It's been 20 years since Evelyn Lauder created The Estee Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, which is now active in over 70 countries worldwide. It's a testimony to the work Lauder and her company have done to make October into a monthlong platform for Breast Cancer Awareness.

That journey began in 1992, when 44,000 women in the U.S. were dying of breast cancer each year and nobody was paying attention. Twenty years later, BCA has raised $35 million for research and education and paralyzing fear has been replaced by hope and inspiration.Continue reading...

The Oreo Daily Twist campaign is fulfilling the brand's mission to help people celebrate the kid inside us all and since June, has been offering a new visually punning "ad" each day to the more than 27.9 million people who “like” Oreo on Facebook or check in on Oreo.com, Pinterest or Twitter. 

The tongue-in-cheek graphics, ideal for pinning, sharing and tweeting, riff on topics in the news and pop culture, ranging from the iPhone 5, Emmy Awards, and Mars Rover to rainbow-striped gay pride, Psy's Gangnam Style phenom and the just-resolved NFL substitute referees blow-up.

The campaign spanned 100 days in honor of the 100th anniversary in March of Kraft's "World’s Favorite Cookie," and as the final day approaches on Oct. 2nd, Oreo will set up a “virtual office” in Times Square on Oct. 2nd to craft the final Daily Twist ad in mere hours based on real-time suggestions from fans.Continue reading...

For more than 130 years, Seiko has been helping people across the globe get to meetings, dates, and other social engagements on time. And like all watch-makers these days, the challenge is to get people to wear their brands when we're so used to glancing at our phones for a time check.

For such a basic accoutrement, Seiko has aways aimed to innovate. The company lays claim to a number of firsts: the first quartz watch, the first multifunction digital watch, the first TV watch, the first watch with sound-recording functions, and the world’s first watch driven by body heat. They even just churned out the first solar-powered watch that can set its own time via GPS so anybody who travels a lot won’t have to keep resetting it.

All of these innovations have been housed in a wide variety of designs. Now the Seiko brand is turning to New York City to inspire its latest line, the XNY, which is being sold exclusively at Macy’s. According to a press release, the XNY “watches reflect the youthful energy, artistic diversity and powerful strength of New York City.”

Naturally, any New York-inspired timepiece would come in black.Continue reading...

To no one's surprise, the New York City Board of Health approved on Thursday a ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, street cars and movie theaters. It was the first restriction of its kind and scale in the country.

It also surprised no one that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the spiritual father and political force behind the ban, quickly hailed the enactment of his brainchild. "NYC's sugary drink policy is the single biggest step any gov't has taken to curb obesity," he stated. "It will help save lives." The Mayor's Office also released statements of support, along with the news that the new Barclays Center will comply.

The measure will take effect in six months unless the American soft-drink industry manages to get some judge to overturn it. Of course, there's always the possibility that popular sentiment could turn heavily against the ban and result in political pressure that would cause its reversal. But no one is betting on that.

"This is not the end," Eliot Hoff, a spokesman for New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, an industry-financed group opposed to the ban, commented in a statement to the New York Times. "We are exploring legal options, and all other avenues available to us." The coalition's chairwoman, Liz Berman, also released a video statement reiterating that stance.Continue reading...

In the 1920s and early ‘30s of New York, as Prohibition ruled the land, folks didn’t have to go without a drink. There were speakeasies aplenty back on those days that would be happy to quench your thirst as long as you didn’t mind needing to remember the password, being ready to dump your liquor at the drop of a hat, and having a few extra bucks to help pay off any police that happened by the place.

The folks at Mountain Dew seem to think that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is about to return the Big Apple to those long-gone days if his suggested bill — which could be passed today — winds up restricting consumers from buying sodas that are bigger than 16 ounces goes through. Some call it a gamble; Bloomberg says he’s looking out for the long-term health of his city’s dwellers and visitors.

The whole thing has got Mountain Dew execs and indeed the entire beverage industry agitated — and not because of the caffeine in their beverages, either. The PepsiCo-owned soda brand has teamed up with "cultural production" studio New York Art Department to plaster ads around New York City that say “Prohibition” and feature a 17 ounce, vintage can of Mountain Dew (long before it was abbreviated to Mtn. Dew). To drive the message home, a smaller message quips: “Also available in legal sizes!” 

On a more serious note, New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, an industry coalition backed by the American Beverage Association, says more than 250,000 New Yorkers have signed a petition. While small business and industry lobbying has failed to sway New York City’s Board of Health, which appears poised to pass the ban on Big Soda (update: it passed), you can be sure Bloomberg's public health watchdog is unhappy with another move Mountain Dew has made as well.Continue reading...

New York-based Warby Parker has 20/20 vision when it comes to selling their branded eyeglasses, and brand of philanthropy. Touting "eyewear with purpose" the startup disrupted business-as-usual, bringing comparatively low-priced ($95) but high-quality glasses with a 30-day "no questions asked" return policy online, and the choice of five different pairs of glasses for five days to try at home.

And now with $36.8 million of funding, led by General Catalyst Partners (and partner Joel Cutler joins Warby Parker’s board), they’re getting ready to open their first retail store, in the brand's home turf — NYC’s Soho neighborhood, where they've been testing the retail water with pop-up stores.Continue reading...

Vogue is promoting the fact that Fashion's Night Out is not just a New York event with a promo highlighting what's happening in London on FNO's Sept. 6th return. Milan will also be celebrating its fourth FNO — details below.Continue reading...

In a summer of shimmering heat, two high-end jewelry brands are offering royalty and art as artistic salve.

As you can see above, Tiffany & Co. is finally opening its Soho store in New York, and fêting the event with four artists’ renderings of true love — a recurring theme for the brand — “to trick out the hoarding around the façade” for two week stints each, each installation displayed on oversized wooden canvases in front of the Tiffany & Co. storefront as behind the scenes everything's getting ready for the opening.

Artist Danielle Dimstom kicked off the collaboration on July 16 with a stylized combination of text and drawings, followed by street artist Ellis Gallagher’s unique take on the colors of love on July 27. The current installation features a mural from Igor + Andre, which will be followed by the final artist in the series, Natasha Law. The installations can be viewed at 97 Greene Street.Continue reading...