Interbrand announces the 2013 Best Global Green Brands report. 

Apple hopes new campaign will solidify aging brand's reputation of reliability. 

Mozilla launches campaign against NSA spying. 

Walgreen to pay $80 million to settle DEA prescription drug suit. 

Altria Group launches MarkTen e-cigarette, but only in Indiana. 

Cadillac hopes custom-built agency will help boost launch of new CTS. 

Ernst & Young says digital entertainment revenue will surpass tradiitonal media by 2015. 

Pfizer, Takeda reach $2.15 billion settlement with Teva, Sun Pharma.Continue reading...

Merck chairman and CEO Kenneth C. Frazier was honored in June with the “Good Scout” Award by Philadelphia’s Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council. Frazier grew up in North Philadelphia and credits scouting as instrumental in his life. Now Frazier, the first African American to head a major pharmaceutical company, is turning his back on the organization until it reverses its discriminatory policies.

Now Frazier and Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, have joined the growing wave of corporate leaders taking a stand against discrimination towards gay scouts and leaders in the Boy Scouts of America. 

As GLAAD notes of the corporate backlash to the Boy Scouts' anti-LGBT stance, Merck joins Intel and UPS with the following statement: “The BSA's policy of exclusion based on sexual orientation directly conflicts with the Merck Foundation’s giving guidelines.  The Foundation re-evaluated funding for the BSA when the organization restated its policy that excludes members on the basis of sexual orientation.  Merck Foundation has notified the BSA of this decision.” 

Boy Scouts of America director of public relations, Deron Smith, provided the following statement to brandchannel: “Scouting believes that good people can personally disagree on this topic and still work together to accomplish the common good. While not national sponsors, these companies have positively impacted America’s youth through support of Scouting in local communities. We respect their right to express their own opinions.”Continue reading...

It’s complicated, the whole issue of personal privacy in an era of social media transparency, and the fact that the first female astronaut, Sally Ride, who this week died at age 61 from pancreatic cancer, came out publically in her obituary, listing her partner of 27 years, Tam O'Shaughnessy first, as a survivor, is stirring the pot of comment and prejudice.

"Could she have helped the cause? Maybe," says Fred Sainz, VP of communications for the Human Rights Campaign. "For her not to have shared an incredibly important aspect of her life — being in a committed long-term relationship with a woman — meant many Americans did not get to see a dimension of her life that would have helped them understand us (gay people) and our contributions to society.

Ride was open in her personal life, "She just didn't want to go public with it during her lifetime. And that's a big difference," said Sainz. "There's no question that Sally Ride could have been fired if she'd come out while she worked for NASA.”Continue reading...

In an "ugly" day for the Barclays brand and the banking sector, WSJ's Dennis Berman and David Reilly discuss (above) the departures of Barclays CEO Bob Diamond (who faces a British parliamentary grilling on Wednesday) and COO Jerry del Missier and other scandals that have plagued the world's biggest banks.

Finger-pointing aside, Bloomberg looks at whether this opens the door to Barclays splitting its consumer lending and investment banking divisions. U.S. regulators today released "living wills" — contingency plans for breaking up nine of the world's biggest banks in the event of an emergency.Continue reading...

It doesn’t seem that long ago that marketers kept pretty busy trying to lure consumers in at younger ages in order to keep them onboard for the rest of their lives. Once an (insert product here) user, always an (insert product here) user.

But money—or lack of it—has a way of changing things. Forbes reports that brand loyalty is seriously on the downswing in America, which is bad news for marketers. The source: a new study by Ernst & Young of more than 25,000 people in 34 different markets worldwide resulted in the new info that brand loyalty is only just below 40% across all of those markets but is at a lowly 25% in the States.

The way Ernst & Young put it makes it sound as if the American consumer has had a bad accident: “Customer behavior has changed beyond recognition.” However you phrase it, marketers have some adjusting to do.

Two things that are key to purchase decisions and scored high in the study, Forbes notes, are price (89%) and quality (82%). Forbes also points out that another study by Ask Your Target Market, which “asked 2,000 consumers to rank in order of importance the factors which affect why they love a given brand,” had price and quality at the top of the rankings.Continue reading...

ABC cancels legendary US daytime dramas All My Children and One Life to Live.

Airbnb offers country rental with Liechtenstein offer for $70K. 

American Apparel founder Dov Charney, profiled in NYT, says he refuses to be pushed aside.

Applebee's sued by parents of child served alcoholic beverage.

Best Buy expands Buy Back program.

CBS accused of greenwashing.Continue reading...

TD Bank acquires Chrysler Financial for $6.3 billion.

News Corp.'s bid for BSkyB cleared by EU.

Apple plans exposed by insider trading suit.

Bank of America and other Wall Street firms face increased scrutiny on executive pay.

Betty White voted entertainer of the year by AP.

Brett Favre retirement leaves muddles NFL legacy.

CBS is looking to renegotiate Katie Couric's contract.Continue reading...

AOL rolls out homepage redesign amid declines in traffic and ad revenue.

BP and Halliburton challenged by report saying they knew about problem cement before well explosion.

Brett Favre's personal brand is being battered by sexting allegations.

Coca-Cola is on the look-out for another billion-dollar brand.

Conde Nast announces major reorganization and strategy shift.

Credit Suisse deemed tops for consumer M&A advice.

Domino’s Pizza uses radical authenticity in brand makeover.Continue reading...