Resolution. Have 10 Offling dinners from now through Thanskgiving Day. Consider committing to a weekly Offline Sabbath. We think you’ll be glad you did, and we’re pretty sure you’ll find others who are glad too.
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USA Network
July 27, 2010
Put Down the BlackBerry, Change Your Life
In the realm of ideas that might change the world, putting your BlackBerry down for a day might seem like a silly one. After all, technology gives us the tools to make an impact, and this category of the Character Approved Blog in particular focuses on how technology and new media is being used to make that impact. Sometimes, however, the best lessons come from something unexpected.
That is certainly the case with the Offlining movement, a project that launched this past Father’s Day with a humble call to dads everywhere to put down their BlackBerries, turn off their iPhones, store their laptops and just enjoy a day with their families without the interruption of technology. In this interview, one of the creators of the Offlining movement, Mark DiMassimo, shares a bit about the inspiration for the project, why it was so personal, and how inspiration can come from knowing when to walk away from technology instead of letting it control our lives.
The Offlining movement might seem like an odd cause to take up for two marketers who actively use technology for promotion–why was this project so important to both of you?
It’s personal. My partner Eric Yaverbaum and I spend the better part of our daily lives online. We also have families, business partners, employees, clients and friends, all of whom deserve and for the most part expect a certain quality of attention. So, we’re living the paradox.
The movement launched with a call for fathers everywhere to put down their BlackBerries and turn off technology for a day during this past Father’s Day. Can you share a bit about how it went and whether you were happy with the launch?
We rushed to get ready for Father’s Day, and only had a week to get the message out, so the activity floored us!!! Over 20,000 cards [promoting the project] were downloaded and sent through Twitter alone. We had 75,000 unique visitors to the site; one in three sent a card from the site. And, we had 8,117 pledges (over 10% of visitors signed the pledge and we’re just getting started!). This was supposed to be a soft-ish sort of launch, so we’re delighted and believe this indicates we’ve hit a nerve.
Are technology and quality time with family and friends really such opposing forces? What about social networking or other uses of online technology that sometimes help bring people together?
Technology is wonderful for connecting and reconnecting people. It creates occasions for sharing common interests and play as well. Technology also makes necessary tasks easier and quicker, potentially creating more time to connect. Of course, we spend most of our time selling just these advantages. However, we can use technology to promote the overlooked but essential value, and to contribute to a conversation that may help people restore some balance.
For the overly wired readers who can’t imagine going offline for any amount of time, what tips can you share to combat the fear of being disconnected that may be keeping some people from joining the movement?
The bestselling author, Dan Heath (Made to Stick, Switch), told me that in order to focus on writing, he uses an old, stripped-down laptop with no email or Internet connection. Were it not for this offlining innovation of Dan’s, we would not have the inspirational books. Just think: What could you accomplish by creating some space for yourself?
If the Offlining movement catches on, how do you think it might change the world we live in?
Sensible rituals help people and families maintain their balance and connection to the important things. My family has a family night every week, and the kids make sure Dad keeps his vow to stay offline. When Eric takes his son to a Yankee game, the two of them count how many people have their faces in their PDAs and how many are watching the game. Our humble wish and bold expectation is that more people will adopt rituals that make offline time a regular part of their lives. We think they will find that their interactions, with people and with technology will be richer, more purposeful, and more satisfying.
Beyond that, we don’t believe we’re starting a trend. We believe that we are naming one that is already in progress. We’re using our skills to accelerate it. Eric and I expect to fuel a national conversation about this, and to see others take the conversation and the innovation to levels we can’t even imagine.
And we have pretty good imaginations 
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WABC-TV
July 5, 2010
Put Down Those Devices And Go ‘Offlining’
NEW YORK (WABC) – A new campaign to spend more face to face time is called “offlining”.
Eric Yaverbaum is a PR head, and Mark DiMassimo is a marketing executive.
They frequently work together, but these days, they are the client.
“We got together and said what’s bugging us about the world, and we said the off button. No one is selling the off button,” Yaverbaum said.
In other words, everyone is yapping, texting and typing away.
So, Eric and Mark are spending their own money to get people to turn off those devices, they call it offlining.
