Whole Foods Market this week rolled out a 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating program that grades pork, beef and chicken products according to how farm animals are bred and reared.

The animal-welfare rating system, developed by Global Animal Partnership, aims to help shoppers learn more about the origin of meat and poultry products and make more informed choices.Continue reading...

When Sun Chips launched its compostable, eco-friendly bag, the innovation created more of a stir than anticipated—and not the kind Frito-Lay had hoped for. Critics, from disgruntled consumers to media opinionators, joined forces to rally against the bag, forcing the company into what appeared to be a quick retreat. Sun Chips promised to desist their sustainable noisemaking and work toward a quieter option, for later release.Continue reading...

It's a marketing strategy that's never really gone out of style: Nationalism.

From Harley-Davidson to Laotian beer, "Made in (Your Locale Here)" has always appealed to politically-engaged consumers. That is especially true today.

In the post-Cold War, battles were fought by whipping out one's nuclear arsenal and measuring it. Today, size still matters, but it's all about the size of GDP. Nations don't mean to annihilate a competitor's front line, they mean to annihilate its bottom line. So, it comes as no surprise that a new Harris Poll finds that USA! USA! USA! is as much propaganda as pocketbook.Continue reading...

POM Wonderful wasn't the only edible brand that got caught in the crosshairs of the health claims wars today.

Ben & Jerry's is removing the phrase "All Natural" from its packaging as a result of a request from a health advocacy group.

The Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest announced that the Vermont-based ice cream-maker, which is owned by Unilever, has agreed to remove the words “All Natural” from all its ice creams and frozen yogurts "that contain alkalized cocoa, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, or other ingredients that aren’t natural."

The move "amicably" resolves a dispute arising from a letter that the Center for Science in the Public Interest sent last month to Unilever. The letter said that at least 48 Ben & Jerry's products were "improperly labeled."

Ben & Jerry's responded to an inquiry from AP it won't change any recipes, but will remove the disputed phrase gradually from all packaging.Continue reading...

Finally, a Kotex/Tampon ad that makes fun of Kotex/Tampon ads.

Ad agencies are finally realizing that young women want truth and humor when it comes to monthly menses, and – accordingly – commercials that reflect a sense of humor and irreverence. One such campaign starring 27-year-old Kelly Diaz appeared on Gossip Girl last week, and featured the young woman-not-an-actor introducing a new brand: UbyKotex.

Diaz, a former ad agency intern, helped create the concept and persuade the brand's parent company the moment had come to be truthful and clever about advertising tampons.

"We just felt like, 'Well, we're gonna try and be truthful and transparent. With this generation, we know humor is big and so we thought, sometimes actually laughing at yourself is a good place to start," said Aida Flick, Kotex brand manager.Continue reading...

Mars already dominates the chocolate-confectionery business in the American market. Now, the Mt. Olive, NJ-based candy giant would like to dictate how US food and beverage companies label their packages.

The Food & Drug Administration is expected to propose guidelines soon that will require CPG companies to provide simple, meaningful nutritional information on the front of their packages – and not just the rear. Furthermore, they're expected to require all food and beverage brands to keep cockamamie, grandiose or confusing claims off of packaging.

At first in Europe and now in the US, Mars has been rolling out a simple nutritional scoring system on all of its products based on “Guideline Daily Amounts” (GDA) of calories and key nutrients.Continue reading...

Once upon a time there was just Red Bull. Today, however, the brand finds itself fighting to stay alive in one of the most viscously competitive consumer markets around. Ironically, it's a market the brand practically created.

To stay ahead, the brand employs all manner of brand-building measures, some conventional, some not. The brand runs standard 30-second TV commercials about the drink "giving you wings." It also underwrites F1 racecars and sponsors star athletes like Olympic gold medalists Lindsey Vonn and Shaun "Flying Tomato" White. The brand's less conventional sports sponsorships include airplane races and "soapbox derbies." But one Red Bull promotion is wildly unique. Continue reading...

One of the staples of the American fast food diet is ketchup – and nine times out of ten, that ketchup is made by H. J. Heinz Co.

But even the world's most popular ketchup, introduced in 1876, can't avoid modern-day marketing.

Heinz just announced that it will be reformulating its core ketchup recipe to reduce the amount of sodium in the product. Heinz will also introduce "Simply Heinz" next month, a new ketchup product that will replace the high fructose corn syrup in its regular ketchup with sugar. It will cost the same as regular Heinz ketchup. Both moves are designed to improve the nutritional content of the company's famous tomato-based condiment.Continue reading...