Corn is for Cars. Sugar is for Soda

From PSFK again:

Jones Soda, the soda company widely known for its consumer-submitted label designs, has announced their plan to use Pure Cane Sugar rather than High-Fructose Corn Syrup in all Jones products. Advertising the transition with a cheeky, "Corn is for Cars...Sugar is for Soda" tagline, Jones was motivated by a growing population wanting less and less HFCS in their diets and that: ...it tastes better and overall it's better for the environment (No GMO’s). So leave the corn for your cars, and keep the sugar for your soda.

Buy your friend a drink

From the brilliant PSFK:

An appropriately named new service called BuyYourFriendaDrink.com is enabling people to do just that. Users can go to the website, enter in their friend's cell phone number and the amount of money they want to spend ($5 - $250) and a text message will be sent to person on the other end with a redemption code. That code is then handed over to participating bars and drinks are served. Each transaction includes a $0 .99 processing fee.

The service is currently only available in New York at a select number of establishments, but there are plans to expand to other northeastern and mid-Atlantic cities with the west coast unfolding in the second half of 2007.



It would be great if we could find a way of collaborating.

Mixerz

From Coolhunting:

"Historically frowned upon as cheap imitations for those who can't mix their own, two new mixers help remove the stigma by making delicious concentrates using high-quality ingredients. Our first contender, Mixerz, comes to us from California's Napa Valley, the cradle of America's fine wine industry that in the 1980s broke the backs of the jugwine industry, elevating California wines to a world standard. Using all natural ingredients, Mixerz has done the same for cocktail mixers.

Each of the seven ingredients tastes remarkably like a freshly mixed cocktail. We were skeptical about one of our favorite summer drinks, the mojito, which is impossible to enjoy without good-quality mint leaves; nevertheless, Cool Hunting tasters were won over with this thirst-quenching mixer made by steeping real mint leaves—it has a convincing lime flavor and isn't too sweet. Others to try are the Bloody Mary, Margarita and Cosmopolitan. Even with such an uncreative name, Mixerz delivers the goods.

In the same vein, Sweetbird syrups deliver nearly 30 flavors for cocktails, smoothies, milkshakes or any variety of recipes. The flavors are fairly conventional; they stick to the known universe with options like caramel, chocolate, toasted marshmallow and peach, pineapple and raspberry, rather than trying to be outlandish. What they might lack in innovation, they more than make up for in consistency of quality. Bereft of anything artificial, they're also certified by the Vegetarian Society; aside from the culled marshmallows, each syrup is guaranteed cruelty-free. Also check out the chocolate (white and black) and caramel sauces."

Competitior to Sourz? Very impresed by their use of all natural ingredients...

Environmental Fosters

Environmental brand innovation. All brands should be doing this. Clear bottles. Recycling. Organics. But for the right reason.

Art meets statistics

Depicts 10,000 jet trails, equal to the number of commercial flights in the US every eight hours.







From Chris Jordan via MIT Adverlab:

"Chris Jordan "looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books.""

It's an amazing example of how to bring statistics to life and reminds me of Edward Tufte the hero of graphical representation of stats.



To see more of Chris Jordan's fascinating images click here.

Secret Cities

From the ever excellent LifeSigns Network:

"Cities can be explored and rediscovered with new way-finding devices and interactive technology. This encourages people to look at their surroundings in new ways.

Design company Electricwig created a unique trail around the small town of Billinghay in Lincolnshire. It includes signage that shares local tales and anecdotes, and zoetropes dotted around the village that act as objects of curiosity for villagers to find while going about their daily lives.

Drop Spots are alternative mailboxes that add an extra layer of interest to city environments. They are hiding places in the public space, where people can leave items for exchange. The Drop Spots website helps hiders and seekers find their nearest spot where goodies may be hiding, or people can create their own Drop Spot in a local nook, where they can leave secret gifts such as a poem, photograph, favourite quote, or mix CD. They then log on to dropspots.org to map and describe the location of their drop spot so that others can find it.

The ‘Little People’ project sees street artist Slinkachu leave tiny hand-painted people across London, making light-hearted comments about society. Figures include a prostitute leaning into a car, a sunbathing man, figures holding ‘golf sale’ signs and even a figure getting cash from a miniature ATM.