“We would like to accelerate a conversation of building offline time into life, that’s basically it,” said DiMassimo.
Ironically, to go offline, they’d like you to go online and send witty cards reminding your loved ones to engage in face to face experiences.
They hope people will pledge to have 10 device-free family dinners between now and Thanksgiving, which as it turns out, may be a bit of a stretch.
Even Mark and Eric clung to their devices during their interview with Eyewitness News.
Three years ago, Mark and Eric waged another campaign to get people to forgo bottled water in exchange for tap that was called Tappening.
This time around, they are hoping people make use of another natural resource, each other!
You can check out their website www.offlininginc.com to learn about going offline.
Watch the WABC-TV segment here.
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Discover Yourself
June 24, 2010
NEW “Guilt Tripping” Ad Campaign Asks Parents to Turn Off PDAs and Spend Time with Family Sans Technology
A new campaign, ‘Offlining, Inc.’, an in-your-face campaign nudging us all to turn off our mobile devices and computers for a while in order to devote a little time to a good old face-to-face conversation or family dinner, was launched this past father’s day. ‘Tappening’ environmental movement and the educational and political ‘Read to Vote’ campaign are behind this latest effort. They are requesting that parents take a pledge to have at least ten No Device Dinners between now and Thanksgiving. Of course implicit in this request is that Thanksgiving Day should also be a No Device Day.
The idea that we have to make this request of parents demonstrates how disconnected family members have become due to the various technological gadgets present in the average household. While I applaud these efforts, it is rather frightening that they requested only ten days of device-free dinners between now and Thanksgiving; that’s 5 months. Given all the findings that children who eat with their families are less likely to drink, smoke, do drugs, struggle with asthma, get depressed and have eating disorders, it would seem that either the message is not getting out there, or the addiction to these devices is out of control.
The interesting thing is that the benefit children experienced was not merely because they were eating dinner with their parents. It turned out that the quality of their conversation was an essential factor. That is, the kids who did well didn’t just eat dinner with their families. They ate dinner with families that maintained complex conversation, rich with explanation, storytelling and more. So, parents, you know what I recommend: Dinner with stimulating conversations with your children every night.
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Buttoned Up
June 22, 2010
Make A Pledge And Turn Off Technology
I came across this great site that just launched.
It is called Offlining, and it urges everyone to turn off their mobile devices and computers, and devote real attention to the people that matter most in life.
Now who can argue with that?!
It is really very simple.
Sign up to “Take The Pledge” and commit to TEN no-device dinners between now and Thanksgiving Day 2010. I am going to do that.
We need that in the Rockmore household where we have 2 iPhones, an iPad, 3 laptops, a computer, 4 DVRs and who know what else…. Come join me. Leave me a comment and let me know that you are in.
Additional information is available at www.offlininginc.com — including e-cards and the opportunity to sign up to “Take The Pledge”.
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Sound Shore – LoHUD Blog
June 18, 2010
Westchester Men Promote “Offlining” For Dads
Starting at dinner time on Sunday, your television is gone. The Internet was never invented and you will lose your cellphone, PDA, pager and laptop. Well, at least for 10 days.
Eric Yaverbaum of Larchmont and Mark DiMassimo of Rye are encouraging fathers to turn off all electronic devices as part of their OFFLINING campaign. Professional marketers by trade, the two have become disenchanted with the world marketing has wrought — entire families spending more time glued to iPhones, Blackberries, the Internet and television than with each other.
Their solution: Between Father’s Day and Thanksgiving, pledge to have 10 No-Device Dinners with family. String the days together or space them apart over the coming months, but the goal is for fathers, mothers, sons and daughters to spend more time communicating without distraction, DiMassimo said. Thanksgiving would be a No-Device Day.
“As long-time marketing professionals, my partner, Eric Yaverbaum, and I have devoted much of the last two decades convincing people to click here, call now, shop online, log on, search, pay bills in your underwear, trade from the beach, and add “friends” to your digital network,” DiMassimo said. “I remembered what my father – a man who had designed integrated circuits, from the first speed dial to a giant particle accelerator, had said to me when I was a boy: ‘We invent technology to be our servant, not our master.’”
