5 Blogs Before Lunch

Brand Stewards and Titans Who Passed-On in 2007

HELEN WALTON: Wal-Mart;
VINCENT DeDOMENICO, inventor of Rice-A-Roni;
ROGER SMITH: Former GM Chief;
Legendary advertising executive DIANE ROTHSCHILD;
DICK WILSON: TV's Mr. Whipple;
MERV GRIFFIN: TV Talk-show and Game-show legend;
BOB EVANS: Sausage King;
ERNEST GALLO: Winemaker;
LIZ CLAIBORNE: Clothing Designer;
J. ROGER CADE: Gatorade Inventor;
PHIL DUSENBERRY: Adman, chairman and CEO of BBDO

Blue Will Be The New Green

The folks at JWT say that in 2008, there will be a shift from green to blue as the symbolic color of the environmental movement, new advances in genetic testing and a rise in "cooperative consumption" -- or the sharing of resources.

Blue as the new green is one of 10 future trends released in an agency report. "We believe it's essential to plot societal shifts in order to develop big brand ideas," Ann Mack, director of trend-spotting at JWT is quoted as saying in MediaPost Daily. "Trend-spotting allows us to tune into the zeitgeist, discover how seemingly disconnected details are connected and figure out how the mood of the moment is affecting people's lives."

The Gap Gets A Little "After Holiday Complaining and other Scroogelike Behavior"

Here's a little "user generated content" in the form of a negative rant email sent out to a corporate distribution list yesterday--and forwarded to 5 Blogs via the "North Blackberry Tipster."

This is the type of brand bashing that marketers and PR flax have little control over after the fact, and why the brand must be managed at the earliest of stages--manufacturing, distribution, retail environments, etc. so as not to encourage this "Scroogelike behavior."

Subject: After Holiday Complaining and other Scroogelike Behavior

Your father was right! The Gap has traded any semblance of quality for undeniably cheap, ill-fitting, and poorly materialed clothing and accessories. Being a person old enough (no comment, please) to remember
cashmere sweaters that didn't ball or pill and had enough ply that one didn't HAVE to wear a camisole under it, I offer the reason:The Gap is falling under economic lethargy and its clothing is made in sweatshops
around the world.

Everything I've purchased at Gap over the last year (and particularly this holiday season) has died upon wearing. I bought a cashmere sweater for Amy at the Powell St store and after one wearing it looks like her dog slept on it. Two pair of PJ bottoms for me and for Madi are so ill-fitting that they are actually uncomfortable in bed.

There is no value today - anywhere.

Ok, I'll get off the soapbox now.

Wall Street Journal's Take on The Best And Worst In Advertising

Wall Street Journal advertising reporter Suzanne Vranica offers her take on the best and worst in advertising over the past year. A viral video created by WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather on behalf of client Dove garners high praise. An ill-fated marketing stunt on behalf of the Cartoon Network that paralyzed the city of Boston is listed among the year's worst.

View and vote for your favorites at WSJ.com

McClatchy CEO Still Believes in Newspapers. 'Cause Someone's Got To.

Gary Pruitt, CEO of McClatchy Co., remains confident in the newspaper business, despite an industry-wide downturn.

The Wall Street Journal calls Pruitt "...one of the last true believers in the financial power of the press."

He says he expects McClatchy to recover from its slump, with the help of a new deal with Yahoo Inc. aimed at driving visitors and ads to his newspapers' Web sites. He plans to sell off some nonnewspaper operations and to continue a cost-control strategy that has so far spared reporters' jobs, a McClatchy hallmark.

Kraft's Tough Sell: Probiotics and Prebiotics Are Good Bacteria

Kraft is expanding its line of LiveActive probiotic and prebiotic cheeses cereals and beverages. The dietary fibers which sound more like something more at home in a bio lab than a breakfast table are said to promote overall health and ease digestion.

Um, yum.

From Advertising Age:

"It came down to delivering good health while also delivering good taste," said Kraft spokesman Basil Maglaris, adding that 60 million to 70 million consumers have digestive problems and four in five women experience irregularity.

Two varieties of LiveActive cereal, mixed-berry crunch and nut-harvest crunch, are being manufactured under the Post brand. New owner Ralcorp Holdings will have 90 days to decide whether to license the new properties from Kraft. The LiveActive drink mixes, mixed berry and raspberry peach, are made under the Crystal Light brand. The products will be available nationwide Jan. 8.

Kraft launched LiveActive cottage cheese in March, and hard cheeses followed in September. In the first three months, according to IRI, the cheeses brought in about $10 million in sales in outlets excluding Wal-Mart.

Advertising Age reports that Kraft plans to use a microsite to promote the products--a place where users can "join the movement" and do a "gut check" to determine whether they're getting enough fiber and drinking enough water and what that means for overall health.

Sounds sexy to me.

Merry Christmas, from 5 Blogs Before Lunch

We clap hands and welcome the peace of Christmas.

We beckon this good season to wait awhile with us.

We Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.

Peace.

Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.

We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,

Implore you to stay awhile with us

So we may learn by your shimmering light

How to look beyond complexion and see community.

From Amazing Peace. A Christmas Poem by Maya Angelou

5 Blogs Before Christmas (Ad #5): John Lewis Ad "Shadows"

Queen Elizabeth Launches Royal YouTube Channel

The 81-year-old British Queen launched her own special Royal Channel on YouTube, with Buckingham Palace posting archive and recent footage of the queen and other royals, with plans to add new clips regularly.

Queen Elizabeth will be broadcasting her traditional Christmas message on YouTube this year.

The palace said, "She has always been aware of reaching more people and adapting the communication to suit. This will make the Christmas message more accessible to younger people and those in other countries."

The royal page bears the scarlet lettered heading "The Royal Channel - The Official Channel of the British Monarchy" and is illustrated with a photograph of Buckingham Palace flanked by the queen's Guards in their tall bearskin hats and red tunics.

Very modern indeed.

More via AP and MSNBC.

Mode in L.A.: "The Fashion Flock's Equivalent of a Sports Bar"

5 Blog's "90210 Tipster" clued us in to a new fashion-themed restaurant in downtown L.A. that has opened with a singular brand focus. Remember, retail success in L.A. is all about marketplace positioning, glamour (faux or real) and a gimmick.

"Mode" features a 40-foot lighted plexiglass catwalk and fashion show footage looping on an enormous screen. "...couples huddle in white vinyl banquettes", and "...the clang of pans from an open kitchen mixes with the indistinguishable thump of trance music." says the review in the Los Angeles Times, "...there is a surreal appeal to scoring osso buco in the Fashion District at 3 a.m. while catching footage of last season's Victoria's Secret fashion show."

The menu features French-influenced comfort food--please no anorexic supermodel jokes please.

More from the LA Times review: "One minute a black-clad waiter traverses the runway, balancing dinner for two on his outstretched arms like must-have accessories. The next minute the hostess leads a posse of denim and leather jacket-clad guys the other direction, each unaware of their supermodel star turn until it's too late."

Let's hope it will cater to more fashionistas and fewer touristas than NYC's Fashion Cafe of the 1990's.