Walmart posts mixed results, expects "challenging" quarter; earnings report also discloses $73M expenses related to foreign bribery probes.

Microsoft to Google: We need APIs to fix YouTube app.

Abercrombie & Fitch signs Bangladesh safety agreement as deadline passes for Gap deal.

Apple defends brand (but not Steve Jobs) in US book price-fixing suit.

Boeing and GE hunt for engine defect in 777s.

Campbell Soup uses digital marketing to target Millennials.

Capri-Sun targeted by German ad watchdog for misleading marketing.

Cisco profit is boosted by services.Continue reading...

As brands around the world celebrate Earth Day, it is becoming more apparent that creative, effective marketing will be a vital factor in the adoption of green consumer products and practices. Years have passed since terms like "green" and "sustainability" became part of the lexicon, but little has changed when it comes to consumer behavior that effects the environment. Joel Makower, author and chairman of GreenBiz Group blames "half-hearted, humorless and uninspired," marketing efforts that push "underwhelming, overpriced, inconvenient, ineffective or unavailable," green products. 

Initiated in 1970 by Denis Hayes, 20 million Americans gathered for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform. Today, more than one billion people in nearly 200 nations recognize Earth Day and its goals. This year's Earth Day theme revolves around climate change and all those affected by it, from "a man in the Maldives worried about relocating his family as sea levels rise," to "the orangutan in Indonesian forests segmented by more frequent brushfires and droughts."Continue reading...

Dish Network runs into resistance for placing its ad about its ad-skipping DVR.

Pinterest valued at $1.5 billion.

Unilever tests interactive TV concept with NBCU.

Angry Birds footwear? Check.

Apple awarded U.S. patent for soft keyboard as Retina Display patent application for OSX revealed.

Boyd Gaming to buy Peninsula Gaming.

Bristol-Myers Squibb set to lose patent protection for Plavix.

Buca di Beppo has aggressive growth in sight, new CEO says.

CNN hits 15-year low with prime-time ratings.

Comcast's NBC Sports Network will break cable record for Olympics coverage.

Facebook confronts skepticism about its advertising in wake of GM pullout.Continue reading...

Wal-Mart has been accused of bribing Mexican officials so that it could open stores South of the Border, but don’t think it is alone on this one. From the looks of it, business schools might want to add Bribery 101 as an elective.

Fortune reports that Deere, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Qualcom, Las Vegas Sands, Koch Industries, and plenty of others “are also under investigation for violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.” Just this week, two big companies got caught when the SEC charged a former Morgan Stanley exec “with bribing an official of a state-owned Chinese company in order to win business for the investment firm.” Plus, News Corp. gave the word that it’s being investigated for bribery as part of its whole phone-hacking fiasco.

Indeed, according to Fortune, “at least 81 public companies under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Department of Justice for running afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes bribery in foreign countries punishable in the U.S.”Continue reading...

Our most-read blog posts of the week includes Google+ and brands, John Deere's Can Do spirit and more:

#1 Worried About Google+? Help is on the Way

#2 Starbucks Scraps Crappers Just Before World Toilet Day

#3 John Deere Brings Can Do Spirit to Facebook Cause Marketing

#4 Nike ‘Back to the Future’ Shoes Raise $9.4 Million for Michael J. Fox Foundation

#5 Penn State and Joe Paterno Brand Damage: The Fall-Out Continues

#6 Overstock.com Backpedals on O.co Rebranding

#7 How Green Bay Packers Plan to be "America's Team"

#8 Flatter Up! Orioles Bring Back the Bird as Marlins Channel Maroon 5

#9 Angry Birds Flips the Bird to Hockey Fans

#10 Benetton's Back, Baby! Unhate Kiss Campaign Gets Papal Rebuke and Buzz

John Deere, best known for its agricultural machinery and iconic slogan, "Nothing Runs Like a Deere," has just leaped like a deer into social media with the “Can Do” Project.

The brand is constructing a combine out of cans, using upwards of 300,000 cans of food and replicating a full-sized S-690 Combine, the world’s most powerful combine that can harvest over 350 acres of grain a day.

The cans are being collected via a Facebook drive with support from Hy-Vee Food Stores, and the completed sculpture will be 60 feet wide, 80 feet long and 16 feet tall weighing about 170 tons and exhibited at the John Deere Pavilion in downtown Moline, Illinois.Continue reading...

In America, everything remains political, and that includes brand preference. According to YouGov BrandIndex, Republicans and Democrats (surprise!) do not completely see eye to eye on brand trustworthiness.

But there is hope that our nation's partisan divide will be healed… with Cheerios.Continue reading...

Visa leverages Fundamo unit to boost growth in emerging markets.

Google+ opens up to all and renames group messaging app, while Hangouts API could open social video and +1 function expands to display ads.

UBS grapples with corporate culture in wake of rogue trader.

Amazon nears Kindle Library Lending service launch.

Anthem Blue Cross drops customers who pay by credit card.

Apple iPhone 5 speculation for October continues as brand beats its own American Customer Satisfaction Index performance.

Bombardier signs John Travolta as a brand ambassador.

Comcast aims to bridge digital divide with low-cost broadband plan. 

Disney plans to bring Avatar to its theme parks.Continue reading...