New Zealand may be small but its government apparently has got a whole lot of chutzpah.

The government’s new law that all tobacco products cannot be publicly displayed went into effect Monday, and a plan to force all tobacco products to be sold in plain packaging — which NZ's Ministry of Health calls the "single biggest cause of preventable death and disease" — is still forging ahead. The government's new "Tobacco Available Here" sign for authorized tobacco retailers, in English and Maori with a sickening photo of a gangrene-infected foot, is also fairly grim.

The hope is that the entire country will be smoke-free by 2025, according to TV New Zealand. However, the government may need to pay a boatload of cash out in order to make it happen. “Ministry of Health officials have warned the Government that defending a case at the World Trade Organization could cost taxpayers between $1.5 million to $2 million,” the website reports. And that price could go up to $6 million.

One tobacco giant is already sounding like it is ready take the government to court.Continue reading...

The New Zealand Rugby Union has international success marketing its national team under the All Blacks name. It sounds tough. It strikes an image. So why not spread the wealth?

The Union has decided to use the All Blacks name for two of its other national teams, which will now be known as the All Blacks Sevens and the Maori All Blacks, according to Yahoo! Sports. The teams will also incorporate the All Blacks name into their logos.

The sevens team plays more games internationally than the national team so it has more opportunities to spread the All Blacks name on a global front.Continue reading...

In the wake of a tainted infant formula scandal that killed six babies and hospitalized 860 in China in 2008, a New Zealand-based company came up with a way to capitalize on the market's fear.

But when the company chose what it saw as a simple local logo to help the product seem more foreign, little did it know that forces were set in motion that would unravel the whole scam.Continue reading...