From travel services to luxury brands, from toy brands to shoe lines, and from post offices to Heathrow Airport to million dollar armored vehicles, all are leveraging the coming Year of the Snake to appeal to Chinese consumers. And while a comprehensive collection is not possible, we have put together a long visual list of Year of the Snake-branded efforts. Continue reading...

One mooncake wears a thong. Another, called the "full monty," is a bare buttocks. One other mooncake, called "spread my cheeks," is exactly what it says.

The very unconventional line of mooncakes comes from Hong Kong's cheeky design maves at lifestyle brand/retailer G.O.D. (short for "Goods of Desire") and it, according to Jingdaily.com, "puts the 'moon' in mooncakes."Continue reading...

There are reportedly 4 million mom bloggers in the U.S. — passionate, increasingly influential women constantly communicating through social media.

BlogHer co-founder and COO Elisa Camahort Page, whose website draws 37 million unique visitors monthly, advises marketers to identify "focused mom blogs that share your passion—food, pets, child care, fitness, tech, whatever."  One caveat, she adds: "Mom bloggers are ruthless. The Silicon Valley adage, ‘Release early, fix later,' won't fly with moms. They have no patience for beta products or websites, and they don't give out second chances."

But they are one of the golden cohort sweet spots, and Mother’s Day is one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions of the year. Celebrations of motherhood date back to ancient festivals such as the Christian Mothering Sunday, the Roman festival of Hilaria, and the Greek cult to Cybele, but the modern U.S. holiday dates back to 1908 and Anna Jarvis’s memorial for her mother.Continue reading...

On the day after Super Bowl Sunday, 7 million Americans don’t show up to work, according to the hard-working folks at Coca-Cola. Another 4.4 million arrived at their places of business late this morning, according to Coke estimates.

So the brand's marketing team (and agency team at CP+B) figured that if 11.4 million people are already not showing up or not really serving their businesses at full throttle on the Monday after Super Bowl, why not call it a day (off) and let the entire American workforce stay home for the day?

Coke Zero would like to name the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday Magnificent Monday, according to a company release. “Coke Zero believes that people can more thoroughly enjoy the big game knowing they have Magnificent Monday off,” a press release notes. “This holiday is essentially already happening, but Coke Zero is leading the charge to make it official.” And what could be more important to our national wellbeing than making sure that people are thoroughly enjoying the big game?Continue reading...

It used to be just enough to show up in the China market with your Western product, plop it down on the shelf, and watch as Chinese consumers — desperate for some of that sweet, sweet Western consumer goodness — snatched it up.

Times have changed. Today, Western brands must hustle like everyone else to demonstrate their value and win market share. This even includes Coca-Cola, a powerhouse global brand that boasts one of the best, most iconic brand reputations in the market. To this end, Coke has released its latest China campaign in a rather genius attempt to write itself into what is probably China's most powerful cultural tradition.Continue reading...

Apple trademark attorneys take out their grief over losing Steve Jobs by threatening German café.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the "Feel Bad Movie of Christmas," has a feel-good line of clothing at H&M.Continue reading...

Bergdorf Goodman promotes their holiday 2010 windows with a teaser (see more after the jump) featuring a musical track from a Web-bred talent, Audrianna Cole.

The brand discovered the teen phenom from Oregon the same way her burgeoning fan base did: by word of mouth on MySpace and YouTube, as she has yet to release an album, although one is now in the works. "Everything we do is meant to startle," says Bergdorf's visual director, David Hoey, a musician himself.Continue reading...

A single piece of economic data shouldn't be taken too seriously, of course. But the surprise announcement that the US economy shed a mere 11,000 jobs in November -- after endless months in which the rate was in the several hundred thousands -- may give consumer confidence just the boost it needs to improve upon the shaky but promising start of the holiday shopping season.

This year, retailers are counting on what NPD Group analyst Marshal Cohen calls "frugal fatigue": consumers are tired of saving money. That 2008's dismal holiday season occurred (of course) twelve months ago shows how long consumers have been holding back, saving money to either stretch budgets or in fears of layoffs.Continue reading...