The Kool-Aid Man used to crash through walls, wave his little stubby arms around and serve up a deep “Oh, Yeah!” whenever someone else stopped everything they were doing and yelled, “Hey, Kool-Aid!”

While Kool-Aid’s owners, Kraft Foods, still wants consumers saying “Oh, Yeah!” after sipping the fruity beverage, they are taking the brand through a modern update. After all, the brand took a 5 percent hit in revenue last year, falling to $338 million, according to the Clarion Ledger. It seems like the powdered drink mix, which has been around since 1927, is ready for a little change.Continue reading...

Those who regularly use Twitter [like the author], it's a regular surprise just how fast information can be designated and how that information can culture, spore, and explode with momentum. Just the same, regular users know just how banal Twitter can seem. As you eat up live updates on the #Syria feed, you realize that, instead of #Syria, #Anchorman is trending. Why? Because some basic cable channel happens to be rerunning the film Anchorman and millions are tweeting about it while watching.

Now Twitter has released a list of 2011's "Hot Topics" and it's exactly what an experienced tweeter would expect: true life and gravity (Japan's earthquake, Egyptian uprising) vs. pointlessness (Charlie Sheen's #tigerblood meme). Continue reading...

"Instead of just going 3-D like we did on the last one, we brought in 4-D, which is a very fun gimmick that I found in this old movie in the '80s... It's kind of a scratch-and-sniff [experience] and you get to be really, almost like a video game, interactive with the movie. There are some really surprising smells, and some of the biggest laughs come from that."

That's how director of Spy Kids 4: 4D, Robert Rodriguez, explained the film's fourth "D," which will be achieved by way of an eight-smells numbered scratch card audiences will receive with their 3D glasses.

While "smell-o-vision" is easily the most noteworthy marketing stunt at the box office this weekend it's not the only one. Continue reading...

AT&T bid for T-Mobile comes under scrutiny in California.

Abbott Laboratories gets federal pushback on cholesterol-drug trials.

Amazon takes a do-over on flubbed Lady Gaga promotion.

Baidu plots overseas growth.

Delphi IPO signals automotive rebound.

Facebook beefs up lobbying team in Washington.Continue reading...

Kraft Foods is reaching out to customers via social media with comedy. Its You Gotta LOL web series debuted Monday, with 14 brands participating including Wheat Thins, Oreo, Kool-Aid, Chips Ahoy! and Jell-O. 

Anita Renfroe, the series' star, is a stay-at-home mom and comedian (a SFW version of Roseanne) who Kraft marketers hope will appeal to other moms by speaking of what she knows. 

In a video (above) for Chips Ahoy!, dealing with women’s chocolate obsession, Renfroe zings: “All females have known this intuitively for years because chocolate belongs to the four food groups that females believe in: depression, elation, ovulation and PM-ation.”Continue reading...

At least one consumer products giant thinks the iPad is the next big thing.

Kraft Foods, the global purveyor of such brands as Cracker Barrel, Jello, Kool-Aid, Miracle Whip, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and Ritz, was one of the first consumer products companies to recognize the capabilities of apps, launching the iFood Assistant in December 2008. The smartphone app for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and RIM's BlackBerry is now in its second iteration, providing consumers with access to over 7,000 recipes, as well as a "smart" shopping list with store locator.

Now Kraft is bringing the same kind of menu magic to the iPad with a new application called Big Fork Little Fork, so-named because it's meant for kids of all ages.Continue reading...