Brand Mix

Here's my weekly summary of interesting and entertaining posts and articles. More posts at the bottom of the page in "Martin's Shared Items":

1) Hasbro Threatens Facebook's Scrabulous: BusinessWeek
Earlier this year, I posted about Hasbro asking Facebook to take down Scrabulous, the popular Scrabble knock-off (Absolutely Scrabulous). At the time I argued that, although Hasbro, was well within its rights to ask for the application to be taken, it might be better to embrace this application and its legions of fans. Well, within days of an licensed Electronic Arts version being introduced on Facebook, Hasbro has decided to take the legal route. Disappointing.

2) "Badge of Shame" for Girl Scouts? The Brand Elastic
"If you were designing a product with the intent of promoting obesity and type-2 diabetes in girls, it would look exactly like the Thin Mint Blizzard." Ouch.

3) A Great Meeting and Cameron Diaz's Ask: Check Out
I've been tracking the Walmart employee blog for some time and, to be honest, it's a little dull. But here's a relatively interesting post about a recent Walmart sustainability meeting featuring Cameron Diaz and CEO Lee Scott. If anyone doesn't know or doesn't believe that Walmart is serious about sustainability, this may convince you.

4) The Formula for Successful Viral Campaigns. Not! whatsnextblog
B.L. Ochman compares the viral success of the Cadbury's gorilla blog with the less stellar recent effort from Häagen-Dazs. She also includes a list of her favorite viral campaigns including the famous and seminal 1996 Hotmail campaign.

5) Personalized Granola Bars: The Dozen
Mass customization is an attractive concept but not always easy to execute. For example, you can build and name your own granola bar but only if you're prepared to pay $48 for a box of 12 bars. That's nuts.

Bonus Video: This one's making the rounds. How not to design a Stop sign.