• American Idol's former owner, Robert F.X. Sillerman, wants it back.

• Apple is renaming Apple TV to iTV (adding apps, losing 1080 HD video playback) and patches "gaping" security hole.

• BBC's iconic Top Gear faces a tough audience when an American version launches on the History Channel this fall.

• Cisco profit soars 79%, but revenue falls short of Wall Street expectations.

• GM may file its IPO by Friday, says the New York Times.

• JetBlue listens, finally addresses Steven Slater incident with a blog post.

• John Madden is still big in video games, but misses TV.

• NHL franchise lets fans name their own ticket prices.

• Old Spice actor Isaiah Mustafa lands two movie roles.Continue reading...

Last July, branding powerhouse Procter & Gamble tried appealing to budget-conscious consumers with a value-priced version of Tide detergent called Tide Basic. The product was carried by Wal-Mart and Kroger stores, primarily in the south and southwestern parts of the United States.

Tide Basic was essentially a test to see if stripping out some of Tide's features and pricing it as much as twenty percent lower than original Tide would make the product more attractive. It was seen as a strategy to compete with the growing popularity of store brands and generics.

P&G has announced it has ended the test and will pull Tide Basic from the market. Why?Continue reading...

Charmin employs bathroom humor over Broadway. [BrandFreak]

Google unveils Nexus One, wireless carrier plans. [Business Insider]

Morgan Freeman will replace Walter Cronkite as the voice of CBS News. [DailyFinance]

Target testing "warehouse deals" in lieu of seasonal merchandise in some stores. [Consumerist]

Save Your Logo campaign enlists Lacoste's help for crocodile protection. [idsgn]

Environmental consumer efforts aim to change behavior; threaten Charmin. [Daily Beast]

Chief NY Times editor appears to confirm imminence of Apple's Tablet. [Valleywag]

Consumers unwilling to trade down from Tide, Kraft, Coke. [Marketing Charts]

Ex-Star/US Weekly editor Bonnie Fuller's Hollywood Life "looks like what would happen if In Touch and Life & Style got wasted on cosmos and then barfed all over the internet." [Gawker]

Corporations, news outlets and bloggers continue to struggle to navigate the new environment caused by the overlap between social media and traditional media. The latest casualty is freelance writer Mike Albo, who lost his New York Times "Critical Shopper" column today after questions were raised about a Jamaica weekend trip for bloggers he joined that was sponsored by the men's shopping website Thrillist.

But despite new Federal Trade Commission rules that require bloggers to fully disclose any rewards they receive for promoting products, "flogging" (like Coke's Expedition 206 world blogging tour) is likely to grow as social media spirals upward. Consumer giants are more avid than ever about using ordinary consumers to promote their brands through blogs, videos, and social networking.Continue reading...

Other than the safe sex/get paid ads you’d find in the back of an alternative newspaper, there are few money-making opportunities as high on the “I can’t believe I’m cashing a check for this” scale as the latest promotion by Charmin, which is putting up 10 grand for bloggers who staff their branded bathrooms in Times Square during the holiday season.

As Charmin notes on EnjoytheGo.com, the brand is seeking bloggers who like the bathroom as much as blogging to stay posted inside the facilities, “greet and entertain” restroom patrons, then blog the results, which will hopefully be more than pleas for privacy or replacement toilet paper. Naturally, these bloggers will share the posts, along with (tasteful) video, across the social-media spectrum.Continue reading...

Microsoft Bing will intergrate Facebook and Twitter status updates in searches. [All Things D]

Google strikes a similar deal with Twitter. [CNET]

Charmin seeks bloggers to staff Times Square public bathrooms during the holidays. [AdAges]

Coke unveils 7.5-ounce 90 calorie can. [Consumerist]

ESPN kills story of anchor's affair, sports blog Deadspin retaliates. [Deadspin]

Ford launches a relay race seeking drivers with a heavy social media presence. [Mashable]