Monday's COP15 Youth-Organized Flash Dance @ The Bella Center

My Summer on the Jack Johnson Tour

photo: Johanna, Jack & I @ Blossom Music Center in Ohio, June 2008

During the summer of 2008, as a volunteer for the nonpartisan nonprofit HeadCount, I ran a voter registration drive on Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static Tour.

The HeadCount Traveling Team included Abby, Cassie, Johanna, Mike and I.


photo: Me, Abby, Mike & Cassie @ the Tweeter Center in MA, August 2008. photo by Abby.

In June Johanna and I followed the tour around the Upper Midwest to 5 of Jack's shows, and down to Bonnaroo in Tennessee, adding 3,000+ miles onto our fuel-efficient Kia Rio rental car. We saw a lot of the Upper Midwest!


photo: Johanna in our Kia Rio.

In August Abby, Cassie, Mike and I crisscrossed the country behind the tour in a minivan, extending to the four corners of Massachusetts, Georgia, Washington, and Southern California.


photo: We made use of every possible opportunity to get work done. Here Abby and I are confirming volunteers for our next show and completing HeadCount show reports in the minivan.

We received tons of help from 134 HeadCount volunteers, who each helped us at 1-2 of Jack's shows.


photo: HeadCount volunteer training at the DTE Energy Center, in June. I'm in the gray hoodie and jeans.

Together, we set up a voter registration booth at 21 of Jack's 2008 appearances (3 major festivals and 18 of his headlining shows) and registered 6,173 of Jack's fans to vote in time for the November 4, 2008 US elections.

We averaged more registrations per show than any other 2008 concert tour. Additionally, HeadCount recently learned that over 71% of the music fans that the organization registered in the field (at shows) in 2008 actually went to the polls and voted on Election Day! This was one of the best performances of any nonprofit that registered voters in 2008.

In addition to HeadCount, 3 other organizations were on the road with the tour - the Surfrider Foundation, Climate Counts, and Patagonia's Vote the Environment Campaign.


photo: Los Angeles August 2008 show -- the Village Green crew - from L to R: Mike (HeadCount), Brande (HeadCount), Davis (Reverb), Josh (Reverb), Shawn (Climate Counts), Jessica (All At Once), Elissa (Patagonia), Cassie (HeadCount), Elizabeth (Surfrider), and me.

The Village Green and the 4 traveling nonprofits were managed by Reverb's On-Site Coordinators Andrew, Davis and Josh.


photo: Alpine Valley, June 2008 - Andrew, Elizabeth, Johanna, Hillary, Davis. I love this photo.

Here's a great new video from Reverb that talks about the work that the nonprofit does on tours, including Jack's tour!

You'll see clips of Josh, Davis, and Andrew! You'll also see a brief interview with Dave, from the amazing catering staff. And there are even some clips of Elizabeth who represented the Surfrider Foundation on the tour, as well as some clips of a HeadCount booth from another tour.



These 4 nonprofits (HeadCount, Climate Counts, Vote the Environment, Surfrider) had outreach booths in the Village Green at every venue. At each show we were joined in the Village Green by 5-10 local nonprofits, who were coordinated by Jessica Scheeter, director of the newly established Johnson Ohana Charitable Trust.

The Village Green was part of Jack's All At Once campaign.

"Individual Action, Multiplied by Millions, Creates Global Change."


photo: the Village Green - Raleigh, NC, August 2008. Photo by Abby.

You can learn more about the Village Green and All At Once in this fantastic video that was recorded at our Indianapolis, IN show in June. It originally appeared on www.Treehugger.com --



At almost every show Jack stopped by the HeadCount booth in the Village Green before the doors opened in order to meet that night's volunteers.


photo: Columbia Meadows in Oregon, August 2008. Yeah, it rained sometimes ...

You can see photos of the HeadCount volunteers from every show here on HeadCount's Facebook page.

You can read a short article that I wrote last summer between shows, here on Jambands.com.

Then check out this recent post that I wrote for the HeadCount blog that talks about HeadCount's inclusion in Jack's newest film and audio release "En Concert."

Here's a summary of my HeadCount 2008 Jack Johnson Tour Report. (Full report was too large for online hosting.) Enjoy!

HeadCount Jack Johnson 2008 USA Tour Report Summary

You can read about all of the organizations' accomplishments on the tour, here.