More information is available at http://www.OffliningInc.com and you can also sign the pledge at the website. Just be sure to do it before Sunday.
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Working Mother
June 17, 2010
Tell Dad to Go Offline & Tune In
Tweet This: Tell Dad to go offline and tune in starting with Father’s Day. Read about a new movement for Dads to connect http://bit.ly/cjHaq2 #workmom
OFFLINING, INC. Launches on Father’s Day!
With a combined 50 years of experience in the world of marketing, my partner, Mark DiMassimo, and I have devoted much of the last twenty-plus years convincing people to log on, click here, call now, surf, search, pay bills and shop online in your underwear, trade from the beach, add “friends” to your digital network and, as AT&T once famously promised in their “You Will” campaign — tuck your children in from your mobile device.
But, we’re also husbands and fathers. Mark is the father of three children; I have two. As our newest joint venture –following on the heels of the ‘Tappening’ campaign to discourage bottled water use, and ‘Read to Vote’ that encouraged over 1 million people to read bills in Congress before they became legislation – we’ve chosen to launch ‘Offlining, Inc.,’ an initiative that urges dads to turn off all of their mobile devices and spend time with their families; with those that matter most- sans technology.
And, we’ve decided to launch this campaign on Father’s Day. We believe Father’s Day is a day not just for celebrating fathers, but also for celebrating fatherhood and the valued, valuable, well…priceless attention fathers give to their families. We’re asking that people take a pledge to have ten No-Device Dinners between Father’s Day and Thanksgiving Day 2010. Make both Father’s Day and Thanksgiving Day a No-Device Day. We’re urging (some say ‘guilt tripping’) that you use the time you would have spent online to really notice and engage with the people in your life!
Mark and I are both children of the Silicon Revolution. My mom was one of America’s first female PhD’s in Computer Science. She’s written textbooks on the stuff. Back in the 70s she told me everyone would one day have a computer in their home; I was pretty sure she was nuts. Mark’s dad designed integrated circuits, from the first speed dial to a giant particle accelerator. He used to say to Mark, “We invent technology to be our servant, not our master.”
So, while we’re certainly not anti-marketing (that’s what we do best!) or anti-technology (those are the tools we use for what we do!), we know that the distraction that technology has created will only get worse with time. And, we believe we’re only going to be able to enjoy the benefits of technology if we learn to use the Off Button.
The Red, White, And Green
June 17,2010
‘Offlining’ Campaign Asks Dads To Turn Off The Blackberry
Scrambling for a last-minute present for Father’s Day? I could offer up a host of green gift suggestions, like a Nalgene BPA-free reusable water bottle customized with a photo skin of you and your dad; or a six-pack of beer from his favorite sustainable brewery. Both are great, but here’s the thing: The most appreciated — not to mention sustainable — gift you can offer this Sunday isn’t something I can add to a Top 10 Eco-Friendly Father’s Day Gifts list.
No, it’s something harder to come by in the tech-crazed, never-stop-for-a-moment world we live in, and that’s time. Undistracted time. (With you, of course.)
That’s why I’m loving the Offlining campaign, which will officially launch this Father’s Day. Founders Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are urging fathers to go BlackBerry/iPhone/laptop-free for the day and spend a little old-fashioned quality time with their families.
DiMassimo and Yaverbaum are marketing gurus by trade, so it’s no surprise that the ads and e-cards promoting this No-Device Day and others to come are total genius.
Inspired to go beyond Father’s Day? Take the Offlining Pledge and commit to 10 no-device dinners between now and Thanksgiving Day 2010. I, for one, will be signing up, though no thumb-twisting will be involved: I’ve been BlackBerry-free since Earth Day.
–Jennifer Grayson
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Star Banner
June 14, 2010
Give Dads What They Really Want
So there you go, ladies. Plan a day of fun and relaxation for the dad in your life, from breakfast right down to dinner. Map out the course and share the day’s itinerary with him that morning.
Another friend, Paul, says you can’t go wrong with a couple of Pixar DVDs, you know. That’s the company that brought us the likes of “Toy Story,” “The Incredibles,” “Finding Nemo” and “Cars.”
Those are films dad could enjoy with the family, making it a nice gift choice for sure. Top it off with a homemade card from the kids, Paul suggests.
