More than 77 million dogs are owned by people in over 45 million households in the US. That's a statistic advertisers like Subaru have noticed. In fact, half of Subaru drivers own a pet.

That's why the car company's latest ad campaign focuses squarely on not just the owners, but their dogs – who are shown "driving" the Subaru Forester in an ad that carries the tagline "Dog tested. Dog approved." The ads started running this past weekend.

Subaru has gone a step further by partnering with the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). At "Share the Love," a recent Subaru sales event during which new car buyers could choose to donate $250 to one of five charities, the ASPCA was the top choice.Continue reading...

Belting out empowering words has always been Mary J. Blige’s forte, and this time her latest ballad is being co-branded with a line of T-shirts fashioned by her long time friend, Catherine Malandrino.

Together the powerhouses are launching their first T-shirt collection, which brings together Blige’s foundation called FFAWN (Foundation for the Achievement of Women Now), and features inspirational messages hand-painted across the tunics that, for example, proclaim, “I’m Power,” “I’m Free,” “I’m Love,” and “I’m Life.”Continue reading...

Foursquare fans – those who find Facebook updates too static and oh-so-2009 – will soon “check in” to learn that the geosocial networking site has executed partnerships with several media brands, according to Mashable.

Foursquare, which runs on mobile devices and leverages their GPS locators, takes status updates to another level: As the New York Times describes the service, it’s not about what you’re doing right now, but “Where are you, and can I come join you?”

A Foursquare user “checks in” at her current location so friends know where to find her. Foursquare encourages frequent check-ins by presenting itself like a game, offering virtual badges that are unlocked by visiting particular venues. Many of these venues, along with their related brands, offer their own badges, as well as tangible rewards such as discounts or freebies.Continue reading...

Sometimes a big brand's family of products can be so overwhelming that consumers forget they're all made by the same company. That's why Hormel's new ad campaign is pitching "its whole Hormel-branded portfolio" – to educate consumers about the brand's various offerings and encourage them to buy more than just a few favorite products.

"We call it 'pulling the blanket off the brand,'" says Brian Kroening, executive creative director of Hormel's ad agency. He says the campaign is intended to show consumers "that there were more parts to the brand than they had in their homes."Continue reading...

Dunkin' Donuts aims to increase competition with energy drink brands. [Boston Herald]

Dodge looks for manly men with a beard-growing contest. [BrandFreak]

The Nook is finally available in Barnes & Noble stores. [PC Mag]

Hormel's "Life Better Served" campaign shows brand depth. [Brandweek]

With North American sales down, Coca-Cola hopes to raise appeal overseas. [DailyFinance]

Facebook's Doppelganger Week is a huge success. [Time]Continue reading...

Google to launch a social-networking feature for Gmail users. [WSJ]

Boeing flies its latest model, the 747-8 Freighter, in Seattle. [Reuters]

Costs to recall Toyota models could reach $2 billion. [Bloomberg]

Magazine stand profits are down by 9 percent. [Business Insider]

Google has announced plans to add social media-esque updates to its Gmail program. Currently, Gmail users can update their availability through the Gmail chat feature, but it simply consists of “available” or “busy” settings, along with the ability to add a custom message.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Google products YouTube and Picasa will also be part of the status update stream. The new feature will allegedly allow individuals to see status updates, much like Facebook and Twitter. But, the big question is: will the new features include Twitter and Facebook updates as an aggregate or will they rival the two?Continue reading...

Cars.com: The online brand’s ad tapped into consumers’ primordial fears with the compelling story of a prodigious superman who could perform miraculous feats dauntlessly – but was afraid to buy a car, a process that made him “just as nervous as the rest of us.” Cars.com is there to hold our hands. Genius.

Continue reading...

It may not have the high brand recognition of American computer manufacturers Dell and HP, but the Taiwanese company Acer is on the move.

In the third quarter of 2009, Acer beat out Dell to become the world's second-largest personal computer maker behind HP. Interestingly, Acer also competes with Lenovo, the Chinese company that acquired IBM's PC division in 2005.

Acer markets Aspire One netbooks and notebook computers to consumers. The company's Ferrari line, red notebooks that bear the famed automaker's logo, sell for more than $2,000.

Now Acer is setting its sights on the business market with plans to emphasize higher-profit servers designed for business use.Continue reading...

Those of you who were hoping to skirt American Airline's $25 checked baggage fee by flying Southwest Airlines instead, might want to think again – at least American Airlines has free Wi-Fi.

Although passengers may now board Southwest with two bags at no cost, the airline is putting a price on its upcoming wireless Internet feature, which the brand will begin installing in April.

Southwest can expect an added boost in sales. The US Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that popular airlines received almost $2 billion in the third quarter of 2009 from baggage, in-flight Internet, food, and drink costs, generating almost seven percent of total operating revenue.Continue reading...

It’s no longer nerdy to channel Avatar. British stalwart Burberry will live stream its fall runway show in 3-D in four cities. While models take the stage in London on February 23, onlookers in New York, Paris, Dubai and Tokyo will be chicly geek in their 3D appropriate glasses.

This five-city visual bonanza will mark the first time a brand has broadcast live simultaneous events in 3-D worldwide, says WWD. Burberry will also stream its show in 2-D at live.burberry.com for at-home viewers, who can comment on the collection in real time using their Facebook and Twitter accounts.Continue reading...

One of the staples of the American fast food diet is ketchup – and nine times out of ten, that ketchup is made by H. J. Heinz Co.

But even the world's most popular ketchup, introduced in 1876, can't avoid modern-day marketing.

Heinz just announced that it will be reformulating its core ketchup recipe to reduce the amount of sodium in the product. Heinz will also introduce "Simply Heinz" next month, a new ketchup product that will replace the high fructose corn syrup in its regular ketchup with sugar. It will cost the same as regular Heinz ketchup. Both moves are designed to improve the nutritional content of the company's famous tomato-based condiment.Continue reading...

Now kids with only an allowance can enter the virtual economy – courtesy of Kwedit.com. The Mountain View, CA. start-up, has teamed with FooPets and Puzzle Pirates, for starters, to encourage anyone without a credit card or a debit card – no matter how young – to “purchase with a promise."

FooPets is signing up 20,000 to 25,000 new members daily, the core demographic being 12-14 year old girls, who can “adopt” digitally animated pets and then care for and feed them with virtual goods. They can do this independent of their parents or any adult. A seventh grader can buy a virtual 40-pound bag of Purina Puppy Chow for her web Fido.

Here’s how:Continue reading...

Audi: Maybe it was just me, but I enjoyed the heck out of Audi’s “Green Police” spot, effectively promoting its new TDI Diesel technology as the way to go green without going soft. Meanwhile, its spoof scenarios – showing a man being arrested for using an incandescent light bulb, for example, and another for turning his hot-tub temperature too high – seemed uncomfortably plausible.

Continue reading...

Pizza Hut gets a sales boost of 35% on Super Bowl game day. [CNN Money]

Super Bowl commercials look toward the past. [NY Times]

Google first Super Bowl ad is a big success. [TechCrunch]

Reader's Digest creates Super Bowl app for fans. [Mediaweek]

Jenny Craig settles with Weight Watchers, pulls controversial ad. [WSJ]

Toyota to recall 170,000 Prius models in Japan. [Washington Post]Continue reading...