SparkBlog by The Hartman Group

Things We Like: Perricone M.D. = Supplement Rebranding (!)

What

• Dr. Perricone, a name familiar to many in the health and wellness community, recently freshened its product line
• Note the clean, understated look of a modern apothecary, a design cue that is bolstered by the iconic apothecary image
• We are also smitten with the decision to visually depict as many of the natural ingredients as possible

Aha

• Even in a visually flat category such as supplements, where very little has changed or evolved in the part 30 years, it just isn't that difficult to rewrite the rules from the bottom up
• Now many are left wondering how we could have ever settled for brown plastic bottles with lame wrappers for so long!?

Message disconnect

Curious signage spotted at a TJ Maxx in Seattle. The “Labels for Less” retailer has historically offered an odd ball mix of “gourmet” inspired condiments and reduced price candy, best reserved for your great auntie’s sweet tooth. So we found it counter-intuitive that the retailer best known for last season’s designer labels would suddenly be promoting health via food. Buzz words like “organic,” “natural” and “no preservatives” certainly suggests food, yet there is no mention of actual food or better yet, fresh food.

On the same visit we overheard two Millemnials chatting at the checkout, each with an armful of assorted trendy togs. “Wow, organic pancake mix? That’s weird. I just wouldn’t think to eat anything from this place.”

Intersection of food and cycling = Pedaling.tv

  Here's the concept according to their website:

Equipped with only two wheels and a love of communing, our social-savvy hosts embark on culinary bike tours throughout the New York City metropolitan area - exploring each unique neighborhood’s vibrant characters, scenic destinations, and memorable rides. PEDALING hosts will guide viewers through some of the city’s best nooks and crannies. Episodes will contain practical tips for urban cycling, including an inside peek at a professional bike fitting, traffic etiquette, and where cyclists in the area ride, eat, and live. Special guest stars and a few unexpected forks in the road lie in store for our PEDALING hosts.

The first few episodes are heavily food-centric with chefs, spice traders and visits to food trucks and a hefty dose of sustainability thrown in.

Fighting obesity one Piano Stair at a time

We saw this on DVICE today and couldn't help but smile:

Piano Stairs aim to get Stockholm butts moving

No prizes for guessing the inspiration behind this little idea. Advertising agency DDB and Volkswagen teamed up for a little experiment they called the Fun Theory, an ambitious attempt to try and change people's lazy behavior in the Swedish capital. The transformation of a subway staircase into a piano increased stair use by 66 per cent. (I pity the poor creative who had to sit in the metro station for two days on the trot and count the travellers.)

Obesity continues to be a global problem. Interestingly, consumers believe that food intake and lack of physical activity are equally responsible for obesity in society. In terms of their own lives, however, consumers are more likely to cite physical activity as the method they would initially pursue to lose weight rather than changing or reducing their food intake. (People love their food!) Exercise is imagined to be a much easier course of “weight loss” for consumers than is tinkering with their own complex eating patterns. But "imagined" is the key word there.

Ironically, the relative attractiveness of exercise over dieting appears only in principle, most consumers we speak with showed no love of it. In fact, some willingly declared how much they “hate it,” including those who do exercise from time to time. To most consumers “exercise” is some physical activity solely designed around fitness or weight loss; it is not necessarily associated with an enjoyable activity, especially not happy feet taking the stairs. There is a sense that, in the morality of body weight, exercise is a form of punishment, punishment for “letting oneself go.” Making exercise exciting is a frustrating mystery to many consumers. Yet, here they are climbing the stairs. Hats off to DBD and Volkswagen for getting people off their butts with a smile. We love it!

Wellness: Super (inflatable) colon

 

Just in case they aren't aware of important internal organs like the colon, Americans far and wide may now walk through a giant inflatable colon installed in their community for a one day up-close look at:

    * Healthy colon tissue
    * Tissue with non-malignant colorectal disease like Crohn's and colitis
    * Colorectal polyps
    * Various stages of colorectal cancer

Per their website, "Prevent Cancer Foundation's Super Colon is an interactive educational tool traveling to communities all across America with the message that colorectal cancer is preventable, treatable and beatable..."

Summer fun in the making!

The First Lady and Elmo talk healthy habits

It's Not Fun Until Someone Throws Up

This past weekend we had the privilege of attending Bumbershoot, Seattle's annual three day music and arts festival. Boasting a plethora of bands ranging in style from The Apples in Stereo to Wu-Tang Clan, the majority of Bumbershoot's focus is, of course, on the music. However, as the DIY craze reaches its peak, the "art" end of things has been growing rapidly, with Bumbershoot devoting large spaces to interactive installations and crafts from various corners of the country.

While we made an effort to attend multiple air conditioned exhibits, we stumbled upon our favorite happening quite by chance. On Saturday, as our spirits grew weary from dodging throngs of surprisingly enthusiastic Seattleites to hear the mellow sounds of The Shins, we decided to head to the main lawn for a quick nap. Upon arrival, however, we were confronted by the excited shrieks of spinning festival goers.

Under the watchful gaze of a large wooden clown head four hollering adults swung through the air as four pedaling adults powered the nouveau-carni monstrosity. What sort of alternative playground universe had we discovered? Cyclecide: The Heavy Pedal Bike Rodeo.

Cameras flashed, children shrieked; interested parties lined up in droves. "Imagine," a friend said to us in awe, "a world in which this is what people did for fun." Exciting, creative, communal exercise for kids and adults? We were at once inspired and overjoyed.

Five minutes on the Dizzy Toy, however, and our long day of people watching was finally catching up to us. Was that the smell of corn dogs in the distance? We were called to investigate.

