Taco Bell is introducing its new "Live Más" tagline in a kickoff campaign for Doritos Locos Tacos (joining the quick serve restaurant chain's menu on March 8th). The first commercial, "Pockets," will premiere during TNT's All-Star Game telecast on Saturday night. Find out more below.Continue reading...

When Sony’s new handheld gaming system, PlayStation Vita, launched in Japan in December, it came with some unfortunate bugs that caused it to crash on occasion and lag a bit during some games.

Sony says it has updated the software and is feeling good enough about things that it launched the product Wednesday in the United States and Europe. What's new and improved about PS Vita? To paraphrase Shakespeare, the game's the thing.Continue reading...

Taco Bell is changing its tagline from "Think Outside the Bun" to "Live Más," which is Spanish for "Live More," starting with national advertising rolling out on TNT's NBA All-Star game on Saturday night.

The move is timed to the Doritos Locos Tacos launch on March 8th, which CEO Greg Creed told USA Today will be"the biggest new-product launch Taco Bell has ever had."

Not everyone's convinced by the new slogan, however. "They're trying to suggest a lifestyle aspiration but this seems an overreach for Taco Bell, as is their Cantina Bell menu effort," commented restaurant marketing consultant Denise Lee Yohn to Ad Age.

"A tagline should embrace the DNA of the brand, which for Taco Bell is extraordinary value," she said, adding that the use of "imperative tag lines" seem outdated, and that Taco Bell should use a tagline that communicates the personality, spirit, or values of the brand, such as Chipotle's "food with integrity" stance.

The actual introduction of the co-branded Doritos Locos Tacos may be a couple of weeks away from joining its menu nationwide, on March 8th, but Taco Bell is in need of a hit product launch. It's been only a year since the since-discredited lawsuit against Taco Bell's beef did its damage. And the brand's young-adult customer base is still struggling with unemployment doldrums.

So the chain has been gearing up its highly capable promotional machine far in advance for the new line that consists of Taco Bell fillings and shells made from Doritos, including a campaign on Twitter. While Taco Bell typically must make marketing mileage out of a new layer of cheese here or a different flavor of meat filling there, what's different this time is that the chain is able to co-brand with one of the biggest names in snacking. A clock on Taco Bell's website counts down the seconds until the magic date.Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble finally has begun rolling out to Walmart stores one of its biggest product introductions in recent history: Tide Pods. But delays in getting this innovation to market, along with headwinds from the general economy, have caught the CPG giant in the twin pincers of cost pressures and greater competition.

P&G CEO Bob McDonald recently explained the company's predicament to investors. "It was later than we hoped, but Pods is a game-changing innovation and with it came manufacturing challenges that set us back but have been overcome," he said. "To our knowledge, there will be nothing on store shelves that looks or performs like Pods, and if the demand we are seeing right now is any indication of success, we are confident that Pods will delive ron its promise to change the way people think about laundry."Continue reading...

One more young celebrity is leveraging her Hollywood powers and launching a business around her personal brand. The Honest Company, which gets a leg up in the URL naming game with the URL Honest.com, offers “eco-friendly family essentials” through a monthly subscription service.

Selling safe, sustainable products being more convenient, beautiful and affordable, Golden Globe nominee Jessica Alba, ("Fantastic Four," "Little Fockers," and TV series "Dark Angel," "The Office," and "Entourage") named the company after her 4-year-old daughter Honor.

"Being a mom is the most profound experience I've ever had," says Alba, now mother of newborn Haven as well. "When I became a mom, I finally became the person I am, that I always should have been. It's the most satisfying job in the world. But, it can also be overwhelming and confusing. I created The Honest Company to help moms and to give all children a better, safer start."Continue reading...

While the large majority of athletic gear is segmented for each specific sports market, Nike announced a product Thursday that sweeps across the entire sporting landscape and can be used by any athlete at any level: the Nike+ FuelBand, a rubber bracelet worn on the wrist during exercise and sports activities to measure “steps, calories, time & Fuel metric (currency measured by oxygen kinetics)."

According to its press release (titled "Nike+ FuelBand Makes Life a Sport") the company sees it as a tech-driven game-changer that unifies products, sports and fans' interests, with the sub-headline: "Nike innovates at the intersection of sport and data with a wristband that measures movement to motivate people to be more active."Continue reading...

Sir Richard Branson is indeed taking over the world. And now he may be taking over your money.

The billionaire Brit and founder of all things Virgin on earth — including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Records, Virgin Mobile — and beyond, with Virgin Galactic aiming to talk regular folks into space — is this week pushing Virgin Money, the Virgin-branded bank that's taking over Northern Rock's 75 branches in the U.K. and 21,000 staff members for £747million ($948.3 million), according to the Mirror.

After the Northern Rock acquisition was announced, Virgin moved to add an annual £60 ($78) fee on every account, but then changed course and decided to offer it as an option, the Mail reports. As a sweetener, the bank will likely “offer perks such as discounts on Virgin flights or gym memberships,” the paper notes.Continue reading...