Hasta La Creative!

You kin’ do it!” Dunkin Donuts exclaims in the 2009 debut of its new ad campaign, where people like you! power through everyday life with the will and guilelessness of Special Olympics athletes.

In an all out effort to accost, uh, make the public aware of its new logo and celebrate the “next generation’s” apparent positive outlook for the coming year, Pepsi has unleashed itself upon Times Square with a week-long promotional extravaganza.

Jim Bean, and its “The Stuff Inside” campaign, have partnered with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and owner Robby Gordon to save Chicago’s Wrigley Field from being corporatized like every other stupid-sounding stadium in America.

Converse is an iconic brand. Which leads me to wonder why they would choose to lean on a young woman who needlessly claims to be “hot” on five interlinked microsites—outofyourleaguegirl.com, outofyourleaguegirlonbeingcreepy.com, outofyourleaguegirlonconfidence.com, outofyourleaguegirlonpassion.com and outofyourleaguegirlonmotivation.com.

According to Adweek, Converse’s agency, Anomaly, declined to comment on the effort.

AMP Energy must be a fun account to work on.

[via Sunil Shibad]

Hyundai has managed to appeal to more upscale consumers. Now Kia wants in on the action.

Thus the new Kia Borrego, a mid-size SUV with an impressive list of features, standard three row seating, and an available 337hp V8 engine.

According to Colin Jeffery, ECD at Kia’s agency, David&Goliath, “After spending time with the Borrego, it became very clear to us what the positioning and creative platform should be. The first time we took the Borrego out for a drive people were staring. At a traffic light in Manhattan Beach, a fellow driver actually asked us what kind of SUV we were driving. He was genuinely impressed.”

Fans of media brand, MSNBC, can now enter the brand’s cafe in Midtown Manhattan’s Rockefeller Plaza.

According to Adweek, MSNBC has opened “a sleek, oh-so-stylish cafe. It’s a comfortable place to unwind, grab a sandwich or a coffee, check e-mail, surf the Net via free Wi-Fi or check the news on MSNBC.com.”

Catherine Captain, vp, marketing for MSNBC.com said, “What we really discovered about the MSNBC.com consumers — what they love about us — is the journey of news discovery in and of itself.”

She said the digital cafe “gave us an opportunity to quite literally bring exploration to a physical space.”

SS+K is working with MSNBC to develop these non-traditional ideas.

Although I might choose a different font. You know, for legibility’s sake…

Starbucks is hating it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the coffee retailer will close 600 stores and cut back on opening new ones.

As many as 12,000 full-time and part-time retail positions will be eliminated with the store closures.

Starbucks is closing locations that are either not profitable now or are not projected to provide acceptable returns on the investment in the future, the company said.

Musical group Devo (yes, apparently, they still exist) is suing McDonald’s for making Happy Meal dolls in the band’s likeness.