Food trucks have been fanning out across America, as the graphic above from the National Restaurant Association shows. But they're also starting to span the globe, bringing gustatory delight to Paris and London as artisanal food trucks, such as the Cantine California food truck in Paris, dispense tacos stuffed with organic meat (and brand USA) overseas.Continue reading...

Food startups are familiar with the effectiveness of handing out free samples of their goods. Trial can be victory with consumers and sales traction for the business. That's why entrepreneurs favor vans, pickups, delivery trucks, mobile kiosks and any other way to get around to where people are gathered in order to get their products into eager mouths.

But Burger King? As it kicks off its celebrity-studded, $750-million brand refresh, BK is deploying a fleet of 30 food trucks to travel among 40 U.S. cities, handing out free samples of new menu items including fresh-fruit smoothies and chicken strips with new dips.

It's an unusual move for such a huge brand, but that may be the kind of tactic required for Burger King to reverse recent trends that have found it falling to No. 3 in QSR sales behind Wendy's and, of course, McDonald's at No. 1.Continue reading...

For more than a decade, Vermont artist Bo Muller-Moore has been making t-shirts that urge folks to “eat more kale” instead of, oh, fast food.

He’s received a lot of free publicity and an uptick in sales in recent months thanks to the legal eagles at Chick-fil-A who have been trying to get him to stop using the phrase after he filed for a trademark. The chain feels his t-shirt slogan is too close to its trademarked “Eat mor chikin” slogan (misspelled as a cow might spell it — if a cow could write signs begging fast food restaurant brands to serve another species' meat).

While plenty of folks have had a chuckle or two over the legal kerfuffle, it’s anything but funny to the food chain’s lawyers, who filed a complaint last week with the Trademark office that consumers may think the two messages are coming from the same place, according to Vermont's Burlington Free Press.

A day later, the Trademark office announced that it agreed with Chick-fil-A that "Eat more kale" is too close to "Eat more chikin," and now Muller-Moore has six months to respond or the rejection of this trademark request will become permanent.Continue reading...

Gap is turning to storytelling in its new global campaign, promoting its 1969 premium denim collection with "real people" (to start with, the team behind the collection, at its Los Angeles denim studio) and some other local touches, including tapping into the mobile truck craze and even featuring the studio's resident dog.

The first major campaign by the brand's new CMO, former Ogilvy exec Seth Farbman, the "1969: L.A. and Beyond" campaign aims to tell "the story of its 1969 fall collection from the inside out. Starting with the personalities behind the denim, 1969: L.A. and Beyond gives a transparent look at the designers and how they come together each day to create the latest in denim fits, fabrics and washes. Taking it from the studio to the real world, the campaign also shows how the denim comes to life in various cities by the people who wear it."Continue reading...

The emotional strings evoked in the film's title may not be attached. But there are certainly a lot of products attached to No Strings Attached. Booze. Cars. And of course, Apple. Bushels of Apple.

No Strings Attached is filled with products — nearly 30 by our count. It shouldn't come as a surprise.Continue reading...