I am one of Those People who plans on waking up before dawn tomorrow to watch the Royal Wedding. Some people understand, some people don't, but regardless, it's going to be a once in a lifetime spectacle that shouldn't be missed. We've been hearing about the planning, the dress, the flowers, the diet and the souvenirs ever since Prince William placed that beautiful blue diamond on Kate Middleton's finger. Aren't you dying to see what all the fuss is about? I'm going to be on my couch, pen in hand, ready to take notes for my own wedding.

But I'm pretty sure that their "wedding favors" will put mine to shame. We've seen commemorative items associated with the event pop up all over the place. ASI, one of the national ad specialties industry associations, notes that the royal wedding merchandise sales could be close to $26 million. We have the classy items that will be cherished forever...



Source: royalmint.com



Source: havens.co.uk

And the fun souvenirs.



Source: skreened.com



Source: rlv.zcache.com

There are items for those who are a little bitter...



Source: assets1.notonthehighstreet.com

And items for the grateful fans.



Source: blog.tshirtstudio.com Even some of our vendors are jumping on board with extravagant displays.



Source: adsoftheworld.com

3M has been posting enormous Post-it notes around London. The product's tagline is "Hold Stronger and Longer" and 3M even developed a wedding-related tagline for this demonstration.

"May you stick together forever. Congratulations."

Tomorrow is going to be an incredible day for two very important people. It's fascinating that the whole world is going to share this moment with them, from beginning to end, from every magnet to Post-it. We will watch in awe, almost as though we know the couple personally and have a genuine reason to wish them nothing but happiness. Aside from the crazy amount of media coverage, I feel that the promotional items play a huge part in that relationship.

Rumor has it that there is a refrigerator with William and Kate's face on it. I'll give free chocolate to the first person who can find that gem for me.

source: earthday2011.com

On Friday, the office celebrated Earth Day by carpooling to Silver Diner for lunch. We had originally planned to go for a walk or have a picnic, but the unexpected drizzle and 40 degree weather rained on that parade. Saving gas money and dining on locally-sourced chili was an earthy enough alternative for us.

Plus, we all wanted to see the Splenda imposters that Julianne wrote about in last week's blog post. While flipping through the sugar bowl rolodesk, we uncovered another surprise...



No... a PINK Equal! When will it end?!



All of this deception prompted me to visit Equal's website, and as it turns out, it's really not as bad as we thought it was. We initially assumed that Equal was repackaging their Aspartame sweetener in different colored packets, but the truth is they've transitioned into producing several varieties of artifical sweeteners. Their pink packets contain Saccharin, just like Sweet'N Low, and their yellow packets boast Sucralose, as you would find in a packet of Splenda.

We still think it's really sneaky, but at least the consumer isn't duped into ingesting something they otherwise wouldn't.

The problem with the cutting edge is that someone has to bleed.
- Zalman Stern

In promotional marketing, your materials can stay on the cutting edge when you make them bleed. Fully.



A "full bleed" might sound somewhat disturbing in every day conversation, but in the printing world it refers to color that goes beyond the border of a final image. During the printing process, sometimes items shift almost imperceptibly as colors are added. Well, the shift will seem imperceptible when the item's border includes a full bleed. If the color ends before the edge of the item, leaving a contrasting border, the human eye can almost always see the slight narrowing of color around the edge, making the entire piece seem a bit off-center.

Connect Four, anyone?

As a life-long dieter and coffee drinker, I have made the slow, steady transition from pink cancer-causing packets to blue headache-inspiring packets to the lovely yellow packets of Splenda (whatever warnings are out I don't want to know... I like my coffee tasting like melted ice cream and still need to fit into my pants). Of course, once the light-green stevia derivatives make their way to the table, all bets are off, but that is a topic for another day...

At any rate, last Saturday my five-year old daughter and I were enjoying a lovely brunch at the Silver Diner in Lakeforest Mall. When my hot cup of caffeine arrived, I reached for my go-to no calorie sweetener, clearly the outsider in the well-stocked little sugar tray.



I began to tear open my sweetener when I realized that the yellow rectangle in my hand was not the Splenda I expected. Instead, I was holding a very sneakily re-branded serving of Equal.



I was taken by the way Equal had used both yellow paper and blue print to mirror Splenda's branding. Had I not been paying attention, I might have missed the change. If I had an acute allergy (yes, Nutrasweet sweeteners do cause me occasional headaches) the result could have been disastrous.

This attempt to utilize the natural results of powerful and effective branding (Splenda's) by a competitor (Equal) seems like a sad, desperate move. Equal looks bad, the "yellow packet" credibility is hurt- a complete lose/lose situation.

But, the episode reminds me that, as a consumer, I am responsible for making my own informed choices. Branding provides an opportunity for a company or product to establish specific expectations but doesn't always make specific promises. In this instance, I have to believe in the product (Splenda) as a separate entity from the brand image (yellow packet) and keep my guard up against those who would twist my preconceived notions to further their own goals.