7-Eleven, JetBlue and Bliss go presidential with "poll" promotions as Pizza Hut comes up with a controversial dare ahead of next week's debate.

Toyota recalls 7.4 million vehicles globally for power-window glitch and 2.5 million Lexus vehicles, as it plugs Prius on the Home Shopping Network.

Samsung signs TV deal with Spotify.

BAE and EADS terminate merger talks.

Bain Capital buys maker of Craftsman Tools.

Ballmer touts new era at Microsoft as bonus trimmed.

Cadbury tells bishop it's not precious about purple.

Chevron is rejected by Supreme Court in Ecuadorian case.Continue reading...

Avon's Jung to leave board early, shifting focus to new CEO.

Mondelez creates Oreo and Cadbury Dairy Milk hybrid chocolate bar, acquires Italian biscuit maker from Danone.

Foxconn faces more unrest at iPhone factory as new battle brews between Apple and Samsung.

BAE deal with EADS is questioned by major shareholder.

Baxter looks to its medical-product pipeline to sustain growth.

Budweiser donates to military families via tie-in with Major League Baseball.

BuzzFeed bets on online sharing of sponsored content.

Coca-Cola India signs Bollywood star Salman Khan as brand ambassador.Continue reading...

Toyota and Honda have come roaring back in the U.S. market this year, as many predicted when both big Japanese brands were hamstrung by last year's supply-chain disasters. Toyota's 42-percent gain in September sales and Honda's 31-percent increase underscored their resurgence.

The question now is: What's the long-term trend line? Are the Japanese Big Two going to manage not only to recoup the market share they lost last year but perhaps even renew their old practice of taking still more U.S. market share from other players?

It's too soon to tell. But over the last several months, Toyota and Honda have left no doubt that they are back indeed.Continue reading...

AIG unveils new corporate logo as part of rebranding.

Sprint left behind as T-Mobile talks about merging with MetroPCS.

Boeing lowers global forecast as GE calls for inspections of certain Boeing models with its engines.

Air Canada debuts plans for low-cost carrier.

Airtime startup by Napster founders stumbles.

Alexander McQueen show sets Paris abuzz.

American Airlines finds seat problems on six aircraft.

Better Place CEO resigns from EV-charging-station startup.Continue reading...

3M plans to acquire ceramics maker Ceradyne.

Amazon comes under fire for offering Nazi death-camp puzzle.

AutoNation makes big digital push.

BMW brings performance school online.

Simon Cowell proposes truce in competition between his X Factor on Fox and The Voice on NBC.

Fender tries to stay plugged in.

Ford hits the road to tout new C-Max nameplate.

GM recalls cars over fuel leak problem.Continue reading...

Apple flirts with first trillion-dollar valuation for a company as iPhone 5 first weekend sales top five million and Apple tops YouTube and Aston Martin as "coolest UK brand." Apple also halted production at Foxconn factory after mass brawl, and seen hogging new iPhone for its own stores. Its legal team has also asked CA judge to boost award from Samsung.

Alfa Romeo plots return to USA, with Chrysler helping Fiat.

American Airlines racks up flight delays and cancellations.

Applebee's reboots its marketing with inflatable dolls.

Boeing struggles with makeover of 777.

Conde Nast launches French Vanity Fair into economic headwinds and skepticism.Continue reading...

Honda is punctuating its 2012 comeback in the U.S. market with souped-up output and fetching advertising for the new 2013 Accord mid-size sedan.

Throwing the ninth generation of its mainstay Accord — the first substantially overahauled version since 2008 — into the increasingly competitive and crowded U.S. mid-size sedan market with its official launch this week, Honda is beginning a new integrated advertising campaign "designed to artfully highlight the new Accord's sophisticated design, dynamic performance, rich feature content and value," according to a Honda press release.

And, in fact, the new ads do just that, in the early stages of Honda's "It Starts With You" campaign. The print ads feature, for instance, a bee-startled driver and the caption "Lane Departure Warning. Because Distractions Happen" and a caught-in-the-headlights startled deer (Caption: "LED Headlights.").Continue reading...

"Car destruction ahead. Japanese made cars should turn around now."

So read the warning on a flattened cardboard box one Chinese man held up to traffic in the city of Xian. The man's advice was not based on fearful speculation either, as cities across China erupted in anti-Japanese protests over the weekend (including, The Economist notes, about 3,000 at the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai on Sunday), Japan's auto brands were bracing for the backlash. One man set his own Honda Civic on fire in front of a dealership. One of the more moving photos shared on social media was of a young woman, weeping as she begged protesters to spare her car.

Targeting Japanese products for boycott or destruction is nothing new in China. But this weekend's actions — sparked by ownership dispute over islands between the two nations — were especially dire, called the worst flare-up of tensions between the nations in decades by The New York Times. As Japanese companies ordered their workers to stay home and closed their factories over fear of reprisals, what's unknown is the degree to which Japanese brands have been hurt in China's marketplace.Continue reading...