Brand Mix

Yes. Summer is officially here as of Sunday. But I gave up trying to find a full slate of sunny, cheery stories for the week:

1) Obama and the Fly: CNBC



Yikes! No bugs in the White House. Everyone had a field day with this. Colbert called it "a shocking abuse of executive power." PETA didn't like it either and is selling a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher for those who would never harm a fly. Really.

2) Hit the Hut, or hit the depths of desperation : John Lyle's New Brand Thinking

Pizza Hut is at it again. Last year, it was experimenting with Pasta Hut. Now it's looking at The Hut. What's wrong with the Pizza? John Lyle thinks it's a sign of desperation. Many others are commenting to, most negatively. As idsgn points out, The Hut reminds us of this.

3) Doubting Twitter: Slate
Jack Shafer bravely and perhaps recklessly stepped in front of Twitter's Persian Express, daring to suggest that it might be more "noise than signal." Still, despite some hyperbole, this was a great, coming of age week for Twitter, asked by the State Department no less to put off planned maintenance so that Iranians protesting the election could take advantage of its services.

4) BRIC Nations Seek Greater Role in Global Economy: NPR
Name it and they will come. Jim O'Neill, a London-based economist for Goldman Sachs, first lumped Brazil, Russia, India and China together several years ago and gave them their collective acronym. Now they are actually meeting together to discuss common issues. Would there ever have been a BRIC summit if O'Neill hadn't given the group a name? "I've never really thought about that," he said. "I guess probably not."

5) It's Olympics time again: The Herd (via brandflakesforbreakfast)
The Herd reviews the pitch videos from the final bid cities for the 2012 Olympics (Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid). His favorite is this one from Tokyo:



6) P&G Goes Viral With Tampax Videos: Brand New Day
"Show me a client with a product or brand that is a borderline commodity, and I’ll show you an agency that is out to cure it of its commodity status," says David Kiley before introducing us to Zack Johnson, perhaps the most unlikely character you could imagine to promote Tampons. This video was added to YouTube back in April and has been seen 25,000 times, not a huge success. Perhaps a little too weird?



That's it! See you here on the blog or on Twitter (@martinjbishop) for more stories from the world of brand strategy.