One Year Post Grad

As spring fades and summer heats up I realize it has been exactly one year since I graduated from college. Last May I was a proud graduate of Adelphi University with a Bachelor’s Degree and barely a clue of my future. Like many graduates I packed up my dorm room and headed back to my hometown to figure out my next move. But after I unpacked the last four years of my life and settled into my parents’ house I realized that after four years away from home the last place I wanted to be was there.

So with an updated cover letter and resume I hit the career websites. After about a week of in-person interviews and countless emails correspondence, I realized it wasn’t necessarily the jobs I wasn’t interested in, it was the location. A small town in New Jersey is no place for a girl with big PR dreams and New York is where I wanted to be. Luckily I had met a really great mentor and friend while interning in college who saw my potential and began to make calls on my behalf. Within a few days she gave me  JS² Communications’ contact information and I emailed Alissa. After a short phone interview I was offered a paid internship for two days a week and I took it! 

The following Monday I arrived at JS² Communications’ New York office and dove right into work. What happened next is completely a ‘right place, right time’ situation – on my second day at JS² I was offered a full time internship with the possibility of becoming a full time employee! I definitely hit the internship/career jackpot on that one. By August I was a full time Account Coordinator and almost one year later I’m an Assistant Account Executive.

Of course not all career beginnings are as successful but I’d like to think there is just as much hope and opportunity for the Class of 2009. The key to finding and making a career is to be driven and never give up. It may take weeks or even months after graduation before landing the perfect opportunity, but I promise it is worth it. In my case I took a chance with a part-time internship in my desired field, hoping that it would turn into something more.

Currently at JS² Communications we have two fabulous interns with a world of potential; Jennifer Rodstrom in the New York office and Sheri Holt in the Los Angeles office.

Congratulations to the Class of 2009! 

Restaurant Bargain Dining For Savvy Recessionistas (Recessionistos)

On the bright side of the downward-spiraling economy, many local restaurants are thinking creatively and giving extra perks for their guests to take advantage of. I like to think of them as “the toy in your cereal.” It’s a small surprise, makes you smile and starts your day with a spring in your step. Savvy recessionistas (and recessionistos) can wine and dine at Los Angeles’ best restaurants for a major bargain if you can keep track of all the recession deals and plan accordingly.

Our restaurant clients are thinking outside of the menu to help everyone get through this downturn and drive business. Fortunately for us, it works out in our favor. Recession or not we still need to eat and eat well! I recommend keeping a Google Calendar of drinking and dining deals, that way you can keep all the various deals organized and know where to save your bucks on any given night. Here are some of my favorite recession-friendly dining deals from our restaurant clients that help save moo-lah while filling your bell-lay:

Grilled Cheese Workshop at Patinette at MOCA – Craft your own gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches for only $5. Choose your bread, cheese, extra and sauce. Choices include whole wheat bread, rye bread, walnut currant brad, fresh mozzarella, chipotle cheddar, Fontina, goat cheese, grilled onions, bacon, dill pickles, basil pesto, yuzu aioli or garlic aioli.


Pot Roast Sundays at Tender Greens – Old-fashioned pot roast dinners for $10 every Sunday. Coleman Farms beef short rib “roast” braised in red-wine sauce with Yukon gold mashed potatoes and your choice of side salad or vegetable.


Free passed appetizers during happy hour at RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen – If you can snag a seat at the bar for happy hour, Chef Mohan will send out a selection of passed appetizers for you to nibble on and try. The lacquered bqq ribs are worth fighting for.


Free valet during lunch at Maggiano’s Little Italy at The Farmer’s Market at The Grove – Everyone in LA knows that the parking situation at The Grove is bumper to bumper during lunch time, so Maggiano’s at The Farmer’s Market at The Grove offers their lunch diners free valet between 11:30AM and 3PM. Slip in a little lunchtime shopping while you’re at the Grove or catch a movie and woohoo free parking!

