Hellmann’s mayonnaise turns 100 this year and its owner, Unilever, is celebrating with the brand’s biggest marketing campaign ever.

"It's part of the culinary heritage of America," said Brian Orlando, Hellmann's senior marketing director, the Associated Press reports. "After 100 years, we decided it was worth going out and revisiting this brand and what it is today."

Unilever is shelling out for TV, print and digital ads for its “Bringing the Best Together” campaign as well as a Facebook page and YouTube videos “featuring chef Mario Batali cooking up Hellmann's recipes, a Smartphone app and a September event that will include the world's largest picnic table,” according to AP. 
Batali has been asked to create 30 recipes that incorporate Hellmann's to be shared via Facebook and the app. The TV ads, however, will focus on founder Richard Hellmann’s New York deli where the brand was first sold.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola is killing Vietnam's children. That's the takeaway message of a video that is part of a boycott movement against the world's most famous, most successful soda maker. But is Vietnam's anti-Coca-Cola consumer movement all state-sponsored fizz and no substance?

Even after the war was over and the troops had left, news stories used the presence of Coca-Cola as an example of persisting American influence in Communist Vietnam. "Girlie Magazines and Coca-Cola Still In Vietnam" read the headline from a May 1975 Associated Press story. Sadly, two decades did not make the press much more sensitive. "Coca-Cola Invades Vietnam" read the Nov. 18, 1994 Albany Herald headline announcing Coke's official return to selling in the nation.

During the post-war US embargo, Coca-Cola was still widely available in Vietnam, brought in from neighboring nations. Thanks to this make-do distribution system, Coke claimed a majority of Vietnam's soft drink market even before it officially returned to bottling in the nation. But for the last several years, Coke's success has become a sore spot for Vietnamese consumers who suspect the brand is cheating the nation out of tax receipts—and a new boycott is aiming to do something about it.Continue reading...

Walmart posts mixed results, expects "challenging" quarter; earnings report also discloses $73M expenses related to foreign bribery probes.

Microsoft to Google: We need APIs to fix YouTube app.

Abercrombie & Fitch signs Bangladesh safety agreement as deadline passes for Gap deal.

Apple defends brand (but not Steve Jobs) in US book price-fixing suit.

Boeing and GE hunt for engine defect in 777s.

Campbell Soup uses digital marketing to target Millennials.

Capri-Sun targeted by German ad watchdog for misleading marketing.

Cisco profit is boosted by services.Continue reading...

Mondelez International is about to find out if it can keep the advertising momentum going around its Oreo brand, arguably the most important individual product line for the global snack giant that was spun off from Kraft last year.

Oreo campaigns have scored one hit after another over the last several months, culminating, of course, with brand stewards' savvy in turning the Super Bowl blackout in New Orleans into an impromptu social-media marketing occasion.

Now, Mondelez is counting on its recently demonstrated advertising chops to create a great reception for its new campaign for Oreo, dubbed "Wonderfilled." It employs new positioning as well as TV commercials with original songs, print advertisements, a strong social media presence and pop-up choral mini-concerts in major US cities next week.

"It starts with a very simple premise, about how something as small as an Oreo cookie can bring about a positive change in perspective," said Janda Lukin, director of Oreo, according to Advertising Age.Continue reading...

Three companies control most of the seed business in the world and one of them is Monsanto, the Missouri-based agricultural company infamous for producing genetically-modified crops and genetically-engineered seeds. The company's resistant seeds were of top concern in a recent patent lawsuit against an Indiana farmer. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court came down on the independent farmer and declared Monsanto a win. 

The farmer, Vernon Hugh Bowman, purchased Monsanto soybean seeds that are resistant to weed killer and planted them one year. It was his actions after that year that got him into trouble. “Bowman v Monsanto revolved around what Bowman contended was a legal loophole in his license agreement with Monsanto: farmers are allowed to sell the second-generation seeds to grain elevators, which, in turn, are permitted to sell a mixture of undifferentiated seeds as ‘commodity grain,’” Forbes reports. “In other words, he maintained he was legally allowed to buy Monsanto’s seeds cheaper from a grain elevator rather than directly from the company.”Continue reading...

Yahoo is seeking a younger demographic as it looks to shed its outdated image and reliance on an “aging demographic." The internet brand plans to ramp up advertising and marketing to the younger set. 

"Part of it is going to be just visibility again in making ourselves cool, which we got away from for a couple of years," CFO Ken Goldman said at Tuesday’s J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Boston, according to Reuters. "Cool" includes greater visibility on outdoor billboards and at sporting events to catch the eye of 18- to 34-year-olds and promote new products, which will require a significant ad spend across multiple media.

Since taking the helm last summer (and instating a controversial no work-from-home policy) Marissa Mayer has already launched new versions of Yahoo's web email and Flickr photo sharing service and acquired several small start-ups, setting Yahoo stocks up for a near 70 percent surge. But analysts attribute the rise, at least in part, to stock buybacks and the growing value of Yahoo's Asian portfolio. "I do like the idea of buying back stock," said Goldman. "So I don't necessarily suggest at all that the fact that we've got a little bit more to go on the existing purchase does not mean that we would not go beyond that and buy more."Continue reading...

Soccer’s quadrennial World Cup is the world’s most-watched sporting event, but there is another event held annually that packs a heftier long-term punch for 500 kids from around the world.

Since 2000, France’s Groupe Danone—the makers of such products as Evian, Naya and Volvic water along with Brown Cow, Stonyfield and Dannon yogurt, among other products—has sponsored 40 youth soccer teams from across the globe to come play in the Danone Nations Cup, essentially a World Cup for the 10- to 12-year-old set. Since 2003, the event has been supported by former French soccer great Zinedine Zidane, who gracelessly ended his career at the 2006 World Cup by getting kicked out of the game for headbutting an Italian player. 

After nine championships in France and two in South Africa, the Cup Final has been played in Spain and Poland in the last two years. Word has finally come this week that the world’s youth soccer elite will be heading to London’s Wembley Stadium for this year’s final on Sept. 7. The American team will be decided after the U.S. final to be held on May 27.Continue reading...

Google confirmed speculation that it would launch a music service at its annual I/O developer conference Wednesday. The internet giant announced Google Play Music All Access, a subscription-based service that is a little bit of Spotify, Pandora and Twitter #Music all in one. Apparently, the internet behemoth's announcements went over well with Wall Street, as Google's shares closed at a record high of $900, putting the company's market cap over $300 billion. 

Unlike Google Music, its cloud music service that lets users upload up to 20,000 purchased songs to listen to on Android devices or on the web, the Google Play Music All Access subscription service launches it into direct competition with music streaming services like Spotify—which has 24 million active monthly users, 6 million paying subscribers and more than 20 million licensed songs in 28 countries—as well as Pandora. Though unlike either of the other services, Google's All Access won't have a free option. The service, which will be available across the web, mobile and tablets will cost $9.99 per month after a 30-day free trial. 

“It makes lots of sense for both YouTube and Play, which was built for Google’s Android devices, to sell music subscriptions,” notes AllThingsD. “YouTube is the world’s biggest free music service, which could make it a fantastic funnel for a Spotify-like paid offering, which can also help solve some problems with the music labels."Continue reading...