If dads find themselves too busy these days, perhaps they can take a cue from the two dads who are launching a new initiative at offlininginc.com. These dads are suggesting that all dads start their offline adventure by taking a break from their electronic devices on Father’s Day. Yes, turn off the cell phones, the iPhones, Blackberries and the like, and focus your attention on your family. But that’s just the start. They also suggest doing the same for nine more days between now and Thanksgiving Day.
If this is a real issue for the dad in your life, this site even has free Father’s Day e-cards you can send to his electronic device that bring this point home with humor.
Of course this wouldn’t work for my friend, Dave, who says the ideal gift would be some time alone with his iPhone.
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Bulldog Reporter
June 14, 2010
On the Campaign Trail: New “Guilt-Tripping” Father’s Day Ad Campaign Launches, Asking Dads to Turn Off PDAs and Spend Time with Families — Sans Technology
As Father’s Day approaches — and as most dads get busier and busier in a 24/7 business world — New York City-based marketing entrepreneurs Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum — the duo behind the Tappening environmental movement and the educational and political Read to Vote campaign — have launched Offlining, Inc. (www.offlininginc.com), a new campaign nudging dads to turn off their mobile devices and computers for a while in order to devote a little time to a good old face-to-face conversation or family dinner.
Yaverbaum, father of two, and DiMassimo, father of three, chose to launch the new Offlining, Inc., initiative on Father’s Day because they believe it’s a day not just for celebrating fathers, but also for celebrating fatherhood, including the priceless attention fathers give to their families. On the Offlining website children have the opportunity to send one of four in-your-face e-cards to their dad, including one that reads: “Happy Father’s Day. There’s nothing like the bond between a father and his son. Other than the bond between a father and his blackberry, obviously.” Additionally, as a way to help take back the day, Offlining, Inc., is declaring Father’s Day 2010 a “No-Device Day” and respectfully requesting that no one visit the site that day.
Says DiMassimo, “Eric and I have spent most of the past two decades convincing people to click, log on, trade stocks in their underwear, go shopping online, and spend more time with their digital friends. We’re still doing that. But now we’re also going to be selling the off button!”
Yaverbaum adds, “One of the most gratifying accomplishments of my 30-year career was partnering with Mark to influence America’s perception of bottled water. More recently, we were able to encourage more than one million people to read bills before they become legislation. The distraction that technology has created will only get worse with time, and our use of that technology seemed like a very worthwhile behavior to attempt to alter.”
A $100,000 ad campaign goes hand in hand with the website launch. The ad campaign includes tongue-in-cheek copy like, “How do you want to be remembered?” paired with an image of a man in a coffin — still gripping his blackberry. The campaign will include wild postings in New York City and Los Angeles, as well as social marketing efforts. Additionally, various “guerrilla interruptizing” events are being planned.
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Mary Clare Jensen
(P) 612-353-4846
(E) maryclare@erichopr.com
NEW “Guilt-Tripping” Ad Campaign Asks Dads to Turn Off PDAs and Spend Time with Family … Sans Technology
Co-Founders of the Influential Brands Tappening and Read to Vote Launch Initiative on Father’s Day with Satirical Ad Campaign
NEW YORK (June 9, 2010) – The New York City–based dynamic marketing duo and serial entrepreneurs behind the Tappening environmental movement (www.tappening.com ) and the educational and political Read to Vote campaign (www.readtovote.org) are putting their creative genius to the test again, this time with the launch of Offlining, Inc., an in-your-face campaign nudging us all to turn off our mobile devices and computers for a while in order to devote a little time to a good old face-to-face conversation or family dinner.
With a combined 50 years of experience in the fast-paced world of marketing, Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum know how pressing business demands can be, coming from all directions and at all hours. It was not until recently that they started enjoying the advantages of completely disconnecting their tech devices and devoting real attention to the people that matter most in their lives. Now that they’re reaping the benefits of “offlining,” they feel a burning desire to yet again use their combined resources to positively influence America’s perspective.
