The Great Cookie Debate

Hello my name is Sahu and I am an addict. My addiction is chocolate chip cookies. I probably eaten more chocolate chip cookies in a week than most people have in a lifetime. It kind of freaks me out if I think about it for too long, then I usually shove a cookie in my face and all the bad thoughts go away.

Most people know this about me and consequently recommend that I try different cookies because they think that was the best cookie they ever had. I am not saying I am the arbiter of all chocolate chip cookie taste but people always insist I try their recommendations and are generally disappointed when I give them my review because I usually don't pull any punches.

Below is a run down of the places and brands I have tried and my thoughts (in no particular order):

• Wholefoods Market chocolate chip cookies - Right now these are my gold standard. They are baked fresh everyday and the freshest will have a sell by date 4 days out. I don't even remember how I came across them but it was about 3-4 years ago and I haven't gone a week without at least one tub (usually 3 or 4)
• City Bakery - These cookies were recommended my poker playing friend Carl (who you can find here and here and here). He has recommended several places and these are the best of his recommendation. Overall the cookies was OK they are pretty big and baked fresh everyday. Unfortunately, it seems like they are baked at the same time or in the same oven with a bunch of other types of cookies and so the chocolate chip cookies end up tasting like some of the other cookies.
• Levine Bakery - This was another recommendation from Carl. It is a tiny place on the upper west side and their cookies are over the top huge. I feel like it is a cookie I would get if I were in Minnesota. Also they don't have a pure chocolate chip cookies their have a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts and a double chocolate chip cookie.
• Insomnia Cookies - This is another small place located on 8th street between 5th and 6th ave. The cookies here were not very memorable. I only remember when I was eating them how bland they were. I am not sure if it was because of the chocolate chip or the cookie.
• The Grand Lux Cafe @ The Venetian casino in Las Vegas - These cookies were discovered and sufficiently hyped up by Jeff and Jenny while they were on their wedding/WSOP trip. These cookies very nearly lived up to their hype. They were freshly baked and you had to order them when you first sit as they take 30 min to bake. Generally, I hate any type of nuts in my cookies and these cookies had pecans but they were not overbearing and for the most part not even noticeable.

Desperate times call for desperate measures:

• Entenmann's Cookies - These are an old stand by when I don't have wholefoods accessible to me and I am in desperate need for a cookie these are perfectly serviceable. 
• Pepperidge Farms - They have several chocolate chip cookies and the best ones are the soft baked dark chocolate chip. But I generally stick to the double chocolate milano where pepperidge farms is concerned.
  
• Chips Ahoy! - When I was young and ignorant I crushed these cookies like there was nothing better in the world and now these are barely serviceable only if there is absolutely no way of getting any other cookie and you are starting to get the shakes.

I will update this post as I try different cookies and as I get other recommendations but if you ever tell me to try this I will have to give you a stern back handed bitch slap.

Display Ads, Dead or Alive?

There is an interesting article I just read in media week asking the question "Is the end near for Display Ads?" I came across the article via Darren Herman's Blog and totally agree with his assessments. I think if done properly display ads can effectively deliver branding messages and direct response messages and when done concurrently the branding messages can lift the DR campaigns significantly. While I was at Verizon we saw this over and over and we were executing 3 levels of campaigns DR*, Product Awareness**, and Overall Corporate Awareness*** so we could look at cookies**** which had been exposed to any combination and see how they preformed vs. the traditional DR campaigns. I do think as budgets get tighter clients will have to look very carefully at their objectives and how they spend their budgets and unfortunately the easy answer is going to be cut the online awareness because it doesn't deliver immediate and actionable results.

*Buy now low price

**Our product rocks and is better than competitors

***We are a broadband company not a telecom

****I really need some wholefoods cookies the ones I have a 2 days old but they will have to do for now