When the news came out of the state of California a year ago that the stuff that makes your cola beverage brown has been linked to cancer, there were a number of consumers that likely didn’t put their change into the vending machine that day.

The amount of that compound (4-methylimidazole, or 4-MEI) in soda would cause the state to need to put warning labels on all of its cans, NPR reports. This, in turn, led to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) to lobby the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “ban ammonia-sulfite caramel color,” according to NPR. Coke Clear, anyone?

While the cola companies and caramel manufacturers are obviously stating that there is no validity to these claims, the FDA is also chiming in that this could be much ado about not much. In any event, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which account for almost 90% of the U.S. soda market, have tweaked their formulas in compliance with the Californian law — averting the need to add a cancer warning label.Continue reading...

The company that invented the memory and hard drive in your computer, the magnetic strip on your credit card, the punch cards developed for Social Security, the … well, a whole lot of things, International Business Machines (originally the Computing Tabulating and Recording Corporation) today turns 100.

The brand's marketers have created a rich array of materials to celebrate the centennial, including corporate citizenship projects, producing a terrific series of short films, making Watson a celebrity, producing an e-book and a hardcover book, a social marketing campaign, and (of course) a company-wide celebration. 

Some of the press coverage today looks at another significant number — the fact that CEO Sam Palmisano is turning 60 — which is the age that IBM CEOs generally retire. He’s been in the position since 2002.Continue reading...

IBM marks 100 years in business on June 16, a rare achievement by any standard — and considering that its business is technology, make that an astounding achievement.

To mark its centenary, the brand is launching global initiatives that will incorporate all 170 countries of operation, including hundreds of local grants to support employees' volunteer activities in support of "smarter planet initiatives" as a global "Celebration of Service" in which tens of thousands of IBMers, retirees and partners will participate.Continue reading...

PepsiCo wants to get in on the virtual ground floor in Europe. The company is rolling out a program that it found success with in the United States last year: finding and partnering with up to 10 technology startups that can help spread the word about Pepsi and its products.

The beverage giant is looking to fund European startups that have “a ready-to-go product or service technology in social media and/or community-based marketing, mobile marketing, tablets, location-based marketing, digital video, gaming and/or learning.”Continue reading...

Jonathan Kaplan, who gave us the Flip — the web-ready video camera sold to Cisco for nearly $600 million in 2009 before its demise this year — has flipped to a new business, a "Chipotle-style chain" of grilled cheese restaurants called The Melt.

You might say that Kaplan, the former CEO of Pure Digital Technologies, has an app-etite for innovative ideas.

Four outlets for his new gourmet sandwich concept (which comes with its own app) will be open in the San Francisco Bay Area by Labor Day, with a goal of 500 nationwide by 2015.

Backers have so far put $10 million in his coffers, including a $500,000 to $1 million stake by Sequoia Capital, whose previous investments were Apple, Google, YouTube, and PayPal.Continue reading...

Chex Quest, from General Mills, was the first video game to ever be included in cereal boxes as a prize back in 1996. Fast forward 15 years to Create a Comic, General Mills' latest digital advergame designed to engage kids with the Honey Nut Cheerios cereal brand. 

In that brief span of 15 years, the playbook on marketing to children has been rewritten by all things digital, and marketers are increasingly using games, quizzes and mobile apps to woo kids into a social web where they essentially act as marketers themselves.Continue reading...

As beach season fast approaches, Corona has launched the "Corona Beach Getaway" sweepstakes, the Mexican beer brand’s largest US promotion to date — outstripping its previous "biggest promotion" ever, last year's promotion that brought a pop-up beach (above) to New York's Times Square.

Customers 21 and older, have a chance to win one of 100 trips to Mexico by finding custom-wrapped Corona bottles or cans in stores now through July 31. 

More than 11,000 bottles and 1,000 12-pack cans include special codes redeemable to enter a random drawing for more than 1,700 prizes including Corona-branded patio umbrellas, rolling coolers and beach cabana tents at CoronaBeachGetaway.com. 

Fans at local bars can submit a photo of their “Corona Getaway Moment” at CoronaTriptoMexico.com for a chance at winning a beach vacation for two. Ten finalists will also have their photo submissions posted on the Corona Light Facebook page, where fans can access the Beach Getaway promotion via a special tab for details.Continue reading...

PepsiCo is putting some marketing muscle behind a new campaign to let the public know it's stepping up its Pepsi Refresh commitment, encouraging people to submit ideas for funding or support someone else's idea.

The spot above highlights some of its community-based grants to date; below, how it's helping fund projects in education, and music and the arts.Continue reading...