Chrysler is still a brand that seems to be comfortable with a dark and brooding urban presence, as exemplified in its "Imported From Detroit" campaign. But increasingly, the city it's representing isn't just Detroit. And now it's Gotham City — as in the New York of fables in the Batman comic-book and movie series.

For the July 20th release of The Dark Knight Rises, the final piece of the Warner Bros. prequel trilogy, Chrysler has launched an "Imported from Gotham City" contest that allows fans to help create an original co-branded TV spot featuring Chrysler and Batman. 

The Dark Knight Rises Director/Producer/Writer Christopher Nolan will select the winning ad, which will debut on TV to help promote the release of the film, and welcome the winner to the red carpet at the movie's NYC premiere.Continue reading...

It's a well known fact that the brand value of dead celebrities lives far beyond the celebrities themselves. Bob Marley may have died in 1981, but his name has made him immortal, at least in terms of earning power. Elvis continues to have perennial brand presence, getting an extra boost from Graceland's year-long celebration of his life in this, the 35th anniversary of his death.

But this past weekend, a whole new form of dead celebrity worship came to life at the Coachella music festival in California. On Sunday night, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog performed "live" on stage with Tupac Shakur, the rapper who was killed in 1996. Of course, Dre and Snoop performed live; Tupac's performance was a holographic video with updated audio tailored to the crowd. Still, the image was so seemingly alive and so stunning that it may prompt a Tupac tour, according to The Wall Street Journal.Continue reading...

Last February, PepsiCo made waves for Brisk with a clay-animated Super Bowl commercial featuring Eminem. Now, as the New York Times reports, PepsiCo is piggybacking on the February 10th theatrical release of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 3D to promote the Brisk line of iced tea and juice drinks.

This week the brand is introducing new packaging and a new mobile game app featuring Star Wars characters Yoda, R2-D2, Jar Jar Binks and Darth Maul in a bid to engage Brisk's target market of young adults, "particularly males," ages 18 to 29. The extension of its ongoing partnership with Lucasfilm marks the "largest multimedia advertising and marketing campaign that PepsiCo has ever waged for Brisk." Find out more, and check out screen grabs from the mobile game, below.Continue reading...

Back in June we noted that Lady Gaga had bought a 20% stake in The Backplane, joining Google chairman Eric Schmidt in supporting the nascent developer of social networking tools for groups ranging from "Girl Scout troops to celebrity fanclubs."

Naturally, Gaga's legions of fans (known as Little Monsters) would be the first to get their own social network powered by The Backplane — called, of course, LittleMonsters.com (which is now accepting pre-launch registrations).

It's getting closer to launch, with The Backplane last week tweeting a photo of the performer meeting with Backplane staffers (and posting it on Facebook), showing the site's logo in the background — the universal "paws up" monster claw used by her legions of fans.Continue reading...

Ryan Doyle is one of the world’s most original and innovative free runners and parkour artists. He shows his skills in the above video, shot in Mardin, Turkey for Red Bull.

Rather than heavy-handed product placement, Red Bull continues to go for high-end content, richly filmed and exciting to watch, with an aesthetic gestalt that fits the brand attributes.

"It's an efficiency product. I'm talking about improving endurance, concentration, reaction time, speed, vigilance, and emotional status. Taste is of no importance whatsoever," says the mastermind behind it all, Austrian, Dietrich Mateschitz, credited with creating the energy drink category.Continue reading...

Chrysler’s new “Imported from Detroit” positioning may not be directly responsible for helping the automaker move cars off the lot, but it's certainly creating some memorable audio branding.

Through July, Chrysler has sold nearly 40,000 of the new 200 model sedan that was featured in the epochal Eminem Super Bowl commercial, in a segment where it sold only 24,000 cars the year before. Yet the latest version of the larger 300 sedan, fresh as of March, only moved 6% more units in July than the old version did a year ago, and Chrysler relies on the same basic positioning for its 300 advertising campaign. 

Yet there’s no doubt that the Chrysler brand has benefited from its willingness to embrace Motown again as a place of authenticity where you really can build fine automobiles.Continue reading...

U.S. House is expected to pass debt ceiling bill tonight, with the Senate set to vote Tuesday.

Amazon launches AmazonLocal daily deals in Groupon's hometown of Chicago; launches MyHabit app to compete with Gilt Groupe; beefs up streaming offering to compete with Hulu by adding Universal titles; and looks to expand Kindle library.

Apple iPhone 5 now rumored for October; Apple TV lets users buy TV shows with streaming update; and Apple blocks Samsung tablet release in Australia.

Twitter confirms "significant" ($800M?) funding round led by Russia's DST Global; adds Dutch and Indonesian local sites; and opens NYC office.

Adobe bows to Apple and builds Flash alternative.

Airbnb looks to defuse user security concerns by offering $50,000 guarantee to homeowners.

Allstate to shut banking unit, posts $620M in losses on tornado claims.Continue reading...

Music videos are the new wild west of product placement. Cars. Booze. Dating websites. Nothing is too absurd to work in. For example, Britney Spears recently had her way with a police officer on a shiny red new Volkswagen Beetle. As we said, anything goes.

But just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Consider the brands that seemed to think the new Eminem video, Space Bound, was prime real estate for a little product placement. But did Sun Chips and Net10 even bother listening to the track?Continue reading...