Ten years after US confectionary giants Mars left legions of UK sugar addicts seriously bitter at its renaming of Opal Fruits to its global brand Starburst it’s set to bring back the moniker for a limited run.ASDA will sell the sweets ‘made to make your mouth water’ from 11 May for 12 weeks, complete with the original flavours and packaging.Much as we'd love to attribute credit to the noble organisation that is the Opal Fruit Liberation Front, it’s probably wiser to slip back on our natural cynicism and assume Mars has taken a look at Cadbury’s successful relaunch of Wispa, supposedly a decision taken in reaction to a 14,000-strong Facebook campaign (a claim doubted among chocolate conspiracy theorists).Indeed, Mars’ marketing department are positively salivating over the prospect of wrecking all that expensive dental work of the 30-somethings who reluctantly moved on when Opal Fruits did.“The brand is a classic. Everyone of a particular generation remembers the Opal Fruit catchphrase and we wanted to give our customers something back as a thank you for their support," a spokesman told thelondonpaper.They’re too kind – but it’s an amazing example of the power of branding, especially to youth markets. So many experts talk about product being everything, but as Mars has proved twice (remember Marathon?), even a well-respected, established product can be damaged by the most superficial of changes.If you’re thinking of rebranding, think twice.

The business vote was high on the agenda at the British Chambers of Commerce convention, which opened today in Liverpool. The reason? Because it’s no longer high on business owners’ agendas.‘85% of entrereneurs don’t believe politicians understand business’, was the stat paraded in director general David Frost’s speech in a damning verdict of the current government’s administration.Just 14% think business is a priority for a Labour government, Frost continued before warning only 22% thought it would be particularly important to those Conservatives lapping up the government-bashing.None of this is of any great surprise, of course, and simply mirrors society’s political apathy. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of comment. Overlooking it merely perpetuates that apathy and ignores the fact business and politics are polarised at a time the economy needs them united.For Frost there’s a lack of business experience at the top: “With many having very little practical experience working in business, it is unsurprising that MPs do not come across as sympathetic to the need of business.”It's action not talk that BCC members want: asked what the most important issue the next government should prioritise, 34% said taxation, 29% red tape and 11% transport.“If we are to remain competitive, then the government must cut taxes for both large and small firms and look at reducing other damaging taxes such as fuel duty.”The message is clear and as Frost concluded: “The business vote is clearly up for grabs."Given recent policy and a lack of promised tax cuts coming from the opposition, you have to wonder, is anybody listening?

We thought we’d save this for some Friday fun.Internet animators Boleg Bros, who specialise in using LEGO, have brilliantly spoofed Sir Alan Sugar and The Apprentice.Boleg’s ‘YOU’RE FIR4D’ vids are going down a storm on YouTube, again proving the power of viral marketing and social networks as business tools.Boleg’s disclaimer is clear to distance the company from LEGO, the BBC, talkbackTHAMES and Sir Alan, but you get the feeling none of them will rush to bring this sort of free publicity to a halt. After all, they say being spoofed is a sign you've really made it.And surely it’s only a matter of time before Boleg is inundated with big money offers from brands wanting their own Boleg creations?

Smarta.com is still in build mode but we’re getting rather excited about launching later this year – which makes us prime target for SEO experts offering to optimise our site.There’s a whole industry at it. Each has its own understanding of Google’s complex algorithms and how best to trick them.Expect any combination of keywords, meta tags, cramming core terms on every page while not exceeding 250 words and changing logical titles and headings to tenious ‘search-friendly phrases’.What you end up with is barely recognisable or much use to visitors, but hey, that’s the price you're expected to pay for a top five placing.Now we realise the power of search, and yes, we’ve heard of longtail – but we have to wonder if all this is going to come full circle.If all sites become geared to simply catching searchers, will it be possible for anyone to actually find what they’re looking for? Most likely, Google will react by demanding deep targeted unique content and oppose SEO gobbledegook.It’s reasonable to assume the online advertising world will soon also lose its obsession with quantity and demand quality of viewers? At the moment, what value is it getting from visitors who realise they’ve come to the wrong place and leave within seconds?Few advertisers want anyone, so why do we? Retail stores spend millions on branding and presentation to pull in a carefully targetted demographic, not any Tom, Dick and Harry who'll have a mooch but won't buy.So why is there an online propensity to sacrifice the identity of websites to get just anyone through the search door?

Smarta’s pleased to see BT has launched its ‘Essence of the Entrepreneur’ for 2008 – a small business competition/award that actually does something different.Now in its third year, Essence of the Entrepreneur seeks out 20 emerging entrepreneurs who’ve used technology to make their mark and awards one overall winner with a £20,000 business grant.Very noble, but hardly original. The angle we like is that BT sends out a top photographer, previously Perou and this year Rankin, to the entrepreneur’s workplace to capture their ‘essence’ and then holds an exhibition at a top London gallery for the world and his dog to see.While Rankine needs no introducing, Perou has set the standard seriously high with some brilliantly creative snaps. Jenny Irvine of healthy, luxury readymade food service Pure Package can be seen above, but check out the others and find out how to enter at: www.bt.com/entrepreneurNo need to rush, you’ve got until August 31 before a panel including Dragon Peter Jones decides if you make the final cut. He certainly gets around our Peter, doesn’t he?One of last year’s finalists Kerrie Keeling of female building firm A Woman’s Touch reckons she got plenty of publicity from it: “The exposure my company has received as a result of the award has been phenomenal and has snowballed into some really major opportunities." Artist and garden designer Alice Bowe was another to benefit ending up featuring in a national TV campaign for BT.As free PR goes, that’s pretty impressive. Got to be worth a go, hasn’t it? Especially if you get to strut your stuff in front of Rankin!

