Every week there are articles published that are of interest to promotional products industry professionals across the land. To save you time, a rotating group of PromoKitchen chefs have culled the internet for the ones you should read and the ones you should skip. This week’s Dish was authored by Chef Bill Petrie.

Paper Calendars Endure Despite Digital Age – “Must Read” Article of the Week

This is a terrific article that made the rounds last week in the promotional products world for good reason. With clients seemingly wanting all things digital and technology-focused, it’s easy to ignore the fact that the sales of imprinted calendars increased by 8% - and for good reason. With so much digital “noise,” something as simple as paper begins to make a lot of sense. This is a great article to share with end users as well.

The Best and Worst Swag of 2016 (video)

Over at avclub.com, they collect the promotional merchandise (aka, swag) they receive throughout the year from people to curry their favor and share the best and the worst of it. Not only does this ten-minute video give you a peek inside the heads of end-user, but you may even find a product you would want to show your client. I won’t spoil what they think is the best or worst promo in 2016, but it’s most certainly worth the watch.

American Airlines Executives Don New Uniforms to Show They Are Safe to Wear

• Dogs and cats
• Oil and water
• Alcohol and cell phones
• Airline executives and flight attendants

The above are four things that will never, ever get along. If you recall (and you’ll be forgiven if you don’t), American Airlines rolled out new uniforms earlier this year that employees complained that the apparel caused hives, wheezing, coughing, and headaches. While they could be speaking about passengers, employees pointed the finger directly at their new duds. To show employees that the allegations are unfounded, airline executives have been trying to prove the wool blend garments are safe by wearing them to the office. This has not satisfied the Association of Flight Attendants who have filed a grievance against the airline stating that the uniforms threaten the health of flight attendants. Can’t we all just get along?

Would You Wear Socks with Your Company Logo?

Let’s face reality, the whole “check out my sassy business socks to show you how different I am” thing is close to being played out.  Like most things, what was once unique and cool has been hijacked by the masses making it as homogeneous as a gallon of milk at your local Kroger. This article explores what would drive employees to wear “crazy” socks with a company logo on them. From a psychological perspective, this article is very interesting as the theories behind the why or why not a person would wear their company logo on anything are solid – just substitute the word “sock” for “golf shirt.”

4 Simple Tips to Crush Content Marketing in 2017 – “Don’t Waste Your Time Reading” Article of the Week

I loathe when the title of an article promises me something that I know is going to be crap. In this instance, I knew that the article wouldn’t help me crush anything except for my hopes that the words in the piece had meaning. The first tip – “consider your audience” –  is innocent enough, but it’s not anything that 5,000 content marketing articles have said before. Where this article really goes off the rails, however, is tip 2 titled “be a headline hero.” In this tip, the author states that a writer should spend “80% of time on the headline and 20% on the actual content.” While a headline is important to grab attention, spending only 20% of the effort on creating the content is beyond misguided. The article continues its downhill slide from there with the other tips which are “staying engaged” and “create a call to action.” This author clearly drinks his own Kool-Aid as I don’t think he spent more than 4 minutes on the content of the article. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.