The tobacco industry has been looking for some kind of silver lining somewhere for the past few years as cities and countries across the globe have continued to attempt to make it more difficult and more expensive for the world population to sit back and light a few up. From banning smoking in restaurants to replacing brand names on packaging with horrendous images of what could happen to you if you (gasp) inhale, governments of all shapes and sizes have used many strategies to make life more difficult for Big Tobacco.

Now the tobacco industry finally has something it can feel good about. Its product actually has something positive to share. New research from the University of Louisville has it that tobacco “may hold the key to preventing Parkinson’s disease,” according to the Indianapolis Star.

The key component, the paper reports, is something called tobacco mosaic virus, or TMV, which attacks the plants and “may be protective against Parkinson’s,” said Dr. Robert Friedland, a clinical and research neurologist at U of L, the Star reports. The hope is that this discovery will lead to a vaccine against Parkinson’s.

The study was initiated after a number of studies showed that smokers have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s. Indeed, Friedland warned that people shouldn’t use this new research as an excuse to smoke, since tobacco use has been tied to heart disease and lung cancer, which are much bigger killers annually than Parkinson’s.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the largest private funder of Parkinson's Disease research in the world, also cautioned consumers not to raise their hopes about tobacco as a treatment.Continue reading...

Avon's board has run out of time to accept a $10.7 billion takeover bid from makeup giant Coty, because the latter is withdrawing its offer and moving on.

Coty has made a few attempts in recent months to purchase Avon, but the struggling company kept telling umming and hawing. Coty, in the press release announcing it had rescinded its offer after Avon refused to call, commented, "While we are disappointed, we wish you success in pursuing your standalone turnaround strategy."

While the pair aren't likely to kiss and make-up, the news didn’t go over well with investors. The Wall Street Journal reports that Avon Products shares took a 9.8% fall Tuesday morning.

”Avon's annual profit has shrank in each of its last three years, and its first-quarter results contained further disappointment, as margins fell yet again and executives warned that results in the U.S. and Brazil will weaken further still,” the Journal adds.

The one positive thing Avon is hanging onto right now is that it has a new CEO, Sherilyn McCoy, who came over from Johnson & Johnson late last month to try and lead the company back to more stable ground.Continue reading...

American consumers have felt a crush of pressure in recent years to lay off consuming so many sugars and work on eating healthier. Smart businesspeople have been happy to jump on the new opportunity, of course. You can now add Kraft's Oscar Mayer to that list.

The 129-year-old deli-meat maker that taught a generation of North Americans how to spell "b-o-l-o-g-n-a" has introduced a new line of products that contain absolutely no artificial preservatives, flavor, or coloring.

"Listening to consumer needs and finding better ways is just the way we do business," stated Heather Buettner, Senior Director New Product Development at Oscar Mayer, in one of two press releases the company issued to promote the launch today. "Our goal is to have 20 percent of our portfolio made with no artificial preservatives by 2015.”Continue reading...

The assembly-line process made famous by the Ford Motor Company that ushered in an era of mass production that enabled consumers across the globe to have the same products at the same time is about to change.

Assembly-line jobs used to be the backbone of the working class. But now robots are entering the picture more and more and Canon claims that it will have its digital-camera assembly line in Japan completely automated as soon as 2015, according to The Toronto Star. As it is now, jobs have been moving out of the country to China, India, and elsewhere in Asia due to the high price of labor expenditures.

Employees of Canon needn't be alarmed. “When machines become more sophisticated, human beings can be transferred to do new kinds of work,” said Jun Misumi, a spokesman for the company, commented to the Star.Continue reading...

NYSE Euronext today unveiled a new logo, an abstract vision of the globe that “visualizes the concept of unlocking the potential of our worldwide community," according to Euronext’s global head of marketing, Marisa Ricciardi, in a blog post.

"Our company has transformed dramatically over the course of the last five years, so we’re rolling out a new brand identity that better represents both our position today, and our direction for the future," she adds.

The vibrant blue and green colors represent “growth and optimism,” Ricciardi notes. The lighter hues, meanwhile, “convey our commitment to transparency, and the bolder colors recall our storied historical role in developing the world economy."Continue reading...

An enjoyable breakfast means the world to Kellogg’s. And life hasn’t been easy for name-brand cereal makers in general in recent years, as time-pressed consumers skip breakfast while others are on the watch-out for GMO ingredients.

Now Kellogg’s is serving up something fresh to remind everyone about the importance of a great breakfast to get the day going: a major brand overhaul, as Forbes noted on Friday and the Kellogg company outlined in a press release this morning.

The scope of the visual and verbal identity refresh includes “an updated logo, identifying the Kellogg’s brand’s core purpose, incorporating the ‘masterbrand’ into all Kellogg’s marketing campaigns, consolidating 42 company websites around the world to one, and the new tagline, 'Let’s Make Today Great.'"

The move, Forbes notes, puts digital and social media "at the core of its engagement efforts." To that end, Kellogg's US joined Twitter last week to further engage fans and to help promote its London 2012 Olympics sponsorship of eight Team USA athletes, as it's also talking up on its Facebook page.Continue reading...

While the NBA experiments with sponsorship of jerseys in its D-League playoffs and NASCAR drivers walk around with so many advertisements on their jumpsuits that it’s hard to remember exactly who is aligned with what, it is much harder for athletes for lower-profile sports to drum up those kinds of sponsorship dollars.

However, two U.S. national-team runners are finding ways to earn a few extra dollars in innovative ways. Steeplechase runner Anthony Famiglietti has started to sell off real estate on his racing jersey so that he can have extra cash for travel and training, NPR reports. His endorsement deal with a shoe company got pulled when the arthritis in his foot kept him from wearing their shoes anymore.

“If the shoes don't fit, there's really nothing you can do,” Famiglietti told NPR. “There's only one shoe that I can wear, of the thousands of shoes on the market. And trust me, I've tried everything. Zappos probably hates me.”Continue reading...

Sherilyn McCoy hasn’t even been the CEO of Avon Products for a full week and she’s already right in the middle of a potential takeover of the company by fellow beauty-product manufacturer Coty, Inc., an offer that had shareholders excited before Avon nixed the bid. 

Coty sent another letter over to Avon on Wednesday that said that it would love to end the stalemate between the two companies and it's more keen than ever to buy the company, according to a press release issued by Avon.

McCoy, a former Johnson & Johnson exec, is hardly getting a chance to ease into her new role. The previous CEO of the company, Andrea Jung, had been in that spot for a dozen years, apparently asked to be replaced, CNN reports. It’s no wonder. Even with Reese Witherspoon as a brand ambassador, the wobbly company’s stock has plummeted 27% since the start of 2010.Continue reading...