In a twist of irony, girlfriends Paula Deen and Oprah Winfrey (with a hand from Winfrey's BFF, Gayle King) are helping each other regroup.

The three got together for a pajama party at Deen’s Savannah, Georgia home, donned rubber boots to check on the hens in the chicken coop and talk about life and loss, as show in Sunday night’s episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter on Winfrey's OWN channel, in a pitch for forgiveness and rebranding.

While Winfrey's OWN is in need of a ratings boost, Deen's in need of an image makeover following a startling revelation from the Queen of Southern cooking in January that she’s had Type 2 Diabetes for three years, an announcement that came in tandem with the news that she was being paid by Novo Nordisk to promote its diabetes drug.Continue reading...

Facebook appears ready to go public with $10 billion IPO in early February, despite ire at leak.

Exxon Mobil sells Japanese subsidiary for $4 billion in move to cut refining.

News Corp. reportedly woos Bloomberg exec as Twitter-happy Murdoch sees weekend arrests at The Sun tabloid.

ABB buys Thomas & Betts for $4 billion.

Angry Birds boss doesn't fear piracy.

Apple aims to sell 40 million iPhones in China next year.

Altria sees tobacco users embrace discount brands.

Bank of America shakes up investment banking division.

Barnes & Noble takes on Amazon with fifth Nook device.

Beyonce sees university class focus on her.Continue reading...

Paula Deen confirmed this morning to Al Roker on The Today Show that she has had type-2 Diabetes for the past three years but chose to keep it "close to her chest," despite continuing to espouse butter-laden comfort food (stuffing on a stick or donut burgers, anyone?) on the Food Network.

Deen, who told Roker that she doesn't intend to change the way she cooks now that her diabetes is public, has timed her announcement to the signing of a deal to be a paid spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, which produces the diabetes drug Victoza. The drug company is featuring Deen on a new website (called "Diabetes in a New Light") that offers "recipes, lifestyle tips and support"). Deen's ads for the diabetes drug are slated to appear later this month.Continue reading...

American Airlines parent AMR may have to shrink.

Allstate ties in with Autism Speaks organization.

BP alleges that Halliburton destroyed evidence in Gulf of Mexico spill.

Coca-Cola drinks were tampered with, Chinese government claims.

ESPN gets knocked over soaring costs by cable-TV operators.

Flipboard launches app in China.

Ford begins search to replace CEO Alan Mulally ahead of his retirement.

Green Bay Packers sell "shares" in team.Continue reading...

Scripps Networks owns some of the most powerful brands on cable television with HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel and DIY. All of the cooking shows on these networks have thus far avoided the temptation of dabbling in product placement. After all, in the first half of the year, Food Network pulled in $283.2 million in advertising while HGTV earned $300.2 million in the same time period, according to Kantar Media. 

However, the company’s Cooking Channel, which launched last year, is still trying to figure out how to make dough on the scale of its sister networks. Kantar reports that the channel brought in $12.3 million in the first half of the year. Enter product placement.

Ad Age reports that the network's business side sees a plum opportunity with a series titled From the Kitchens Of, which doesn’t have a set air time and is broadcast sporadically, not only visits the kitchens of corporations including Pillsbury but also features each company’s products within its show and recipes. For that right, the advertiser foots half the costs of producing the episode, Ad Age reports.

"We wanted to be able to offer advertisers something different than" Food Network, stated Jeff Stettin, VP of ad sales for Cooking Channel. "We feel that with a network that was just starting out, we could take a little bit more risk."

Other brands that have been involved the first season’s 10 episodes include Clorox, Sara Lee, Kellogg, and Sears’ Kenmore, Ad Age notes, with all series one sponsors already signing on for a 13-episode second season run.

Google and its YouTube video portal are among the top five brands ‘best perceived’ by lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender Americans.

Videos like the brand's "It Gets Better" clips below, and the rainbow enhancement to gay-related searches for June's pride month, are only two for the reasons why the search giant has won favor with the gay community, according to new research from YouGov BrandIndex.Continue reading...

When you think pro golf, your mind might turn to the troubles of Tiger Woods or the beauty of the seventh hole at Pebble Beach as it opens up to the Pacific Ocean. Or it could be that it makes you think of your own dratted inability to get even within an elephant’s ear of par.

Most likely, though, it probably doesn’t inspire your brain to immediately start charging in the direction of celebrity chefs. KitchenAid aims to change that. That's why the Senior PGA Championship took place this past weekend at Valhalla Golf Club near Louisville, Kentucky, with KitchenAid as its main sponsor.Continue reading...

Consider Duncan Hines the Avis of cake mixes. The brand is a perennial second to General Mills' Betty Crocker, with 30.9% market share vs. 38.1% market share in the most recent data reported by research firm Symphony IRI Group.

But Duncan Hines keeps trying harder, as its recent foray into social marketing suggests. Actually, the brand may have tried a little too hard — it actually came under fire late last year for depicting animated cupcakes in a hip-hop fashion that some felt smacked of racism.

Despite the controversy, Duncan Hines keeps on trucking. Next stop: a new campaign that also departs from the traditional mom-and-kids baking scenario.Continue reading...