iPodMy Baby Launches Baby Clothing Line

Boozhy points to iPod My Baby, a site that sells baby clothing emblazoned with the Apple iPod control wheel. Some brands have so much consumer love. Or at least the acknowledgment that a popular brand can be leveraged for personal financial gain.

Grocery Store Opened With 'World's Largest Picnic'

On Tuesday, Luanne Calvert of Mixed Marketing did her thing again. After bringing a Time's Square billboard to life for the relaunch of CK One, creating a human snow globe for Yahoo! Shopping, and putting on Netflix's Movie Watching Marathon event, Calvert hosted the "world's largest picnic" in San Francisco to celebrate Oakville Grocery's San Francisco store opening. The picnic was open to the public and featured free picnic basket lunches for the first 500 guests. The picnic took place on a red and white blanket that was nearly 10,000 feet square in size. See some images of the event here.

UPDATE: In Comments, Guillaume points out the French have the Americans beat by five years with sparkling water company Badoit having done the picnic thing. Also, the "billboard brought to life" thing was done long ago as well by Chantal Thomas. Apparently, there is a world outside of America.

Alaska Wants You to Visit Before You Die

Adrants reader Charley Brough tells us an interesting billboard campaign has just been launched in Seattle, Los Angeles and Minneapolis by the Alaska Travel Industry Association which consists of a board that looks like an Alaskan license plate and says "Alaska B4UDIE." It's definite a a different approach to touorism marketing. We like it.

IKEA Says Leave Work Early

Somehow advocating leaving work before the workday ends as being a good thing, IKEA is running a commercial in England which celebrates a guy leaving the office at 3PM. Of course, it's trying to celebrate that there's more to life than work and IKEA kitchens can add to that life. There's also a site that highlights important events that people may have missed because they work too much such as Prince Charles being married to Camilla Parker Bowles, the Spice Girls break up and the fact Tony Blair is still Prime Minister. There's other fun stuff like a Work-Life-Balance Meter and a calculator that, oddly, displays how much less one has to work if they spend money on an IKEA kitchen. It must be that British wit at work.

Katrina Removes Billboards, People Rejoice

Hurricane Katrina, without doubt, ravaged New Orleans and didn't leave much good behind except, as some Flickr users appreciate, the eradication of outdoors boards which previously lined area roadways.

Beringer Manages Time, Sells More Wine

Wine maker Beringer recently conducted a study found more than half of respondents don't leave work on time but 28 percent would if they had social engagements with friends and family planned. With that nugget of information, Beringer has launched Living 5 to 9, a nice play on the 9 to 5 grind and a new website which aims to help people manage their time better. Oh, and let's not forget the marketing angle here. The more Beringer helps people manage their time, the more likely they will leave work on time thereby allowing them time to stop at the store on the way home and buy more Beringer product. Everybody wins with this one.

Word of Mouth Faces Legally-Induced Conundrum

As word of mouth marketing spreads, lawyers, who can't keep their hands off anything, are circling the medium questioning its adherence or lack thereof to FTC guidelines. Putting it simply, Reed Smith Chairman of Advertising and Marketing Law Douglas Wood told Ad Age,"If the motivation for [an endorser] is to profit from his or her endorsement, that connection probably needs to be disclosed. But since disclosure undermines the value of buzz marketing, advertisers are in a Catch-22." That simple statement presents a gigantic problem for buzz and word of mouth marketers who, while stating they fully support disclosure, can't avoid the notion true transparency can lessen the effectiveness of this form or marketing.

UPDATE: The Word of Mouth Marketing Association has responded to the Ad Age article in Comments and clarified it's stance on word of mouth marketing on it's own site here.

Distribution in Jeopardy, Rimmel May Drop Kate Moss

Our tipsters are telling us cosmetics company Rimmel, the last Kate Moss holdout, may, after all, drop Moss as spokesmodel. The company is getting pressure form number two distributor Walgreens who, apparently, has said "She goes or we go." Not wanting to risk a serious distribution channel, Rimmel is seriously considering eradicating themselves from association with Moss. Also looming in Rimmel's rear view mirror is retail colossus Wal-Mart who may also a "Moss or us" edict essentially putting Rimmel out of business. It's a fair bet Rimmel will be saying goodbye to Kate Moss very soon.

Lincoln Zephyr to Grace Sidewalk, Subway Walls

This week, Ford will launch a a new campaign for its Lincoln Zephyr mid-sized sedan which will include the usual stuff like television and print but Zephyr ads will also be seen street level with 60 foot ads alongside sidewalks that use the new Submedia technology which turns a fixed image into a motion picture when a person passes by. Similar ads will also be used inside subway tunnels.

Food Network Launches Promos, Press Release Gushes

Design and production company Troika Design Group just finished some promos for the Food Network called, "Food is..." which consist or lushly filmed food.

Or, if you prefer the press release version, Troika just "completed their latest campaign for long-time client Food Network. Entitled "Food Is…," the ID package comprises nine five-second spots that fuse gorgeous live-action footage together with crisp graphics creating vignettes in which food and life interact in emotional and unexpected ways. Troika handled all aspects of production, including writing, directing, animation, original music and sound design."

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