Bottomless mimosas during brunch and bottomless wine carafes everyday $15 at Ivan Kane’s Café Wa s – Bottomless = all you can drink! That’s $15 for all you can drink mimosas and wine carafes, best deal in Hollywood. Throw in a few canapés to soak up the drinks and meander over to ArcLight Hollywood afterwards to catch a matinee flick.

Hobo night on Mondays at Café Wa s, grilled cheese and French fries for $10 at Café Wa s – More grilled cheese and crispy French fries, my favorite comfort food. Another cheapo deal for delicious, gourmet grilled cheese. Add $15 bottomless wine carafe and you’ve got yourself a recessionista party.


Buy one entrée get second entrée for $1 at La Grande Orange Café in Pasadena on March 23 and 24 – $1!! I can’t even buy a pack of gum for $1. A dinner for two is basically half off for a delicious, fresh, organic meal.


Late night happy hours at CASA from 9PM to 12 midnight – Happy hour typically ends by 6:30 or 7PM and I never actually make it there before then. At CASA, their late night happy hour offers night owls a chance to take advantage of their discounted made-from-scratch margaritas. Uno. Dos. Tres. TEQUILA!


No corkage fee at all Patina Restaurant Group properties and at La Grande Orange Café – Corkage fee be gone. Another pesky fee that has been banished by the good folks at Patina and LGO, go ahead and enjoy your special bottle of wine without having to shell out extra bucks.


For more recession busting deals around town, check out the Los Angeles Times Food section’s Daily Dish blog and search for “recession busters”
(Link: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/ )

Posted by Christina Wong, Account Executive, Foodie

JS2's Own Alissa Pinck Judges The PRSA Silver Anvil Awards

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of judging the PRSA Silver Anvil Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in the PR industry. While it was a long day in a land far away (Tribeca), it was well worth it for the people I met and the insights I gleaned.

I had no clue what to expect, hoping only to get an inside peek at what some of the best and brightest in the industry were doing on behalf of their clients. What I learned is that while most of the tactics are the same (“there are no new ideas, only new ways of making them felt”), the campaigns that stood out did so because of their research. Whether it was an industry behemoth undertaking a multi-year study or a smaller agency issuing a Zoomerang survey to its target demographic, the research was invaluable in setting a baseline with which to measure a campaign against. Without knowing how your demographic thinks and feels at the beginning of a campaign, how can you know if public relations truly made an impact? The industry constantly talks about the difficulty of measuring ROI yet this seems like the strongest and easiest way to demonstrate it. Beyond the bottom line, did you change perception – is your consumer more willing to try your product or service, more likely to recommend it to a friend, more favorable about the brand? If the answers are yes, then your campaign has to be considered a success.

Now, I can’t wait to judge the upcoming PRSA Bronze Anvil Awards, although I wish it would again be in the company of my Silver Anvil team (Jeff Davis, Principal, Sawmill Marketing; Patrice Tanaka, Co-Chair, Chief Creative Officer, CRT/tanaka; and David B. Rockland, Partner & Managing Director, Global Research, Ketchum). Although I will be creating my own team for these more tactical awards, I look forward to the powerful professional development they will without question provide me.

Posted by Alissa Pinck, GM/VP

Kao Pao Shu and JS2 Take It To The Streets

Last night, Kao Pao Shu fashion designer Naida Begeta and JS2 staffers (Amy Fuller, Chris Bess and Vanessa Kristal) teamed up to take it to the streets and enjoy the monthly Art Walk in downtown Los Angeles. Tooling their way in and out of art lofts and raw undisclosed galleries made for a perfect evening of art, culture and visual inspiration! Kao Pao Shu Visual Art Director, Marco Schillaci captured a perfect moment at the end of the evening (image posted above) when the decision needed to be made as to where to go next.

The Kao Pao Shu collection is truly an eclectic combination of black and white designs, rich colorful pieces, comfortable textiles and effortless forms- that exude an elegant intricacy and classic style.

