The Samuel Adams beer commercial above has been running on US TV. It's marvelous.

So many of the ad and brand strategies of the "leading" beer brands involve exploiting gender relations, smashing things into genitals and other boorish (beerish?) behavior. But Sam Adams is demonstrating what should be the core of beer marketing: Not advertising but "edutising."Continue reading...

Lessons are always best remembered with stories. Even hard-core financial information. With that in mind, Thomson Reuters just launched its new branding campaign today: The Knowledge Effect, which touts the benefits of providing professionals in the legal, healthcare and accounting industries the information they need, via Thomson Reuters' range of professional products and services.

Thomson Reuters’ bread-and-butter is the intelligence information industry, so The Knowledge Effect aims to better communicate the full range of products and services the brand offers, adding real examples to show the impact on users. 

Display advertising, mobile marketing, iPad applications and a microsite are supporting the campaign, along with street marketing in Toronto, New York and London — timed to coincide with the kick-off of the World Economic Forum this week in Davos, Switzerland.Continue reading...

The nation’s concern about childhood obesity and junk food plays right into the hands of America’s egg producers. And they’re trying to take better advantage of their position with a new series of TV ads that are running on Good Morning America, the Food Network and elsewhere.

“You Do Everything” is the title of the new campaign from the American Egg Board, and it's both a play on the robust nutritional profile of eggs as well as a nod toward the parents who are being nudged to feed them to their kids. The message: As a powerhouse of protein, some enhanced with omega-3s that also support brain development, eggs are a great nutritional choice for breakfast and beyond.

Now that the furor has died down over the recall of half a billion eggs last August, with a PR campaign that won praise from Social Media Influence for its proactive #eggrecall Twitter campaign and Facebook responsiveness, the AEB is looking to regain parents' trust and drive attention back to incredibleegg.org.Continue reading...

Intel revolutionized the computer business with the production of powerful, advanced microprocessors. It also revolutionized brand advertising with its 1991 "Intel Inside" campaign, marking the first time a PC component manufacturer successfully communicated directly to computer buyers. To this day, consumers around the world recognize the "bum-bum bum-bum" tune that accompanied its logo animation in the classic Intel Inside television campaign.

Now Intel is boldly expanding on that decade of branding with a new global digital and experiential campaign designed to launch its Second Generation Intel Core Processor family, going visual to pitch its product line as offering "Visibly Smart" performance for the consumer's "Visual Life."Continue reading...

As part of its billion-dollar global marketing push, Microsoft unveils a new tagline — "Be What's Next" — in commercials tailored to tonight's Golden Globes broadcast on NBC.

The spots "pre-congratulate" aspiring actors as the Golden Globe winners of tomorrow, while promoting the brand's Bing search engine (above) and Windows Phone, below.Continue reading...

While we're on the theme of brands tapping into new year's weight-loss resolutions, what's a healthier diet without a little exercise?

Even the doyenne of celebrity fitness brands — Jane Fonda — is back in a leotard, pitching boomers and zoomers to get serious about their glutes and pecs. Now Captain Morgan spiced rum offers a workout video that targets the funny bone. 

The "Captain Morgan Workout" also riffs on the rum brand's mascot, whose classic pose on its bottle label has filtered into popular culture. The mock workout involves placing the right hand on the hip, raising the left leg, placing the left hand on the left knee, holding, lowering, and repeating. The video explains proper technique and offers result testimonials: "It's like having your mind blown with fitness!"

As the captain explains, his foray into the fitness arena is a natural brand (and leg) extension: "There are three things a pirate is famous for: Looting, pillaging, and developing high-intensity, low-impact resistance training programs."Continue reading...

Seattle's Best Coffee rebranded in May and introduced a "level system" of categorizing products by number, based on customer feedback, in November. This week the Starbucks-owned rival to Dunkin' Donuts rolls out its first campaign, featuring a tongue-in-cheek trio of spots with the tagline, "Anywhere Great Coffee is Needed."Continue reading...

BMW's Mini line says it will have the first slow-motion 3D ads, in a campaign breaking this week. "Mini vs. Monster" (teased above and after the jump) will debut in 3D cinema ads before making its way, in standard 2D, to TV and the web.Continue reading...