Hostess is in talks to sell off bread brands, as makers of Thomas' English muffins and Tastykake snacks emerge as two of the bidders for Wonder Bread according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hulu CEO resigns as web TV startup faces impasse.

NHL resolves labor dispute, faces shortened season.

Apple envy one of Fast Company's suggested New Year's Resolutions for brands.

Bank of America settles with Fannie Mae for $10 billion.

BMW is paring back car discounts in Germany.

CES lures brands and marketers to Las Vegas.Continue reading...

With little to gain and a lot to lose, playing politics is something brands generally do from a position of neutrality ("7-Election"), low-brow humor (Gas-X's "Gas Crisis") or outright mocking of the system (Etch A Sketch; Reebok's 2003 Terry Tate candidacy). So when the Most Interesting Man in the World chose to host a fundraising event for President Barack Obama, Dos Equis's parent Heineken USA was understandably vexed, forced into one of those frustrating statements all brands hate to make that include the words "views are strictly his own, and do not represent."

But maybe Dos Equis — and Heineken — should play to their brand strengths. According to a recent study, both brands' drinkers trend Democratic, with the former rated the most popular beer amongst lefties. So when viewers drunkenly yell at the TV during the first 2012 presidential debate on Wednesday, chances are they will do so with very partisan bottles in hand.Continue reading...

It’s hard to know right now how the good people in the swing states of Florida, Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada will be voting on Nov. 6, but you can get a sense of what the campaign managers for President Obama and Mitt Romney think by watching how they spend their ad dollars.

Romney seems to have given up on Michigan, where he was born and his father served as governor, for the time being since his campaign has “abandoned their (advertising) efforts” in those two states, according to CBS Boston. Wherever the money is spent, though, there will be heaps of it. Total political ad spending this year is expected to add up to $1.1 billion, and only a third of that has been spent so far, according to Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group.

With the Romney camp sharpening its messaging and Team Obama getting tougher on China by filing a complaint via the World Trade Organization, get ready to see a whole lot of political ads, America, such as the latest from the Obama and Romney campaigns, above and below.Continue reading...

President Obama has returned to e-commerce and haute couture with Runway to Win, a collaborative campaign merchandise fundraiser pegged to the kickoff of New York Fashion Week. As fashionistas rev up for the Fall 2012 collections, designers and Dem supporters have been rallying to raise money, chicly, for the president's re-election campaign.

The collection features patriotic clothing and accessories, moderately priced from $45 to $95, from top designers including Tory Burch, Rachel Roy, Derek Lam, Beyoncé and Tina Knowles, Marcus Wainwright and David Neville, Proenza Schouler's Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, Vera Wang, Thakoon, Jason Wu, Grace Tsao-Wu and Laura Kofoid of Laudi Vindi, Marc Jacobs and Tracy Reese.Continue reading...

The 2012 Republican National Convention will take place in Tampa Bay, Florida. The logo (above) selected by the Tampa Bay Host Committee caught flack after Republicans freaked out when some suggested — in all seriousness — that the logo's minaret "could be considered as Islamic 'Moorish Revival' architectural style." (The palm tree probably didn't help either.)

So when it came time for the GOP to select its event logo, the Grand Old Party tread carefully. Now, the official minaret-free 2012 Convention logo.Continue reading...

Apple reports China as its second-largest market by sales after US. Apple stores will close for a few hours today for an employees-only memorial webcast celebrating Steve Jobs' life.

Amazon's IMDb sued for disclosing actress' real age, while digital deal with DC Comics irks rivals.

Audi-Ford price gap is widest since 1999.

Bank of America is no longer America's largest bank.

Deezer to launch music streaming service in more than 100 countries.

Diageo triumphs in alcohol brand battle.

Disney battles environmentalists at parks, while fans crash website in search of princess dolls.Continue reading...

Anheuser-Busch InBev moves to trademark US city area codes, while Apple trademarks "280."

Charlie Sheen hopes to return to TV in Anger Management.

Claudia Schiffer launches a fashion collection.

CNN cancels Eliot Spitzer's talk show.

Ford is the first brand on Google+, with two accounts.

Louis Vuitton and Burberry awarded biggest counterfeit settlement in Canadian history.

PyeongChang, South Korea, selected by IOC to host the XXIII Winter Olympics in 2018.

Nancy Grace's Casey Anthony obsession boosts ratings for HLN.

P&G, Asda and Tesco consider joining brand advertisers that are boycotting News of the World.Continue reading...

Facebook, not surprisingly, is a hotbed for political brand advertising — particularly as the 2012 race heats up.

SocialCode, a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company, just completed a Republican political message study on Facebook (between May 23 and June 4) in which random users in Iowa and New Hampshire were asked to show their support by clicking “Like” in response to randomly displayed image combinations of seven declared or prospective candidates (or the GOP's iconic elephant) with five common Republican messages.

So how do Facebookers fare for GOPDA?Continue reading...