Pepsi Canada took a big risk back in 1976 when it challenged consumers to a blind taste test, hoping that they’d not only top rival Coke but also that some of those folks who generally purchased Coca-Cola would surprise themselves and choose Pepsi.

Well, it worked then and the company hopes that it will keep on working this summer. PepsiCo Beverages Canada has announced that it is touring the nation this summer to administer the test to 1.5 million consumers at more than 1,000 events across the land.

With all this energy being thrown into it, Pepsi has gone ahead and renamed the promotion the Pepsi Ultimate Taste Challenge, which makes one wonder how they can possibly top that in the future.

Since 1976, the company has given nine million taste tests and this summer’s taste tests will feature the use of new technology, more than a thousand local events, and tricked-out semi-trailer crossing the country.Continue reading...

Nike has taken over the NFL’s jerseys from Reebok and redesigned them entirely, but don’t go thinking it’s the only North American football league that’s going through this process this year.

The Canadian Football League is going to have its own “re-engineered jerseys” from Reebok before the CFL's June training camps kick off, according to Canada's National Post.

The eight teams of the CFL will each get new jerseys designed by Reebok as part of the league’s 100th anniversary celebration of the Grey Cup, the championship of the CFL.

“While we will mark this historic milestone in many ways, we have also worked with Reebok to re-engineer team jerseys for the way the game is played today — and to help our athletes succeed tomorrow,” commissioner Mark Cohon said in a statement.Continue reading...

Fifty years ago, some kind of discount-retail god must have looked down upon America. Target, Walmart, and Kmart all established their first stores in 1962 and now they’re all finding ways to celebrate.

Walmart has rolled out a special website with a countdown clock to its 50th anniversary on July 2nd. Target celebrates its 50th year on May 1st, half a century after the Dayton Company opened its first Target-branded discount store in Roseville, Minnesota. (Of course, they’re all toddlers compared with JCPenney, which turns 110 this year.)

Of course this isn’t the only way these two retailers will be clashing heads. Target is spending part of this year prepping to make its launch in Canada in 2013, a market that Walmart has had its stamp on for nearly two decades. Target will be opening 125 to 135 stores, but Walmart is hoping to dampen the party.Continue reading...

Lululemon, the billion-dollar Canadian yoga-inspired athletic apparel brand founded by former surfer Dennis "Chip" Wilson in 1998, continues to cause a stir in retail, lifestyles and its focus on a tight community with bizarre principles. 

In its earnings report last month covering its fiscal year that ended on January 29th, the company's CEO, Christine Day, announced:

"Reaching a billion dollars in revenue is clearly an important milestone that as a company we can all be very proud of. But far more important than the number itself are the beliefs, values, culture and people that achieved it. We really are so much more than our numbers; it is the everyday actions of our dedicated team that translates into an unparalleled guest experience and allows us to achieve our ultimate goal of elevating the world."

The original mission that Wilson set out for the brand, to "elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness," has morphed into "create components for people to live long, healthy, and fun lives."Continue reading...

Here's the commercial for Madonna's new "Truth or Dare" fragrance deemed too racy by Disney's ABC TV censors.

Below, enjoy some bacontastic branding mmmoves, and more:Continue reading...

Tobacco companies in the United States have been dealing with legal fireworks for years, but things are finally heating up for the their Canadian brethren. This week a class-action case is scheduled to head to court that could cost the companies “up to $27 billion in damages and penalties at stake,” according to the Canadian Press.

The smokers claim that “they were duped for years by big tobacco companies as they became addicted to cigarettes (and) then suffered from serious health problems,” the CP reports. The three defendants in the case -- Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.; Rothmans, Benson & Hedges; and JTI-Macdonald – clearly disagree.

The case was born way back in 1998 when two different suits were filed against the companies. They were consolidated in 2005 and will now finally reach the courtroom.

“I’ve tried (to quit) five or six times in the last 14 years,” said Jean-Yves Blais, who still smokes after 57 years of doing so, despite getting part of a lung removed due to cancer, the wire service reports. “I smoke a little more than one package a day — maybe 30 cigarettes a day.”Continue reading...

Kraft's Oreo turned 100 today, although it's celebrating all year long. On Facebook, the iconic cookie is promoting celebratory Oreo cookiegrams, charging $3.99 per "greeting" — a package of limited-edition birthday Oreo cookies, redeemable exclusively at Target. Below, watch its U.S. tribute video and check out how Canadians celebrated at an event in Toronto.Continue reading...

As Target prepares to expand to Canada in 2013 by taking over Zellers stores coast-to-coast, the retailer brought Torontonians a taste of its latest designer collaboration on Thursday — the red-hot Jason Wu lin which sold out on the eve of New York Fashion Week.

Its one-day (and first-ever) pop-up store in Canada saw another first for the market: a charitable donation to the United Way that matched 100% of sales that day. Bullseye, the Target mascot, also made the trip north with Wu.