Back in the 1950's, Christian Dior made a splash with what came to be known as the "New Look." Today, Dior is all about the new look of its new media. While the production values aren't to the standard of the recent "Charlize Meets Marilyn, Grace and Marlene" short film for its J'Adore perfume, the luxury brand is making a big statement about how much it values digital branding these days by producing a trailer, above, teasing its soon-to-be-relaunched website at dior.com.

Dior invites viewers to play spot-the-dead-celeb in its latest commercial. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and filmed in the stunning Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, it broke Sunday night on French TV. (Versailles was the setting for Dior's 60th anniversary celebration in 2007, under ousted design head John Galliano.)

The new 90-second ode to Hollywood glamour for Dior J'Adore perfume features Charlize Theron — not to mention (spoiler alert!) digitally integrated footage of Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich and Grace Kelly. Check out Theron's earlier spots for the perfume below.Continue reading...

More than 100,000 people are expected to go barefoot today thanks to TOMS Shoes. The goal of One Day Without Shoes, as the brand tweeted, is "to raise awareness of the impact a pair of shoes can have on a kid's life."

As TOMS gets ready to kick off its own shoes, celebrities endorsing this year's event include Charlize Theron, a host of Canadian musicians, and brands including Google and AOL. Participants are tweeting using the official hashtag, and also checking in via Gowalla.

The Christian Dior autumn/winter runway collection went ahead today with a rare show: an apology by Dior CEO Sidney Toledano.

Before an audience that was lighter than usual on the celebrity front, Toledano gave a statement about the ouster of designer John Galliano, noting: "It has been deeply painful to see the Dior name associated with the disgraceful statements attributed to its designer, however brilliant he may be."Continue reading...

Uniqlo has used models such as Agyness Deyn and celebrities including (most recently) Charlize Theron and Orlando Bloom to promote its fashion-for-the-masses designs. 

Now it's promoting its apparel and the style chops of its fans with a unique community-building initiative.

The just launched Uniqlooks site invites fans of the Japanese brand to upload photos showing their individual spins on how they style Uniqlo clothes.

A global audience then determines each "Look of the Week" winner (the current title-holder is Florian Gravovil, a 22-year-old French musician/student) to be featured on Uniqlo’s website, Facebook page and on in-store signage.

The digital lookbook by and for brand fans marries the best of self-styled fashion with social media's thirst for image-sharing, pushing the edges of both.Continue reading...

American Airlines co-stars in Up In The Air, George Clooney's new film about a high-powered consultant hell-bent on accumulating ten million frequent flyer miles, adapted from the Walter Kirn novel.

American Airlines is no stranger to films – it was integrated into Home Alone, and, more recently, the Sex And The City movie. But its presence in Up In The Air is so overpowering that the LA Times review complained that Clooney "shares lots of screen time with American Airlines."Continue reading...

Here is a test for those who consider themselves branding types (without doing an online search): Which three of the following celebrities do not have their own brand of perfume?

• Avril Lavigne
• Jimi Hendrix
• Carlos Santana
• Gwen Stefani
• Kobe Bryant
• Tim McGraw
• Charlize Theron
• Jade Goody
• Reese Witherspoon
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Derek Jeter

So you have your guesses? Here are the ones above with personally-branded scents:Continue reading...