Emboldened by the performance of its ads during the Super Bowl, riding the wave of the massive marketing push for its Doritos Locos Tacos partnership with Taco Bell and bolstered by PepsiCo's increasing moves toward global brand platforms, Doritos is adopting a new, more consistent look across the 37 countries where the chips are sold and is launching a new worldwide marketing campaign.

Doritos is planning to punctuate its new plans with a four-story-high, Twitter-controlled rap concert (hashtag: #boldstage) on its boldly branded vending-machine stage at SXSW next week.

"For the Bold" is the tagline for Doritos' first global marketing campaign. It'll start with the U.S. launch of a new ad on cable TV networks beginning in mid-month.

Called "Best Summer Job," the commercial will tell the story of a "college-aged valet making bold choices which lead to an epic joyride, inspired by Doritos chips," as Ram Krishnan, VP of marketing for PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America, told Ad Age.Continue reading...

LUNA Bar is rebranding itself as a “thought leader” on women’s nutrition, and expanding its reach to include dieters.

Its six "Debunking the Diet" webisodes, hosted by "Funny or Die" writer/actor Erin Gibson and nutritionist Tara DelloIacono Thies, premiered this week with a focus on weight gain and late-night eating.

The spots support the brand's new tagline, "Feed Your Strength," and are appearing on Luna's Facebook and YouTube pages as well as health-related websites, The Huffington Post and Daily Candy.  Other campaign messages include “Moderation, not deprivation” and “Strong beats skinny.”Continue reading...

Kraft Foods executives have promised to breathe new life into the stable of venerable — some would say hoary — brands that they inherited in the breakup of Kraft this year. And it looks like JELL-O is getting a lot of the early attention.

JELL-O gelatin and puddings have been fading lately, the brand's performance a far cry from when Bill Cosby flogged JELL-O in now-iconic TV commercials. Only 10 percent of Americans say they have eaten gelatin in the past two weeks, down from 15 percent in 1998, according to market researchers NPD Group as cited in Crain's Chicago Business. New snacks and indulgences such as Greek-style yogurt, and versatile foods that can serve as desserts such as granola and nutrition bars, have cut into JELL-O's turf, largely because it was under-marketed in recent years.

Not even the tough economy of the last few years has revived JELL-O, despite the fact that its products are inexpensive.Continue reading...

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the president of the bakers union in court-ordered mediation with Hostess Brands said he's "not too optimistic" that a settlement will be reached or the company's liquidation plan (now adjourned to 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday) reversed:

In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union President Frank Hurt, who’s not attending the mediation being held in New York Tuesday afternoon, said he’s heard "not a word" about how the talks are going. But he doesn’t think a deal will be reached to head off the Twinkie maker’s liquidation because his members aren’t prepared to take the labor concessions Hostess says it needs to survive.

Will brand loyalists have more success convincing President Obama to nationalize Twinkies — or will Pabst ride to the rescue and save Twinkie the Kid? Stay tuned.

Update: The announcement that mediation failed came at 7:08 p.m. ET: "Hostess Brands Inc. announced today that a mediation today with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union was unsuccessful. The Company will have no further comment until a hearing scheduled for tomorrow at 11 a.m., EST, before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York"

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Urban legend has it that Twinkies have an endless shelf life, but the folks at Hostess Brands didn’t have to worry about that this weekend. After the announcement came Friday that the company was going to shut down, Twinkies and all of the other baked goods cranked out by the company flew off store shelves this weekend. And some of them started showing up on eBay at ridiculously high prices. A ten-count box of Twinkies was listed with an opening bid of $200,000.

That price should be coming down because now the news comes that Twinkies may get to keep appearing on store shelves for a while to come. According to Reuters, Hostess, its lenders and the unions representing its striking workers reportedly "agreed to start mediation hearings on Tuesday at the urging of a bankruptcy court judge. A hearing on Monday during which the bankrupt maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread was set to ask for permission to liquidate was quickly adjourned until Wednesday after the judge urged the parties to mediate in private." Production remains shut down, as Hostess noted on its business site.Continue reading...

Jokes about Twinkies, Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs may never end. And it's possible that those names and even products, possibly even their parent brand, could live on.

But now, rather suddenly, Hostess Brands, the company that has made them all possible through the decades, has met its apparent end, with the CEO filing for bankruptcy Friday morning, a move he's been threatening while playing hardball with striking workers. The move means the end for the company that brought the world not only Twinkies, but also Wonder Bread, Dolly Madison, and a host(ess) of other branded baked goods.Continue reading...

When Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer wrote the words and music to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” way back in 1908, neither one of them had ever been to a professional baseball game. The pair didn’t mind making some bucks, though, and were surely pleased when the tune caught on. 

If they were writing the song today, of course, they’d probably charge Cracker Jacks a product-placement fee for giving it a mention. Frankly, Cracker Jack brand owner Frito-Lay should probably give Major League Baseball a bit of earnings since a good chunk of the product’s sales likely come from soft-hearted baseball fans who want their kids to experience the game like it was in the old days.

In those olden days, of course, Major League games were played during the day so getting sugared up with Cracker Jacks wouldn’t keep anybody up into the night. That didn’t happen till 1935 when the Cincinnati Reds shone a light down on a game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Now, of course, most professional games are played at night in order to rake in more dollars. Some of those games, especially in the postseason, can go well into the night.

And if you’re having trouble staying awake for the ninth inning, Cracker Jack is about to introduce a product that can help you out, with an extra twist that certainly snapped a few folks to pay attention. A hue and cry has been raised over Cracker Jack'D, which includes a "Cocoa Java" flavor that's just rolling out to stores. Cue a PR kerfuffle — not what Frito-Lay execs had in mind as the iconic brand celebrates its centenary.Continue reading...

The Oreo Daily Twist campaign is fulfilling the brand's mission to help people celebrate the kid inside us all and since June, has been offering a new visually punning "ad" each day to the more than 27.9 million people who “like” Oreo on Facebook or check in on Oreo.com, Pinterest or Twitter. 

The tongue-in-cheek graphics, ideal for pinning, sharing and tweeting, riff on topics in the news and pop culture, ranging from the iPhone 5, Emmy Awards, and Mars Rover to rainbow-striped gay pride, Psy's Gangnam Style phenom and the just-resolved NFL substitute referees blow-up.

The campaign spanned 100 days in honor of the 100th anniversary in March of Kraft's "World’s Favorite Cookie," and as the final day approaches on Oct. 2nd, Oreo will set up a “virtual office” in Times Square on Oct. 2nd to craft the final Daily Twist ad in mere hours based on real-time suggestions from fans.Continue reading...