Procter & Gamble is offering men tips on relationships, parenting, cooking, cleaning and health in Man of the House, a digital marketing initiative centered around a microsite that subtly promotes its brands in a "Girls Keep Out!" setting. 

Promotions and "house ads" for its brands such as Gillette are found alongside original content, including frank videos (such as the "Ask a Pregnant Lady" series, above), blog posts, articles organized by channel (such as money and career) and other guy-to-guy subjects.Continue reading...

Gillette's Young Guns campaign is back — and breaking tomorrow during the NFL's Wild Card games.

The annual nod to the rising stars of NASCAR this year features Matt Ryan, Ray Rice, Carlos Gonzalez, Evan Longoria, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch in the Class of 2011. A related Fusion ProGlide challenge is now running on the brand's YouTube channel.

Last year will be one both Tiger Woods and Brett Favre would just as soon forget.

The Woods debacle was voted top sports story of 2010 by the Associated Press and not for reasons any sports personality would be proud of. Tiger's troubles started but didn't end with the revelation of his marital infidelities.Continue reading...

During 2010, over 700 billion YouTube videos were watched and more than 13 million hours of video uploaded. Frankly, it’s amazing any work got done at all.

The search trends on the site, the world's second biggest search engine after parent Google, provide an accurate barometer on the serious (and perhaps less serious) news events of the year — and people's propensity for lower case searches. The top search terms on YouTube this year: Haiti, luge, eclipse trailer, ipad, eminem not afraid, shakira waka waka, double rainbow, bed intruder, halo reach, whip my hair and firework.

In other words, it was a good year for brands. Read: Old Spice (Man), the Winter Olympic Games, FIFA World Cup, Apple, Katy Perry, Microsoft Xbox and vampires.Continue reading...

Think product placement in prime time TV and films is bad? Try some from daytime soaps like Days of Our Lives. While you're trying that, why not also try some Wanchai Ferry "Chinese food!" (above)Continue reading...

Pedigree ad makes excellent use of 1,000 frames-per-second "Phantom" camera. Woof! (above)

Twitter redesign uses "golden ratio." At current gold prices, it may be Twitter's largest profit.

Unique View: Behind the scenes at Proenza Schouler Spring/Summer 2011.

From the Dept. of Weekend Reading: Down the ladder from Playboy to Maxim.

Gillette's one-blade razor aims to march India's men to multi-bladed glory.Continue reading...

BMW issues safety recall for power-braking problems in 5, 6 and 7 Series vehicles worldwide.

BP pledges Gulf of Mexico oil fields to spill fund as new CEO Bob Dudley talks up "fast evolution, not revolution."

Chevrolet plans to use the Major League Baseball World Series this month to launch adds for its new Volt extended-range hybrid.

Dow Jones Industrial Average surges by more than 10% during the third quarter, a glimmer of economic cheer.

Emirates Telecommunications offers to buy 46% of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications, potentially one of the biggest EMEA deals in recent years.Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble, arguably the world's most adept branding organization, is simply not content with the status quo.

As we've reported, P&G has lofty ambitions to grow its business internationally, beyond its traditionally strong roots in the U.S.and Europe. In fact, P&G is eying developing countries such as Brazil and China for future sales revenue.

Add brand acquisitions to P&G's wish list. "I'd love to buy more global brands," P&G CEO Bob McDonald tells Bloomberg. "The climate for acquisitions is good, the climate for mergers is good," McDonald said.Continue reading...