The town of Karlsruhe in Germany was recently home to a street art project which enabled artists to communicate anonymously across the city's walls. Artists transformed unsightly utility boxes housing electric and telephone wires into chests of drawers, and adorned the backs of street signs with drawings and stencils. The pieces are created by a group of local artists who don't even know each other: when each new piece appears on the walls around Karlsruhe, other artists post up their own responses to the piece nearby.

Brands are increasingly using hidden public spaces to provoke interest in their products. Sportswear brands such as Adidas and Nike have already used treasure hunts; trainer fans searched the streets of London and New York respectively for clues to win limited-edition trainers. Meanwhile Dr Pepper recently ran a million-dollar treasure hunt in the US, with clues hidden online and in cities around America."

Gwyneth Holland

Sony Goatgate: Talkability or notoriety?

From Kotaku:

"Sony threw a party with a dead goat. You may have heard. Anyways, as the source of the ALARM was the less-than-credible Daily Mail (or to be precise it's Sunday edition the Mail on Sunday), we figured it was best to get both sides of the story before beheading Sony's PR and feasting on their insides. SCEE just got back to us, and (in summary) had this to say:

# The party was held on March 1, and attended by around twenty European journalists (none from the UK).

# The actual article in the Official PlayStation mag was written by a guy who wasn't in attendance; the piece was done on the basis of the party's invite, "which employed a degree of hyperbole in order to encourage attendance".

# The goat in question had already been killed (ie it wasn't killed at the party), and had been sourced from a local butcher.

# The goat's "entrails" were actually bowls of traditional Greek meat soup. At no stage was anyone allowed to touch the goat, nor did anyone eat or drink anything from inside the goat. After the party, the carcass was returned to the butcher.

# SCEE say that they first saw the photo last Thursday and immediately ordered it to be pulled from the magazine, and on Friday Official PlayStation Mag agreed. The magazine never reached general circulation, but subscribers did receive the issue with the offending picture included.

# SCEE closed by saying: "We are conducting an enquiry to establish the circumstances behind the event in order to ensure this does not happen again. We also apologise to anyone offended by the article in the OPSM."

So the party was held nearly two months ago and twenty journalists were served traditional soup. That doesn't excuse Sony - a dead goat is still a bit off - and it definitely doesn't excuse OPSM, but it's hardly the orgy of decadence the Daily Mail and now other media outlets would have you believe, either.

If you're interested, the full SCEE statement is after the jump."

"Hi Luke,

The event did take place, in Athens on 1st March. Approximately 20 journalists from European countries attended the event from a variety of gaming and lifestyle media - although none were from the UK.

The article in UK Official PlayStation Magazine (OPSM), from which the Mail on Sunday article was sourced, was written by a journalist who did not attend and done on the basis of the invitation for the event, which employed a degree of hyperbole in order to encourage attendance - the journalist chose to take it as fact!

The photograph was one of many supplied to the magazine to provide a balanced view of the event. Unfortunately, the article was sensationalised and focused on a picture that was unrepresentative of the wider event.

When we saw the article for the first time on Thursday of last week we contacted the Publisher of OPSM who accepted that the article was not appropriate for their broad audience. On Friday, before we had received any contact from the media, they agreed to remove the centre page article before the magazine goes on general sale.

The event was a theatrical dramatisation with a Greek mythological theme and, as part of the set dressing, a dead goat was sourced by the production company from a local butcher. Following the mainstream popularity of shows such as 'I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of here' a series of challenges were set for the journalists. The 'warm entrails' referred to in the invitation and in the Mail on Sunday article was actually a meat soup, made to a traditional Greek recipe and served to attendees in china bowls direct from the caterers. There was never any question of journalists being able to touch the goat, or indeed eat the soup direct from the body of the goat, as one report has alleged. The goat was returned to the butcher at the end of the event.

We recognise that the use of a dead goat was in poor taste and fell below the high standards of conduct we set ourselves. We are conducting an enquiry to establish the circumstances behind the event in order to ensure this does not happen again. We also apologise to anyone offended by the article in the OPSM (subscription copies were sent out ahead of street date).

Nick Sharples
Director of Corporate Communications
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe"

How a small launch party made international news and caused a blog storm. It's certainly been talked about...