As it has done for the past three Academy Award ceremonies, jcpenney will hit the Oscars red carpet by promoting its recent "brand refresh," showing off that it's had a little work done (new logo, single-monikered lowercase name) and is making a comeback in true Hollywood fashion.

New brand face Ellen DeGeneres will be featured in five 30-second commercials (watch "Changing Room" above and a sneak peek at others set in the Wild West, Victorian England and ancient Rome, below) that will air in North America during ABC's telecast on Sunday night.

Other brands debuting new campaigns at the 84th annual Academy Awards include Hyundai's new Wes Anderson commercial and a glamorous spot for the sixth-generation SL roadster by Mercedes-Benz.Continue reading...

Hulu will air its first TV commercial on ABC during the Oscars telecast Sunday night. Starring one of the channel's own stars, Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives, it touts Hulu Plus and brings back Will Arnett, whose character was introduced during the Super Bowl — and whose Up All Night airs on NBC.

Mazda announced this week that it's on board for Universal Pictures' upcoming Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, which opens on March 2nd.

The deal helps Mazda cross-promote its "Seuss-ifed" 2013 Mazda CX-5 crossover SUV with a commercial, above, that features an animated version of the car driving through a valley of Truffula trees. More on The Lorax next week.

Opening this weekend, meanwhile, is a slate of films all featuring some level of product placement. First up: Tyler Perry's Apple Love Good Deeds.Continue reading...

Interbrand Global CEO Jez Frampton this week announced Japan’s Best Global Brands 2012 in a keynote speech in Tokyo.

“It’s a testament to the excellence of this country’s leading companies and the wealth of talent their brands represent,” Frampton commented. "It's not just 'business as usual' we are witnessing. It's business driven by passion and a will to overcome adversity."

The remarkable success stories highlighted in the new ranking includes such top Japanese brands as Toyota, Honda, Canon, Sony, Nintendo, Panasonic, Nissan, Lexus, Toshiba and Komatsu.Continue reading...

When it comes to product strategy, Campbell Soup has gone through more twists and turns over the last several years than one of the noodles in its classic Chicken Noodle Soup.

The world's leading maker of soup has come up with heartier flavors and lighter flavors, chunkier textures, new ingredients, heart-healthy blends — you name it. The company also has infamously tacked back and forth about sodium reduction in its soups, firset embracing the idea as a major new platform and then, recently, trimming back its salt-cutting ambitions in the interests of taste.

Once again, Campbell is stirring the pot, this time under new CEO Denise Morrison, who presented her strategy to analysts in New York this week that the Campbell Soup Company has a few things cooking to jump-start growth.

Her new approach "requires moving from a high dependence on line extensions to more disruptive innovation, new and differentiated products, packaging and category segments that create new pathways for growth."Continue reading...

Our most-read blog posts of the week, From Microsoft's New Windows Logo to Whitney Houston:

#1 Microsoft Waves Goodbye to Old Windows Logo

#2 Google Responds to Valentine’s Day Florist AdWords Ambushing

#3 Houston, We Have a Problem: The Challenges Facing Whitney Houston's Post-Mortem Earning Power

#4 Why Consumer Goods Brands Must Think More Like Retailers

#5 North Face Under Fire for Using Down from Foie Gras Geese

#6 In China, Apple Goes Out of the Wok, Into the Fire

#7 Lego Hits Brick Wall With Lego Friends for Girls

#8 Converse x Gorillaz: Fans Get Ready to DoYaThing

#9 Facebook Integrates Brands Into the Social Graph

#10 Dreamliner Flight Path Traces Boeing Logo

This week saw the iTunes store add an iPad app that will make guitar, rock and Beatles fans gently weep.

Keeping the Beatles' b(r)and alive and well on digital, George Harrison's son Dhani this week showed Conan O'Brien a new iPad app that catalogs his dad's iconic collection of guitars, with narration by the late guitarist talking about why he loved particular brands and guitars, and how they were used on the Beatles and solo songs they were featured in.Continue reading...

eBay CEO John Donahoe, speaking at the DLD Conference last month in Munich, commented that: “Innovation is not driven by retailers. Innovation is technology-enabled and consumers are driving it. Consumers are in charge here.”

Now his online auction-based brand is looking to innovate by returning to its roots to create more of a community among its users — and, naturally, attract new useres.Continue reading...