Mary J. Blige had a dream when she was a kid. It wasn’t too outrageous or impossible to reach. All she wanted to do was be in a commercial for McDonald’s or Burger King. Well, she can scratch it off her list now and try to figure out how the whole became such a nightmare.

When Blige’s commercial for Burger King — part of BK's just-wrapped celebrity campaign for its new menu — came out in April, some attacked the spot touting crispy chicken snack wraps as stereotyping the African American performer. Wrap up all that anger and confusion into a slew of social-media outpouring and you’ had some pretty bad PR for Blige, while BK quickly squelched the affair by pulling the commercial.

It was also an object lesson in the pitfalls of celebrity endorsements. For Blige's part, she’s finally opening up about her side of the PR failure and has apologized to anyone who was offended.Continue reading...

The 2012 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is out and it demonstrates the kind of consistency that a fast food behemoth like McDonald's can't be too happy about. 

The ACSI's new ranking puts the burger-meister dead last in the "Limited-Service Restaurants" category, with a satisfaction rating of 73 percent. That puts McDonald's just below rival Burger King (75 percent), but considerably below Wendy's (78 percent). Pizza delivery company Papa John's was rated #1 in the limited service category with a satisfaction rating of 83 percent, an increase of 5.1 percent from the previous year. Interestingly, the company in this category with the largest drop in customer satisfaction from last year was Starbucks. Often touted for its customer service, the coffee house fell from 80 percent in 2011 to 76 percent in 2012. 

Unfortunately, the lowly ranking should come as no big surprise for McDonald's management; the company has ranked last in the ACSI since 1995. In fact, its current rating of 73 percent is a percent higher than last year, and 73 percent is the highest rating ever achieved by McDonald's on the ACSI.Continue reading...

Many more Chinese consumers are about to be able to have it their way, as Burger King has announced an "accelerated" expansion in China, planning 1,000 new locations via a new joint venture in the next five to seven years.

Some are wondering if The King might not be offering too little, too late. The question should be, what way, exactly, do the Chinese want it?Continue reading...

Microsoft will announce Monday a plan to sell tablets under its own brand, in a challenge to Apple's iPad, while Amazon reportedly plans to launch cloud music service in July to rival iTunes.

Kirin Holdings agreed to pay $200.9 million Australian dollars (US$203.4 million) for the shares it doesn't already own in Australian boutique brewer Little World Beverages, as Japanese companies expand offshore to combat flagging domestic demand.

Dr Martens owners seeks up to £200m from potential buyers.

AirAsia plans to follow Virgin model with brand extensions.

Android relaunches user interface.Continue reading...

McDonald's is a bellwether of the global economy. It sells a value proposition to mainstream consumers worldwide, and it's a huge force in virtually every market.

Right now, that might not be such a great thing, for McDonald's — or the global economy. Analysts and investors have been turning sour on McDonald's stock because of factors such as the company's dependence on a slumping Europe for 35 to 40 percent of its earnings, a same-store sales decline for May in McDonald's Asia Pacific-Middle-East-Africa region including China and Japan, and of course indications of a faltering economic recovery in the United States.

There's also the matter of greater competition for McDonald's. After years of stumbling to mount much of a challenge to McDonald's, both Burger King and Wendy's have shown signs of renewed growth lately.Continue reading...

CNBC joins with Yahoo to bolster web reach via content, programming and distribution alliance.

Comcast and fellow U.S. cable operators face DOJ inquiry over treatment of Netflix and Hulu.

New York's proposed big soda ban goes to public comment as former Coca-Cola exec switches sides.

American Express sponsors Kenny Chesney concert for live-streaming on YouTube.

Apple is likely killing Ping.

Burger King's summer BBQ menu rolls out with sweet potato fries and bacon sundae.

Citi partners with USAID to foster mobile commerce in developing nations.Continue reading...

Being dropped by the second biggest satellite TV operator in the U.S. (after DirecTV) is no laughing matter. Still, IFC is leveraging its award-winning original comedy series Portlandia also with its two new comedy series, Comedy Bang! Bang! and Bunk, to help convince viewers to lobby Dish Network to not drop the AMC Networks-owned channel as part of Dish's legal threat to drop IFC and its sister networks under the AMC Networks banner.

Visitors to IFC.com are greeted with a pop-up that reads: "DISH Customers - DISH is dropping IFC. If you are a DISH customer, you won't be able to watch our films and shows like Portlandia, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Bunk, and Whisker wars. Tell DISH to put IFC back on the air. Call toll free 855-8-KEEP-ON or go to KEEPIFC.com." Once they click through the "don't let IFC go black on DISH" pop-up and enter the site, visitors will see on of the banners above in rotation across the site.

If, however, they click through to KeepIFC.com to find out what all the fuss is about, they'll be redirected to KeepAMCNetworks.com, and discover that it's not just IFC but also Sundance Channel, AMC (home to Mad Men and Breaking Bad), and the female-skewing WE TV. Once there, they can click on "get the facts" to learn more about the background to the legal spat, which stems from a prior lawsuit between Dish and AMC Network's now defunct VOOM HD Networks, a high-definition suite of channels that existed back when AMC Networks was known as Rainbow Media and HD TV sets weren't as ubiquitous as they are today.Continue reading...

Apple will use Baidu search engine on phones in China and gets on fast track in court to block Samsung Galaxy phone as iPhone 5 speculation mounts ahead of WWDC, while marketing head Steve Schiller gets a Bloomberg Businessweek profile. Also, Apple will pay $2.5 million to settle false advertising suit in Australia over 4G iPad claims. 

Audi plant expansion tests ability to maintain quality.

Boeing hits milestone on 787 Dreamliner.

Burger King plans to expand in Russia.

Cannes Lions to honor Dan Weiden of Weiden+Kennedy.

Carnival Cruise loyalty program members are up in arms.

CBS chief Les Moonves says "partisanship" is part of journalism now.Continue reading...