Proving her hand at comedy in the "Liquorville" sketch and other funny bits this past weekend on Saturday Night Live with Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga was just one of the highlights of the season finale of the venerable NBC comedy series – and one more jewel in the crown for the New York-born pop, whose cultural influence is matched only by her business acumen.

This week's release of her second album, Born This Way, is certainly one for the record books, as much for a potentially record-breaking run to one million sales in its first week, as for the unprecedented, well-oiled promotional machine surrounding it.Continue reading...

NBC bids adieu to Steve Carell on The Office.

Office boosts Microsoft profits, though Windows sales slip — blame the iPad, with Apple now more profitable than Microsoft.

BlackBerry-maker RIM cuts Q1 earnings and revenue forecast. 

Apple's White iPhone 4 - a PR coup?

Bank of America to hike interest rates for late payments. 

Deutsche Bank announces record first-quarter profits. 

Hulu Plus comes to Xbox Live.Continue reading...

Lady Gaga returns as the face and inspiration for MAC's annual Viva Glam line of makeup, which donates a portion of each item sold to the MAC AIDS Fund for HIV/AIDS research. Last year she shared the Viva Glam campaign with Cyndi Lauper; this year she's flying solo.

• Smart. Funny. Perfectly on-brand. This Australian Slurpee commercial, above, is inspiring.

• MAC launches Wonder Woman makeup collection.

• The Onion: "Iams Executives Scrambling To Figure Out Why Brand Is Losing 2- To 4-Year-Old Chocolate Labs"Continue reading...

Lady Gaga is having a(nother) moment.

She's on the March cover of Vogue (her first), hitting newsstands around the time that she unveils her new single at the Grammy Awards (Feb. 13), where she's been nominated for six Grammys; and her second Viva Glam collection for MAC, which launches Feb. 17.

She's also being honored (though not yet inducted) by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in May, which is including her in its first nod to women rockers, and releases her highly anticipated next album on May 23.

Continuing her sideline as an enthusiastic endorser of brands, she's using her social clout to help launch SkyGrid Groups, a new social platform. And, according to Forbes projections, she could topple U2 this year as the world's top-grossing act.

(Update: here's Vogue's profile)

Brand marketers are falling over themselves to get an endorsement from Lady Gaga. Hot on the heels of rumors that she's being wooed by teamakers to lend her star power to the good old cuppa, now comes word that she may launch her own perfume.

That rumor, which was swatted away earlier this month, just resurfaced and wouldn't be entirely beyond the pale. After all, she partnered with Cyndi Lauper earlier this year to promote MAC's latest Viva Glam campaign.

And if it's good enough for Jennifer "Forget Lolavie" Aniston and Katy "Purr" Perry, then a line of unisex fragrances could make scents (and cents) for Gaga.

From time to time, brands looking to be on the bleeding edge of cool become completely untethered from reality.

Creative pitch sessions go off the rails and devolve into a feedback loop of hip, where relativist style means there is no longer any such thing as good or bad taste. Only later, in the daylight and the fallout, does the insanity of the concept become clear. That is about the time a brand finds itself muttering, "We never intended..."

MAC cosmetics has found itself in just such a place with its latest collaboration.Continue reading...

“Something is happening and it affects us all. A global revolution is changing business, and business is changing the world."

Those words were in the "Letter from the Editors" in the premiere issue of Fast Company, in November 1995. The magazine has been keeping us abreast of business evolution, creative individuals and best market practices ever since.

Its new 100 Most Creative People is worth checking out to see its list of the top innovators of 2010, particularly the top five. #1 was also recognized in another magazine's list of the globe's top influencers, the Time 100, as the world's role model and biggest celebrity brand; the next four FC help shape brands, technology and public debate.

Five years ago, a 19 year-old Stefani Germanotta was waitressing and singing in New York clubs. Now 24 and globally known as Lady Gaga, her brand encompasses music (with 10 million-plus albums sold), video (1 billion-plus Web views just on YouTube), design collaborations (Monster headphones, Polaroid cameras), and marketing (HP, MAC Cosmetics, which Gaga promoted with Cyndi Lauper earlier this year, above).Continue reading...