ABC deals with sensitive issue of airing Marianne Gingrich interview before South Carolina GOP primary.

Aetna refreshes its "brand promise."

Apple is expected to unveil digital-textbook service today.

BP agrees to a $20-billion to $25-billion oil-spill deal with Department of Justice, report says.

Christian Louboutin celebrates 20 years of his red-soled shoes.

Citroen ad banned in the UK as seizure-inducing.

Mark Cuban, Ryan Seacrest, AEG and CAA partner on AXS cable network launch.Continue reading...

AMC considers reality shows to complement Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

BP and Shell plan to resume oil exploration in Libya.

Boeing hopes rise for union accord that would end labor struggle.

CBS is upbeat about TV business in 2012.

Citigroup announces cuts of additional 4,500 jobs.

Daimler loses value with investors relative to BMW as the two companies race to finish in U.S. luxury-car sales for 2011 and as Daimler's Mercedes-Benz brand plans big boost in U.S. output.

Darden cuts forecast due to Olive Garden woes.Continue reading...

Müller's drops some LSD, gets in a time machine back to your childhood. (via)

USA Today will "rebrand" the way it measures Super Bowl ads by incorporating Facebook.Continue reading...

Apple pre-orders for iPhone 4S will test brand loyalty and new CEO, while Steve Jobs coverage gets special treatment by newsweeklies and Simon & Schuster moves up publication of biography that will reveals his private side.

Alfa Romeo remains on uncertain road.

BMW and other luxury makers offer huge discounts in China, while Mini brand seeks to enlarge market with coupe.

ESPN and Hank Williams Jr. part ways over his "Hitler" remark concerning President Obama.

GE aims to expand lending in Europe as region's banks retrench.

Geely denies interest in Saab though it already owns Volvo.Continue reading...

Coming to Japan in December: Sony's just-unveiled Android-powered mobile entertainment player, which is being brought to market with a familiar brand name.

The Walkman Z series, a rival to the iPod touch (looks like a smartphone but doesn't feature call functionality), will be available exclusively in Japan starting December 10th, a week before the PlayStation Vita launches in the market. 

Sony's Walkman line is still a decent seller in Japan, where it introduced the Walkman X, a video player, in 2007, but the company wants to re-energize the iconic brand, which also graces Sony Ericsson's Android-powered smartphone. 

The Walkman device that started it all, Sony's groundbreaking (for the time) cassette tape player, was retired last October. As Interbrand's Jennifer Bassett commented at the time, "the Walkman was the key link in setting course the trend towards customization and our increasingly mobile culture. And let's not forget the device's contribution to building 'Brand Japan' at the time – fostering its reputation for creating quality, compact electronics."Continue reading...

Sony Ericsson, the world’s fourth-largest mobile-phone manufacturer, had such success recently with a tennis sponsorship that it is pouring money, time, and energy into a partnership with the UEFA Champions League, a competition of the top European soccer clubs.

The UK's Marketing Week reports that Sony Ericsson will “include a number of social media campaigns, which the company says have been successful in building brand awareness and driving sales of the Xperia handset range.”

The move follows the brand's successful campaign with women's tennis champ Maria Sharapova (and a group of aspiring Sharapovas) that kicked off earlier this year, a WTA-backed effort that relied heavily on fan interaction with the players on Twitter and Facebook.Continue reading...

Abercrombie & Fitch "Situation" is mulled.

Exxon fights with U.S. government over control of big oil find.

Facebook stiffens defense against man alleging part ownership.

Honda names former Chrysler exec to run its marketing in shakeup.

IBM announces chip that acts more like the human brain.

Kimberly-Clark faces tricky positioning with female-incontinence product.

Kraft and Sara Lee battle over Oscar Mayer and Ballpark weiner claims.Continue reading...

It is not a question of if Cars 2 will win the weekend box office or by how much; the question is how many weekends will it dominate?

We have already looked at the slew of brand partnerships Cars 2 has lined up for cross-promotional marketing purposes, and the brands actually appearing in the film, both fake, and real fake. And of course we will have a complete write up on the product placements within Cars 2 on Monday.

So instead let's see what we can learn about product placement from a bad teacher.Continue reading...