In the near future, it might not be enough for cereal boxes in the grocery aisle to entice your kids with bright colors, robust tigers, elves with onomatopoeia names, and mentally unstable birds with a proclivity for cocoa in puff form. At least, that's what Siemens is hoping. The company is designing their own version of "electronic paper" that will allow flashing graphics to be displayed on packaging. The idea is still new, and they've yet to secure any deals just yet. To me, the idea of rolling text on a carton of milk seems a bit superfluous, but hey, you never know.

Since Chanel has dumped Kate Moss they've reportedly turned to teen starlet Lindsay Lohan to be their new face. Lohan is apparently ecstatic over the deal. Nevertheless, I'm going to file this under "Probably True" for right now, since all the information I've found cites Contact Music, which isn't exactly the most reliable source in the world. Nevertheless, Lohan is apparently doing some kind of photo shoot with Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, so we'll see what all of this really means.

When I actually have some place to go, I have to rely on public transportation. What always kills me is how many people I see sleeping on the bus, and people who are obviously alone. How do they know when the bus has reached their stop? Brand Noise found these stickers, which read, "Wake me up at..." and list some of the London Underground's most common stops. I don't know if they actually work or not, but hey, anything beats falling asleep and riding clear to the end of the line.

Pepsi has actually been testing this new soda/coffee drink in Switzerland and Eastern Europe.

What is it with adding coffee to drinks lately? Is this the new "thing," the way everyone added lime to their soft drinks a couple of years ago, and cherry several years before that?

Personally, I think they should call it Pepsicino.

It's only a rumor for right now, but AppleInsider is reporting that Apple may be coming out with an iPod boombox, which is, just as it sounds, a larger-sized iPod with boombox-like speakers. If that's true, it could be really cool, I think. What is known is that Apple plans to announce several new "iPod companion" products at MacWorld in January. Whether one of those is the rumored "boombox" or not remains to be seen. Additionally, it's being said that Apple may be rolling out iPod products with satellite radio capabilities. I'm going to go slightly out on a limb here and say that the both the boombox and the satellite radio capabilities are in fact a reality. I seem to recall Apple saying the video iPod was just a rumor not long before announcing that it was, in fact, real. The company knows how to stir up interest, and it also knows how to be sly about it. We'll see if I'm correct or not.

[via business2blog]

The Apollo Project, a partnership between Arbitron and Nielsen combining the portable "people meter" and product scanning technology respectively, has gotten six advertisers to sign on for the trial. Only two of those brave corporate souls have been identified, Procter & Gamble and SC Johnson. What has been touted is that the six companies have a total ad-budget of $6.4 billion dollars, with P&G likely accounting for more than half of that amount. The goal of the Apollo Project is to measure consumer exposure to all forms of marketing messages, creating one unified measurement standard which media planners can use..

I've never gone dumpster diving, but I know people who do it all the time, and they assure me that once you get over the hang up of rooting through stinky garbage, you can find some pretty cool things. That's especially true for a woman and her friend in Manhattan who rescued over 300 cups from dumpsters behind two Wendy's restaurants. The cups had coupons from AirTran for frequent flyer miles printed on the side. They collected enough to fly both of them round trip to California and back. The promotion began last month and the cups have been seen on auction sites like eBay and Craigslist. There is a cap as to how many frequent flyer miles one person can earn, however.

The Maori people of New Zealand are angry over a new brand of cigarettes being marketed in Israel by Philip Morris called Maori Mix. The packaging for the cigarettes includes a map of New Zealand and a Maori design. Politicians are calling the cigarettes an affront to the Maori, an indigenous group with a high smoking and addiction rate. Philip Morris has not commented on the outcry.

City Media Concepts wants to change the way you look at trash cans. Well, actually they want to change the way advertisers look at trash cans, thus changing the way you look at trash cans. Did you follow all of that? The company decks out regular old bins into eye-catching advertisements. I suppose some companies might not want to be associated with trash cans, but they are everywhere, so it stands to reason that they could be used as such. CMC calls their ad cans "ReceptaSigns."

[via MIT Ad Lab]

It's difficult to tell whether Andy Warhol meant to satirize commercial art or embrace it, but it was exactly that kind of enigmatic approach that makes his work so appealing. Now Levi's plans to role out a line of clothing which will feature some work by the late artist, including his famous painting of Marilyn Monroe. The line, called Warhol Factory X Levis, is part of a collaboration between the jeans company and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

I'm not sure about this. Disney has filed for a patent for a portable media player which they hope will replace the plastic trinkets usually found in a McDonald's Happy Meal. The plan is to let consumers download part of a movie (or game, or video) onto the device when they purchase a Happy Meal, and then download more and more of the movie every time they return to the restaurant. The idea is to drum up repeat business, but I can't imagine anyone would want to go through that much trouble. The basic idea of fast food seems to be to get in, enjoy your meal and toy, and then get out.

To quote Ash from Army of Darkness, "Well hello, Mr. Fancypants." Motorola will be selling 1,000 special edition gold versions of their Razr phone at Dolce and Gabbana boutiques. So if you like pretty shiny things and you're unaware that all phones work the same no matter what color they are, you should rush out right now and snatch one up as soon as they become available. You'll be the envy of everyone who cares about this sort of thing.

Parisians know how to launch a video game console, let me tell you. When the Xbox 360 was released in Paris recently, Colette, a concept shop, had several well-known artists and designers create personalized versions of the game system. You can check out the ones by designer Karl Lagerfeld here. Others who contributed their skills include Sonia Rykiel, Andrée Putman, Irina Volkonski, and DJ Pedro Winter. Hey, I think the American "Jump in" ad campaign is fine and all, but these consoles are especially cool.

According to this Reuters article, the average age of gamers is thirty. Dang, I guess that means I have less than a year to get into video games again. Do they still have "Super Mario Brothers?" I've been a bit out of the loop, you see. Anyway, recently BP Lubricants' Castrol Syntec motor oil has been taking advantage of in-game advertising by appearing on billboards and other places in the game "Need For Speed Most Wanted." Advertisers who are embracing this medium swear by it, but the more cautious are quick to point out it's not a proven method of reaching a target demographic just yet. What will be interesting, I think, is companies who place ads within games by association only, which I think is what BP has done with "NFSMW." It is a "car" game and Castrol is a motor oil, I'm just not sure most gamers care all that much about what brand of oil they purcahse for their real car.

[via Ad Pulp]

Justin Timberlake's new brand of clothing, which focuses mostly on denim and corduroy, is selling well at places like Bloomingdale's. Yeah, I don't really care, either, but I do like the way they're approaching, and marketing, the clothing line, which is to keep the Timberlake name off of the clothing. The line is called William Rast Clothing, and while it's no secret Timberlake is involved, it's nice to see they're not shoving his name in people's faces to get them to buy the product.