Starbucks customers will still be able to order all of their favorite high-fat, sugary concoctions at their favorite coffee house. It's just that they won't be able to plead ignorance anymore to just how many calories are in that Venti Caramel Macchiato or luscious chocolate brownie.

The company said it will become the latest restaurant chain to put up calorie boards at its locations across the United States, jumping ahead of a US-government mandate under Obamacare that's expected to require bigger chains to make similar disclosures nationwide by the end of the year. New York and California already require nutrition boards.

Starbucks also will post calorie counts on the goodies in the pastry case. "Menu labeling is yet another step to extend our commitment to wellness, ensuring our current customers and partners (employees) have the information they need to make informed decisions and understand all the ways that they can customize their Starbucks beverages to be within their desired calorie range," said Mary Wagner, senior vice president of global research and development for Starbucks, in a press release.Continue reading...

Brazilian soccer fans are some of the most dedicated in the world, but an ad campaign from Ogilvy Mather let them know there was one more thing they could do if they wanted to be sure that their heart beat for their team forever: be an organ donor. 

The “Immortal Fans” campaign, which just took top honors in the Promo & Activations category at Cannes Lions, focused on the Sport Club Recife team. In the spot, actual patients that were waiting for organs spoke to fans directly, saying things like, "I promise that your eyes will keep on watching Sport Club Recife" or "I promise that your lungs will keep on breathing for Sport Club Recife."Continue reading...

7-Eleven has said it will implement "aggressive actions" to take over stores owned by some of its East Coast franchisees that allegedly used a slave-like system to exploit immigrants from Pakistan and the Philippines.

But will it be enough to adequately address the outrage and legal issues created by how nine owners and managers of 7-Eleven stores across Long Island and in Virginia allegedly made tens of millions of dollars by stealing most of the wages of workers at 14 stores? Could 7-Eleven have done more, sooner, to thwart or prevent such a situation? And how might the brand overall suffer even if there was credible corporate deniability in all of this?

The many giant western retailers dealing with the burnt and crumbling garment factories in Bangladesh can attest to the tar baby that horrific practices and conditions can become for a brand even if there is no direct culpability for such problems.

US authorities charged that the franchise owners paid the workers using stolen Social Security numbers of a child and three dead people while stealing most of their wages. When 7-Eleven headquarters sent the wages for distribution, the government said, the employers stole up to 75 percent of the workers' pay. They also allegedly forced the immigrants to live in houses they owned and pay the owners rent in cash.Continue reading...

Marriott is going all-in on Millennials. The Bethesda, M.D.-based company is launching a new logo and tagline, "Travel Brilliantly" in its latest attempt to attract the growing market of young travellers looking for luxury at a value.  

The international hotel chain recently announced it will bring its European hotel brand, AC Hotels by Marriott, to the States to attract younger business travelers, while it is also planning to introduce a Millennial-friendly hotel brand, Moxy, across Europe in a partnerhsip with IKEA. 

What's in it for Marriott? According to the Washington Business Journal, “younger business travelers who make three or more business trips per year are a $35 billion market.” The chain hopes to attract the sought-after demo with a new, simplified "M" logo, a mobile app, offering different dining options, and allotting more open spaces in its hotels that can be used as public workspaces as well as streamlined rooms.Continue reading...

Late last week, Vice magazine promoted a new pictorial spread from its Fiction issue. The problem? The photos depicted a handful of famous suicides by legendary female writers with appalling attention to detail, right down to the hosiery that hung Taiwanese author Sanmao. 

The youth culture publication is well-known for its edgy content and no-holds-barred attitude—a reputation that has repeatedly made headlines and garnered unfavorable reactions from readers and critics, even as it partners with the likes of CNN and HBO.

While the brand has successfully turned itself into a more respectable news source over the years, partnering with brands and producing documentaries like its much talked about Basketball Diplomacy stunt that brought Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters to North Korea to wrap its first season on HBO, Vice still gets its kicks from content like the "Last Words" spread, which, after much protest, was pulled from its website on Tuesday and replaced with a statement from the editorial staff:Continue reading...

7-Eleven franchisees are accused by feds in immigrant exploitation scheme.

Starbucks to start displaying calorie counts on menus later this month.

Susan G. Komen Foundation names new CEO. 

3M adds new products to its healthcare line. 

AOL nears profitability in Patch bet on local news.

AT&T introduces solar-powered charging stations.

Boeing signs customers for stretch 787, Airbus also gets order for A380 and Embraer gets big launch order for jets from SkyWest.

Cheesecake Factory returns to growth mode.

Chrysler sees key deadline near in Jeep-recall dispute with US government.Continue reading...

Just when things seemed hunky-dory in the US auto industry, Nissan wants to threaten the situation by sharpening its price edge.

At least that's how other car brands look at Nissan's aggressive move to grab US market share by cutting prices on seven models and boosting incentives, taking maximum financial advantage of the weakening yen that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made a central plank of his "Abenomics" strategy to boost the island nation's economy.

Nissan's marketing moves "strike me as a scorched-earth policy of going for market share and sales volume at seemingly all costs," Michelle Krebs, an analyst for Edmunds.com, told Bloomberg.Continue reading...

If there's one thing that American CPG brands and retailers have learned over the last three years, it's that there definitely is a new normal when it comes to the attitudes of US consumers about their pocketbooks. The economy may be slowly coming back, but there doesn't appear to be much change in the recession-borne dedication of grocery shoppers to getting the absolute most out of their supermarket dollars.

That's the bottom line being addressed by food-industry brands in various ways these days. Kroger's latest move has been to open a stream of stores, mostly around the Midwest, under a new discount brand called Ruler Foods.

Part of JayC Food Stores, which Kroger purchased in 1999, Ruler Foods now has 18 locations under a test concept for the Cincinnati-based grocery giant, according to the Commercial News in Danville, Ill. Rulers sells Kroger brand food and a limited assortment of other national-brand items.Continue reading...