branding
branding news stories
Logo coffins, urns make case for 'long-term' devotees of Sox, others
Boston Globe Dec 1, 08 12:35 PM CST
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Die-hard baseball fans can now continue showing their team pride even in the afterlife. A Boston-area funeral home is offering its first-ever Red Sox casket, emblazoned with the team’s logo and accented with baseball-bat-type wood. “It's really a beautiful thing,” the funeral-home director, a Sox fan himself, tells the Globe .
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Lohan's 6126 will sell leggings, tanners
Women's Wear Daily Sep 18, 08 11:16 AM CDT
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In yet another attempt at reinvention, 22-year-old Lindsay Lohan has launched a brand development company that will hawk her merchandising ideas, Women’s Wear Daily reports. Expensive leggings are en route to boutiques this fall, but the company, called 6126, also plans to develop a cheaper spandex line, natural self-tanners, and other moderately priced accessories.
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analysis
Candidate ad libs as staffers attempt to strategize
Washington Post Jul 31, 08 1:38 PM CDT
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John McCain relishes interacting with voters and sparring with the press, a style that's helped earn him his "maverick" reputation even as it ties his advisers and staff in knots. The campaign as a whole is turning to Karl Rove-style tactics, but the candidate's unpredictable behavior is making it tough to present a united front, the Washington Post reports.
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Radicals mumble about commercialization, but the kids love it
Los Angeles Times Jul 19, 08 7:36 PM CDT
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There’s a dance craze gripping France—or is it an unabashed commercial scheme, hawking t-shirts and chewing gum? Either way it’s called Tecktonik, and kids are crazy about it, the Los Angeles Times reports. The mix of hip-hop, techno, and random arm movements is championed by dancers with skinny pants and asymmetric hairdos, and is even showing up in grade schools.
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Alliance hopes image makeover will prove to people it still matters
New York Times Jul 16, 08 2:03 AM CDT
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NATO: the Real Thing? The alliance is seeking an image makeover in the face of public apathy and has hired a Coca-Cola executive to help, reports the New York Times . Support for NATO has waned in many of its 26 member nations since the end of the Cold War, and defense chiefs believe reconnecting with the public—to persuade taxpayers that NATO remains relevant—is vital to the alliance's future.
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He slammed evolution, burned crosses onto 8th-graders' arms
Associated Press Jun 21, 08 8:20 AM CDT
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An Ohio school board has voted unanimously to fire a science teacher who used an electrostatic device to brand 8th-graders with a cross, the AP reports. Science teacher John Freshwater, who says the marks were simply Xs, had been in trouble with the board before for teaching creationism, slamming evolution and other scientific theories, and keeping a Bible on his desk.
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Advertisers creating their own TV programs
New York Times Jun 12, 08 5:26 AM CDT
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The days when a TV host would serve up a tasty bowl of Alpo or light up a Lucky Strike on-air and sing its praises are long gone, but in-show sponsorship may be making a comeback, the New York Times reports. Meow Mix will launch its own game show this summer, and Dos Equis beer plans to boost its brand with an upcoming reality show.
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Marketing guru aims to make Smart Balance
a billion-dollar brand
CNNMoney Jun 5, 08 7:45 PM CDT
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Hailed as a marketing magician for successes with Healthy Choice and Tropicana, billion-dollar brand legend Steve Hughes is at it again, Fortune reports. Turning Smart Balance’s “good” cholesterol into an industry-leading line of spreads is the goal, though stiff competition, rocketing commodity prices, and strapped shoppers could work against efforts to expand offerings.
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Warner deal brings back digitized Sinatra as ad pitchman
Los Angeles Times May 11, 08 2:59 PM CDT
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Ol' Blue Eyes is still doing it his way—or his heirs' way, to be more precise. Frank Sinatra's family has inked a deal with Warner Music Group to ensure the singer's return on the 10th anniversary of his death: A postage stamp and new CD and DVD collections are coming out, as is a digital resurrection of the Pack Master turned ad pitchman, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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Campaign uses decade-old image to sell GOP hopeful
Washington Post Apr 12, 08 2:36 PM CDT
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John McCain is more than a candidate, he's a brand—and a successful one at that, the Washington Post reports. His image of independence, experience, and, of course, straight talk endures in the public eye and explains why he keeps rising in national polls despite his support for an unpopular war and an unpopular president. Two market research firms described him as a combination of Ford pickup, Wrangler jeans, and Timex.
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Spears' dad trying to wrangle endorsement deal with Danish line
New York Post Apr 8, 08 9:33 AM CDT
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Britney Spears, who once ditched a custody hearing to await a furniture delivery, may be going into the ottoman and end table business herself. In an attempt to salvage his daughter's bleeding fortune, Jamie Spears has spent two months on a deal whereby the struggling pop star would endorse a line of Danish imports, reports New York Post's Page Six.
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Fair trade to get a lot more fair if trademark approved
Christian Science Monitor Nov 10, 07 3:33 PM CST
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Ethiopia is trademarking its distinctive coffee crop, a move that could bring $88 million a year to the impoverished country, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Coffee connoisseurs happily pay up to $10 per pound for beans from Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region, but less than $1 of that goes to farmers growing it. Obtaining the trademark could change all that, much to the chagrin of distributors such as Starbucks.
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