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About Branding

Budweiser brews beer fear at 2010 World Cup

by Jeffery Racheff The World Cup is coming to South Africa this summer, and that can only mean one thing — lots and lots of beer. Okay, two things — lots and lots of beer and soccer. Yet while there is sure to be enough soccer, an ominous possibility has been brewing in the hearts…

Word wars: the Scrabble scramble

by Jeffery Racheff If the word “tile” makes you think of vowels or consonants and not your bathroom floor, you might be a Scrabble junkie. If you know a two-letter word that begins with Q, you might be a Scrabble junkie. And if you are a Scrabble junkie, your world was nearly flipped upside down…

A tale of two Vancouvers

by Jeffery Racheff As far as most of the world is concerned, there is only one Vancouver. It’s in British Columbia, it hosted this year’s Winter Olympics, and it’s Canada’s third largest city. But hold on to your maps — another Vancouver exists. Just 300 miles to the south, making up the second half of…

Maalox Total Relief: works so well it will make you sick

By Jeffery Racheff If there’s one place you don’t want to confuse names, it’s probably in the world of medicine and drugs. Take Maalox Total Relief for instance. Folks looking for deliverance from diarrhea flocked to the over-the-counter medicine, assuming it would alleviate their belly pains. Instead they found themselves much worse off. What they…

Lindsay Lohan, destroyer of brands

by Jeffery Racheff Is there really no such thing as bad publicity? The old saying holds that any chance to get your name in the paper (or on people’s blogs) is worth the flack you might take for scandal or distastefulness. In the long run, so it goes, the potential for brand awareness outweighs temporary…

Who took the cardboard out of my Domino’s?

by Danny Altman Some things you don’t mess with. Don’t take the growth hormone out of my milk. I’m short enough as it is. Don’t stick an electric outlet on my car. I like the smell of fresh gasoline. Don’t give me cheese on a knife. I like it straight out of the can. And…

Chanel wants to tattoo you, temporarily

By Jeffery Racheff Nothing says rock ‘n’ roll like a good face tattoo. Just look at Mike Tyson. Unfortunately, not everyone can be like Mike. Rock ‘n’ roll (and, in Mike’s case, mild insanity) is only fun in short bursts, because afterward most of us have to return to the real world where tattoos, even…

Falling brands latch on to rising stars

by Barry Silverstein Singing sensation Lady Gaga recently signed on to be “creative director” of a line of products with the Polaroid brand name. And actor Hugh Jackman, the badass from X-Men Origins and Swordfish, will be the new worldwide spokesman for Lipton Ice Tea. I’m not making this up. You remember Polaroid – the…

Chocolate chip cookies: half-baked branding idea?

As a former chocolate chip cookie junkie, I was amused to read a long story in The New York Times yesterday about two companies that have figured out how to make their customers actually salivate prior to entering the premises. And neither one of them is in the cookie business. The first is Doubletree hotels,…

Bowled over: the changing names of college bowl games

by Barry Silverstein Another college football bowl game season comes to a close tonight. Each year, it seems, the controversy surrounding the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) heats up because of the selection process for the national championship. But there’s another controversy that’s becoming equally heated: Is commercialism polluting college football? Of this year’s 34 bowl…

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