In just one week, the EU’s sweeping ban on animal testing for cosmetics and personal care products goes into effect.

"All personal care products, from high-end to drugstore brands, will be subject to the rules," and "final products cannot be tested on animals and nor can any of a given products’ ingredients."

The European ban starting March 11th is a hard-won victory impacting companies and brands worldwide, and follows two decades of campaigning by organizations such as PETA, public protests, phone calls, and more than 20,000 e-mails.

“It’s enormously important because it started out as an ethical stand—animals should not die for shampoo—and brought about a whole new era of non-animal science,” Kathy Guillermo, SVP Laboratory Investigations at PETA, told brandchannel. “This ban shows that once an animal test is rejected, scientists can and will come up with a new and better way. We need to put the same limitations on household chemicals, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.”Continue reading...

Adidas dumped by university over labor concerns.

American Airlines expects thousands of job cuts and faces rash of late, canceled flights..

Anschutz plans to sell its entertainment group, part-owner of Los Angeles Lakers, in AEG sale to include LA's Staples Center.

Barry Diller and Scott Rudin enter e-publishing of books.

Caesars to rebrand Imperial Palace as The Quad.

Campbell Soup Co. boosts digital marketing.

Canon slashes prices in India.

Coca-Cola heirs lose $37M in foreclosure crisis.Continue reading...

Amazon lines up author to fulfill goal of publishing its own books.

Baidu comes under fire in Chinese state-TV report.

BMW releases app that lets drivers share most interesting routes as brand finds its cars, along with those of Mercedes-Benz, torched in protests in Berlin.

Chili's fetes millionth Facebook fan.

Chrysler hires Ignite to put social-media gaffe behind car maker.

Clinique tests mobile strategy in Asia.

Dell lowers sales forecast.

Evergreen Solar files for bankruptcy after it can't compete with Chinese firms.Continue reading...

Luxury brands that don't allow fans to post comments on their Facebook walls score lower for engagement (and "Facebook success") than those that do.

That's just one of the findings from a new report that rates the Facebook savvy of 100 luxury brands across Auto, Beauty, Fashion, Watches and Jewelry, and Spirits and Champagnes.

The L2 "Prestige 100" Facebook report, produced in partnership with Buddy Media, gives top marks to  the top three brands on Facebook are BMW, Clinique, and Audi, #1-3 respectively. Each brand was scored against more than 200 qualitative and quantitative data points and ranked across four criteria: Size & Growth, Engagement, Programming and Integration.

Automotive and Beauty brands nabbed the top seven spots in the ranking, with the Watch & Jewelry industry earning the lowest average Facebook IQ. 

The Top 10 luxury brands on Facebook, according to the new report:Continue reading...

Apple's iPad eats into global PC market.

Big East conference adds Texas Christian University in 2012.

Bing search trends: The Year of the Kardashian (even as sisters cut ties with prepaid credit card).

British Airways and Iberia agree to £5bn merger amidst strike action.

Cadillac returns to PGA sponsorship following two-year break.

Clinique tops L2 Digital IQ study on beauty.

Disney may make Tangled its last animated fairytale feature.Continue reading...

When it comes to cosmetics in China, the proof is in the packaging.

Domestic Chinese companies are increasing their prices to compete with foreign brands, but are not upgrading their products -- just beautifying the packaging. The beauty business is booming in China's urban centers, where cosmetics are considered an affordable luxury item by both male and female white collar workers.

Luxury brands such as L'Oreal, Chanel, Clinique, and Shiseido have effectively billed themselves as passports to beauty for millions of young urbanites with money to spend and a taste for fashion. The market has traditionally been dominated by foreign brands. However, now Chinese companies are catching on to the power of packaging. Yutaka Matsui, executive vice president of Inoac Packaging, told Plastics News:

"One year ago a lot of Chinese companies came to my booth and said ‘We like the packaging but it is too expensive. (But now) they see the foreign brands selling for a lot more in China… (and) they want to sell for higher prices. One easy thing is more gorgeous packaging.”Continue reading...