The John Varvatos menswear brand continues its long association with rock (its NYC flagship store is the former home of CBGB's on the Bowery, while its website celebrates how music is "in its DNA") with its latest collaboration — a short film featuring Green Day in its spring/summer 2012 collection.

The Motor City-born designer, who was featured in Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" campaign, has tapped Dave Matthews, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, The Roots and other musicians as models for his previous collections of edgy fashion.

It's a funny thing about color. It can lift a mood as much as depress it. Color is so much a part of brand marketing that many consumers may not even think about the impact one color or another has on a purchase decision.

Pantone knows just how important color is in marketing; in fact, the company has built a business around it. Each year, Pantone, which describes itself as "the global authority on color," selects a color of the year — before the year begins — to rally the world's designers around it. In fact, the color is selected based on a poll conducted with designers. Last year's color was the "vibrant, energetic" shade of pink called Honeysuckle; some referred to it as "Mad Men pink."

For 2012, Pantone's pick moves the dail a few clicks hotter, from a warm pink to pure tangerine dream, with the selection of "Tangerine Tango," a citrus-red hue that leans orange than red — although it's certainly red hot, popping up all over the Spring 2012 runway collections during the September Fashion Week shows.Continue reading...

Can recycled car parts count as an art form? Consider the above creation. Titled "Environmental Crown of Virtue," it was designed by Moss Lipow using a transmission starter and exhaust manifold gasket from a dismantled Lexus. The automaker asked four of fashion's incredibly inventive designers to come up with wearable art to be featured in an ad in Vogue magazine. See more of the Lexus Fashion Workshop, incorporating parts from recycled Lexus cars to stunning effect, below.Continue reading...

A little bit Kickstarter and Pepsi Refresh Project but with a layer of ‘savvy mentors’ and backing by Britain's Barclays Bank (with media help by Channel 4), The Stake is a competition with a £100,000 reward for ideas that get the most support from the public. It's open to youths living in the U.K. (age 16-21) who have a fantastic idea and a smart plan for how to spend that £100,000.

The ideas could be "anything, from the heart warming to the hilarious, whether it’s a streetwear start-up, a new school skate ramp or a major charitable donation." Applicants can apply at TheStake.co.uk or on Facebook, where users can pitch or back their ideas. What makes it fun and engaging: by completing challenges along the way, they can increase the number of voting stakes out of a possible total of six.

According to Channel 4's press release, the peer-to-peer game with the big jackpot "aims to show the UK's young people that business and social enterprise can be creative, fun, challenging and that good ideas and passion can be rewarded."Continue reading...

In 2006, Dove launched its True Colors campaign to spark a global conversation about the definition and perception of beauty among women of all ages. Its research found only 2% of women considered themselves beautiful; and body anxieties begin at an early age with 72% feeling great pressure to be beautiful, when girls feel badly about their looks, 60% disconnect from life, avoiding normal daily activities like attending school or even giving their opinion.

The brand’s commitment continues with ‘Who Inspired You?’ at the Second Annual Dove Self-Esteem Weekend held in New York October 21—23, pairing celebs with girls for an hour of mentoring. Grammy Award-nominated singer Natasha Bedingfield, Olympian Julie Foudy and Dove Global Self-Esteem Ambassador Jess Weiner were on hand along with the Greater New York Council of the Girl Scouts for esteem-building activities including songwriting and goal-setting.

Facebook mapped the weekend to make events public and interactive, and for every woman who checks in to Dove’s Facebook page and shares a story (through Oct. 31), Dove will donate $1 to Girls Inc. Dove is committed to matching $100,000 plus an additional $200,000 donation to Girls Inc. for self-esteem programming.Continue reading...

“When was the last time you heard something incredible?” is the question underlying submissions to ASUS and Intel’s “In Search of Incredible” campaign.

Grammy-winning musician Jason Mraz has partnered with ASUS and Intel for the global initiative celebrating the launch of the ASUS N Series notebook.

According to its website, photographer Don McCullin, video director Andy Morahan, and film director Asif Kapadia are creating a series of webisodes as Mraz travels the world in search of incredible stories, featured on InSearchOfIncredible.com as well the campaign's YouTube channel.

Entrants have until Oct. 26 to submit their incredible story, and the best submission from each of 16 countries will win an ASUS N Series laptop. The grand prize winner, meanwhile, will see their story become a short film shot by a professional film crew and exhibited at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.Continue reading...

In January it will have been ten years since the passing of Wendy's founder Dave Thomas. Without him, Wendy's has gone back and forth in its campaigns, looking for the grounding and homey heritage that Thomas brought the brand.

Now Wendy's is reaching into its history to push a burger named after its well-liked pitch man. This campaign is a meal deal, served with a side of even more of its past. But going on its 12th quarter of flat or lower revenue at its restaurants, will the new sell of an old brand be enough to make the burger a hit?Continue reading...

The New England Patriots’ Chad Ochocinco, David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, retired Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, professional golfer Greg Norman, and … deceased neo-Expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat?

Well, OK, Basquiat may not have endorsed Reeboks like all the others, but his name is going to be all over the company’s shoes this fall as a new Basquiat-inspired line of clothing and footwear ("I am Basquiat!") hit store shelves as part of the ongoing "I Am Reebok" campaign. It's all thanks to the artist’s renaissance among hip-hop artists and Reebok’s visiting creative director, musician/producer Swizz Beatz.Continue reading...