The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Blockbuster has not made an announcement about this, but they may as well since they filed this 8-K yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Blockbuster will close more stores than expected, and shift its business to accommodate 21st Century video watchers.

Larger stores are going bye-bye (really, how much floor space do you need to showcase videos?) and smaller urban concepts are coming in.

Blockbuster will take on NetFlix by growing its order-online-receive-in-the-mail model. It will replace real estate leases by placing vending kiosks in stores and other locations (like RedBox does). And it will offer videos on demand through cable providers and on the Internet.

Could this mean the ultimate end of bricks and mortar for Blockbuster? It sure sounds like it, as it discusses the expense involved in its operations.

Does it mean you’ll eventually get your cup of Starbucks from a vending machine instead of a human being? That’s another story for another day. But if a Blockbuster can disappear from your local shopping center, a Starbucks could leave, too.

Blockbuster has not made an announcement about this, but they may as well since they filed this 8-K yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Blockbuster will close more stores than expected, and shift its business to accommodate 21st Century video watchers.

Larger stores are going bye-bye (really, how much floor space do you need to showcase videos?) and smaller urban concepts are coming in.

Blockbuster will take on NetFlix by growing its order-online-receive-in-the-mail model. It will replace real estate leases by placing vending kiosks in stores and other locations (like RedBox does). And it will offer videos on demand through cable providers and on the Internet.

Could this mean the ultimate end of bricks and mortar for Blockbuster? It sure sounds like it, as it discusses the expense involved in its operations.

Does it mean you’ll eventually get your cup of Starbucks from a vending machine instead of a human being? That’s another story for another day. But if a Blockbuster can disappear from your local shopping center, a Starbucks could leave, too.

There’s nothing as sobering as a reality check.

The latest public awareness campaign to remind New Yorkers that drinking soda is thickening our bellies shows a soda being poured into a glass. But the glass is not filling with frothy, delectable, ice-cold pop. It’s filling with globs of fat with oozing white gelatinous mounds overflowing down the side. The message? “Don’t Drink Yourself Fat.”

The three-month campaign from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene includes posters in the subway system and a multilingual health bulletin. Three versions of the poster show what appear to be a caramel-colored soda, a green sports drink and an iced tea. It’s an eye-opener.

The American Beverage Association called the campaign, which began Aug. 31, “so over the top that they are counterproductive to serious efforts to address a complex issue such as obesity … Balancing calories consumed with calories burned, regardless of the source, is the only generally proven approach to maintaining a healthy diet.

Soda marketers are in a tight spot, continually linked to the dramatic rise in obesity, particularly among children. The volume of the U.S. carbonated soft drink market, which includes energy drinks, tells the tale. Volume declined 3% last year, marking the fourth straight year of declines and wiping out years of growth from 1997 to 2004, according to Beverage Digest. Another interesting indicator of where things are headed is that a diet beverage, Diet Mountain Dew, was the strongest-performing Top 10 brand, Beverage Digest reported.

Even though beverage brands have beefed up marketing for healthier products like water the attacks that continue to pound away at sugary drinks seem to be working. New York City spent $277 on the campaign. A private donor added another $90,000 through the Fund for Public Health to have the ads placed on the subways.

The ads are startling. I’m not much of a soda drinker, but I really do enjoy a bottle now and again. But after seeing the posters, I can’t help but think that the images will likely be recalled every time I open a cola and start to pour. Yuck.