Hasta La Creative!

Starbucks follows a certain protocol for customers as far as serving their drinks. Ideally the protocol is as follows:

• Order Your Drink
• Pay for your Drink
• Get the Receipt
• Wait for your Drink to be done

Now along that line comes the need for a receipt. It is normally issued after you pay for your order. Normally, these receipts were not given much attention but apparently today, you need to keep it before you get your drink.

A new policy at the UT’s Starbucks locations is requiring customers to show their receipts in order to get their drinks.

Mary Leslie Patterson, marketing director of University of Tennessee campus dining, said the new policy was implemented at campus Starbucks locations in early February. Starbucks employees were noticing that some customers weren’t getting the drinks they ordered because someone else took them.

(Source) Tennesse Journalists

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Bar Refaeli was among the cast of judges that witnessed the Walk the Walk contest, a fashion design competition aimed at inspiring the future generation designers. Other judges included Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, Robert Buckley of Lipstick Jungle and Frankie Delgado of MTV’s Bromance and The Hills at House of Blues Anaheim.

Refaeli and the star-studded panel of judges that also included Hurley founder Bob Hurley and Rosemary Brantley of OTIS College of Art and Design watched a parade of Hurley collections that had been redesigned by area high school students. The theatrical shows, which at times looked more like dance-offs, were modeled, produced and promoted entirely by student teams.

Of four competing schools, Fountain Valley High School took home top honors and a $5000 donation to its art & music program. Gahr High School won a special design challenge and could see their two original head-to-toe designs featured in a future Hurley collection.

(Source) Press

In a move to help provide alternative practices towards the area of recycling to bring down waste issues, MySkip is promoting the use of unwanted goods via first-ever 24-hour ‘Celebrity Throwaway’.

Everyday items donated by such celebrities as Sheryl Crow, Ricky Gervais and Shilpa Shetty will be available for free at www.myskip.com from 0900 GMT on Tuesday 3 March 2009.

MySkip also today unveiled an enhanced interactive website designed to help consumers and organisations to easily dispose of or find useful items that might otherwise end-up in British landfills. Every year, UK households send an alarming amount of rubbish to the country’s 4,000 landfills – 15.8 million tonnes in 2007/2008 (Defra).

(Source) Business Wire

Tennis sensation Serena Williams in cooperation with Gatorade G2 selected the individual who will appear alongside Williams in the Everyday Athletes Campaign. And the lucky winner was no other than Serene Cuevas of San Diego.

Emceed by Access Hollywood host and upcoming Dancing with the Stars competitor, Nancy O’Dell, The G2 Everyday Athlete Search featured five semi-finalists — all named Serena — who traveled to the event from around the country to discuss their personal stories of how sports and exercise have helped them overcome a challenge or allowed them to reach and accomplish a significant, personal goal.

Cuevas will appear with Serena Williams in the national ad campaign beginning this spring that will help draw attention to the Gatorade brand’s broadened definition of what it means to be an athlete. If your body is moving, Gatorade considers you an athlete. In addition to Serena Williams, G2 is also unveiling three more “everyday athlete” ads, featuring the NBA’s Kevin Garnett, WNBA’s Candace Parker, and Gold Medal Beach Volleyball star Kerri Walsh with their “everyday athlete” counterparts. Others are invited to share their own “everyday athlete” stories at missionG.com, the new sports and entertainment portal for Gatorade.

(Source) Press

To help provide and aid businesses and potential advertisers properly in hitting their target audience, Yahoo has launched three new targeting products for brand and performance marketers.

“As the economy continues to put pressure on advertising budgets, marketers are looking for increased accountability for every dollar they spend. Yahoo!’s new targeting products significantly improve the ability for search and display advertisers to reach their target audience, providing increased efficiency and accountability,” said Michael Walrath, senior vice president, Advertising Marketplaces Group, Yahoo!. “Yahoo! remains incredibly well positioned to meet the growing advertiser demand for performance marketing offerings, and no other company can provide marketers with such scale and expertise across search and display advertising.”

