"Argo" wins Oscar for Best Picture as 85th Academy Awards widely distribute recognition among films, actors and others, while The Onion runs into critical barrage over tweet about young actress.

KFC launches campaign in China after an antibiotics scandal damaged the brand.

IKEA withdraws Swedish meatballs from store restaurants in 14 European countries on horsemeat scare.

Barnes & Noble chairman mulls buyout that could split it in two and put B&N's Nook e-reader up for sale.

BP may be closing in on a settlement as spill trial nears.

BYD targets electric-vehicle sales.

Darden warns of sales declines at its restaurant brands including Olive Garden.Continue reading...

One thing can be said for Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the owners of Paramount Farms and the POM Wonderful and Wonderful Pistachios brands: They're certainly aggressive. Wonderful Pistachios is taking on Frito-Lay with its first Super Bowl commercial next month, for instance. And the Resnicks signed on as title sponsor for director Morgan Spurlock's 2011 film about product placement.

So it isn’t surprising that the billionaire philanthropists behind the two highly successful brands aren't backing down in their fight with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over whether their advertising can claim significant health benefits tied to POM.

After more than two years of wrangling, Federal regulators this week released their final ruling against POM and its pomegranate juice, saying advertising for the juice — such as a 2012 print ad headlined “Cheat Death” that aimed to rebut the FTC's case against the brand — made misleading claims about the drink’s health benefits. Continue reading...

Airbus sees orders fall as Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is grounded in U.S., Japan, Europe and India.

GM woos Facebook to return to paid ads, remains cautious on 2013, defends Opel restructuring and eyes cheaper Chevy Volt.

Blockbuster faces U.K. closure after no buyers emerge.

American Airlines swings to profit and sees “good trajectory” for this year.

Apple rattles Wall Street with sharp stock-price drop.

AT&T looks to Europe for mergers.

Audi aims for 200,000 U.S. sales “sooner” rather than “later.”Continue reading...

Wonderful Pistachios announced today today that it plans to make its first appearance during the Super Bowl, befitting its rapidly rising status as a snack brand to challenge even the granddaddy of the business, Frito-Lay, and its Doritos brand that often dominates Super Bowl advertising with its Crash the Super Bowl fan-created ad campaign.

"We're thrilled at being able to bring consumers a healthy alternative that tastes good and is as fun as any other big brand they might enjoy during the Super Bowl," Marc Seguin, chief marketing officer of the Wonderful Pistachios brand — a corporate sibling to Pom Wonderful — told brandchannel. "We have a product that's unique, and just as fun [as Frito-Lay's], but also really healthy."

Wonderful's Super Bowl ad will continue its marketing theme of "Get Crackin'" that has featured unexpected spokespeople including Rod Blagojevich, the then-discredited and now imprisoned former governor of Illinois, "but with a new twist," Seguin said. "We'll definitely take it up a notch for the Super Bowl." 

That "twist" will feature the stylings of South Korean rapper Psy of "Gangnam Style" fame, whose music video has notched a record-breaking billion views on YouTube. Psy will wear a pistachio-green suit in the ad and show a special way to crack open pistachios, in keeping with the Get Crackin' campaign theme.Continue reading...

POM Wonderful isn't done fighting the Federal Trade Commission, even in the wake of Monday's smackdown by an FTC administrative-law judge that puts the squeeze on POM's advertising and marketing efforts with regard to health claims. Not by a long shot.

In an extraordinary thumb in the eye of the federal regulatory agency, POM Wonderful greeted online readers of the New York Times and other media websites this morning with a defiant volley of opposition to what the judge handed down.

"FTC v. POM. You be the judge" is the rallying cry for in the brand's FTC response campaign. Clicking on the ad takes readers to a new website, pomtruth.com, which selects quotes from the judge's decision that, taken out of context, appear to favor POM's argument, such as, "Pomegranate juice is a natural fruit product with health promoting characteristics. The safety of pomegranate juice is not in doubt."

Go further and you hit a page headlined: "Out of 600 print and outdoor ads, the judge found less than 2% misleading*. Here are some of the other 98%. ... *And we're fighting for those other 2%."Continue reading...

POM Wonderful today hailed a ruling by an FTC administrative law judge as a big win for the company, which has been embroiled with the federal agency for nearly two years over the Federal Trade Commission's concerns that the creator of the pomegranate-juice craze was getting too boastful about the health benefits of its products.

But the FTC also hailed the decision by Chief Administrative Law Judge Michael Chappell as a big win. The judge "found that all respondents" from POM "violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by deceptively advertising that Pom products treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction and has entered an order against them." So who gets to declare victory?Continue reading...

POM Wonderful can (and does) take credit for introducing Americans to pomegranate as a beverage. But as competitors came into the segment and created their own pomegranate beverages, Pom Wonderful's grip began to slip — especially as the FTC started clamping down on POM's "super health powers!" advertising claims.

The beverage-maker was sued by the FTC in 2010 and it has remained under the watchful eye of the feds, who are cracking down on health-related promises by marketers (ask Skechers about their $40 million pay-back to customers).

And in its latest legal twist, this week, POM wasn't able to get a U.S. District Court judge in California to agree with its stance against a tough competitor, Coca-Cola.Continue reading...

Facebook heads into IPO today with record pricing and a strategy to raise money, not hype, WSJ says — but also with persistent questions among brand marketers about the value of advertising, among other challenges. Meanwhile, average investors face long odds on a big Facebook payday, which will make Bono the richest rock star and Mark Zuckerberg richer than Google's co-founders.

Yahoo names new executive team as Alibaba deal apparently looms.

HP plans to slash workforce by up to 30,000, WSJ says.

Bud Light is drawing online buzz from Millennials.

Amazon to sell ads on Kindle Fire welcome screen.

Barneys New York relaunches website.

Coca-Cola bests Pom Wonderful in court in latest round of long-running labeling dispute.Continue reading...