Some battery egg producers are giving their cartons a green sheen so dazzling, it threatens to blind consumers to the nature of their egg-laying process, writes Crikey intern Aaron Flanagan.
Marketing
Pink bits: the absurd world of gendered consumer products
Marketers have never abandoned the idea that men and women require their own ‘special’ products. Women’s products are often tinted pink and advertised with cuddly names and breathy female voiceovers. Insulting much?
The Vegemite votes are in: it’s “Cheesybite”
After the short but dramatic iSnack 2.0 saga, Kraft’s new and improved competition to name its new flavour of Vegemite has a winner: Cheesybite. Eh. Appropriately bland.
Is iSnack 2.0 a marketing success?
Will Kraft’s engagement experiment with Vegemite and the #vegefail iSnack 2.0 name ultimately be a huge winner or a huge loser for the brand? Tactical TV’s Tony Richardson investigates.
Attention industrial designers: men and women aren’t equal
Making products female friendly isn’t just about painting them pink. Women want functional, smart design that is intuitive. And their spending power is worth the redesign.
What’s in a name? Money, say universities
By changing a course name from “German Literature of the High Middle Ages’’ to “Knights, Castles, and Dragons’’, Boston College nearly tripled enrollment. Catchy course names are becoming an important business strategy for unis.
Get of a whiff of perfume names that stink
Most companies realise the importance of a name and branding, but every so often some odd ones slip through the cracks. Here’s a list of the 12 worst perfume names, including ‘Insolence’. Mmmm, the smell of rudeness!
Localwashing: the new marketing con
First there was “greenwashing”. Now there’s a new environmental scourge, localwashing, as big business tries to reap the rewards of people’s quest for products with low food miles.
Are you the next new media mogul?
The Economist is running a competition to find the next Mark Zuckerberg, Biz Stone or Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It’s like Idol for the internet.
Red Bull’s can-ny new strategy
Red Bull has moved away from its distinctive slim 250ml can to a much larger 473ml offering and much smaller 60ml “shot” drink. But will it keep the brand competitive against growing rivals Mother and Rockstar, or has it cost the brand its individuality and image?
Baby Boom becomes Baby Bust
This year, Mercedes will sell a third fewer cars in America. Their Baby Boomer buyers have dried up. It’s why many companies are now scrambling to rebrand themselves to appeal to Generations X and Y.
Expensive products and their cheap ingredients
What’s really inside high-tech audio cables, fancy whitening toothpaste and rip-off energy drinks? Mostly cheap crap, explains Cracked.
Another “viral” marketing stunt results in red faces
Marketers for a new movie paid a high school valedictorian $1800 to plug the flick in her graduation speech, hoping the footage would go viral on YouTube. It didn’t, the movie bombed, everyone snickered at the lame PR stunt.
Apple: secretly for chicks?
Apple’s effortlessly cool and easy-to-use products aren’t just coveted by gadget geeks and tech heads — the ladies love them too. Could Apple be the world’s most discreetly feminine brand? Bridget Brennan makes the case.
M is for Murder, Meth, Melbourne
Melbourne has a new logo, and the locals aren’t happy about either the price tag or the new look. Culture mulcher and graphic designer W. H. Chong weighs on the much maligned big M.
5 gum: chewy for blokes
Masticating just got manly, with Wrigley’s latest addition to the gum world: 5. Andrew Tijs looks at how the company has taken something so seemingly benign, and branded it butch.
MasterChef a masterclass in what Australians want
If viewers had thought this was just a cooking competition Chris’ departure answered that. No, writes Tony Richardson, MasterChef dished up likeability and showed marketers what 4 million Australian consumers want.
Very disturbing vintage ads: into the minds of mad men
What do murder, pedophilia, suicide and a baby tiger have in common? They’ve all starred in these amazingly disturbing vintage ads!
Evening Standard says sorry for low standards
British tabloid London Evening Standard launched a unique campaign Monday apologising to readers for its “previous behaviour”.
The hipster’s eternal search for authenticity
Café Bustelo, a Cuban coffee company founded in the Bronx in 1928, is seeking new adherents and finding them at Sundance, Fashion Week and Coachella. Will the hipsters fall for it?
Facebook fame-mongering blogger breaks the law
Fame-mongering bloggeratti Julia Allison got her mates at Facebook to do her some favours… and it looks like they might have broken the social networking site’s laws.
OK, OK, so sugar doesn’t make you pay attention
Kellogg’s has agreed to settle federal claims that they falsely advertised the benefits of eating Frosted Mini-Wheats, including that children who ate the cereal got a 20% boost in attentiveness.
The world’s most enduring brands
Each year a brand sums up the zeitgeist — think Lego in 1960, Coca-Cola in 1971, Levi in 1985, Guinness in 1999 and Google in 2000. But which is the most iconic of them all?
