In America, everything remains political, and that includes brand preference. According to YouGov BrandIndex, Republicans and Democrats (surprise!) do not completely see eye to eye on brand trustworthiness.

But there is hope that our nation's partisan divide will be healed… with Cheerios.Continue reading...

The weather may be getting colder in its birthplace, but the Occupy Wall Street movement — which today rejoiced with news that Bank of America is backpedaling on fees — is heating up as more parties want a piece of it.

The unincorporated association of organizers behind the protests filed a trademark application last week (Oct. 24), seeking an official license to use the term in periodicals and newsletters, on clothing and bags and on a website with "photographic, audio, video and prose presentations." 

The bigger question: can a grassroots movement be branded, and who stands to win or lose? The trademark battle actually began weeks earlier, as brandchannel's Abe Sauer reported, with variations on the theme from "Occupy D.C. 2012" to "We are the 99%" and "I am the 99%."Continue reading...

We can give you a one-word reason why President Obama will not accede to House Speaker John Boehner's request this afternoon to move his jobs-plan speech next week to Thursday from Wednesday. Well, actually, it's one acronym: NFL.

As White House staffer Dan Pfeiffer announced on Twitter, Obama scheduled a Joint Session of Congress for the evening of September 7 so that the entire august body could gather, before a nationwide television audience, to hear the president lay out his long-promised new initiative for creating jobs and getting the U.S. economy back on track.

The jobs speech announcement, which followed Obama's call on Congress to pass key transportation measures to protect jobs, raised some eyebrows because the September 7 timing would precisely conflict with a live televised debate of Republican presidential contenders (already rescheduled back in May) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, to be broadcast on MSNBC.Continue reading...

The longer America’s economic doldrums continue, and the debt-ceiling talks drag on, the more that Corporate America feels compelled to speak out, both in criticism and defense of the man in the middle of the maelstrom: President Obama.

Last week’s berating of America's corporate chieftains by GE head Jeff Immelt amounted to a sort of defense of the president and his policies. Immelt, a key figure on Obama’s jobs council, told his fellow CEOs to stop whining about the economy and the dire employment situation and to create jobs within their companies.

And earlier this week, a group of CEOs were convened for an education roundtable (at top), evidently eager to meet with President Obama to help him figure out how industry-led partnerships can help improve the prospects for America's youth — the foundation of all future job growth, of course.Continue reading...

For the first time in 48 years, a public figure will grace the cover of the iconic magazine Better Homes & Gardens. On the cover of the August issue? First Lady Michelle Obama.

The profile will include a "Veggie Love" cookbook app in addition to a free online cookbook and a suggested plan for a vegetable garden.

While it's a huge "get" for the magazine, it may result in a few cancelled subscriptions as conservatives on social media are savaging the magazine for the move.

Newsbusters railed agaist the profile, caling it "an ultimate exposure puff piece." In the foam of the Sean Hannity website, a topic thread appeared: "Moochelle Gloats on the Cover of Better Homes and Gardens."

Right wing Wisconsin radio talk show host Vicki McKenna posted the article on her Facebook page with the comment "watch circulation decline." She later added, quote, "i have a subscription. i will be canceling it."

Commenters were not as polite.Continue reading...

Tonight's GOP debate on CNN could prove crucial for several of the Republican candidates and potential candidates in a still-roiled, still-early race for their party’s nomination to attempt to unseat President Obama in 2012.

Michelle Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite from Minnesota, will make her national debut as a 2012 contender on the stage in Manchester, NH. As the front-runner so far, Mitt Romney will be under pressure not to hurt himself. Newt Gingrich will stop in New Hampshire on Redemption Road. And former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty simply will be trying to get more traction.

Sarah Palin won’t be on the GOP-candidate stage tonight, and perhaps never. But her long “non-candidate” campaigning, and national media attention as the outspoken former governor of Alaska, leave her as a looming presence over the debate nonetheless. You can betcha that if she finally decides to leap into the fray, the post-debate dynamics will be upset.Continue reading...

Sure, there have always been the brand-mocking clothing of dumb punks, be it North Face-skewering "South Butt" or the wit of "Mountain Don't."

Now, usually reserved conservatives are getting in on the fun. Below, a collection of corporate-spoofing t-shirt designs that promote the politics of the right.Continue reading...

True to his tweet, Newt Gingrinch officially threw his hat in the ring today and announced he's running in the 2012 US presidential race against Barack Obama. Polling in the high single digits, his GOP rivals include Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney, while Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and (maybe) Donald Trump have yet to confirm their plans.