The new products include:

(Source) Press

Don’t think that females don’t use shavers. They have their share of needing to get rid of excess body hair. And to answer that call, Venus has launched a new versions of its top-selling razors, including the most advanced five-bladed female shaving system, Venus Embrace(R).

Venus now has something for everyone. In addition to Venus Embrace, Venus is also offering Venus Spa Breeze(R) and Venus Spa Breeze Disposables, the first disposable razor with built-in shave gel bars that create a skin-loving light lather for a smooth shave, without the need for separate shave cream. Venus is also introducing new Venus Disposables Tropical and a new SatinCare Lavender Kiss shave gel.

(Source) Press

Moms can get stressed at times, regardless if they are working or the usual home mothers. And while they are not vocal about it, they too need stimulus packages if there is one. Thanks to Las Alamandas Resort, a stimulus package geared for moms has been announced.

Las Alamandas Resort today announced relief for Mothers in desperate need of rest and rejuvenation this Mother’s Day- Sunday, May 10, 2009.

Guests booking a stay of three nights or more over Mother’s Day weekend will receive an extra night free! Mothers will also receive a complimentary massage, free manicure/pedicure, complimentary American breakfast each morning, and a gift bag with organic soaps & candles.

Named “The Best Chance to Vacation Like a Hollywood Hotshot” by GQ Magazine, and “Top International Hideaway” by Andrew Harper, Las Alamandas offers the most secluded and relaxing retreat to be found anywhere in the world.

(Source) Press

Evian(R) Natural Spring Water brings the French Alps to South Beach by hosting an educational and luxurious space at this year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Using both traditional and non traditional tactics, Evian will educate consumers and industry influencers about the brand, showing why it is the premier choice for fine dining and, ultimately, differentiating Evian from any other water.

To demonstrate how our palate-cleansing water choices can actually make or break a fine dining experience, Master Sommelier Nathan Cloutier from Miami’s La Goulue and Gino Santangelo from The Forge Miami will host Water Tasting Seminars at the Evian Tent in the Grand Tasting Village throughout the weekend. Here, they will highlight the often overlooked attributes of premium natural spring water in a fine dining experience by taking attendees through a sensory analysis and discussing flavor influencers unique to Evian — such as origin, filtration, bottling process, and the brand’s unique mineral composition.

(Source) Press

Celebrity Loop and Vimation will be launching an interactive video and rich media player for premium online content. The Celebrity Interactive Media Channel solves challenges facing celebrities and premium content online today. It allows the celebrity to maintain control of their content online, creates an engaging interactive video experience for the fans and allows brands to sponsor the content.

Alyssa Milano, Mel B, of the Spice Girls, and Justin Berfield’s, actor/producer best known for the show “Malcom in the Middle”, new book, “Generation Fear,” published by Harper Collins, are the initial celebrities using the Celebrity Interactive Media Channel player, with a number of others preparing to start participating.

The player, using Vimation’s VIM Platform, lets fans interact directly with celebrity video and rich media content so they can engage with bonus content, slide-out videos, image galleries, biographical information and mini features. This interactive video capability enables the content owner to aggregate content to provide an enhanced video experience for fans to engage with content they are interested in.

(Source) Press

Brand positioning is what this new contest launched by Quaker State is all about. Titled “The Worst Commute”, motorists log onto www.QuakerState.com and submit at 30- to 60-second video highlighting why they think they have the “world’s worst commute”, whether it be a route riddled with car-sized potholes or a trip that takes them through continuous construction.

Videos will be subjected first to peer voting; then, the most popular videos will be viewed by a panel of judges from Quaker State management and the Hendrick Motorsports staff, including Johnson himself.

The winner of the video-submission contest will receive a once in a lifetime ride to work with a very special chauffeur: Jimmie Johnson, only the second driver in NASCAR history to win three consecutive Sprint Cup Series championships.

“Not everyone’s idea of everyday driving is as severe as mine,” said Johnson. “The Hendrick Motorsports team has been relying on Quaker State technology for the past 12 years. Season after season we are provided durable racing motor oils needed to protect our engines, helping us to garner an astounding 126 race victories, and an even more impressive seven Cup championships.”

(Source) Press