Jarritos, the classic Mexican soda brand, crosses the border (and invades Boing Boing)

I recently noticed that Jarritos became a sponsor on Boing Boing (you may well be seeing their ads here as you read this post). This is awesome! And tonight, I spotted this New York Times feature about how the 61-year-old Mexican soda pop company is going through a sort of marketing makeover, which I suppose advertising on Boing Boing is part of. In addition to ads on sites like ours, they're also doing branded street art (see the photo below for one mural in Los Angeles).

I think it's cool that this archetypal "ethnic" brand from Mexico is making new inroads here in the US. As with so-called "Mexican Coke"*, Jarritos is made with granulated natural sugar. All the big soda brands in the US are high-fructose corn syrup instead. There's some debate over the health differences between sugar and HFCS, but soda aficionados argue there's a big flavor difference. I agree.

Jarritos makes a cola flavor, too. My two favorite flavors in their line: hibiscus and guava. Also tamarindo! Almost forgot the tangy tamarindo.

Disclosure: nobody asked me to do this post, I just think the story, and the product, are neat.

* Not the kind the narcos sell, kids!

(Image: Piña Refresco, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from brianauer's photostream)

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Mexico: Twitter Terrorism, Narco-Mapping, 3BallMTY and “pointy boots” (Xeni on The Madeleine Brand Show)

(photo: Edith Valle for VICE)

Snip from today's radio program summary for The Madeleine Brand Show:

Thirty years in prison for tweeting? That's the maximum sentence two people from Veracruz, Mexico are facing after they created hysteria by tweeting rumors of a school under attack. The rumors proved false and now the two journalists face cyber-terrorism charges. Xeni Jardin, co-editor of the web site Boing Boing, joins us with more on this story. She also talks about new tech tools for tracking drug violence and a trend in Mexico of wearing very pointy boots.

Listen here, or dowload MP3.

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