Non Alcoholic Whiskey?!

ArKay starting selling the world’s first “non-alcoholic” whisky a couple of months ago. My first reaction was… WHAT’S THE POINT? I’ve never known anyone to drink that bitter-throat-burning liquid to fulfill their taste palette:

But then I discovered the marketing plans behind this. In the United Kingdom (and elsewhere), they are marketing ArKay as a “halal whisky.” Muslims are not allowed to drink alcohol as it is not “halal” or not permitted. By associating themselves with this “halal” concept, they can make massive sales of the huge Muslim demographic that are currently not alcohol-buyers. 

At the end of the day though, I’m still not convinced. If I didn’t alcohol for religious purposes, I would much rather replace it with something delicious like pineapple juice, while laughing at my friends drinking what-I-imagine-gasoline-tastes-like-whisky. 

A Receipt Full of Calories

Burgerville, a fast-food chain in Oregon, markets honesty on a daily basis with their "nutritional information-filled receipts":

While I was jumping up and down in excitement at how cool these receipts were, one of my friends brought up some very good points. Does it really make good business sense for Burgerville to do this? We all know fast-food is bad for us, but do we really need to be told that our sweet potato fries have 530 calories on our way out? Won't the guilt ruin our desire to come back for more fatty foods?

Well, I still think this is a brilliant concept:

• It gives consumers more power and planning ability over their meals. Instead of completely avoiding burgers, we can incorporate the nutritional info into our diets easily.
• It shows the "villainous fast-food joint" in an ethical, honest, authentic light for a change
• As people start to order the healthier options on the menu and cut down on the not-so-healthy one, Burgerville's sales of healthier foods should go up vs. unhealthy foods, leading to the restaurant carrying more and more healthy foods...and seeing their success, all the McDonald's and Burger Kings of the world will incorporate this too and we'll have a world of healthy food...am I being too idealistic now?

What are your thoughts?  Would you want to see this receipt after your meal?

Before You Buy Your Chocolate This Halloween

In this BBC Panorama series, “reporter Paul Kenyon goes undercover as a cocoa trader in West Africa and discovers children as young as seven working long hours on cocoa farms, helping to make the chocolate we love so much.”

Happy Birthday! Love, Everywhere You've Ever Shopped

I make a point of keeping my birthday off Facebook, in order to discourage the 900 people I don't know that well from wishing me superficial happy birthdays.

That however, has not stopped every single corporation that knows my birth date from flooding my inbox with "birthday emails."

I don't even think I ever shopped at Circuit City.

And I understand, the point is to appear thoughtful and caring to all their customers... but who are we kidding? It is a blatantly annoying marketing attempt, forcing me to deal with spam on my special day.

Here's a suggestion, H&M, Aritzia, Jacob, American Eagle, The Breast Cancer Site (WTF?), Victoria's Secret and all others:

If you're going for the "thoughtful and caring" approach, offer me something on my birthday.
A free gift?  Free birthday bagels? Anything but email spam...

Should It Be A Woman's Right to Choose if She's the One Carrying It?

My Marie Claire came with this Kenneth Cole ad today:

Known for their socially conscious advertising, this tongue-in-cheek equation of purses with the pro-choice debate is part of the launch of their website WhereDoYouStand.com. 

At WhereDoYouStand.com, visitors can choose from "What Do You Stand For?" and "What Do You Stand In?" portals. The first one lets you participate in debates on controversial (American) issues such as marriage equality, gun control, war and abortion.

If it were any other company, I might have dismissed it as a ploy to garner favourable publicity, but Kenneth Cole is known for these things. After all, they're the brand that said "what you stand for is more important than what you stand in."