Avoiding nuclear armageddon is great but avoiding nuclear armageddon with an icy cold Coca-Cola is better. As the saying goes, "Things go better with Coke."

The latest entry into the historical record of branding campaigns is Coca-Cola's new endeavor "to break down barriers and create a simple moment of connection between two nations—India and Pakistan."

On the sincere surface, it's a genuinely heartfelt message that creates an emotional bond with the brand. A more cynical reading is that it's a genuinely heartfelt message that creates an emotional bond with the brand in two markets in which Coca-Cola's market percentage lags.Continue reading...

Some countries have hidden cigarette brand names from consumers with plain packaging. Some countries demand retailers hide the cigarettes away. Some countries have put nasty images on the packaging so consumers can see what could happen to them someday if they continue to smoke, and some are just starting over. But one country is just planning to get rid of the darn things altogether.

It’ll take a few years, of course, for Scotland to get all tobacco products out of its country, but the plan is to have them gone by 2034, according to the UK's thecourier.co, so smokers might want to get their trips to Scotland over with sooner rather than later. The country has already banned smoking from public places and raised the age of purchase from 16 to 18; it now plans to ban smoking from the grounds of all hospitals and force retailers to sell smokes in plain packaging.Continue reading...

The U.S. government has been in a long-running battle with Big Tobacco to try and get nasty images placed onto cigarette packaging, a fight that seems destined to end up in the Supreme Court someday.

Singapore is the latest country that appears ready to step into that same boxing ring. With 5.3 million people, Singapore may not be the largest country in the world, but it has the world’s fourth-leading financial center and one of the top five busiest ports in the world, and soon, it may be difficult to see any packs of cigarettes. The Wall Street Journal reports that "the Singapore government is proposing to ban shops from displaying tobacco-related products."Continue reading...

Earlier this year, Procter & Gamble moved the global headquarters of its beauty and baby-care business and the Pampers brand to Singapore from corporate headquarters in Cincinnati. Now, the CPG giant wants to make Singapore its worldwide capital for manufacturing of water-purification products.

In fact, P&G has just announced a lofty goal for the Purifier of Water plant that it is scaling up in Singapore: to cleanse enough drinking water to "save one life every hour by 2020" somewhere on the planet. The powder is a mini water purification plant in a packet. The small packets, when stirred into water, causes heavy metals, dirt and parasites to bind together then fall to the bottom of the container. Strained through a filter cloth and after 20 minutes, the water is drinkable.

P&G has been distributing these packets in more than 65 countries since 2004, attacking the global scarcity of potable water and raising awareness about the problem. Now it's increasing its investment in this commitment with its Singapore plant opening. "We've taken [P&G] innovation power and focused on one of our world's biggest challenges, clean drinking water, a lack of which takes the lives of thousands of children every day," stated P&G CEO Bob McDonald.Continue reading...

Tired of carrying a stack of loyalty cards with you everywhere? Well, your mobile phone is calling with a solution. 

Like pretty much everything else a consumer desires, the data from your loyalty programs can be stored on your mobile phone. And now, if you happen to spend any time in Singapore, you can use it to keep track of just how loyal you are to Subway. 

QSRweb reports that customers at more than 80 Subways with phones on any Apple iOS or Android-based operation system can join the Pointpal program and earn themselves a free six-inch Subway meal after collecting eight stamps. If you sign up in the next month, you get two stamps right off the bat.

"We want to continually innovate and provide the best possible customer experience and this is increasingly around a mobile loyalty rewards program,” stated Sarah Lee, franchisee of 10 Subway restaurants in Singapore. “Customers are rewarded for their purchases, and can use their mobile phone to capture and redeem these rewards across participating franchisees and as part of this local-store marketing activity.Continue reading...

Heineken is ‘making responsible consumption aspirational’ with a new theme, 'Sunrise belongs to moderate drinkers,' as part of its global 'Open Your World' campaign (remember "The Entrance"?) for the holiday season.

“Heineken has both the opportunity and the responsibility to encourage moderate drinking. This approach breaks from the norm of traditional responsible consumption messages and takes a progressive stance by showing that drinking responsibly can be aspirational,” said Alexis Nasard, Chief Commercial Officer, Heineken.

The holiday campaign (as seen above) launched in November via teasers in London, Ho Chi Minh, Rio de Janiero and San Francisco, with sofas featuring the hashtag #mysunrise placed in locations with spectacular sunrise views asking fans to post photos of their best sunrise moments, tagged #mysunrise on Twitter and pushing to Heineken’s related Facebook app.Continue reading...

Comfy couches, muted colors, flower-pot lampshades — does that sound like Burger King to you? Well, the Miami-based chain indeed is experimenting with those decorating concepts at a new spot it just opened, called Garden Grill, in Singapore. It's meant to be more alluring to families than the chain's traditionally "louder" color story and trappings.

The menu remains the same as BK's fare worldwide but oh, that ambience! There is crisp, clean wood throughout, from the tables and chairs to the ceiling. And no color brighter than a sort of chartreuse is anywhere to be seen. If we didn't know any better, we'd swear that Burger King is trying to catch up with McDonald's overhaul of the inner decor of its restaurants at many locations worldwide.

Burger King isn't planning to bring the Garden Grill concept (by Outofstock design) to the United States, at least anytime soon. Do you think they could move the King to Singapore too? More images below:Continue reading...

Gucci bags, Apple iClones, New Balance sneakers, jeans of all stripes, Oakley sunglasses, you name it. Head out to any major urban strip, market or sidewalk vendor and you'll find a plethora of knock-offs laid out on a table, selling for a low, low price.

Well, fakers beware. There are now 38 countries committed to an international anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting agreement.

At an Oct. 1st meeting in Tokyo, the United States and seven other nations signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which aims to stamp out piracy and intellectual property theft. Other new ACTA signatories include New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Japan, and Morocco.

Prior to signing, the US was embroiled in debates over the sections of the agreement pertaining to IP protection on the web, a hot-button issue that alarmed online privacy watchdogs such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, with some concerned about ACTA's constitutionality.Continue reading...