A few months ago, Mac Donald’s launched a new TV campaign in France ‘come as you are’. The campaign itself, created by EuroRSCG, is pretty nice but what really caught my attention was the logo: it has turned green!! Just like that, without a warning or at least a press release. French restaurants will shortly be painted in green too.
MacDonald’s and France always had a strong love/hate relationship. Synonymous of obesity, bad health, bad working conditions, the fast-food giant struggled to seduce consumers in a country that takes food seriously: it has to be both slowly made and slowly enjoyed. We made up the words ‘MalBouffe’ or ‘bad grub’ to describe their so-called food and ‘MacJob’ to describe a low-paid, unrewarding, rubbish job. One restaurant in Paris was on strike for a year, another one was dismantled by farmers and anti-globalization activists, and so on.
But today, you can get a BigMac on a 6 cereals traditional French bun, and a ‘green’ restaurant opened in Paris a year ago. Following this example a new pilot ‘green’ McDonald’s is scheduled to open its doors on July 14 in North Carolina, built with sustainable materials and integrating eco-friendly technology as well as electric vehicle charging parking spots.
It seems to be a very successful strategy: surprisingly France is now their world’s fastest growing market.
So a green logo to convince everybody that you are now sustainable and healthy? that’s a bit cliché design-wise. But hey, this is McDonald’s… That’s good news if they are moving in the right direction.

I had the opportunity a few years ago to design juice labels for Happy Planet. Yesterday on a hot sunny day I enjoyed a chilled ‘Extreme Purple’ (it was so good). On review of their website I discovered they have grown as a company, now offering a variety of drinks and soups. Great quality produce makes for a great product. They are also heavily involved in supporting the community and over the years have donated in excess of one million bottle of juice.

Have you ever wanted to eat at a fancy restaurant but afraid to spend a huge chunk of your paycheck? Well, stop spending money on strippers! Just kidding…

Dine Out Vancouver is back again. With over 180 restaurants, starting on January 14th – February 1st, people can enjoy a three-course dinner for $18, $28 or $38 per person.

This will be my fourth year participating and I find it this event a great excuse to try out new restaurants. In fact, Todd and I will be joining Alex and his lady love on a double date at DB Bistro Moderne. Bittersweet Chocolate Coupe, Praline Feuilletine, Coffe Ice Cream for dessert sounds good to me. We’ll be posting our experience on Foodists, so be sure to check back in a few weeks.

Those of you who know a thing or two about us know that we’re very much into our food. You might have perused this blog and noticed a distinct absence of food-related posts. The reason is that some time ago we decided the topic was so huge for us that it deserved its own space, hence the creation of Industrial Brand’s In the Kitchen blog.

Over time, all our Foodie friends started to join the fold and post to the site because that was what it was about – sharing our food experiences with our other passionate friends. They techincally weren’t a part of Industrial Brand though and that posed some problems moving forward with the project. Thus, we made the decision that In the Kitchen would morph into an independent online food blog and stand alone from the company. We renamed it Foodists and have completely re-conceived the site, organizing it in a more graphic and compelling way.

The new site has its own playful identity and simple, colourful layout designed to provide friendly appeal to a broad audience. Instead of opinions, the site will offer “meditations”. Rather than recipes or tips, we’ll share “guidance”. And as opposed to the standard product or restaurant reviews, we celebrate our finds in the “worship” section.

We guarantee you’ll be hungry within a few minutes of reading.

Nearly everyone knows we’re partial to small furry critters (which reminds me, we need to have another Hamster Party soon) as well as passionate foodies. But we seldom get to combine our love of food and rodents, though we’ve been told folks down south still enjoy a tasty Squirrel now and again.

Now’s the time to elevate that most tasty of tree dwelling, nut-lovers, the mighty squirrel, to its rightful place on our dinner table. So grab your rifle—don’t forget to check your safeties—and let’s go hunting for fresh meat to make squirrel sandwiches with! That’s right, squirrel! If you want to really take it to the next level, here’s a video demonstrating how to make squirrel melts! Don’t forget to add some pecans ’cause you know how much squirrels like nuts! Perfecto!

They make great weekend snacks! Nutritious and tasty too!

We love coffee in the studio—it’s a part of our foodie culture at Industrial Brand. In fact, we’re hard at work designing a new brand identity, collateral and packaging for a local gourmet coffee consultancy and retail franchise right now. So, as you can imagine, we’ve been researching, buying, evaluation and DRINKING more coffee than ever before. Is twitching and grinding your teeth a sign you’ve had too much caffeine?

I was particularly interested when I heard that our friends at TAXI Advertising had opened a full-on Cafe in what would normally be their reception area. Here’s an article on www.coffeevancouver.ca that describes the space. Maybe as we prepare to launch the new Industrial Brand identity we’ll open a small cafe of our own serving a custom roast of our own blend of coffee? (Oh man, I’d never get any sleep).

Fame and fortune oftentimes brings trouble for those not grounded enough to handle it. Hell, even then the most innocent and well-intentioned have fallen into the dark side. Probably tough enough for a human to stay on the straight and narrow, so it’s not all that surprising when you are already vermin. Such as when Steve the Ginger Squirrel of Bo Selecta fame gets into a little hot water in his Ferrari…

Actually, this scene is from a Flickr set called Squirrel Stories. A woman whose yard was overrun by squirrels sets them up for often hillarious scenarios and then catches them in action. Good for a Monday morning smile, but kind of making me hungry too.

This is NSFW (unless you have headphones). Anyway, thanks to Nathan for the heads up on this. Bo Selecta screwing with Jamie Oliver. I mean, what could be better than a foul-mouthed bear beating up Jamie Oliver for letting his sidekick Steve the Ginger Squirrel in his kitchen to make a caesar salad? Happy Friday!

My wife, who doesn’t even eat lamb, sent me a link to a company called Edible. Divided into sections: Insectivore, Herbs & Spices, Aphrodesiac, Carnivore, Herbivore, and Apothecary, the company scours the earth for the rare, the exotic and unusual. How unusual? How about Ambergris Face Wash which comes from the hindgut of the Sperm Whale? It’s a natural phenomenon and the whales spit the secretion into the sea after eating Giant Squid.

Uh wait, what’s an Insectivore? Someone who eats bugs. Bug eating. Yeah, this is the best part. You want a chocolate covered scorpion or South African Mopani worms, this is the place to get them. The site indicates exactly where in the world the insects are from, how they are harvested and what they are traditionally used for, and how.

Seriously, the descriptions make me rather curious to try it. For example, ” The Ants are specially bred Polyrachis Black Ants, and they have a spicy peppery taste similar to chilli peppers…” Sign me up.

And, as mentioned, the packaging is really cool. Seriously, it takes the Fear Factor down a notch.