It's never to early to start.

Start shilling that is.

Snack food manufacturers in England are in the throes of what is termed "stealth marketing" to children. The premise is that the kids become brand ambassadors and perform specific tasks, from postering to commenting on social media to direct endorsements during recess. In return the kids get 25 quid, free food, prizes, social prestige, and the fun-filled sensation of childhood obesity. It's a win / win all around.

The idea of empowering the actual consumer of the products is nothing new, but when the consumer is easily influenced, and doesn't have the requisite skills to make an informed decision, is it more like exploitation? Sure, teens will shovel fast food and sugar into themselves, but when you're going after 8 and 9 year olds in a medium where there is no advertising standards watchdog, don't you think its gone too far?

Funnily enough, the British government doesn't think so. They've embraced the idea and are using it to promote healthy eating. Yes, that sound was two truckloads of irony colliding head-on.

Play like a big league groundskeeper

Major League Baseball has a very devoted core fan base. They buy the merch, watch the games in person or on TV, they visit stadiums just to say they've been there. And now they can feel the same grass underfoot when they hang out in their own backyard.

Scotts Miracle Gro is partnering with MLB to provide the same grass seed used at Fenway, Wrigley Field and more. It will be the same blend of seeds and fertilizers and will feature branding from the respective club and will be certified by the head groundkeeper from the that club's field.

Kinda brilliant. Shame the Jays use artificial turf. Mind you, I'm sure you could brand that stuff and sell it as mousepads or car mats or some such thing.

* Please note that this post was written without the express written consent of Major League Baseball and may be subject to blackouts in certain markets. Contact your local authorities for details. Oakes & Mowat are not responsible for facepalms or groans from the overuse of the phrase "Field of Dreams" and the like.

It's made in China, but it's not made in China

In an effort to boost their image and encourage more rampant consumption China has embarked on a new campaign to promote China to the world.

"Made in China, made with the world" is what they're trying to tell everyone. Sure the iPod is assembled in China, but the code and the concept are pure American. Yes we flat pack those groovy Ikea shelves, but the design is direct from the forests of Sweden.

In essence, China is only the enabler. We're the ones who keep asking them to give us more. And there's definitely no lead in the toys, or sulfuric acid in the drywall, or poison in the pet food, or exotic animals in the herbal medicines. Uh uh, no way. That's all in the past. The message now? If China screws up, it's your fault too. Because we're all in this together.

Given that almost everything mass produced comes from China, it seems kind of redundant to specify that it's from China...

So that's what my friends taste like

Facebook flavoured vitamin water.

Yes. It's true.

In cahoots with Coca Cola, the brain trust at Facebook has come up with the pinnacle of branding. They've created a flavour to associate with their brand. Apparently Facebook tastes like Black Cherry and Lime. Good. We needed that. It's another indication of how social media is advancing.

Sign number 451 of the impending apocalypse.

When you design like Paul Rand,

your name speaks for itself.

Who is Paul Rand you ask? Well, in short, he's the designer who came up with some of the more iconic logos of the past few decades.

An elegant solution, a great promotion.

How do you combine patriotism, public service, convenience with a monopoly while generating positive press and giving yourself a very visible location?

If you're Subway, you build a restaurant into a shipping container and bring the restaurant to the workers building the Freedom Tower in New York City. As the building rises, so does the restaurant.

It's a brilliant promotion that will certainly generate a positive emotional response for the brand. I just hope the food tastes as good as the goodwill.

Look up in the air

it's a bird, it's plane.

Oh, it is a plane. But what the hell is that painted on the side of it?

Why it's Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty and Sanrio continue their endless quest to put their logo on everything under the sun.

Go naked, save the planet.

Here's an interesting math problem. How much of an impact does your product's packing have on the environment, from the raw materials through to recycling or disposal? Jesus Diaz over at Gizmodo.com did the numbers for one product line for Coca Cola and came up with this:

It doesn't only look beautiful, and it would make Jon Ive and Steve Jobs wet, but this naked Coca-Cola can would help save energy while reducing air and water pollution. Would it really make a difference? Let's do some math:

Assume the consumption only increases through time, but let's take the daily 2007 numbers from Global INForM Cases Sales database: The total number of Coca-Cola cans sold per worldwide is 67,873,309. Diet Coke and Coke Zero sold 35,387,241, while My Coke sold 103,260,550. Yes, that's all per day.

So using only classic Coca-Cola's daily sales figures, that means 24,773,757,785 are sold every year. Twenty-four billion cans. That is indeed a lot of paint and paint removal products. Because this doesn't only affect the production. It also affects the recycling process, eliminating one step:

The naked can help to reduce air and water pollution occurred in its coloring process. It also reduces energy and effort to separate toxic color paint from aluminum in recycling process. Huge amount of energy and paint required to manufacture colored cans will be saved. Instead of toxic paint, manufacturers process aluminum with a pressing machine that indicates brand identity on surface.

Sounds good to me, and it even looks better if you take into account all kinds of Coke. That brings up the number to 75,380,201,500 cans. I don't know how much paint that represents, but I'm guessing quite a few thousand tons. [7760 via Likecool, Sales info from Let's Get Together]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.

