Should have posted this two weeks ago, but nonetheless newsworthy.

Tuesday they land the $400 million VW America account, with no review. Immediately drop Mini (conflict). Then, Coke moves their $45 million Sprite account to them. All in the same week. Congrats CP+B. Your hard work is paying off.

I can't say that I am suprised at Arnold losing the account, though – as I am praying that the 'Force of Good' commercial with the bug vs. alarm clock will be put to sleep. Since this was just the beginning of the new campaign rollout for the 2006 model, complete with mini-site I am interested to see if CP+B will drop it or try to realign the direction and move forward.

As the 30-second spot is dying a slow and painful death, and alternative media is quickly replacing traditional in many instances... So too, we see the rise of what P&G has been forecasting for years, in-store marketing. If you were unable to attend The In-Store Marketing Expo (or didn't even know about it), in Chicago this month, understand that you are catching up.

This touchpoint of a brand combines both creativity and accountability, maximizing effectiveness. And since most purchasing decisions are made in the store, it stands to be recognized that this market is going to become more and more important in the upcoming years. Product design, packaging, and brand experience are coming to the forefront of both business discussions and strategy.

These visually-driven ads from DDB Paris are so crisp, I just had to share.

Shirley Bassey is fuming over the unauthorized use of her voice in the new Kanye West 'Diamonds' song. The sample was taken from her 1971 hit, 'Diamonds Are Forever'. She wasn't contacted at all before the song was released, and only ended up finding out about it when he sang the song at Live 8. Now if that's not 'somenerve'... I hear a cash register ringing somewhere.

Funny and memorable. But does it truly sell this brand of muffin? Do they even stock them in the gas station at the next exit (just in case you get a craving)?

"When tone of voice is consistent it allows the consumer another means of recognizing the brand and being reassured of expectations. Unfortunately, many brands don't have a consistent tone of voice, or their tone is not considered when aligning the communication aspects of the brand. Even brands that have crafted a tone of voice for external communications or advertising have done shockingly little to promote or encourage usage of that tone internally."

A VERY interesting read from the ever knowledgeable InterBrand, over at Brandchannel. If you don't already know about this resource, keep digging – its all gold.

This time they're serious. No more business plans written on napkins, and strange doodles that represent strategy. They're taking this one to the bank.

"Recent deals include Dow Jones's acquisition of MarketWatch.com ($519 million) and The New York Times's purchase of About.com ($410 million)."

Rupert Murdock, one of the largest players in these recent acquisitions, comments on the News Corp. plan in this Newsweek article.

It seems that the big boys have overlooked one of the most important parts of the design process, research.

"The fast-food chain, Burger King, is withdrawing its ice-cream cones after the lid of the dessert offended a Muslim. The man claimed the design resembled the Arabic inscription for Allah, and branded it sacrilegious, threatening a "jihad".

The chain is being forced to spend thousands of pounds redesigning the lid with backing from The Muslim Council of Britain. It apologised and said: "The design simply represents a spinning ice-cream cone." The offending lid was spotted in a branch in Park Royal last week by business development manager Rashad Akhtar, 27, of High Wycombe."

He was not satisfied by the decision to withdraw the cones and has called on Muslims to boycott Burger King. He said: "This is my jihad. How can you say it is a spinning swirl? If you spin it one way to the right you are offending Muslims."

The system formerly known as Vestigo, is now in beta testing as Delineate. Rather interesting because this tracking service not only tells you who your visitors are, but what they want too. It also uses Google Maps API so you can see their exact location. Pretty swift stuff.

On the social networking end, Flock has landed–so sign up to be first in the know.

Polka recently took home the 'Best of Show, New Product Award' at Maison et Objet, Paris 2005 and 'Best Lighting' at Autumn Fair Birmingham 2005 for this beauty. The CUTlight can be grabbed at innermost, along with some other nice aesthetics for the home.

The team of Monica Singer and Marie Rahm, have been creating innovative designs since 2004, and are pushing the boundaries of what people think is possible (see tattoofurniture). Their new light will be presented September 23 at the 100% Design Show, complete with a live cutting.

Guess Gen Y isn't as mobile as we first thought, based on results from a study conducted by scenarioDNA.

"Consider this, although iPod defines music for 56% of Gen Yers polled in the survey, more than half (50.7%) of Gen Yers listen to their music mainly at home. Meanwhile, 40% of respondents claim that the handheld device Game Boy defines gaming for them. Yet 71.1% say they mainly play their video games (guess where?) -- at home."

Part of this is due to the bans on portable electronics in school and the workplace, so teens are not as mobile as they can be. It won't be until the bans lift over time that mobile campaigns will start to effectively reach this demographic.

"British design consultancy Arup has announced that it has been tapped by the Chinese government to lead the construction of an "eco-city" expansion to Shanghai. Dongtan, the expanded development near Shanghai's airport, will eventually cover about 8,800 hectares -- roughly the size of Manhattan island. Shanghai claims that the Dongtan project will be "the world's first genuinely eco-friendly city," using recycled water, cogeneration and biomass for energy, and striving to be as carbon-neutral as possible.

The first phase, a 630 hectare development including a mix of transport facilities, schools, housing and high-tech industrial spaces, will begin construction late next year, and is expected to be completed by 2010."

Eva Solo has some of the greatest kitchen gear, especially the oil and vinegar carafes. Be sure to check out their cafesolo designer coffee carafes, too.

I'm really glad that I'm starting to see design really flourish in the patterns/textiles industry. It's nice to have a choice other than plain or stripes.

Artefacture is on to something. This shirt is hilarious. In fact, I think it should be a freebie to all new clients, just to show appreciation. And the fact that they have been properly educated on the value of good design.

Speaking of education, architects are reinventing the way children of the 21st century will learn, with the understanding of how fast our information-based society is evolving. It was always amazing to me how in the business world we are told to collaborate, but in school we are trained to understand that is 'cheating'. These new schools will cater to the needs of the students, letting them set their own agendas, engage in collaborative projects, and will maintain a "studio environment". A truly innovative approach is being applied that is also taking into consideration energy efficiency, behavioral patterns, and ergonomics.

And that's not all that's changing. Recently, in an interview with Spark, Lee Daley (Saatchi & Saatchi UK chairman + CEO) talked about the future of advertising, and what it means for the industry.

"I think the advertising industry as a whole will change very dramatically because of the change in the media universe. The advertising industry has grown up, essentially on the back on analogue technologies, and it's grown up around multi-domesticity."

As anyone is already aware, bad design kills. So do long meetings. In fact, they are slow and painful. I think that there are remedies, though–including expediting the process by standing up the entire time.

It seems that in many areas, small teams are coming together to expedite things. For instance, we all know that RFPs and proposals can take up a lot of non-billable hours. Along comes Approven, to try and automate the process. What about billing? What a nightmare that can be. Enter, stage right, Blinksale, by Firewheel Design (originally known for interface design). Guess they got sick of chasing after clients, too. It's great to see web-applications, and design in general come about from necessity–answering a call for help or solving a problem, instead of pushing wares on consumers that they don't need.