This idea is pure gold: the iconic golden arches made with golden poppies in the golden state! No, it’s not just gold because of the color, but because California Poppies are illegal to pick or dig up due to their status as our lovely state flower. Designer Sean Click made this low-cost, high-impact concept ad for McDonald’s to have an eco-friendly permanence protected by state legislature. Although environmental graffiti for McDonald’s, the antithesis of health and sustainability, may be more than slightly ironic, this logo made of California Poppies would me ingenious and indestructible—anyone who tried to dig up those flowery arches and would face a fine!

Ever dreamed of ordering up cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar, peanut butter, cotton candy, or gummy bears in your coffee? Me neither, but apparently the thousands of creative coffee connoisseurs toying with Seattle’s Best Coffee’s new Facebook contest are coming up with some interesting ideas. The ‘Create Your Deliciousness’ campaign lets users experiment with unconventional (to say the least!) coffee combinations with the aforementioned ingredients, plus countless others. Birthday cake coffee, anyone? 100 virtual-baristas per day win free bags of Seattle’s Best Coffee, and the company benefits from seeing what people really fantasize about in their coffee, promising to make the best concoctions into reality. 

Adventurous young men or just the Williamsburg status quo? We joke; but we do love the Boy Scouts’ wild new beards. Coinciding with the nationwide start of scraggly facial hair for Movember, the new Boy Scouts of America campaign from Ogilvy & Mather Atlanta shows a funny turn for the traditionalist organization in their initiative to “be one with the wild.” Trendy Boy Scouts—be prepared!

If you walk through south Street Seaport in NYC, you’ll see all around you the remnants of old painted advertisements. Some bars and restaurants even take their names from these signs- remains of the neighborhood’s historical roots as a wharf and fishing market. These vintage advertisements can be found in cities the world over- but how long does it take before an out and out advertisement becomes neighborhood art and lore? 

San Francisco blog Berndalwood is calling attention to just this question in their coverage of a neighborhood battle to keep a vintage CocaCola sign from being erased due to its closeness to a school. The neighborhood that calls the sign its own is rallying to protect it from extinction- to them, the sign is no longer advertising, but a part of their history and local flavor.

The word “local” is now thrown around so much we tend to forget that it means something- but time and time again we see examples of people coveting the uniqueness of their own neighborhoods, and fighting to protect the symbols of their locality. Where cities used to be rallying points (I LOVE NEW YORK, anyone?) neighborhoods are increasingly becoming the real hearts of their inhabitants. 

Source: Bernaldwood