Call it "We are the Swirl." As brandchannel broke on January 7th, Kraft's Miracle Whip dressing brand has produced its first musical video, an "anthem" that will premiere during Sunday night's Grammy Awards telecast, but won't run on CBS. Instead, it's being promoted on the brand's social and digital channels.

The tongue-in-cheek video, above, stars Scottish songbird Susan Boyle (in her first U.S. commercial endorsement) and an unlikely crew of musicians, including Lance Bass (formerly of 'N Sync and readying his first solo album), country star Wynonna Judd, '80's pop star Tiffany, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke, alt rock drummer Philip "Fish" Fisher of Fishbone, heavy metal singer Don Dokken, rap/hip-hop artist Chali 2na, and members of the Village People.

In the vein of "We are the World" and other musical pleas for understanding, the eclectic mix of performers sings "Keep an Open Mouth," continuing on a theme that debuted during last year's Academy Awards telecast. The sense of humor is in keeping with a brand that makes light of its claim that "a lot of people say they hate us without every (even) trying us," as its YouTube channel notes.

As Judd tweeted, the campaign's goal is "to set all the pre-judgers out there straight." Addressing the "haters," the Miracle Whip Twitter feed promoted the video (hashtag: #KAOM) with the comment, "Don't knock it 'til you try it," and will be live-tweeting throughout the Grammys telecast.

Nominated for several Academy Awards, Silver Linings Playbook has been critically acclaimed for its directing, story and performances. But what about its product placement?

The feel-good love story features some product placement as complex as its themes. For starters, there is the question of whether or not pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca had anything to do with drug mentions. (They did not.) There are Raisin Bran, Budweiser, and Apple products. ("Gimme' an iPod. Who doesn't have an iPod?")

And then comes the conspicuous jar of Hellmann's mayonnaise. Continue reading...

Famous mouths opening up — isn't that what the Grammys are all about?

Miracle Whip has just posted a teaser video on its YouTube channel (watch above) hinting at some of the gold-plated throats that will help the brand promote its sponsorship of Sunday's Grammy Awards telecast on CBS, recording a song (a title guess: "We are the Swirl"?) and using the tagline — "Keep an Open Mouth" — that the Kraft-owned brand introduced during another awards show: the 2012 Academy Awards.

Participating musicians include Scottish singer Susan Boyle, country legend Wynonna Judd (who's been tweeting about the launch—see below), former 'N Sync vocalist Lance Bass, '80's pop star Tiffany, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke (who tweeted an Instagram photo of Boyle with his motorcycle; thanks, Fairacre, for the Twitter tip), and members of the Village People (who posted photos from the video shoot on Facebook), all seen in a behind-the-scenes video during the taping at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood.

The teaser ends: "Famous Mouths Are Opening Up for Miracle Whip" and promises an "epic video" (update: watch it here) that will be "opening" on Sunday. Ahead of Sunday's debut, the campaign is being promoted on the brand's Facebook page and on Twitter with the hashtag #KAOM, an acronym for the "Keep an Open Mouth" tagline.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...

What does PepsiCo believe in even more than Beyonce? The answer might be crowdsourcing.

Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show served as the main kickoff to its huge investment in the globally popular entertainer with a concert that some felt usurped the game itself. But the walkup to her much-anticipated performance used a highly populist approach that underscored PepsiCo-Frito Lay's faith in the crowd as much as any pop star.

The bulk of the ad, produced by NYC-based Mekanism, featured a lightning-fast succession of Pepsi enthusiasts culled from more than 120,000 photos submitted to the brand via New York-based Olapic and Crowdtwist. Olapic collected and curated the pictures while CrowdTwist rewarded uploads through a point-based platform. Mekanism, as TIME puts it, took that material in a bid to manufacture "viral on demand" for the Pepsi brand.Continue reading...

Kraft is moving to prevent Cracker Barrel restaurants from extending its store brand into American supermarkets, where Kraft's Cracker Barrel cheese brand has been a major player since 1954.

There was seemingly no big threat to Kraft or to its Cracker Barrel cheese trademark when Lebanon, Tenn.-based Cracker Barrel Old Country Store sold merely a few grocery items under the Cracker Barrel name at small general stores attached to most of its 600-some U.S. restaurants.

But now that Cracker Barrel has struck a major licensing agreement with the John Morrell Food Group to sell Cracker Barrel-branded food products through grocers and mass merchandisers, Kraft says it is concerned that the restaurant chain's brand expansion could create confusion among consumers — and thereby damage the Kraft line.Continue reading...

The Oreo brand showed a digital nimbleness heretofore unseen during Sunday night’s Super Bowl game — the stuff marketers dream about.

The Mondelez-owned Oreo had already aired its Super Bowl TV commercial, "Whisper Fight," which promoted the “Cookie or Creme?” debate with a social marketing campaign: an Instagram link to continue the conversation, visually. The spot asks: Is the cream or the cookie that is the most delicious part of an Oreo? 

It was an engaging brand message that cost the company $3.5 million. But then the lights went out. "What happens when everything changes, when you go off script?" Hofstetter said. "That was where it got fun. You need a brave brand to approve content that quickly. When all of the stakeholders come together so quickly, you've got magic." 

And then: Blackout. It took the cookie brand just 20 minutes from the time the lights unexpectedly went out in the Superdome to create and tweet an image of an Oreo cookie against a black background carying an inventive line of copy: "You can still dunk in the dark.”  

The quick response went viral, as it was retweeted more than 12,000 times and won the Twitterverse award of the game's “Ad Bowl.” The Wall Street Journal called it "culture-jacking" the Super Bowl, while CNET called it "brilliant." The brand saw its Instagram following soar. So how did they pull it off?Continue reading...

Scoring a victory with its Super Bowl XLVII commercial, Taco Bell is giving away free churros with any purchase today in the U.S. (via a Facebook coupon). And in another sweet treat, Kraft's JELL-O brand is giving away free pudding cups on Tuesday in San Francisco, as promised in its post-Game ad, above.

Why console the losing team's hometown in Sunday's Super Bowl? JELL-O's pitch: "We're funning up the runner-up. Because nothing masks the bitter taste of defeat quite like the sweet taste of pudding. http://www.funthingsup.com #puddingdrop"

Taco Bell also adds steak to its new Cantina Bell menu partnership with chef Lorena Garcia today — more on that in the spot below:Continue reading...