Pepsi-Cola North America Beverages (PCNAB) is in the 'hood, the South Bronx hood to be precise, teaming up with New Yorkers like Grammy Award producer, rapper, and artist Swizz Beatz, graffiti artist Cope 2, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and Assemblyman Carl Heastie, all gathered in support of healthier lifestyle choices.

Activities held today at THE POINT include:

• Sampling stations with Aquafina, Diet Sierra Mist, SoBe Lifewater and Pepsi MAX
• Cooking demonstrations from City Harvest highlighting healthy summer recipes
• Live art installations by Swizz Beatz, with parents, students and faculty from The Bronx Charter School for the Arts and Cope 2.

"Being a father and also being involved with The Bronx Charter School for the Arts, I understand even more how important it is to stay healthy," said Beatz (who's now a proud papa to a son with partner Alicia Keys) in a release. "The Bronx Flavor initiative shows Pepsi-Cola North America's commitment to the well-being of our community."Continue reading...

Heineken tonight launches a three-week pop-up club in New York as part of a local event marketing push to attract Hispanic hipsters (just don't call them Hispsters) and other indie culture vultures.

Featuring music, food, art, film and other events celebrating downtown Latino culture, “The Spot” is curated by Remezcla, a local Latina media guide, and located at the Openhouse Gallery in Nolita. Check out a preview below.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola isn't the only big brand to erect a green billboard. 

Richoh, known for its "managed document services" (based on its copiers and fax machines business), isn’t the first company you’d think of when you think of who is going green, but it's pulling out the stops to show the world that it is serious about lowering the company’s environmental impact by one-eighth of its 2000 levels by 2050.

Last year, Ricoh put up the first solar-powered billboard in New York's Times Square. And now EarthTechling.com notes that Ricoh has installed “the very first 100% eco-powered billboard in London.”Continue reading...

Walgreens’ New York-centric Duane Reade division is throwing a red carpet opening tonight for its flagship store on Wall Street. That's right — a VIP bash to celebrate opening a new drugstore in a city that has one (it seems) on every other corner.

Duane Reade, which has been remodeling its stores, has been putting on a show to promote its new locations, including Broadway-style dancers and tuxedoed street teams. But this opening will top them all.

The 22,000-sq.-ft. new location will be open 24/7, in The Trump Building at 40 Wall Street, an iconic address that once upon a time was a bank hall known as the "Crown Jewel of Wall Street" and touted as the tallest building in the world.

40 Wall Street, which opens its doors to the public at 7am on Wednesday, is the chain’s most ambitious, glittering and elaborate store to date, geared to its moneyed, rushed, picky and well-heeled neighborhood clientele.

The elite amenities on offer certainly 'Trump' DR's other Manhattan locations to date.Continue reading...

When you’re talking about almost $400 million, everybody wants a piece of the pie. That’s how much a “report last month from New York's Senate Independent Democratic Conference estimated the state would earn” in the next three years if it legalized same-sex marriages, according to USA Today.

Now that the bill has passed and same-sex couples can start tying the knot in the Empire State on July 24, New York City is planning an “I Do” marketing campaign to help draw wedding-bound couples to the Big Apple.Continue reading...

As if the online world wasn't already challenging to navigate, ICANN, the company that regulates Internet names, this week ushered in a sweeping new change to the "dot" convention that could result in a virtually endless stream of new web addresses.

While familiar extensions such as "dot-com," "dot-net," and "dot-org," will not go away, added to the mix will be dot-just about anything. The current 22 gTLDs (generic Top Level Domains) will be expanded to unlimited possibilities since any person or company will soon be able to apply for a name ending in, well, you name it.

The move "usher(s) in a new Internet age," said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of ICANN's Board of Directors. "We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration."

True, but ICANN has also provided a platform for what could amount to "the dawn of a chaotic new era with companies and other groups expected to battle over suffixes," according to Reuters.Continue reading...

Oregon’s motto is “she flies with her own wings.” And now she’ll fly with digitally enhanced ones.

The state's legislature has just agreed to allow digital billboards along all state roadways, according to the Oregonian. The newspaper points out that while some Oregon cities already allows such billboards, this law will allow for such advertising along all of the state highways.

Digital billboards are a hot topic of debate around the US.Continue reading...

Au Bon Pain spent $1 million redesigning several of its Boston stores recently and found such success with the redo that the company is planning to do the same to 26 more units.

FastCasual.com reports that now the bakery café chain will launch a “major café remodeling program.” In the New York City area, five of its stores have been totally redone and another 13 have “undergone a refresh.”

The overhaul isn't just cosmetic, but includes employees using iPads to move ordering along faster, a new sandwich bar and salad station, and redesigns of café layouts to speed up service. Employee uniforms are changing to black with orange-sunburst aprons and dining rooms also will be refurbished.Continue reading...