Raverobics

Somewhere on a non-existent timeline charting black light usage, after disco bowling and theme nights at the roller rink, sits Blackminton. An edgier version of Speedminton, essentially speed badminton, Blackminton is played in the dark on black-lit courts by thrill seekers sporting fluorescent costumes. Think rave meets a high-impact version of one of the world’s oldest racket sports.

Blackminton is gaining momentum, no pun intended, and touts itself as more experience than  sport. The Blackminton website boasts, “Night Speeders fly back and forth over the pyramid – like shooting  stars crossing one another – creating a magical light show in the night sky. Driving beats provide the soundtrack for a fascinating sporting event!” Driving beats? A magical light show? Not since the dawn of Laser Floyd at the Science Center have we heard such promises!

Although Performance Sports, the company that owns both Speedminton and Blackminton, produces equipment specific to the games, their website emphasizes the amped-up badminton matches as free community-building opportunities accessible to all. The “eclectic mix of athletics and vibrant nightlife” can be played by anyone, anywhere. Anyone that would appreciate slathering themselves in fluorescent body paint, that is.

Perhaps it is the garb, named Fluro-Styling on the site, donned by Blackminton players, but it is difficult not to simultaneously laugh and take interest in such a trend. While viewing a promotional video for Blackminton, one pictures the Olympic badminton team loosening up after work. Or on a psychedelic bender. 

(via CoolHunting) 

Attack of the Jolly Green Giant

Gone are the days of the Hamburglar and Mayor McCheese. McDonald’s has chosen Shrek as the face of their foray into marketing healthy eating to children. Beginning this month, Shrek is set to promote McDonald’s “Go for Green” campaign, their single biggest promotion of fruit, vegetables and milk. Items will include Shrek-themed Happy Meals, featuring apples and chocolate milk, more traditional McDonald’s fare, and, of course, toys.

Barely out of the gate, the promotion is taking heat from child advocacy groups, who are angered by Shrek’s partnership with McDonald’s, as well as Mars, Pepsi and Kellogg’s. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is requesting that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services drop Shrek from their anti-obesity campaign, where the character has appeared in several Public Service Announcements. Shrek is currently promoting seventy separate food products, in addition to the items featured in the McDonald’s campaign.

Judging from his partnerships alone, it would appear that Shrek shares the eating habits of many Americans, often reaching for fat-free Apple Dippers with one hand while grabbing a fistful of “ogre-sized” Peanut-Butter M&M’s with the other. Ethics aside, character promotions serve to turn traditionally overlooked (exercise, for example) activities or seemingly standard (M&M’s) products into trendy desirables for their target audiences.

We exist in a time where novelty rules, regardless of the specific consumer. What if Kettle Chips were endorsed by independent bands like Iron and Wine or Modest Mouse? Would armies of hipsters flock to nosh on limited-edition flavors like Float On Sea Salt and Vinegar or Naked As We Came Unsalted? 

If crack-dealer-turned -rapper Fifty Cent can drink his personalized flavor of Vitamin Water in a commercial for Reebok while promoting his own line of G-Unit sneakers, is it so wrong for Shrek to simultaneously peddle Apple Dippers and Pop-Tarts to children? 

On a personal note, I recently ventured to my local McDonald’s to see what all the fuss was about. Initially seeking to purchase a Happy Meal, complete with apples and milk, I was drawn instead towards a Swamp Sludge Milkshake. Upon completing my order, I was handed a gigantic cup filled with no less than 32 ounces of minty-green frappe. The question is would I have selected such a drink had it simply been marketed as a gimmick-free mint shake? I think not.

(via AdAge, SFGate)

Should we Really Thank Heaven?

As a general rule, we at The Hartman Group often eschew political dialogues and debates. Not necessarily because we think such dialogues are inappropriate in this arena as much as we just don’t find them very rewarding. Typically all sides in the debates are well-versed in the others’ position(s), with the result being a highly-stylized, clichéd dialogue among interested parties which ultimately disinterests most outsiders.

So on the subject of childhood obesity, snacking, sugar and the like, we’ve remained fairly silent on the never-ending squabbles between advocacy groups and those in the industry.

“Stop feeding our kids your sugar laden junk,” cry the watchdogs.

“We’re just offering choices, it’s up to you to monitor your child,” the industry rejoins.

It’s the food. It’s the parents. It’s the food. It’s the kids. Yawn.

But whatever your interest or position on these issues, we think all would agree that this isn’t the best climate to be applauding your contributions to America’s sugar consumption. So we were as shocked as anybody to find the following listed under “Fun Facts and Trivia” at the 7-Eleven website:

Beverages – biggest & best: 7-Eleven was the first retailer to introduce self-serve fountain drinks. When the 32-ounce Big Gulp was introduced in 1980, it was the biggest cup on the market. In 1988, 7-Eleven introduced the giant 64-ounce Double Gulp®, the biggest soft drink on the market.

Last year 7-Eleven stores sold almost 33 million gallons of fountain drinks – enough to fill 75 Olympic-size swimming pools.

7-Eleven customers sip and slurp 11.6 million Slurpee® beverages each month. Favorite flavors are Coca-Cola and Minute Maid Cherry. Since its introduction in 1966, close to 6 billion Slurpee drinks have been sold, just about enough for every person on the planet to have slurped.

7-Eleven sells 60 million fresh-baked donuts and pastries per year – enough to feed every person in the state of Virginia a dozen donuts!

How sweet it is! 7-Eleven uses 365,000 pounds of glaze each month on its donuts, fritters and other pastries.

We’re not sure how else to put this other than to suggest, humbly, that in our current world milieu it might not be the best strategy to boast openly of your exploits when it comes to satisfying America’s thirst for sugar.