Remember what it was like working for someone else? If you’re like most entrepreneurs, it simply doesn’t compare to the thrill of running a business and reverting from employer to employee isn’t an appealing proposition.Hold that thought; then take a look at your staff. Are they happy, motivated and committed to your cause?Regardless of what you see, four out of ten probably aren’t, according to a YouGov report released by Investors In People.It claims the same percentage plan to quit in the next year blaming a lack of motivation, poor pay, unreasonable workloads and the absence of a clear career path. A quarter were unhappy with how they were managed, while half felt unsupported beyond initial induction guidance.That’s not you, of course. You’re a great employer. You care. And we’re sure you do, but the thing is, are the structures in place to ensure your staff actually see and feel that?Reflect once more: was your old boss blissfully unaware of the frustrations you had as an employee? Quite often it’s the case. Good intentions don’t go far when you're working late every night, and it’s simply naïve to assume your employees share your passion to stick to the task no matter what. It’s your baby, not theirs.Sure it takes time and money, but it's little compared to the cost of recruitment and retraining. Remember one final thing: your people need you!

WebMission08 is go! The companies participating in the UK start-up trip to Silicon Valley first discussed here in February jetted out to San Francisco on Saturday for a week of frenzied card swapping with some of the US’ most influential internet names.Judging by the some of the pics emerging on Facebook and Flickr, Team WebMission spent the opening 24 hours proving us Brits can certainly mix it with our revered friends across the pond… in terms of downing cocktails and partying, that is.But hey, a bit of 'work hard, play hard' never hurt anyone and reports filtering back across the pond suggest it was certainly back to business first thing today.Oracle were the group’s host this morning while, depending what time you’re reading this, around now they should be watching craigslist founder Jim Buckmaster interview Bebo’s Michael Birch at a Glasshouse San Francisco event.Partying tonight isn’t advisable as the group will be making presentations to VCs and US press at Heller Erhman first thing the following morning.We’ll update you later in the week on their progress and hopefully get a diary report from Peter Ward, co-founder and co-CEO of travel and lifestyle social network WAYN.com (Where Are You Now?), one of the 20 companies on the trip. We’ve also asked trip organiser and Smarta friend Oli Barrett up-to-date with everything as it happens.In the mean time, check out the full agenda on the WebMission08 site and biogs of the 20 companies lucky enough to make the cut on a trip Oli tells us was very heavily over-subscribed.

While the leaders of two of the world’s greatest powers combined grey matter in a vain attempt to solve the credit crunch, hope actually came in the shape of an organisation suitably more powerful, intelligent and democratic.That’s Google, as if you hadn’t guessed.Amid the doom and gloom of an economic downturn there’d been suggestions even the almighty father of search might start to feel the pinch prompting a slight wobble in share price.After all, if it’s inevitable companies will pull back ad spend as times get tough, with an unholy percentage going through Google, it’s also inevitable Google will suffer, right?Wrong. Well, wrong so far anyway. First quarter profits published from Google HQ yesterday showed profits actually rose to a very cool $1.31bn, up 30% on the same period last year."Our ongoing innovation in search, ads, and apps helped drive healthy growth globally across our product lines, yielding another strong quarter for Google," crowed Eric Schmidt, and frankly, who can blame him?Envy put aside, it has to be a positive sign that not only is the online advertising market holding firm but also companies in general remain confident of riding the storm.

...Infosecurity Europe and Eskenzi PR, for yesterday’s unanimously mocked ‘Women four times more likely than men to give passwords for chocolate’.In a seemingly desperate bid to grab any headline at any expense (well here you go), Infosecurity interviewed 576 office workers outside Liverpool St. Station and tempted 45% of women and 10% of men into giving up their passwords in exchange for a chocolate bar.This bizarre experiment was apparently designed to highlight our lack of security awareness and the number of people using the same passwords for technology, banking, bills etc.That’s assuming, of course, they weren’t really on some kind of misogynistic mission and simply plumbed the depths of acceptability in an attempt to make IT security sound vaguely sexy.Whilst treated with derision the story’s actually been picked up by several nationals and hundreds of news sites and blogs, proving any combination of the following:1) Journalists and bloggers relish the opportunity to expose such ludicrousness2) The press still likes a giggle at stories that make women look silly3) Screw ethics, all publicity is good publicity4) PR’s full of easy money and over trusting clients

Yes, cleverclogs, we know the 'Here comes another bubble' vid was doing the rounds before Christmas, but, in a strange analogy of its content, it appears to be back for those that missed it the first time round.Mainly because it's so damn good - but also because it's still just as relevant following Bebo's £417m sale - we've decided to flag it in case you haven't yet witnessed its brilliance!All together:Blog, blog, blog it allBlog it if it's big or small,Blog even if you're wrongWon't you blog about this song?!