While NBA fans who are lucky enough to get playoff tickets will file out of each game wearing pretty much anything that has their team’s branding on it, the players they worship will be making completely different choices—and every apparel brand out there would love for that choice to involve them.

In last year’s Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat, the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook let the world know that he thought he was responsible for the hipster trend to wear funky lensless glasses, USA Today recalls.

The playoffs just started this past weekend but it’s already gotten off to a good jump on the fashion front as the Heat’s LeBron James dropped some jaws (and not in a good way) with his Tommy Bahama-esque shirt and James Harden of the Houston Rockets showed up for post-game interviews wearing a shirt that involved a whole lot of pleather. Los Angeles Clippers stars Blake Griffin and Chris Paul also got into the act. Russell Westbrook wore a sleeveless leather top and gold bedazzled high tops after his team’s game Sunday.Continue reading...

Jay-Z has sold about 50 million albums, won 17 Grammys, is worth almost $500 million and can well afford his own "gentlemen's club" and nightclub, is the co-creator of the Rocawear fashion line, a part-owner of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the Barclays Center stadium in Brooklyn, and happens to be married to Beyonce and the father of Blue Ivy Carter. 

So while he may be busier than your average Roca-a-fella, he's also making time for a brand new endeavor to stretch his business clout: becoming a sports agent.

The big news this week—via well-placed media clips in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times—is that Jay is opening his own sports agency, snagging New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano away from the sport’s best-known and most-feared agent, Scott Boras, to be his first client.

Cano is in the final year of his current contract with the Yanks so whoever negotiates his next one, which will likely be worth more than $200 million, will be reeling in a whole lot of dough. It’s looking like the man who'll be hauling it is in none other than Hova himself.Continue reading...

Pepsi may have shelled out massive dollars to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show, but Beyonce Knowles—hired to keep millions from switching over to Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl IX” (and add luster to the NFL and PepsiCo brands) may be the biggest beneficiary.

Ms. Knowles, of course, had recently taken a pretty big PR hit for lip syncing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at President Obama’s second inauguration. But she's putting that behind her with a PR charm offensive, and Sunday night, she very clearly sang (and improvised a bit) her tunes live while constantly dancing, working the stage and speaking directly to the audience.

People called it “divalicious and hooftastic,” and The New York Times pointed out that she “answered her critics” by singing her songs in unexpected ways.Continue reading...

Timed to tonight's townhall debate with CNN's Candy Crowley moderating, the Obama presidential election campaign released this commercial starring Jay-Z, titled "The Power of Our Voice." That voice, as described by the campaign:

Gotta vote? Go here: http://OFA.BO/7WVtHh

Jay-Z shares why it is important to exercise your right to vote and how President Obama represents the power of our voice. 

As Jay-Z shares:

"For so long, there was this voice that was silenced out there as far as exercising your right to vote. I think it was a voice that was silent because people had lost hope. They didn't believe that their voice mattered or counted."

"Now people are exercising their right, and you are starting to see the power of our vote. He made it mean something for the first time for a lot of people."

So is "Gotta vote?" the new "Got milk?" And why is it a question instead of a call to action — "Yes, you've got to vote!" 

The commercial highlights Obama's cameo-by-video during the performer's Bud Light-sponsored Made in America Festival concert, which took place last month in Philadelphia, where the Brooklyn Nets co-owner was emblazoned with logos for the team.

There's also an iPhone hoisted (by Beyonce - watch for the blue nail polish - at the :34 mark), and of course the Obama-Biden logo at the end.

Avon's Jung to leave board early, shifting focus to new CEO.

Mondelez creates Oreo and Cadbury Dairy Milk hybrid chocolate bar, acquires Italian biscuit maker from Danone.

Foxconn faces more unrest at iPhone factory as new battle brews between Apple and Samsung.

BAE deal with EADS is questioned by major shareholder.

Baxter looks to its medical-product pipeline to sustain growth.

Budweiser donates to military families via tie-in with Major League Baseball.

BuzzFeed bets on online sharing of sponsored content.

Coca-Cola India signs Bollywood star Salman Khan as brand ambassador.Continue reading...

Jay-Z may only own a smidgen of the NBA’s new Brooklyn Nets team and the rusty-looking arena that was just built for them to play in, but he’s definitely playing his role to the hilt. The rapper supposedly helped design the team’s logo and pick the color scheme and sold out a slew of shows at their Barclays Center home.

And now, he and his wife, Beyoncé, are continuing to spread their influence for the Nets wherever they go — including, over Labor Day Weekend weekend, in Philadelphia for the Budweiser-sponsored Made In America festival, a music festival that Jay-Z had organized and headlined.Continue reading...

Everybody is looking for cash these days, but how to drum it up when everybody is also paying extra close attention to where a wallet’s contents are disappearing to. Cities are no different. Government services are hurting for cash and there are only so many ways to generate more dough.

So cities are getting creative, the New York Times reports. Baltimore is currently trying to sell space on its fire engines to raise some extra pennies. And why not? The city’s current budget has made the elimination of three city fire companies necessary this summer.

Philadelphia is selling ad space on its subway fare cards and one of the city’s main train stops is now named for AT&T. Chicago is selling naming rights to its eleven "L" subway stations. As for the Times' hometown, the naming rights for the Atlantic Avenue subway station at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn were sold in 2009, and the MTA implemented the Barclays name change in May.Continue reading...

Starbucks has been spreading its wings in recent months. First the news came that some of its outlets would start serving beer and wine. Then Starbucks opened its first Evolution Fresh juice bar in suburban Seattle. Earlier this month, the ubiquitous coffee chain purchased the Bay Area's La Boulange bakery for $100 million in a bid to upgrade its food offerings. (That deal was done in cash, by the way. No word if the money was in a briefcase handcuffed to anybody’s wrist.)

That’s a lot of wing-spreading, but Starbucks execs over there must be cranking down extra double espressos these days because now comes word that Starbucks is giving more love to another sub-brand by opening its first Tazo tea store this fall in the hopes of doing for tea what the company has done for coffee drinking.

The plan is for the Tazo store, located in its corporate hometown of Seattle, to “sell more than 80 varieties of loose-leaf tea and other tea products,” Reuters reports, and “also offer hot and cold tea drinks, brewing equipment, pastries, packaged chocolates, infused sugars and honey.” As it is now, Tazo is a $1.4 billion brand for Starbucks, but the company would like to grow it since it estimates that the global market for tea is $95 billion.

And today Starbucks announced its first Seattle's Best Coffee "commuter concept" store in Brooklyn, near the NYC borough's new Barclays Center sports arena that will be home to the Brooklyn Nets this fall.

According to a press release, SBC's "concept menu, which debuted as a test in Chicago in March, boasts delicious coffee beverages, and commuter-friendly sandwiches and snacks that will appear for the first time on the East Coast." We assume that Brooklyn Nets co-owner Jay-Z will approve.