ABC's Oscars TV ratings on Sunday dropped 10% from a year ago.

Berkshire Hathaway adds to possible successors to Warren Buffett.

Carlyle Group buys Japanese auto-parts firm. 

Charlie Sheen circus continues with part 2 of Today Show interview.

CNN is taking Piers Morgan on a roller-coaster ride. 

Dior loses as Natalie Portman severs ties with brand following anti-Semitic remarks by John Galliano.Continue reading...

Burger King CMO is stepping down in merger of marketing and operations.

Charlie Sheen's publicist quits as embattled actor gives series of bizarre interviews and threatens to sue CBS after demanding increase of $1M per episode.

China is shifting to no-logo luxury, says Chloe CEO.

Dior suspends Galliano for alleged anti-Semitism.

FAA approves iPad usage for pilots' flight charts.Continue reading...

OK, so the 83rd Annual Academy Awards was a bit of a snoozefest, with Colin Firth and Natalie Portman winning the best thespian categories (as expected) and The King's Speech sweeping the night.

On the commercial front, while the Oscars may not have "the Super Bowl for women" that some thought in terms of the caliber of the ads, there were some new campaigns — but also a lot of repetition and reprisals of Super Bowl spots.

What did you think of the commercials, if you caught them during the telecast on ABC? To jog your memory:Continue reading...

Advertising slots during this year's Academy Awards telecast on ABC have sold out. But just as last year, advertising rules apply, meaning "marketers still have to make sure certain ads featuring celebrities or celebrity voice-overs don't run near segments of the program that could feature those very same stars."

Last year, the prominent example of this rule in action was best actor nominee Jeff Bridges and his voiceover work for Oscar advertiser Hyundai (above).

This year, Bridges is the most prominent nominee to lend his talent to the, ahem, commercial sector. But he's far from the only one.

The nominees for Best Work in a Commercial Campaign (TV or Print) are:Continue reading...

Time for a special holiday edition of Brandcameo's Product Replacement Quiz. Is your cinematic recall good enough to name these three prominent product placements from this summer's hit comedy, Get Him to the Greek? Take our quiz after the jump.Continue reading...

To keep a spooky momentum going on, how appropriate and timely it is to discuss brands capitalizing on the latest celebrity trend: Reincarnation by perfume.
 
The #11-ranked celeb in the Forbes 2010 Top Earning Dead Celebrities list has just released "his" first fragrance: Steve McQueen Eau de Parfum, a tribute to the American actor who passed away 30 years ago. McQueen’s brand equity is valued at $6 million, and his handsome mug already endorses watches, clothes, cars and motorbikes.

“Dead celebrities can do pretty much everything that they did when they were alive, with the technology we have today, except make a personal appearance,” explains Matt Delzell, a marketing account director with Davie Brown Talent, who specializes in pairing brands with celebrity spokespeople. “In the advertising world, these people are still very much alive. Brands are interested in dead celebrities because there is a more iconic feeling after someone passes away.”Continue reading...

"I really don’t think women want to go around looking like a Saint Laurent shopping bag," Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld told the New York Times at today's Spring/Summer 2011 collection in Paris, referring to the bright colors that popped on the catwalks in New York, London and Milan — and the pink and orange of the classic YSL bag.

Instead, notes the Times, "Lagerfeld kept the colors soft and pale: pink, sky blue, peach, gold and silver tones — and heaps of black." After the jump: Chloé, YSL, the first Alexander McQueen collection (by the late designer's protege, Sarah Burton), Stella McCartney, and Dior for Spring 2011.Continue reading...

The trend of getting film directors to create short films (aka branded entertainment) for luxe perfume brands continues with Guy Ritchie's just-released short for Dior Homme, starring Jude Law, a moody French model and a moody French capital, in Paris. Compare it with Martin Scorsese's short for Chanel's new men's fragrance after the jump.Continue reading...