You've got a city in such bad shape financially that it's being dictated to by the state. A school system in utter tatters, with perhaps the worst yet to come. A heroic and adulated mayor laid low by health issues in the midst of it. A poster child for urban decay. Yes, Detroit.

So what better place than the Motor City for a genuine feel-good story to arise? Consider how Ford and the United Auto Workers are jointly pledging $100,000 to Detroit's Martin Luther King High School Jazz and Marching Band so that the kids can take a trip to the Summer Olympics in London and perform around London.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola is mounting a massive music-based global marketing campaign pegged to the London 2012 Olympics, so it makes sense that Coke would partner with the leading musical app (Spotify) on the biggest social network (Facebook) to bring free music to countries worldwide, expanding on a relationship that started last year.

A message posted on Coca-Cola's corporate Twitter feed confirmed the partnership following Spotify's CEO keynote at the Ad Age digital summit this morning in New York: “What goes better with Coke? Music. Daniel Ek just announced @Spotify and Coke partnership.”

The details were forthcoming at a post-keynote press conference: Spotify will be the primary technology for Coca-Cola Music worldwide, with its app integrated into Coke's Facebook presence and Timeline for a ‘seamless social music experience.’

Coca-Cola will leverage the Spotify API and platform through a variety of applications, the first of which was built by independent developers during a two-day Spotify/Coca-Cola “hackers den” held in New York City this past weekend, which will be unveiled at the 2012 Olympics in London.Continue reading...

A recent study of teen drinking patterns in Europe and the movies they watch, which was published in the British Medical Journal, suggests that the kids who watched more films with alcohol consumption were themselves more likely to both start drinking and abuse alcohol.

To which we say, DERRRR. But will the findings, with CNN the latest to make hay with them, be enough to change Hollywood's long love affair with hooch?Continue reading...

As announced last month, Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, today launched the Born This Way Foundation, "a movement to celebrate individuality and empower young people," in a kick-off event at Harvard University. The event was streamed live with guests including Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra.

While more programs and partnerships are yet to be announced, one piece revealed was on-campus for the announcement: the "Born to be Brave" bus (at top) which will take the foundation's message across the U.S., including serving as a tailgating-like focal point for fans at Gaga's shows and "to serve as a place where youth can go to feel connected and learn about civic engagement opportunities."Continue reading...

Adidas already pulls in billions upon billions in revenue each year. So what do they want? A little more, of course.

The 88-year-old German shoe and apparel giant is planning to target “teenage girls more influenced by music and fashion than sports” and expand its three-year-old NEO fashion outlets and “exploiting social-media platforms including Facebook and Twitter,” Bloomberg reports.

The hope is that the world’s 14 to 19-year-olds (or their parents, in many cases) will cough up enough cash in that competitive marketplace to net Adidas another $1.3 billion by 2015. Some of NEO's marketing tactics include tapping into teens' love of music, with a love song digital promotion for Valentine's Day, and convincing David Beckham (who has a longtime endorsement deal with Adidas) to put his name on a special collection for NEO.

“Teenage girls are a target group we didn't really reach so far, whereas boys are closer connected to Adidas via sports,” said Erich Stamminger, the board member responsible for global brands. “For girls, you need a bit more of fashion influence and that's exactly what we are offering with NEO.”Continue reading...

The American Beverage Association is keeping busy these days as cities and states threaten to put extra taxes on sugary drinks and other entities try to reduce consumption of the organization members’ products.

The latest battle for ABA is to dispute a study that was released Monday by Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity that shows that “U.S. children and teenagers are seeing far more soda advertising than before, with blacks and Hispanics the major targets, as marketers have expanded online,” according to Reuters.

"This report is another attack by known critics in an ongoing attempt to single out one product as the cause of obesity when both common sense and widely accepted science have shown that the reality is far more complicated," said ABA CEO Susan Neely in a statement.

Neely’s main weapon in response to the Yale Rudd Center's Sugary Drink F.A.C.T.S. (short for Food Advertising to Children and Teens Score) report is opposing research by Georgetown Economic Services for the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Association of National Advertisers that “showed that between 2004 and 2010, advertisements for soft drinks decreased by 96 percent, while those for fruit and vegetable juices increased by 199 percent,” Reuters reports.Continue reading...

When Canadian-born actor/comedian Dan Aykroyd decided to start selling his own alcoholic beverages four years ago, starting with launching a wine brand, he likely never imagined that he wouldn’t be able to drink one of his own products in his own hometown.

Then along came Crystal Head vodka, which he started selling in the U.S. in 2009 for $50 a pop and packaged it in a skull-shaped bottle. Brilliant marketing, right? Well, yes, except that it meant that Aykroyd couldn’t sell the stuff in his own home province due to a ruling by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario that it was in violation of the board’s social-responsibility rules, according to thedrinksbusiness.com blog.

“The image of the human skull is the thing that’s really problematic for us,” LCBO spokesman Chris Layton said at the time of the ban, according to the website. “It’s an image that’s commonly associated with death, which is especially problematic at a time when there are concerns around binge drinking by younger adults.”Continue reading...

PepsiCo and its Frito-Lay subsidiary are on notice for “engaging in deceptive and unfair digital marketing practices in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act” for online marketing campaigns that may seem tame compared to the new Take This Lollipop Facebook-stalking campaign.

The complaint — filed by the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), Consumer Action, Consumer Watchdog and The Praxis Project — focuses on Frito-Lay's no longer active digital campaigns for Doritos under the "Snack Strong Presents" branded entertainment banner.

Specifically cited in the complaint to the FTC: the online game Hotel 626 (which launched in 2008) and sequel Asylum 626 (launched in 2009), plus the Doritos Late Night concert series which last year released a Rihanna tie-in. According to the complaint, these efforts and related digital marketing are claimed to “target teens through a variety of stealth interactive marketing and data collection techniques involving social media, immersive multi-media content, mobile phones, and gaming platforms.”Continue reading...