Before every major sports season gets underway, Upper Deck churns out endless numbers of cards to satisfy every seven- and 67-year-old card junkie.

But this year, all those NHL card junkies out there that are looking for a new Ilya Bryzgalov card now that he’s joined the Philadelphia Flyers or a Mike Richards card with him wearing his new Los Angeles Kings duds, they will all have to just sit tight. 

The reason things are slightly behind schedule is because the Atlanta Thrashers were purchased by True North Sports and Entertainment Group, which moved the team to Winnipeg. While the team name was obvious – the Jets, like the NHL team that left town in 1996 – Winnipeg’s logo has yet to be announced.

This is what’s holding things up, the London Free Press reports, since the logo plays a key part in the card’s design.Continue reading...

The Australian government's move to become the first country in the world to adopt plain packaging for cigarettes is naturally meeting resistance from the tobacco industry. Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard is backing legislation introduced yesterday by health minister Nicola Roxon that would mandate that cigarette packages sold in the country adopt a standard olive green, found in research to be the the most repulsive color to smokers.

But that's not all: the packages, assuming the legislation survives legal challenges by Big Tobacco, would also remove logos and branding, with the brand name in a standard font and size. Each package will bear a ghoulish graphic (such as a sickly eyeball) meant to shock and hopefully stop the prospective buyer, along with a related health warning in uppercase text, such as "SMOKING CAUSES BLINDNESS."Continue reading...

Take a 6-minute break and check out this Intel Visual Life short film (by Brooklyn-based m ss ng p eces) on Wolff Olins cofounder, the British designer Michael Wolff.

He weighs in on branding not only verbally, but (of course) via visual cues to his personal aesthetic system — watch for his Pantonesque color-coded mugs, shirts, markers and umbrellas. And if you have nine more minutes...Continue reading...

As we mentioned on Friday, HP is kicking off its new global branding campaign at the Grammy Awards tonight. The brand's new Everybody On commercials feature, above, the music of Lou Reed (the classic Walk On The Wild Side) and after the jump, a spot with Alicia Keys.Continue reading...

HP's new global marketing campaign celebrates how people around the world are using HP technology to pursue their personal and professional passions.

The launch of its worldwide "Everybody On"  tagline and branding campaign – "spanning music, fashion, community activism, business and more" – is being executed via an integrated marketing campaign featuring print, broadcast, online and social media.

It's timed to the launch of three new WebOS-enabled mobile devices this week: the Pre3 smartphone, a mini-smart phone called the Veer and its Touchpad tablet. 

The campaign also builds on the brand's “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign, and will be in evidence this weekend as part of its continuing support of the Grammy Awards on Sunday and Grammy-winning artist Alicia Keys.Continue reading...

InterbrandHealth, a division of brandchannel parent Interbrand, believes that brand is the single most underutilized asset within the health & life sciences industry. Why?

The health and life sciences industry is an IP-driven space — one that is based on significant innovation. As new categories and innovation have slowed drastically over the past 10 years, there has been a proliferation of similar products where brand now has to play a key role.

“Brands have to work harder than ever to gain that trust and engage consumers in a more meaningful way,” notes Wes Wilkes, InterbrandHealth’s Executive Director of Global Strategy.Continue reading...

Who wouldn't want to travel on Oprah's private plane? Indeed, the luxury and convenience of private jet travel. But that's never going to happen. So, for the rest of us plebes, there is the new United Airlines “Oprah Winfrey Show Farewell Season Plane."

With an interior exclusively decorated by Oprah herself, and a special greeting video from the queen of daytime, it's almost like the elegant era of airline travel is back. But not really.Continue reading...

Earlier this summer Sony launched a new interactive screen (don't call it a Jumbotron) in New York's Times Square, in preparation for an interactive brand experience to engage users in make.believe, its global "brand message" that launched last September. The goal of its new digital outreach to users: "to not only display our game-changing technologies and entertaining content, but to showcase the dreams of our fans."

The digital marketing contest goes like this: "Share a dream you'd like to see become a reality by tweeting your #sonyibelieve statement to @sony. The most original, creative, Sony-relevant statements will be posted on the Times Square screen and their Tweeters will win a new Sony Bloggie HD camera!"Continue reading...