"It's a different way of thinking about 'local' that's not quite as literal," says a consumer research consultant in an article running this week in alternative newspapers nationwide. The piece (by Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance) describes the response of global and national companies to the reality that consumers are moving more of their dollars into purchasing at locally owned businesses, representing both a threat, and an opportunity for companies that can successfully rebrand themselves as 'local'. As with greenwashing before it, 'localwashing' seeks to lure customers based on perception of values alone, resulting in such phenomena as Frito-Lay highlighting farmers from 27 states as the "local" growers for its potato chips and Hellman's Mayonnaise piloting a campaign in Canada to present its product as 'local' because most of the ingredients are from North America.
posted by Miko on Aug 5, 2009 - 58 comments

McDonald's UK goes Web 2.0 with a site answering user's questions. Apparently, all of them.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 on Jun 15, 2007 - 141 comments

Plan59's Demoinc Tots and Deeply Disturbing Cusine: Plan59 has a bunch of overdone goodness (in a white bread sort of way) but this is the best. Link to their main page
posted by edgeways on Jan 27, 2006 - 17 comments

Everybody loves to hate the Arby's oven mitt. A slightly crazed version of mitt-hate. An editorial on how the commercials could have been amusing, but instead fell flat. Finally, scary stuff you can buy from Arby's (link on the left nav, can't link directly).
posted by tb0n3 on Dec 1, 2004 - 43 comments

The food pyramid has been updated again, apparently. According to Frito-Lay, your major food groups now consist of fruits, vegetables, protein, dairy, and Doritos. (via Calpundit)
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Jan 24, 2004 - 14 comments

Chocolate, Blue 'Funky Fries' pulled from shelves The notorious freedom french fries with the flavors of chocolate, cinnamon and blue-colored variety have been pulled by Heinz due to poor sales and overall revulsion by consumers around the nation (especially here at MeFi). Can you think of other such horrific failed foods that were disgusting from the start?
posted by Down10 on Jun 18, 2003 - 71 comments

Ice-T to promote ice cream I wonder if they'll have an Ice Tea flavor.
posted by Lusy P Hur on Dec 27, 2002 - 27 comments

Culture jamming The Sims. As discussed here a couple of months ago, the much loved McDonald's Corporation has a major deal with Electronic Arts. But with hundreds of virtual burger restaurants in Simsville - what's to stop gamers turning into virtual anti-globalisation vigilantes?
posted by bwerdmuller on Nov 20, 2002 - 19 comments

I'm not sure I want my ketchup "funky". Heinz announces "funky purple" ketchup, because their green ketchup was so successful.
posted by binkin on Jul 31, 2001 - 36 comments