You can check out the Surfrider blog from the tour here and Patagonia's notes from the tour here.

You can learn more about Reverb here.

And MusicMatters who also created the environmental messaging for the tour, here.

Thanks to absolutely everyone who made all of this happen - the Johnsons & the entire Jack Johnson Team, the venues, Reverb, MusicMatters, Patagonia (our corporate sponsor), the tour staff, the Village Green Team, HeadCount, and all of the HeadCount volunteers!

A special shout out to my mom, my friends Jeff and Kelly who came to the Blossom Music Center show, Megan and Chris who came to the Camden show, Jay and Ilyse who came to the San Diego show, and to my brother, Justin and his friend Brian, who came to the Salt Lake City, Utah show.


photo: Justin and I @ the SLC show, August 2008.

Thanks, too, to my friend Eric who traveled a distance to help me out at the Camden, NJ show in August. Eric was the HeadCount Team Leader and a Reverb Coordinator for the 2008 John Mayer Tour.


photo: Eric and I @ the Susquehanna Bank Center show in Camden, NJ.

A Promotions Campaign Gone Awry - Taco Bell & 50 Cent

Taco Bell, owned by Yum Brands, found itself in hot water recently, when a promotions campaign with 50 Cent went awry.

This summer, Taco Bell sent an "open letter" over the PR wires, encouraging Fiddy (birth name Curtis Jackson) to drive up to a Taco Bell location, rap his order, and then change his name to 79, 89, or 99 Cent, just for the day. Yum Brands would then donate $10,000 to the charity of Fiddy's choice.

But Fiddy claims the marketer hadn't consulted him, and that the Taco Bell promotion gave the appearance of his consent. When he filed suit against Taco Bell in July, the story was picked up from hometown newspaper to E! online.


The story would have closed there, but last month a reporter following up on the story dug into the lawsuit records, including Taco Bell's answer to Fiddy's complaint. The answer refers to Fiddy as someone who uses his "colorful past to cultivate a public image of belligerence and arrogance." It also describes Fiddy as having a "well-publicized track record of making threats, starting feuds and filing lawsuits."

"They chose to kind of defame his character," Mr. Raymond said. "And yet they used his name without his permission in the advertising. I'm curious as to why they'd want to say what a bad character he is. I guess that's going to be their defense somehow."

Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said, "We're disappointed that Mr. Jackson didn't simply say yes or no to our genuine and charitable offer to change his name to 79, 89 or 99 Cent."

"Taco Bell and its Yum Brands counterparts are known for stretching the boundaries for free media plays. Last year, KFC offered to make a charitable contribution in the name of any person willing to do a chicken dance on the field during the Super Bowl. During March madness, Pizza Hut offered free pizza to the entire campus of any 16-seeded team that beat a top seed. It's still never been done. But while some of these plays have been controversial, none has risen to the level of acrimonious lawsuit."

source: Advertising Age story - "Taco Bell Pays the Price for Messing With 50 Cent", by Emily Bryson, published Nov. 25, 2008.


This past summer, Yum Brands and Taco Bell were also featured in Stoneyfield Farm's Climate Counts campaign on the Jack Johnson Tour, where fans learned of the brand's poor environmental record.

In addition to Taco Bell, Yum Brands owns Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, KFC, and A&W All American Food.

According to Climate Count's blog:

"In our annual Climate Counts scores of well-known consumer companies on their commitment to addressing climate change, four out of six companies (Yum! Brands, Burger King, Darden Restaurants, and Wendy’s) in the food services sector made no improvements in their scores from 2007 to 2008. That’s in a year when 84% of the companies we scored actually improved their scores, some significantly. It adds insult to injury when you consider that those four companies earned scores of one point or even zero points on a 100 point scale (100 being the highest possible score) for two years running. (Two other food services companies, Starbucks and McDonald’s, score significantly higher than the other four but much lower than many other companies we’ve investigated.)

What do the scores mean? They mean these companies are not measuring their climate impact, they’re not substantively and comprehensively working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, they’re not supporting good public policy on climate, and they’re not being open and transparent with consumers about any real commitment to making climate actions a part of long-term business strategy. These companies spend tens of billions of dollars every year on energy, and by some estimates, as much as 80% of that energy is wasted through outmoded buildings and restaurants and inefficient food storage. Their impact on climate and our communities is all too clear."