China is the second largest economy in the world and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse)—but who's got the time?! Here's the week's reads that will make you look like a keen China observer in case you find yourself immersed in a cultural conversation.

This week: Iron Man 3 inaccuracies... BMW... Casino frugality... Wanglaoji trademarks... Heinz baby food... Hugo Boss mini-movies... Sunning manga... China's first lady for Pehchaolin... Ashley Furniture... L’Oreal... Ad spends... Iron Man 3 product placement... and more.Continue reading...

The box-office launch for Iron Man 3 is about as promising as Tony Stark's next invention. The three-quel in Disney and Marvel's series about the tech-happy superhero and his industrialist alter ego blitzed competitors with its overseas opening last weekend, taking a $195-million bow while soaring past last year's $185-million overseas debut of The Avengers.

As the movie starring Robert Downey Jr. in the returning title role prepares for its US opening this weekend, the hearty franchise is getting an assist from another returning member of the "cast": the Audi R8 sports car. The German luxury brand placed a version of its R8 in the first and second Iron Man films; this time around Stark's main drive is the all-electric R8 e-tron which has gone into only limited actual production.

"Stark and his passion for innovative technology, his sophisticated wit and his character overall are great representatives for our brand," Drew Elliott, social-media specialist for Audi of America, told brandchannel.Continue reading...

The Dark Knight Rises was a blockbuster, but as the final installent of a trilogy, the future of the Batman series was unclear—until now. The next installment for the genre-redefining Dark Knight is as a spokesperson for Canon cameras in China.

In a series of new ads, the Dark Knight promotes Cannon's line of point and shoot digital cameras, with the superhero personally using—from his utility belt no less—the IXUS model. "Out of the darkness comes color" reads the tagline, meant to draw attention to the brand's superior image capture in low light. Canon has even built a special Dark Knight microsite to promote the partnership.Continue reading...

At top, Brad Pitt phones in his new role as Cadillac China spokesman.

China is the second largest economy in the world and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse)—but who's got the time?! Here's 10 reads that will make you look like a keen China observer in case you find yourself immersed in a cultural conversation.

This week, the cat cafe... bodyguards... WeChat... Ikea's horse meatballs... Victoria's Secret... HTC... best selling sedans... Hollywood... Yum!... Bradillac and more. Continue reading...

Just four days before the game, only a few Super Bowl advertisers have kept the creative content of their commercials entirely under wraps — and even fewer are yet to come forward reveal their participation.

One of the last hand-raisers came clean today: Speed Stick, which will air its first-ever Super Bowl commercial. The spot will represent the latest execution of "Handle It," a campaign that "celebrates moments when guys are sweating on the inside but step up and Handle It on the outside," according to a release.

In the spot, "Laundry," which was crowdsourced by the Tongal video community, a man demonstrates that he knows how to "handle it" in a laundromat when a woman finds him accidentally handling a pair of her panties. With the ad, Speed Stick and parent Colgate joinma men's personal-care battle-within-a-battle during the Super Bowl, competing against Unilever's Axe (which is sending contest winners to space).

Calvin Klein is also making its Super Bowl debut, and it's also about men and underwear:Continue reading...

Disney's Infinity game console is making a bold leap to secure a share of the booming video game market for itself — while giving gamers the opportunity to create stories with iconic characters from its most popular franchises.

The ‘Infinity Base’ device lets users engage real-world characters via power discs and activate original story-driven adventures within the game. Players collect characters, vehicles and gadgets from Disney titles such as "Monsters University," "The Incredibles" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" and save them to a virtual ‘Toy Box.’ 

Due in June, Infinity will be deployable across all major gaming platforms including PS3, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS.Continue reading...

The annual San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) kicks off today, and as ever, it's a massive promotional platform for brands.

Founded as the "Golden State Comic Book Convention" in 1970 by a group of San Diegan comic book fans, the annual fanfest has evolved to include video games, toys and other forms of genre entertainment. That's why Hollywood beats a path south to the show every year — to generate buzz among the estimated 250,000 comic book, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, and video game fans hitting town for the four day pop-culture fix.

One of the biggest movies being touted this year: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, which marks the cast's last appearance as Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner hyping the Nov. 16th final bow with a 1pm ET (above) panel. Also red-hot: Iron Man 3, with Robert Downey Jr. and co-stars on hand to promote the movie scheduled for May 3rd of next year.Continue reading...

As tentpole movies increasingly become vehicles to move items off store shelves, one "product" that has excelled at leveraging onscreen placements is "geography." And when it comes to comic book titles and their real life cities, probably no hero is better at local marketing than Spider-Man.

No surprise then that, with a brandtastic new Spider-Man reboot hitting cinemas today, Sony and Marvel marketers leveraged Peter "Spider-Man" Parker's real life New York City home as part of its amazing marketing campaign, with one mild-mannered exception.Continue reading...