Consumerist
Air New Zealand is really good at in-flight safety videos. They did the funny Hobbit one, and another one with a famous Kiwi adventurer star. The new one is even more likely to grab attentions: it's "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue models. The airline filmed the models in the Cook Islands with locals acting out as passengers.
Convenience Store Decisions
Convenience stores products have a tough time getting on-the-go shoppers' attention. Most respondents to a survey by General Mills' Convenience & Foodservice consumer insights team's finds that about half of consumers don't notice product signs at all. The study explored the types of signage and messages that are most likely to break through in stores. Results at the jump.
Daily Mail
Bollywood superstar Katrina Kaif has come out in support of the British government's plan to penalize celebrities and manufacturers who make false claims about products in their advertisements. "It will make actors and the brand a little more careful about whatever claims they make," said Kaif as she was launched as India's new brand ambassador for L'Oreal.
Consumerist
Customer service issues? Look to Jansport, which has a rep for replacing or fixing your backpack. That's common service for a lot of consumer durables, especially makers of sports and camping gear. While there are stories of people getting brand new packs back when they send their old one in, they'll even fix a zipper. One customer, Rishi, detailers how he sent his pack in for repair.
Businessweek
McDonald's has a McNuggets image problem. The company is responding to lots of seriously scary imagery on manufactured food ("Pink Goop") with a video showing how it's done. The chain's Canadian headquarters released a video last week that provides a look inside supplier Cargill's facility in London, Ont. Bins of chicken breasts are shown going into grinders before being shaped, breaded, and packaged. The same process is used in the U.S., according to the company.
Wall Street Journal
Federal health officials plan to launch their first large-scale campaign aimed at preventing or reducing tobacco use by teenagers. The Food and Drug Administration's "The Real Cost" advertising campaign starts Feb. 11 with television, radio, online and print advertisements, some graphic. A government website, "TheRealCost.gov," is already operational.
Advertising Age
MillerCoors is moving a portion of the Miller Lite account to a collection of agencies at WPP. Publicis-owned Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, the incumbent, will remain on the account, but will share the work with WPP. It is a similar model WPP did for MillerCoors in 2012 when it formed a new agency called Cavalry to handle Coors brands and new products, such as Redd's Apple Ale.
Detroit Bureau
Aston Martin is recalling 75% of its sports cars produced since 2007 - including all of its left-hand drive vehicles - due to a counterfeit plastic part from a sub-supplier in China. The recall affects 17,590 vehicles, including all of the right-hand drive models built since May 2012. The only car not impacted is the Vanquish.
Chicago Tribune
CVS Caremark, the nation's second-largest drugstore chain, plans to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at its more than 7,600 retail stores by Oct. 1, a landmark decision that would make it the first national pharmacy company to cease tobacco sales. The move comes after years of pressure from public health advocates and medical providers, who have urged retailers to make tobacco products and advertising less available, particularly to children and teenagers.
USA Today
Budweiser's puppy won the Ad Meter Super Bowl. Even though it aired with just two minutes left in the so-called game. For the second consecutive year - and the 12th time in the past 14 years - Anheuser-Busch has won "USA Today"'s consumer-judged Ad Meter for Super Bowl commercials. Second was for Doritos that was one of two winners of its annual consumer-generated Super Bowl ad competition.