The July Fourth holiday is when the fireworks go off for beer marketers, but this year it proved a distinctly damp squib. Despite a flurry of new and improved ad pushes for the country’s leading brews, the days leading up to Independence Day, usually the biggest-selling period of the year for the category, led to gruesome sales declines vs. the same period last year. The trends appear to be driven by suds guzzlers trading down. Subpremium beers such as Busch, Natural Light and Keystone posted substantial gains.  (more…)

Most women under 50 have not turned their backs, or faces, on cosmetic beauty-enhancement, despite the state of the economy. A poll of 1,000 women carried out this month showed that 63 percent aged 18-34 and 73 percent of women aged 35-49 thought positively of age-camouflaging procedures. ”Interest in plastic surgery remains very strong, despite the economy,” said Dr. Gilbert Lee, a San Diego-based plastic surgeon. Separate statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, showed Botox treatment in the United States increased 8 percent in 2008 — giving new meaning to household essentials.    (more…)

Hero, an international branded consumer-foods group, is hoping to make a splash in the U.S. juice category with the introduction of Fruit2day—juice that contains real pieces of fruit. The company, which already sells the product in Europe, will support the launch with a TV campaign breaking this week. Fruit2day comes in four varieties: Cherry grape, mango peach, pineapple banana and strawberry orange; a two-pack sells for $3.79. Scott Stevens, vp of marketing for Hero-WhiteWave, the joint venture that was formed to market the product in the U.S., said Fruit2day helps meet the recommended daily four servings of fruit, and is ideal for health-conscious consumers with busy schedules. I actually caught an ad for this last night. While I understood the concept, I wasn’t so sure that it sounded appealing. Maybe because it is the summer and incredible fresh fruit is so easily accessible or maybe it’s because I usually don’t like to chew my beverages. I give them points for the packaging though. (more…)

If you work for a CPG company, then you have taken notice of an uninvited guest at the home and at the table. Recent research on a number of fronts all point in one direction: difficult economic times have bolstered the rollout and expansion of many retailers’ private label lines — including c-store. According to The NPD Group’s “Private Label Perceptions, Usage Patterns and Intentions,” 24 percent of all food and beverages served in American homes last year were store brands, up from 18 percent in 1999. Today, 97 percent of all households consume private label foods on a regular basis. ”There is no question that private label foods have become an integral part of American life,” said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst at NPD. He added: “Furthermore, we do not hide private label foods as an ingredient or as an additive to another dish. Today over half of all store brand food eatings are the end dish.”  (more…)

The world domination of the hamburger might finally have a challenger. Indiscriminate gluttons and discerning gourmands alike have long been crazy for pizza. But over the last few years, they have elevated their passion to a vocation, sending pizza into a whole new stratosphere of respect. It isn’t just loved, and it isn’t just devoured. It’s scrutinized and fetishized, The flashiest restaurateurs want in on pizza; so do some of the most classically trained, critically acclaimed chefs. Stephen Starr, the owner of Buddakan and an owner of Morimoto, two of the grandest and gaudiest Asian restaurants in downtown Manhattan, has lately spent much of his time in New York eating his way through the city’s older and newer pizza parlors, on a gut-busting mission to figure out what works best and how to replicate it in Philadelphia, his base. Pizza is the latest fascination of David Myers, a celebrated Los Angeles chef who has turned from progressive cuisine at Sona to mozzarella and San Marzano tomatoes at Pizzeria Ortica, which he opened early this year in Costa Mesa, Calif. Why the explosion? It’s the economy stupid. With the cost gentle for both the consumer and the provider, looks like pizza has won over the hearts and minds of the restaurant goer.  (more…)

At 37 years old, Lance Armstrong is smack in Gen X territory. As he defies the odds and returns to the Tour de France, Lance signifies why his generation should not be ignored.  As with most generation labels, “Generation X” is a loaded term, first coined and later disowned by Douglas Coupland, author of the 1991 book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. For Coupland, the letter “X” was meant to signify the generation’s random, ambiguous, contradictory ways.  In Jeff Gordinier’s book “X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft But Can Still Keep Everything From Sucking”  he rails against the media myth that Xers are slackers, Gordinier argues that Generation X has — to borrow a ’60s term — changed the world. Citing Gen-X icons like Quentin Tarantino and Jon Stewart, along with Gen-X triumphs like Google, YouTube, and Amazon, among others, Gordinier argues that not only are Xers far from over, they might be the most unsung and influential generation of all time. “Gen-X stomping grounds of the past — the espresso bar, the record shop, the thrift store — have been resurrected in digital form. The new bohemia is less a place than it is a headspace. It’s flexible enough to bypass all the old binaries. It encompasses mass and class, mainstream and marginal, yuppie and refusenik, gearhead and Luddite. It’s everywhere and nowhere in particular,” he writes. In short, “GenXers are doing the quiet work of keeping America from sucking. As I look at Lance sticking it to the naysayers and breaking all the rules, all I can think is, “Go Lance Go!”  (more…)

The U.S. Hispanic Internet population is young, vibrant and growing — in numbers, broadband connections and time spent online. In 2009, there are nearly 23 million Hispanics online, about 51 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, according to eMarketer estimates. Hispanics make up about 12.3 percent of the U.S. Internet population in 2009, and will increase to 13.9 percent in 2013. Like its offline counterpart, this group of Internet users is young — 63 percent are under age 35 — and mobile. Some 81 percent of Hispanics own a mobile phone, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and for 25 percent of these adults, their mobile device is their primary phone. Hispanics use more phone features, including Internet access, at higher rates than other mobile subscribers.

I am choosing to ignore all the bad economic news and how it is negatively effecting celebrating the 4th of July.  All I need is some hot dogs on the grill (Bush’s Baked Beans on the side of course), good friends and family around, and a couple of fireworks (hey they’re legal in Georgia). Nothing fancier is necessary to have a great time and celebrate the birth of our country. Happy 4th of July!