When you’re driving at about 188 miles per hour, you probably aren’t thinking about how clean or dirty your vehicle is. You’re likely a little more focused on other things, like not dying.

Still, the folks at NASCAR are banking on the everyday folks who might only get up to 70 or 80 mph out on the highway at least considering the idea every once in a while.

Last week, in the lead-up to a Sprint Cup race hosted at the Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 18, NASCAR-branded car washes opened in a few area towns, according to the Chicago Tribune. Two more will join them in the area next year.Continue reading...

In tandem with London Fashion Week, and taking a bold leap from publishing empire to professorial pundits, Condé Nast has announced a College of Fashion & Design, set to open in London in September 2012.

Targeting an enrollment of 300 students, the curriculum will include a one-year British Vogue fashion foundation course, postgraduate courses in Interior Design, Luxury Brand Marketing and Print and Digital Journalism, and intensive 10-week fashion courses. House & Garden is introducing decoration courses, and there will be other MA-level options. 

"Condé Nast is perfectly placed to enter the world of education. We look forward to becoming the go-to academy for students from Britain and further afield," Condé Nast's UK managing director, Nicholas Coleridge commented. "The reputation and authority of our brands puts us in a strong position to teach and inspire the fashion and decorating talent of the future."Continue reading...

Who says sex sells? The Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas has filed for bankruptcy.

The former Howard Johnson Hotel site, which rebranded as Hooters and opened during Super Bowl weekend in 2006, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.Continue reading...

In a reverse marketing strategy, Levis Strauss this week brings its successful Asian denim brand, dENiZEN, to North America, just as it exports its US marketing campaign internationally.

The dENiZEN jeans are now exclusively available at Target, with an all-American marketing push and special offer: like the brand's dENiZEN US Facebook page and become eligible to win a reward ranging from a $3 rebate on the purchase of a pair of the jeans, a free Target gift card, or a free pair of dENiZEN jeans.Continue reading...

Skinny Cow has already expanded from ice-cream to hot chocolate, and now it's moving to the candy aisle, with two new products ‘redefining great tasting chocolate candy’ — Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp and Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters, 110 and 120 calories respectively, with flavor variations — in the US.

The new products, announced in May and promoted in a new campaign by JWT for the Nestlé-owned brand (below), are now arriving in stores, as the brand moooves into the highly competitive candy category.

"We purposely created an over-the-top woman’s 'dream world,' complete with all the elements — an attractive man (who can cook), new designer shoes, a romantic hot air balloon ride, serenading and even a double rainbow," Daniela Simpson, Brand Manager for Skinny Cow Candy, told brandchannel. "The whole notion is to show that our new SCC is actually dreamier than all that, and in fact, we can and do deliver on a woman’s dream to have it all."Continue reading...

Ending the rumors and speculation, J.K. Rowling today revealed the Harry Potter brand extension fans only found out last week would be called Pottermore.

It's an interactive, immersive website that aims to bring the Harry Potter book series to life, as she just announced at noon London time via YouTube (watch below), following clues on Twitter and Facebook — and at Pottermore.com, which fans discovered after a street-view search.Continue reading...

Those decidedly un-hip guys in decidedly un-hip outfits, standing out in the middle of a cranberry bog, have re-energized advertising (even in French, as above) for Ocean Spray, the New England cranberry growers’ cooperative. But unfortunately, the wacky setting for its ads hasn’t turned around the bottom line: Ocean Spray brand’s year-over-year juice-sales growth has been sliding for four years.

So, the brand has been busily leveraging the versatility of the tart little berry and the authenticity of its health message — cranberry juice has lots of antioxidants and also helps battle urinary-tract infections, specifically, for reasons that scientists don’t fully understand — into a still-larger portfolio of products.Continue reading...

Since 1931, the family-owned Cipriani brand, which got its start in Venice, has been known for its quietly elegant and luxurious bars, restaurants and clubs.

Five of Cipriani locations are in New York City, with eight others scattered around the world (London, Hong Kong, Porto Cervo, Venice, Abu Dhabi, and Istanbul). The firm's New York properties also includes the Cipriani Club Residences at 55 Wall Street and two event venues in Manhattan.

Now, Cipriani is leveraging its reputation in another area — hotels — with the launch of Mr. C, a new brand that kicks off with Mr. C Beverly Hills, which opened June 1st.Continue reading...