Adidas taps Katy Perry for new campaign.

AFL-CIO launches image campaign.

Airbus posts record sales.

American Airlines stops flying to India, sacks 150 workers.

AOL leads companies testing crowdsourcing.

Apple expands iTunes Match, reportedly preps interactive textbooks for the iPad, while pre-earnings valuations vary.

BASF halts its genetically modified products in Europe, including its Amflora potato.

Beats Electronics breaks up with Monster.

Beyonce accused of skin-lightening in album promotion, gives first post-baby interview.

BlackBerry-maker RIM criticized by analysts for PlayBook incompatability.

BMW recalls 89,000 Mini vehicles.

Burberry quarterly profits jump 22%.

Carnival faces heat in wake of Italy shipwreck, its worst accident in 40 years, as environmental fears mount and cruise industry is rocked.

M&M's will introduce a sixth candy character — Ms. Brown — in its Super Bowl commercial, while Kia plans 60-second commercial with Adriana Lima and Motley Crue, in keeping with trend to longer Super Bowl spots.Continue reading...

Bridgestone's 2011 Super Bowl commercial (remember the beaver?) was one of the most-watched car ads of the year. Now it's kicking off its 2012 Super Bowl campaign (where it's sponsoring the half-time show again) by launching it with a teaser spot to hockey fans during the Bridgestone Winter Classic on NBC at 3pm ET today.

The campaign, called "Time to Perform," kicks off with a commercial (above) featuring a mock press conference and sports reporters such as Dick Vitale, ESPN's longtime college basketball analyst. The teaser's concept: "The engineers at Bridgestone are about to make a very important announcement: they're going to take their vast knowledge of performance on the road and bring it to the playing fields of the world; a bold move that promises to revolutionize sports as we know it." The bold move — recycling tires into balls (and, in a nod to the brand's NHL sponsorship deal, hockey pucks).Continue reading...

In the professional sports world, it's pretty easy to identify who's up and who's down by whether they win or lose. But when it comes to the actual value of a sports brand, winning has a different definition: It's based on the revenue a sports team or an individual athlete generates.

Forbes magazine has been analyzing the value of sports brands for three years now. The latest edition of the "Forbes Fab 40" values the top ten names in sports in four distinct categories: athletes, teams, events and businesses.

Leading the list of money-making athletes is the famous (and more recently infamous) Tiger Woods, whose brand is on the comeback trail with this week's major endorsement by Rolex.Continue reading...

Asos sets sights on male fashion lovers.

Atari plots its comeback.

Au Bon Pain unveils new redesign.

Avaya plans to go public again.

Benetton readies image overhaul.

Blue Shield of California will cap earnings.

Borders finds another potential bidder.Continue reading...

On the eve of her new album release, Lady Gaga tops Forbes' 2011 list of top entertainers — defined as the most powerful people in entertainment based on Forbes' calculation of their earnings (pretax income from May 1, 2010-May 1, 2011) and media clout (print, TV, radio, online and especially social media).

The artist formerly known as Stefani Germanotta is Forbes' new #1, notching $90 million in earnings in the past year, while the in-transition Oprah was #2 with $290 million but far less social media and digital clout. View the new top 10 below, and the complete 2011 list here. 

Below, see why Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber (the youngest to make Forbes' list, he debuts at #3), U2, Elton John, Tiger Woods, Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, Simon Cowell and LeBron James made the top ten in this year's celeb rankings.Continue reading...

Amazon's Android tablets reportedly codenamed Coyote and Hollywood.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's personal brand rocked by confession he fathered a child with household staffer.

Birds Eye plans new sales push in Russia.

BP Russian pact with Rosneft collapses.

California pushes for tighter security controls on social networks.

Conde Nast expands iPad magazine editions.

Disney may make power play for Olympics sponsorship; and fined $3M for violating kids' privacy.

Facebook meets with bankers to discuss IPO.Continue reading...

BMW and Mercedes outpace rivals in China, as Shanghai auto show opens and a new report shows the most popular brands in China are predominately foreign. Ford's China JV execs mull own brand, while Volkswagen reveals the new Beetle at events in Shanghai, New York and Berlin today. The Volkswagen Group also saw record first quarter sales as China deliveries boom.

VH1 woos female viewers with new programming, while siblings BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nick, and Spike remain holdouts on Time Warner Cable's iPad app due to Viacom lawsuit, although Cablevision's iPad app gets only grumbles.

Toyota resumes production at all Japan plants for first time since tsunami, as its Lexus brand slips behind rivals in the US. TEPCO also laid out a plan for shutting down nuclear reactor.Continue reading...

Mark Pincus, the CEO of social game creator Zynga, is now a billionaire. What pushed him into Forbes' 2011 list of the world's richest — the virtual (and addictive) tilling and fertilizing that is FarmVille.

While Mafia Wars has been a hit for Zynga, too, it's FarmVille that has hooked Facebookers, venture capitalists and brands (such as Stouffers, above) to work on Markie's Farm.