Marketing

Chipotle Serves Up New Margaritas with Fresh Juices and Premium Tequila

Chipotle has decided to change up its margarita recipe, which was originally made with a sweet-and-sour syrup. According to the chief marketing officer, Mark Crumpacker, not many people knew that Chipotle served margaritas. Starting today, and just in time for Cinco de Mayo, Chipotle offers new han ... More >>

Healthy Fast Food Menu Items Can Lure and Deceive Consumers

If you're on a diet, or are at least trying to eat healthier, you probably don't frequent fast food restaurants throughout the day. A typical fast food menu isn't full of healthy and nutritious items. However, a few fast food chains recently began to add lighter options to menus, due in part to a re ... More >>

Star Trek: The Next Generation Anniversary

Brazilian Festival

The School That Holds The Record For First-Day License-Plate Sales In Texas Is...Ole Miss?

MyPlates.com, the private company that offers Texans vanity plates of all types, sells a lot of school plates. Plates for th eUniversity of South Carolina just went on sale (and no, you can't get COCKLUVR even if you're a rabid Gamecock fan). They've been doing it for a while now, and have compile ... More >>

Roller-Blade Dancing Guy: What's His Story? (w/ VIDEO)

Check out the magnificent video of a lone middle-aged roller-blader shaking his ass on the corner of Allen Parkway and Waugh. What's this guy's story? Wayward Urban Animal trying to relive the salad days of Houston's 1980s? Weird one-man flash mob? Viral marketing gone awry?

Wine of the Week: Another Oaky Buttery Chardonnay

Photo by Jeremy Parzen.The marketing campaign by Educated Guess wines is one of the most successful in recent history.​Yesterday, after arriving at the Newark, NJ airport from Milan, Italy (where I admired a statue of Leonardo da Vinci across from the famous Scala opera house), I headed straig ... More >>

Police Use Free Football Tickets to Capture Deadbeat Dads

I can't believe my luck!!!​For a divorced parent, paying your child support should be one of those simple, automatic tasks each month. First and foremost, it pays to feed and clothe your children, who should be the most important people in your life (even when they're acting up in the back se ... More >>

Eater: Top Chef "Texas" Coming to Houston After All?

​Yesterday afternoon, Amber Ambrose broke two interesting pieces of news on Eater regarding Top Chef's current tour through Texas as it films for its next season. "Today, the tipline brings the rumor that after shooting in Dallas (where they are presently) and then Austin, the show will also ... More >>

Mayonnaise vs. Miracle Whip: Kraft's Clever New Ad Campaign

"Is that a commercial for mayonnaise?" my boyfriend asked as he glanced at one of the new Miracle Whip ads on TV last night. I found myself responding quickly and almost furiously: "No, it's for Miracle Whip!" "Jesus. Okay." It was almost as if the commercial had stirred some mayonnaise demon w ... More >>

Controversy Fizzing Over New Diet Pepsi "Skinny Can" Campaign

prnewswire.comIt's beautiful because it's thin. ​Diet soda in a thinner can. A visual reflection of the body you're working towards or looking to maintain by cutting out empty calories. Hey, it makes sense. So why is there so much controversy surrounding Diet Pepsi's new "Skinny Can"? Well, ... More >>

Houston's Love For Caffeine A Middling 15th Among Nation's Top 20. We Blame You, Water Drinker

Not sluttier than Seattle, though​Houston, you drink a lot of cofffee. Not as much as New York, definitely not as much as Seattle (of course), but more than Dallas/Fort Worth and Atlanta.This comes from the Daily Beast, which has combined marketing data, a survey and whatever else they could find ... More >>

SWAT Team Called Out For Troubled Police-Union Fundraiser

Come out with your hands up.....​In a major victory for irony last Friday, Houston SWAT officers arrested a man whose company is a major phone fundraiser for the Houston Police Patrolmen's Union.Although the Houston Chronicle reported the basic details of a three-hour standoff outside a business i ... More >>

Big Bite Nite

Develop your palate at HMNS

First, They Came For My Legroom...Then They Came For My Food

​Earlier this month Houston's Continental Airlines announced that it would be improving its customer service for tall people by charging them for legroom.Today the airline announced it would be improving customer service for everybody in coach by no longer giving them free food."Continental Airlin ... More >>

Best. Roommate. Ever.

​If were weren't already comfortably ensconced in a house, with no particular need for a roommate other than the stray cat that comes begging for food every day, we'd have already fired off an e-mail to Chris Smink, the author of what might be the greatest Craigslist roommate posting ever, for ... More >>

As A Big Student-Loan Deadline Looms, Be Sure You're Using The Right Web Site

​Do you enjoy wasting hours when you're trying to meet a tight deadline to get federal aid for a college loan? Just log on to www.fafsa.com, and sign up for an ID, then spend hours getting material to answer all their questions. Ignore the many times an ad pops up, trying to sell you "professional ... More >>

Bank Of America Scamming Hispanics, Local Lawsuit Says

​All Jorge Gonzalez of Houston wanted was a safe place to keep his meager earnings. But in this era of banking scandals and swindles, that was apparently too much to ask. Instead, Gonzalez became the lead plaintiff in a sweeping class action lawsuit against Bank of America, AIG and several other c ... More >>

Local Dude's Lawsuit To Be A Hooters Waiter Ends With A Settlement

Photo by noelweathersNikolai Grushevski sued Hooters in January after the restaurant didn't hire him as a Hooters Girl. Mike McNeil, vice president of marketing at Hooters, told Hair Balls at the time, "If we lose this go around, you can next expect hairy legged guys in the Rockettes to line up and ... More >>

Man Wants To Lick Hooters (In The Courtroom)

Nikolai Grushevski, a man from Corpus Christi, has filed a lawsuit because Hooters wouldn't let him work as a waiter, which we guess would be called a Hooters Boy. "Hooters tries to circumvent the law by referring to its waiters as 'Hooters Girls.' Hooters is wrong," claims the lawsuit, filed yester ... More >>

HPD Taser Audit Is Out; Black Officers Always Get The Easy Arrests

Sick Puppies

Telemarketing Offers

MGR promises help with federal grants and racks up hundreds of consumer complaints

Jason Starr

NY crime novelist delivers another riveting thriller

Radio Houstoned: Jason Starr

So We Don't Normally Forward Stuff Like This, But...

There’s a New Rocket in Town

Found...and Now We’re Lost

The Secret of NIN

Make Ours a Red Head

Best Comet

Best Place for a Lunchtime Tryst

Salad Days

La Colombe d'Or

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Best Religious Leader

Joel Osteen

Best Nightlife Idea that Should Come Back

Beauty Bar Houston

Inside Outside

Actors move between stages in twin productions of Alan Ayckbourn's House and Garden

The Badge Means You Owe

A nursing home turns into another target for questionable cop telemarketers

Best Radio Station

KTRU/91.7 FM

Porn to Sell

Product placement comes to adult videos...hey, watch where you put that thing!

Bar Patrons

Warning: Tobacco companies' advertising money may be addictive in Houston's club scene

Monster Mash

Small, TV-sized minds and marketing overshadow special effects

Trial by Video

AG Dan Morales may not have won in court, but he won where it matters -- on TV

CondoMania

The FDIC steps in to unload the Huntingdon, federally subsidized home of the rich