Take 5 Letter
Dr. Joel Franklin
MIT-CSR
37-582G
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
March 2, 2005
Hershey Foods Corporation
Customer Service Dept.
Hershey, PA 17033
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing on behalf of office 582G of the Kavli Institute of Astrophysics
and Cosmology at MIT – we thank you for the latest addition to the Hershey’s
family: the “Take-5” candy bar. My officemate and I have enjoyed the “Take-5”
since its inception, and would like to take a moment to tell you about our efforts to consume, and, frankly, promote this extraordinary confection. Our local market began a point-of-sale campaign in early January, and for almost a week, we purchased the candy bar daily at a discount to test it. We joked that we bought one candy bar for each of the five elements involved. But our enthusiasm did not stop there – with the end of the promotional offer, we sought out the Take-5 in the established candy isle. Since then, and for the past few months, a spirit of camraderie has evolved around our “afternoon snack” – we take turns buying the candy bar, now at full price, and share the thoughtfully split portions. I really look forward to mid-to-late afternoon, when my officemate and I can kick back and quite literally, “Take-5”.
Because of the nature of our work, as astrophysics post-docs, we are in contact
with both the professorial and student sectors here at MIT. In a very real sense, our finger is on the pulse of the institution – we bridge the delicate gap between researcher and mentoring peer. Both of us have students who have been inspired by our “Take-5” example, and generosity. To date, we have shared this wonderful snack with countless colleagues, collaborators, and friends. We even taped our empty wrappers on the door, a testament to, and advertisement of, our appreciation.
But dark days are upon us. My officemate recently acquired nine candy bars for the absurd price of “three-for-a-dollar”. He expressed his concern that Hershey’s was “dumping” the line, a practice he associates with the beginning of the end. As crazy as it seemed, I did not take this suggestion lightly – he is an international connoisseur of fine candies, possessing a sophisticated palate, a keen business sense, and a sharp eye for the market. We talked about what we could do, what we could give back, besides continuing to buy the product. So we come to our request: it would help our promotional efforts if you could provide any paraphernalia (hats, T-shirts, posters?) with the “Take-5” logo on it. We could wear and/or display these around campus. In addition, if we had a ready supply of sample candy bars, we would be able to provide them to hordes of students searching for the perfect snack.
Your ingenuity has inspired us to greater heights of creativity in our own work.
I had been looking at three different approaches to the same fundamental result (Killing’s equation in Riemannian geometry), and taking a page out of your book, I combined these seemingly separate approaches to great effect, much like the five flavors you combined to make the “Take-5”.
Our hope is that we can help you, as you have helped us.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Joel Franklin
posted by kayt @ 1:46 PM
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