Widely regarded as one of the most innovative creatives in the field of advertising, DiMassimo runs NYC-based advertising, design, and digital Agency for a Social Worldä DIGO (www.digobrands.com), which Fast Company cited as one of the 10 “Foremost World-Changing Agencies.” Yaverbaum, President of PR agency hot shop Ericho Communications (www.erichopr.com), was called a “fast-talking, quick-moving New York public relations guru” by Forbes this past year.
Says DiMassimo, “Eric and I have spent most of the past two decades convincing people to click, log on, trade stocks in their underwear, go shopping online, and spend more time with their digital friends. We’re still doing that. But now we’re also going to be selling the off button!”
Yaverbaum, father of two, and DiMassimo, father of three, chose to launch the new Offlining, Inc., initiative on Father’s Day because they believe it’s a day not just for celebrating fathers, but also for celebrating fatherhood, including the priceless attention fathers give to their families. On the Offlining website (www.offlininginc.com), children have the opportunity to send one of four in-your-face e-cards to their dad, including one that reads: “Happy Father’s Day. There’s nothing like the bond between a father and his son. Other than the bond between a father and his blackberry, obviously.” Additionally, as a way to help take back the day, Offlining, Inc., is declaring Father’s Day 2010 a “No-Device Day” and respectfully requesting that no one visit the site that day.
Yaverbaum adds, “One of the most gratifying accomplishments of my 30-year career was partnering with Mark to influence America’s perception of bottled water. More recently, we were able to encourage more than one million people to read bills before they become legislation. The distraction that technology has created will only get worse with time, and our use of that technology seemed like a very worthwhile behavior to attempt to alter.”
A $100,000 ad campaign goes hand in hand with the website launch. The ad campaign includes tongue-in-cheek copy like, “How do you want to be remembered?” paired with an image of a man in a coffin gripping his blackberry. The campaign will include wild postings in New York City and Los Angeles, as well as social marketing efforts. Additionally, various “guerrilla interruptizing” events are being planned.
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Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are available for interview.
“Guilt-Tripping” ads and Father’s Day e-cards are available upon request.
About DIGO – The Agency for a Social Worldä:
Founded in 1996, DiMassimo Goldstein (DIGO) is a leading full-service brand- and business-building agency focused on helping clients build deep, lasting, and profitable relationships. At DIGO, every dollar is put to work to build client business in a measurable way. The agency’s Social World Audit is part of a mission to lead the integration of word-of-mouth, buzz, and social media strategies into the total marketing communications mix. One (or more) of the country’s top PR brains vets every campaign idea for story value. Brand- and business-building initiatives encompass strategy, research, brand development, design, innovation, advertising, and direct, digital, and social marketing.
Connecting with human truths on serious topics in highly regulated categories, DIGO has helped clients such as Comcast, Crunch Fitness, Kinkos.com, Pfizer, Gateway, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vitaminwater, Instinet/Island, Starwood, ESPN, thinkorswim, Investools, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, J.H. Cohn, eBay, SunTrust, Citibank, Barclays Capital, and Mission Skincare, among others. Public relations services are seamlessly integrated through ErichoInside. For more information, visit www.digobrands.com.
About Ericho Communications:
Founded in 2007 by best-selling author Eric Yaverbaum, Ericho Communications is a full-service public relations firm where green meets the latest that technology has to offer. Ericho’s projects range from the launch of the first-ever mobile video text messaging company to a highly acclaimed identity-theft software launch to the introduction of the largest peer-to-peer video-sharing college website and the first-ever direct-to-consumer title insurance company. Ericho’s roster of clients are consistently covered in the news.
Yaverbaum is the former president of Jericho Communications, where for 21 years, he managed a who’s who of brand names that included IKEA Home Furnishings, Domino’s Pizza, Subway Sandwiches and Salads, Progressive Insurance, TCBY, Sony, H&M, Bell Atlantic, American Express, and many more. Yaverbaum served as President of CollegeClickTV.com and is also a co-founder of Tappening, a “drink local, think global campaign,” whose products were credited by GMA as the “hottest of 2008.”
Yaverbaum is also the author of four books, including PR for Dummies, which is required reading in marketing classes at 57 U.S. universities. His sixth book, Life’s Little College Admissions Insights, was published in January 2010. Ericho Communications has offices in New York City and White Plains. For more information, visit www.erichopr.com.