For the members of Generation Y who (hope they) have stable jobs and incomes and are (reasonably) confident about their financial future, Acura has a message: The brand has a car for you, the new "gateway" model ILX.

The Honda-owned luxury brand is debuting the all-new compact luxury sedan at a starting price of $25,900 with the expectation (and new messaging) that young Americans in their early thirties, with their act together and decent prospects, are going to gravitate to what Acura calls a true luxury car at an attainable entry-level price point.

"This car was specifically designed for these people because of what they've gone through," Mike Accavitti, Acura's U.S. CMO, told brandchannel.Continue reading...

Pepsi's new year's resolutions include bringing the Pepsi Refresh Project to Canada with a commitment to supporting social innovation and community projects with "over $1 million" in grants to non-profits, businesses and individuals seeking funding for positive ideas that will have an impact on their communities.

The latest expansion of PepsiCo's crowdsourced social good platform, which launched in 2010 by redirecting its $20 million annual Super Bowl budget and subsequently faced allegations of cheating before expanding in Europe, Asia and Latin America last year and becoming a marketing case study at Harvard, follows a company-backed survey that found "92 per cent of Canadians would like to do something to improve the world around them, but many lack the money and the know-how to put their ideas into action."Continue reading...

The web world is a fickle mistress, even for high-rollers like Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, whose venture Jumo (which he discusses above with Stephen Colbert) was just acquired by GOOD, magazine-publisher-turned-digital-media-platform. The financial terms are: $0, an “advisory” role for Hughes, and the chance for Jumo’s 16 employees to reapply for their jobs with GOOD, according to Betabeat.

The guru behind Barack Obama’s acclaimed 2008 digital strategy (Fast Company called him, perhaps excessively, “The Kid Who Made Obama President”), Hughes proved less successful with a social network for philanthropy and activism.Continue reading...