The last few months have been a little crazy and, as such, we have been focusing on high level stories - or stories that happened to cross my desk - here at Bad Boy Blog. At the same time, being a comprehensive source, I at least wanted to summarize some of the stories that fell through the cracks during this time. Check out some of them below.

Diddy Partners with New York City Department of Transportation to Help New Yorkers Get Home on New Year's Ever

For the third consecutive year, Ciroc, Diddy and E! Entertainment teamed up to help get New Yorkers home safe on New Year's Eve.

The effort saw them hand out thousands of $25 gift cards that were redeemable the city's 13,000-plus taxicabs, participating livery car services and MTA and New York City subway ticketing booths through January 1, 2011 at 11:59 PM.

What was new this year is that they partnered with the New York City Department of Transportation for the first time, joining them to launch a "citywide safe driving initiative."

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According to the The Moodie Report, Ciroc parent company Diageo announced a 16% rise in profit for the six month period ending December 31, as compared to the same period in 2009. Some Ciroc related notes from the story:


The Coconut and Red Berry flavors were introduced in November of 2009 and now account for more than 50% of overall brand volume. Ciroc volume grew by 128% altogether.

Advertising Age reports that, for the year ending January 23, Ciroc sales totaled $8.8 million, a gain of 71%. This moved the vodka ahead of competitor Belvedere, as the second best selling vodka in the U.S.

In the same period, Belvedere saw sales growth of 7.8% to $7.8 million. This was below the average for the super-premium vodka product category, which grew almost 14%, according to numbers provided by the Distilled Spirits Council.

Back in July, Diddy announced that Ciroc had surpassed Belvedere. The vodka sales leader is Grey Goose, who reported sales of $57.9 million, which was a gain of 1.2%.

The sales numbers exclude Wal-Mart stores, as well as club and liquor store sales.

Ciroc has just launched a new website. It features content divided into four sections: Ciroc Life, Mixology, Press and About.

Ciroc Life features Ciroc related photos, videos and a dedicated section for the Ciroc Boyz, the lineup of DJs affiliated with the vodka.

Mixology focuses on Ciroc-featured drink recipes, while Press includes press images and releases alongside media mentions. Finally, about offers brief background information on Ciroc Master Distiller Jean-Sebastian Robiquet, Diddy and the vodka itself.

Rapper Mickey Da Kid has released the music video for his song "Coco Loso" (free download).

Dr. Dre's "Detox," an album that has been in development for so long that it has approached mythic status, may finally be on the way in February. The first single, "Kush," features Snoop Dogg and Akon and the music video for it was just released, featuring a nice Ciroc product placement. Check it out at the 2:10 mark below.

Check out the clip below for some behind the scenes at the Fabolous video shoot for "You Be Killin Em" from IndustryMuscle.com. Fabolous isn't in the clip, as it mainly follows Ciroc National Director of Promotions Nick Storm. Presumably, Ciroc is sponsoring the video in some way.

Advertising Age has named Ciroc as one of "America's Hottest Brands", led by Diddy's influence since joining the company in 2007.

For the year that ended on October 3, SymphonyIRI reported that sales of Ciroc rose 41% ($6.8 million). Their data does not include Walmart, club and liquor stores or bars and restaurants. According to the write-up, Ciroc-parent Diageo indicated that the vodka line has grown 552% from 2007 to 2010.

On Twitter, T-Pain shared a picture of his new Ciroc Red Berry chain. He also has a Nuvo chain and joked that he was "'wearing' out the competition."

Yesterday, I mentioned that Mickey Da Kid had released "Coco Loso," a record referencing the Ciroc-based drink mix.

In the video below, the rapper discusses the making of the track as well as the reception he's received thus far.