If ever a non-alcohol brand has been associated with partying, it's Tostitos. The brand always promotes itself heavily for Super Bowl consumption and sponsors its own college-football bowl game, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, every year, including a campaign last year.

The Frito-Lay-owned sibling brand of Doritos also has associated itself with "homecomings" for U.S. military members over the last few years.

So now Tostitos, as you can follow along on its Facebook page, has joined those interests into a huge new promotion that combined partying and homecoming. It sponsored a football-field "surprise party" for selectd U.S. military veterans who only thought they had shown up to play a flag-football game for charity.

Instead, the 28 unsuspecting service men and women were greeted at the Cerritos College stadium near Los Angeles by more than 12,000 "fans", legendary college coaches Urban Meyer and Bobby Bowden, NFL veterans Kurt Warner and Marcus Allen, actors Owen Wilson and Eric Stonestreet, and chart-topping band Gym Class Heroes. And they all had their roles in the game.Continue reading...

The next time an Amway salesperson comes to your door selling vitamins, cosmetics, and cleaning supplies, take a closer look. It could be a member of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.

Well, OK, team captain Niklas Lidstrom isn’t going to show up at your door with a bagful of products, but the Wings have made a deal with the Michigan-based company to be its “presenting sponsor,” according to the Associated Press. In fact, Amway is the 11-time NHL champions' first ever sponsor.

This (admittedly odd) new arrangement expands on a deal the two sides struck last year to feature the Amway logo on practice jerseys and pucks, the AP notes, adding that the new agreement “calls for Amway branding to be used throughout Joe Louis Arena and Amway to sponsor team social media activities and events.”Continue reading...

Amway signs former NFL Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner.

AOL is mulling a breakup, Reuters hears, followed by a merger with Yahoo.

Borders weighs hedge fund backing of takeover attempt of Barnes & Noble.

China Dandang aims to be mainland's Amazon with US IPO this week.

Cigna faces class-action suit by employees over pensions under ERISA.

Disney tops weekend box office with Tangled.Continue reading...