In January of 2010, the Caribbean island of Haiti was hit with a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that likely killed 220,000 or more people and devastated the country’s infrastructure.

The U.S. has forked over $2 billion to help Haiti rebuild and plenty of other countries and aid organizations have donated countless hours and dollars to the cause. Things have moved along enough in the past two years that Haiti is now trying to “rebrand itself from Caribbean disaster zone to tourism Mecca,” according to the Miami Herald.

“One South Beach-inspired businessman is installing the nation’s first rooftop infinite pool, three restaurants, and an eventual helipad,” the Herald reports, while the Best Western offers a spa and a shuttle to the airport that will make sure visitors don’t see the “more seedy parts” of the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, the airport is adding new immigration counters in the hopes that more arrivals will start coming.Continue reading...

Here it comes. You can’t avoid it. It’s “the most prestigious art show in the Americas.” It’s Art Basel, the annual art festival that takes over Miami Beach as soon as it turns nippy in New York and other climes. This year it's running from Dec. 1-4, pulling in “more than 260 leading galleries” from around the world, according to its site.

When you put that kind of art into that kind of location, a whole lot of money is likely to change hands. And where there is money, there is opportunity. At least, that’s what the folks at Christian Dior seem to think. So they set up the company’s very first pop-up shop in order to take advantage of the number of moneyed folks who will all be in one small geographical area.

Don’t think the space is going to be little, though. This pop-up is 3,100 square feet, “an explosion of fluorescent color and visual stimuli, a meld of Plexiglas and endless video screens” with “mannequins (that) sport black wigs dip-dyed in party pinks and purples,” according to Women’s Wear Daily. There’s a nail salon in the back and a food truck out front that serves French pastries and coffee. There’s a photo booth and rotating DJs and a game night that will feature “pinball and foosball tables” that have “designs inspired by the various necklaces, rings and bangles in the collection.” Naturally.

The pop-up isn’t the only ground broken by the iconic design house. The featured line is the first to be a partnership between Dior and an outside artist, German Anselm Reyle, WWD reports.

When Dior initially asked, Reyle didn’t exactly jump at the chance, WWD reports: “I waited a bit at first because it’s not the usual thing for artists to do such a collaboration,” he says, according to the site. “I had to think about it.” Three days later, he agreed.

Prices on the fluorescent-camouflage items in the Dior x Reyle collection, by the way, “range from $310 for a resin bangle to $4,500 for a metallic lambskin Lady Dior,” Women’s Wear Daily reports. Naturally.

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There are brand extensions and then there are brand extensions.

Porsche, the official sponsor of midlife crises everywhere, is now ready to move its lifestyle brand from the curb all the way upstairs to the couch. In partnership with a property developer, the Porsche Design Group is constructing a 57-story tower on South Florida's exclusive Sunny Isles Beach resort. Residents will soon be able to go from their 911 to the 11th floor without ever leaving the Porsche lifestyle — or their car, for that matter.

But while a one-off building may be a PR boon for the brand, like a car show concept vehicle that will never be made, are a large number of consumers ready to buy, or live in, a Porsche?Continue reading...

In the last decade, the Cuban-American population has grown in every state (with some of the fastest-growing in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky), according to the 2010 Census.

Smucker’s — manufacturers of jelly and ice-cream toppings, among plenty of other things — has taken note. 

The company went out and purchased Rowland Coffee Roasts in May, which includes Café Bustelo coffee, an icon to Cuban-Americans in Miami.

Smucker’s spokeswoman Maribeth Badertscher told NPR that the purchase is “part of a major effort to bring Hispanic consumers to the table.”Continue reading...

Well, this is embarrassing.

Nike advertising is just having an off year. Sure, the shoemaker is still knocking out ads on the bleeding edge. But yet again this week, a Nike ad is coming back to bite the brand in the butt. This time it's LeBron James. Continue reading...