Playboy purchasers pull publishing

Playboy. They only want you for one thing. It ain't the nudie pictures. It ain't the comprehensive database of centerfold likes and dislikes. and it's definitely not all those fine, fine pieces of journalism by Hunter Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer, the authors whose writing was the only reason I ever bought the magazine...

It's the Bunny. The icon. The insouciant symbol of sin, sex and swingin' good times. It sells.

So, now the brand has waned, gone limp, if you will and has been superseded by the brand emblem. But we'll still be able to buy all number of really well made, quality products with a Playboy bunny logo and that is what's important.

Before Microsoft. After Microsoft.

“After Microsoft” tells the story of a January day in the late 90’s when the hill came to coincide with a global branding strategy.

After Microsoft has been exhibited as an installation piece, including a projection of the re-photographed view together with a voice-over. Following is the transcript of the voice-over:

The most distributed image ever is being phased out. What remains is a hill in Sonoma Valley, California.

Charles O’Rear used to pass that hill almost daily between his home in Napa and his wife, Daphne, who lived in Marin County. He always carried his medium format camera.

It was hard even to slow down on highway 12/121. But one day, it must have been in January, he pulled over. After about a month of rain the sun comes up, and there is beautiful green grass. The weather during the winter can change dramatically. A break in the storm. Intense blue sky with cumulus clouds. Maybe later that day it rained.

Blue was an important brand color already in ‘95. Clouds and sky being a common theme in many aspects of the product’s identity and collateral. Illustrating potential and opportunity.

Continuing the cloud theme, but with added grounding. The horizon gives a sense of scale to the image. Makes it possible to imagine being there.

Because of the danger of that road and where he was standing, he didn’t take a tripod. His camera, when handheld, needed to be shot at least at a five-hundredth of a second. Whatever that translates into on a sunny day. Probably 500 at 5.6.

With property prices in Sonoma reaching $75,000 per acre for bare land, most hills were being developed into vineyards or homes. On this hill grapevines had been planted. But in the early 90’s a Phylloxera bug infested the grapes and made them unusable. The entire vineyard had to be pulled out. For a few years the hill was covered with grass. Green at the time of the photograph.

Green was the second main color in the branding scheme and in the User Interface. Running late in the product development cycle. Looking for a nature shot. “The reality of real life”. The image matched the brand colors. It fell completely into place, in terms of sky, clouds, blue plus the green field.

By the time the image was purchased, grapes had been planted again on the hill in Sonoma Valley.

Pick the wrong colour and watch profits vanish.

What colour is your brand?

It's a crucial question, and one that has vexed designers and branding agencies forever. Just to give you an idea have a look at the chart. Now try and figure out how you're going to differentiate yourself from all the other competing companies who are using similar colours.

Rule number 1: Do not anger the Miracle Whip marketing team

Or they will find you and they will deal with you in a most unpleasant manner. Just ask Stephen Colbert.

They will not tone it down indeed. They're too busy being edgy.

It's a brilliant response. It really is. Unfortunately it doesn't change the fact that Miracle Whip is a spreadable topping, and is not a key part of social identity.

Website? That's so last year.

We've moved everything over to YouTube.

Get with the times there ya dinosaur. Boone Oakley did and look how cool they are now.

Whose tweets are being twittered?

In the all out stampede to embrace new channels of communication things can get missed. When websites first began sprouting many companies were slow to understand what they were and even slower to register domain names. The resulting litigation was an interesting application of international and intellectual property laws.

Now it's happened again.

Nike, GM, even WalMart have been beaten to the tweet. The companies, amongst others, neglected to set up corporate twitter feeds. And now someone has done it for them. Some accounts are being handled by fans of the brands but other accounts aren't as fawning.

Those who neglect history are doomed to repeat it or so I've heard.

In other news, Big Ben tweets.

Insightful or unfortunate product placement?

You be the judge.

As seen on TV - now it's cool.

Snuggies, Flo-bees, Boxcar Willie albums - you can find it all without ever having to get up off the recliner.

But a combination of recession and low-priced semi-quality consumer goods has led to a rise in sales as more people stay home and look to cut certain corners when it comes to spending.

So much so that infomercials have moved from late-night time slots to prime time. Curl up in your Snuggie while you watch CSI or The Hills.

Links to Adage.com and New York Times for your reading enjoyment.

But wait there's more!

It's the future all right. The future of cereal.

Brand identity is huge. So is brand confidence and integrity. In today's world of counterfeit everything (I have several Rolex watches for sale by the way), how to protect your product and your brand from imitators?

Lasers.

Not on sharks or anything, nope, instead just use lasers to etch your brand name onto your products. Like...oh I don't know...cornflakes...

I have an idea

I was thinking. And I had an idea. But I needed someplace to jot it down. Thankfully the School of Visual Arts had my back.

The internet - now in print!

Social media is online right? Not so fast there champ. It turns out that social media is offline too. Way offline.

It would appear that obituary for print was a tad premature.

The best brands in the world.

Here's the 2009 list from Interbrand, ranking the best global brands. And they should know.