Posted by Vanessa Kristal, Account Executive

Honduras Close-Up! JS2 President Joins UNICEF In Their Champion For Change Program

I recently returned from a trip to Honduras with our client UNICEF where we visited several programs that are funded by UNICEF in collaboration with Change for Good, an American Airlines sponsored giving campaign. This program is powered solely by individual American Airlines flight attendants (Champions for Change) who feel passionately about giving back to the children of the world through UNICEF. On international flights and now transcontinental domestic flights, the AA Champions show an in-flight video on how money collected by American Airlines and disbursed through UNICEF can literally make the difference between life and death for many of this world’s children. Change for Good, a very apt name, encourages passengers to donate any left-over currency from overseas travels, or whatever spare pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters or $20.00 bills find their way into the UNICEF bag!

For me, this trip was life altering. As a business owner and a mother of two, I have been desperately trying to put our current economic downturn into perspective and give it some context. It is very easy to let our economic state-of-the-union and overall national depression color and control our lives. With this trip to Honduras, where 30% of the children are malnourished and so many have no running water; I quickly remembered how fortunate I am. It is up to people like me to become advocates for the children of the world who deserve so much and receive so little.

Fabiola, Julia and Hector, our Honduran UNICEF leaders, are superstars. I learned so much from Fabiola in particular. We spent a great deal of time discussing the rights of children and how essential it is to engage and encourage them to be involved in their own destiny. The respect with which Fabiola and Hector approached each and every child made me understand how nuanced and deep UNICEF’s work truly is.

And then there were the children, who are beautiful, moving, funny, intelligent, motivated and resplendent in their promise! Football for life, the schools, the clinics, the water and hygiene programs – all incredible!! One program in particular that is funded by Change for Good, Arte Accion, knocked my socks off! The founder and leader of the program, Douglas, a former gang leader, heads up this brilliant arts program where gang kids can find a safe place to blossom into artists. He literally plucks the gang kids who have been “green lit,” or targeted for death from the gangs, out of harm’s way and gives them tools with which to express their lives. I cannot speak about this place without being moved to tears because this program, for me, is symbolic of all that UNICEF does. I personally silk screened a t-shirt for my 13 year old son with their logo and tried to explain to my two children how lucky they are and how much they take for granted. We talked well into the night when I returned to Los Angeles and I felt, for the first time, that my son and daughter began to understand why UNICEF is so important and why I am so committed.

On the way back from Tegucigalpa I was able to see the Change for Good program in action. We raised $250.00 in less than 10 minutes on the flight from Tegucigalpa to Miami and then Franck, one of the AA Champions, raised another $160.00 from Miami to Boston. When I think of what that $410.00 can buy, I get so excited!

On my trip to Honduras I became empowered to make a “Change for Good,” and have fully committed JS²’s resources to this incredible program. I cannot wait to take this to the next step and am thrilled to be working with this tremendous group of people with whom I just spent four days. I feel that with this trip I have become a true UNICEF activist and cannot wait to do more. I hope that I will have the opportunity to go on another UNICEF trip in another part of the world sometime soon, but in the meantime this trip, which is so alive inside of me, will feed our work together moving forward.

Jill Sandin

President

Posted by Jill Sandin, President

Bedford’s Grand Opening Weekend

Bedford, our Houston restaurant client, celebrated its grand opening weekend with a charity dinner on February 28 followed by a VIP friends & family party on March 1. Through ticket sales and auction items at the sold-out dinner, we were able to raise several thousand dollars for Boys & Girls Harbor, a local organization dedicated to providing a safe harbor for child victims of family violence, and the Houston Heights Association, a nonprofit organization formed in 1973 for the purpose of encouraging and promoting the enhancement of the Houston Heights community. The unforgettable dinner event featured a special guest: Bedford chef Robert Gadsby’s good friend, Food Network star and author Jeff Henderson. Gadsby and Henderson worked together to create an elaborate feast in the restaurant’s second level event space and Viking exhibition kitchen for 130 of Houston’s most generous foodies.

On Sunday, a slew of local politicians, socialites, and media sipped champagne and enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres at the Grand Opening VIP event and watched on as Gasby was given a declaration from President Barack Obama by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. It certainly was a night to remember!