Coke has been branding its soft drinks with people’s names in a marketing campaign that’s been immensely successful writes Mike Esterl:

• The soft drinks maker took the 250 most popular names among millennials and printed them on its bottles and cans.
• The marketing campaign boosted sales by 2.5% – a reversal in a long term trend of declining soda sales.
• Meanwhile sales at rival PepsiCo have continued to stagnate.
• Bottles with specific names on them can be found on eBay for multiples of what the drinks originally cost.
• Coke also launched a website which allowed people to create virtual drinks with whatever name they desired and share it on social media. 6 million bottles were created.
  • At least one couple went across their state looking for bottles with their names on them. They found them and plan to display them along with their wedding photos.
• The campaign is coming to an end but executives may launch it again next year.

Read about the inception of the idea, other countries where it has been successful, and more over here.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

John Samuel Raja D. noted that the surge in America’s production of fracked gas bought great riches to farmers 21,000 km away:

• Guar gum is a key ingredient used in the process of fracking due to its binding, thickening and emulsifying qualities.
• It comes from a crop call guar. India is the world’s largest producer of it.
• As the shale gas boom progressed India’s exports of guar-gum shot up from $20.2 million to $3.5 billion in less than 10 years.
• The price of guar increased tenfold to $500 per 100kg.
• Farmers took the bounty to pay off their debts, build homes, and arrange lavish weddings.
• Since then frackers have found synthetic alternatives and prices have dropped to around $100 per 100kg.

Read about why the prices dropped, the future outlook for the farmers, and more over here.

Source: Quartz

The American national security establishment did not react well to the Red Wedding

We’re in the golden age of television and pesky business like running the world shouldn’t get in the way of enjoying it. Molly Fitzpatrick wrote about the TV watching habits of the world’s foremost leaders:

• Think of any moderately popular TV show and Obama has probably claimed to have watched it. Critics suggest he has an addiction while others think he merely watches enough snippets to keep in touch with his young support base.
• The Queen of the United Kingdom visited the studio where Game of Thrones is filmed, but refused to say whether or not she watched it, and declined an opportunity to sit on the Iron Throne.
• Meanwhile her Prime Minister, David Cameron, loves murder mysteries so much he’s used them to justify his national security strategy.
• Biden – America’s Vice President – being Biden has admitted to watching the Toddlers and Tiaras spinoff “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” on…Air Force One of all locations.
• In contrast the Dalai Lama professes a love for the Discovery Channel.
• Canada’s Prime Minister loves the Canadian Murdoch Mysteries so much he even made a cameo appearance on the show where he played a character who doesn’t recognize the Prime Minister.

Read more about the world leader who loved Mickey Mouse cartoons, the surprising individual whose obsessed with The West Wing, and what Popes past and present like to watch over here.

Source: The Guardian

Cordelia Hebblethwaite wrote about what happens when traditional values meet the social media age:

• Instead of asking the fiancé of his daughter for a cash dowry payment, one Yemeni father is asking for 1 million Facebook likes.
• It’s a tall order for the fiancé as Yemen only has 25 million people.
• The father explains that he’s doing this because dowries are becoming unaffordable. Other workarounds that people have used are to borrow from neighbors or to arrange for mass weddings.
• His detractors say that he simply wants to be famous as the likes are for his own Facebook page rather than his daughter’s.
• For his part the father says that as long as his son in law to be makes a significant effort, he may be willing to negotiate on the 1 million “price”.

Read more here.

Source: BBC

Mass supersonic air travel was meant to be the logical next step in the continued development of humanity’s air-faring capabilities and The Concorde was meant to get us there with a (sonic) bang. Yet it disappeared. Why? Simon Calder explained:

• Its mesmerizing speeds meant that it was fuel inefficient. It flew 45 miles per ton of fuel. In contrast today’s Boeing 787 can travel 120 miles on the same amount of fuel – and it can carry twice as many passengers while doing it.
• It had a really small range. Most flights required it to make a pit-stop to refuel.
• Its fuel problems were manageable when oil cost $30 a barrel. Now it costs more than three times as much making it too expensive to fly.
• The sonic boom that it produced meant that it could only travel at supersonic speeds over the ocean, limiting the number of routes it could be flown on.
• A fatal air crash in July, 2000 led to each of the Concordes having to be modified – at great cost to the airlines.
• After the modifications were carried out an initial proving flight first flew on September 11^th, 2001. It landed soon after the World Trade Center was hit.
• After 9/11 the reluctance of Americans to fly put a final end to the Concorde.
• Today the planes are hosted in museums and can be rented out for weddings.

Read more about what it was like to fly on the Concorde, the dress code, and how passengers could once get £1,000+ tickets for £150 over here.

Source: The Independent

These days bike shops are more like a Starbucks than a garage writes Jen Wieczner:

• 12% of all bike shops now have coffee bars; 11% offer spinning classes; 5% serve beer; and quite a few have full service restaurants and massage services.
• They have increasingly taken on the role of community centers with some also having periodic art exhibitions.
• Bicycle shops have had to transform because while bicycling is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, Americans are buying fewer bikes.
• Bike shops can’t even hope to make money from bicycle rentals since cities are increasingly instituting bike sharing programs.
• For the most part the barristas that make coffee don’t also fix bikes since “finding a mechanic who can make a good espresso” is difficult. Not to mention hygiene concerns.

Read about the couple who decided to have their wedding in a bicycle shop, where you can find them, and some projections for the future over here.

Source: MarketWatch

Twilight Greenaway took a look at modern day small farmers:

• The median farm in the United States consistently incurs a net loss.
• Farms have thus become creative in identifying new sources of revenue.
• Some use their produce to create unique products such as goat milk paint or specialized jams, cheeses, and soap.
• As society has moved away from agriculture it has also become more interested in farms as a tourist attraction, and farms have capitalized on this through the addition of attractions such as corn mazes and hay rides.
• Farms have also become popular wedding venues, generating lucrative fees for farmers.

Read more about the creative ways that farms are generating revenue, how small farms compare to industrialized mega-farms, and more over here.

Source: Modern Farmer

RateSupermarket looked at the price of finding somebody, courting them, and then marrying them:

• A year of dating, and then a year-long engagement is assumed.
• The first year of dating is estimated to cost almost $7,000. The second year costs $10,000. This includes the cost of movie tickets, beach vacations, and ‘apology flowers’. Arranged marriages never seemed more appealing.
• The wedding itself will cost you another $27,000.
• All in all the complete price tag for true love comes out to $43,842.08.

Centives, for one, thinks that investing that money into an Xbox with a host of assorted games will ultimately be more fulfilling. At least that’s what we tell ourselves as we prepare to order take-out. Check out the entire infographic over here.

Source: RateSupermarket

Via: Marginal Revolution, The Globe and Mail

Move over cupcakes. Popcorn is the next big food trend writes Martha Write:

• The new popcorn is nothing like what you get at a movie theater. Some of the more interesting flavours include bacon, blue cheese, beer, cheesecake, and truffle.
• This gourmet popcorn is not cheap and can cost $5 or more per small bag.
• Caterers are increasingly serving popcorn at classy gatherings such as weddings.
• The popcorn business looks set for a lot of growth in part due to the low startup costs – anybody can make popcorn, as well as high margins, since the raw ingredients cost very little.

Read more about the biggest players in this growing market, and musings on why popcorn has become so popular over here.

Source: Time

Via: Newmark’s Door