In a new ad for its 2013 S7, Audi pits Star Trek's old Spock, Leonard Nimoy, against the franchise's new, upstart Spock, Zachary Quinto. Timed to coincide with the upcoming release of the second of the rebooted Star Trek series of films, the ad is being hailed as "the greatest car commercial ever."

Of course, logically, the commercial might not send the message to its target audience that Audi hopes.

While the commercial is certainly clever, is it more than stunt casting to no end? "Geeks" are certainly loving not just the concept but some of the finer details, such as Nimoy hinting to his legendary rendition of the "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins." (A detail connected to the Mercedes-driving Nimoy, by the way, that has created maybe the most positive buzz about the whole undertaking.)

As a few geeks have pointed out, Audi's ad follows the recent spot for Star Trek: The Video Game, which reunited old Kirk, William Shatner, with sparring partner and poorly-costumed alien lizard Gorn in the same sardonic, meta style.Continue reading...

Adobe abandons boxed software for the cloud.

Samsung keeps hammering Apple in new ad strategy for Galaxy S4.

Tim Tebow tops Forbes' new list of most influential athletes.

Acer plans to launch windows tablet in June.

Aereo asks judge to prevent new lawsuits by CBS.

Audi considers building plant in Brazil but seeks clarity from government.

Disney plans new Star Wars games through Electronic Arts.

Estee Lauder sets sights on big September fragrance launch.

Facebook made the Fortune 500 list for the first time.Continue reading...

JCPenney cuts an additional 2,200 jobs and delays stocking Martha Stewart products as judge suggests mediation with Macy's.

McDonald's U.S. sales slip, but less than anticipated.

Disney welcomes new movie-studio chief and big plans for Star Wars franchise.

Adidas is hot on heels of Nike in sportswear in China.

Amazon logs rising revenue from servicing cloud's server needs.

Arby's targets "modern day traditionalists."

Cablevision claims coercion led to deal with Viacom.

Caribou Coffee launches new branding campaign.

Citi passes stress tests.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...

There’s one in Denmark, and there’s one in England. And now there will be one in Carlsbad, California: a Legoland Hotel. Don’t worry, the place won’t be built out of Legos – at least not the whole thing.

The hotel – complete with a dragon-guarded entrance -- is slated to open in early April of next year right outside the Legoland theme park and will feature “interactive Lego features, themed play areas, family pool and kid's entertainment,” according to Lego's website. The 250 rooms at California's Legoland Hotel will all have a theme: Pirate, Kingdom, or Adventure.  

Since the hotel is aimed at housing families who are in town to visit the Legoland theme park (and not to those harboring pirate fantasies of one sort or another), each room has two sleeping areas, one with a queen-sized bed and the other with sleeping spaces for up to three kids. After all, it's hard to beat a brand extension you can sleep in.

No wonder Lego is rolling in dough right now.Continue reading...

Now that Disney has agreed to spend big bucks to own Lucasfilm and all of its Star Wars goodies, the corporation is losing little time working the big brand into its plans.

DisneyParks released an amusing video on Halloween showing Darth Vader and a couple of his stormtroopers hanging out at Disneyland: riding a Dumbo ride, buying some popcorn, enjoying the fireworks. It has since racked up more than 3.2 million views on YouTube.

It is passion like that that Disney is hoping will make for excellent return on investment for its big purchase. Even without the Star Wars brand in its back pocket, Disney just reported a pretty good fiscal year, going up 3% to $42 billion in revenue while its profits went up 18% to almost $5.7 billion, Variety reports.

"We're entering a phase-out of investment mode and transitioning into more compelling growth mode," Disney chairman-CEO Bob Iger told analysts. "We're seeing a ramping down of capital spending." He went on to say that the addition of Lucasfilm “will further fuel Disney's creative engine across our company to create additional value for our shareholders.” And attention holiday shoppes: Iger noted that Star Wars merchandise would be found soon in Disney stores and online. Continue reading...

The Walt Disney Company's announcement that it's buying Lucasfilm — the production company owned by producer/director George Lucas — for $4.05 billion means every last bit of the Star Wars franchise is now part of the Mickey Mouse Empire. The deal shouldn't come as a huge surprise, given the success of Star Wars-themed weekends luring amateur Jedi warriors and Darth Vaders to Disney parks.

Even though series creator Lucas says that there is such “a large group of ideas and characters and books and all kinds of things” that new Star Wars movies could be coming out for the next 100 years, fans of the franchise are a little confused that their cinnamon-roll-haired Princess Leia is now on the same squad with such gals as Pocahontas, Snow White, Ariel, and Cinderella.

Fans won’t have to wait 100 years for the next film, however. The first one under new ownership, Star Wars VII, will hit screens in 2015. Some, though, are not happy about the news.Continue reading...

Disney acquires Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, plans to restart Star Wars franchise.

Apple sees executive refuse to apologize for mapping flaw, so he and retail chief are to depart as design head Jony Ive takes on bigger role and Apple shares slip post-shakeup.BP returns to profitability and raises dividend.

BP returns to profitability and raises dividend.

Activision goes big for CoD: Black Ops 2.

Aldi revamps as German consumers reject austerity.

Bayer acquires Schiff for $1.2 billion.

Burger King boosts marketing and makes demographic inroads.

Ford profits reflect North American gains and European woes.Continue reading...