Reach-into-my-tummy POP

I saw this kid-sized display near St. Charles, Illinois but it's a borderless idea. Imagine animated, friendly, right-height characters in the fruit section of the grocery store.

According to Dr. James U McNeal, when you ask kids to draw supermarkets they draw fruits and vegetables first. Why let candy have all the fun?

A tizzy for fruit that's fizzy

Is a grape that fizzes merely a grape? The Fizzy Fruit Company is busy carbonating fresh fruit to make it dance and sparkle in your mouth.

Now it's selling to US schools. There's a Disney connection, too

Hooray for a new way to play with your healthy food!

The new "Big Three"

The three used to be ABC, CBS and NBC--today they're Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. But watch out! The same wave that hit the TV networks will hit the social networks.

This time, media fragmentation will happen at internet pace...that is to say, faster than the speed of habit-formation.

Who do you predict will stand shoulder to shoulder with these three?

Pomegranates, the "it" fruit, what's next?

Aimee (16) from Chagrin Falls, Ohio tells me her favorite drink is a Starbucks Pomegranate Frappucino. I asked her what she thought would be the next big fruit--now that Kiwi is in the shadow of mighty Pomegranate.

She was traveling in California's wine country and came up with an unexpected reply based on her observation of menus there: "heirloom tomatoes!"

My Chicago Farmers' Market would agree. The heirloom tomatoes in all their misshapen glory cost as much as rubies.

Flocking to Crocs

In the airport in Denver, on the streets of Seattle and the farmers market in Chicago, stroller babies, rollicking kids and even my business colleagues are wearing these childlike candy-colored concoctions.

Mini Mouse would delight in choosing her new shoes in pinks and lavenders, reds and greens...

Now, elegant Anne Werner notes that her friend Sally turned up in pale blue ones. This trend it running up and down the ages--kid trend or trend that makes you feel like a kid again?