This weekend's Super Bowl provides the opportunity for many trying to get out the message. It's a marquee event for auto, fashion, soda, real estate, and breakfast brands. It's a chance to see the new VW-Star Wars love-in.

This year, as the East Coast teams remind us all how deplorable the New York-Boston rivalry is, the West Coast's Hollywood players will be hitting audiences with trailers for the year's upcoming tent-pole titles. A little look at the trailers in store for Super Bowl Sunday beginning with Marvel's teaser of its Super Bowl trailer for The Avengers at top. (Nobody tell Marvel that it already released a full 2-minute Avengers trailer.) Continue reading...

Old Spice Man is back — this time, it's Terry Crews — in a trio of commercials directed by comic writers Tim Heideker and Eric Wareheim from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! 

Crews video-bombs other P&G brand spots: for Charmin, Bounce and, for fun, a vending machine full of snacks.Continue reading...

Here is a collection of links to pieces that are using Huffington Post's 2011 "What time does the Super Bowl start" search engine optimization (SEO) pageview trick.Continue reading...

Did one of the greatest heavyweight nonprofits in the world just shoot its own brand in the foot — a foot it so desperately needs in the race to cure breast cancer?

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, America's most recognized and funded breast-cancer charity, announced that it will cease its work with Planned Parenthood, a major provider of breast cancer screening. A day after the move, a massive outpouring of outrage has the charity on its heels trying to defend itself.Continue reading...

Angry Birds are celebrating the start of the Year of the Dragon, but the piggies are trying to scare them away from their eggs! Luckily the Angry Birds have some help — the Mighty Eagle has transformed into the fearsome Mighty Dragon!

In China, brands like Nescafe are tapping into rebellious icons like Han Han.

The secret capitalist document that transformed China into the juggernaut it is today.Continue reading...

Starbucks is increasingly positioning its brand as "libertarian." It sells beer and wine now. It allows the open carry of guns by customers. And it publicly supports gay marriage.

Now, two U.S. consumer groups are picking Valentine's Day to protest the coffee giant over one of those policies. (Hint: It's not the obvious one!)Continue reading...

In a trailer playing before this week's top film, The Grey, Sony finally merged its studio product with that of its consumer products division. It's the kind of thing that would make Jack Donaghy pee his bespoke pants with excitement.

The trailer begins as a "This is my life" commercial for Sony's range of handheld tech products, including phones and tablets. But then it seamlessly morphs into a trailer for the fifth installment in the Resident Evil franchise, due out in September. It's the boldest move yet by a brand that has been loading its on-screen business with its on-the-shelf one.Continue reading...

It could be said that this week's top film, The Grey, serves best as a tourism commercial for Alaska. The film perfectly appeals to that hard-to-target demographic of tourists looking to travel to a barren, majestic, unsullied landscapes… and die in them.

The Grey is also caused a bit of debate about wolves. Are they really the man-killing beasts the film makes them out to be?Continue reading...