It's a battle of Philistine proportions.

SodaStream, purveyor of DIY soft-drink machines that turn water into soda with carbonation and flavoring, has found itself in fisticuffs with Coca-Cola. In a classic David and Goliath confrontation, the world’s largest beverage maker — reigning Best Global Brand, market value about $170 billion, 228 times larger than SodaStream — is threatening to sue to shut down the smaller brand's sustainability campaign — one that is based on attacking at Coca-Cola.

"Every day, approximately 1 billion bottles and cans are added to our parks, rivers, oceans and landfills worldwide — almost 400 million in America alone. We must not allow Coke, or anyone, to silence this unfortunate truth,” said SodaStream CEO, Daniel Birnbaum, in a press release about the brand's launch of a Facebook Cage Challenge after the beverage giant tried to shut down its anti-Coca-Cola environmental cage exhibits.Continue reading...

Airbus designs new way to build planes and scraps sales target for A380.

Amazon tests a smartphone.

American Airlines opens door to merger with U.S. Airways.

Apple pulls game with Japanese Ninjas invading island chain.

Barclays former CEO Bob Diamon hits back at U.K. lawmakers over interest-rate scandal.

Drew Brees nears becoming highest-paid player in NFL history.

Expedia features real travelers' experiences in new campaign.

John Varvatos taps British musician Paul Weller as new face.Continue reading...

After enduring months of sliding sales, losses of market share and declining investor confidence at Li-Ning, the CEO of China's most famous athletic brand has resigned. Taking his place: the brand's founder and China's Olympic icon, Li Ning himself.

But does the gymnast turned entrepreneur still have the flexibility to bend his eponymous brand back into shape? And what does this mean for Li-Ning's global expansion aspirations?Continue reading...

While many global marketers are aiming Olympics-related campaigns at young consumers, the real core of TV watchers of London's Summer Olympics are expected to be older Gen X-ers and boomers. Those generations also struggle more than younger ones with obesity and other health issues.

All of that may be why Coca-Cola is using its Olympics sponsorship to do more than promote its new global "Move to the Beat" campaign, which is aimed at teens. Another new initiative by Coke is highlighting active lifestyles by centering on an "eight-pack" of athletes even though the first one revealed — Shawn Johnson — won't be competing in London following her recent surprise retirement from the sport.

In a challenging time in America for soft drink brands, led by New York City's proposed ban on large soft drinks, Coke is hoisting a healthy living banner into the London 2012 Olympics with a campaign which claims that — despite being dismissed as overcaloric sugar water by many health critics — the brand actually has an association with healthy lifestyles.Continue reading...

At the start of the year, the folks at Nike and a few of its star athletes it supports made a very big deal about the new FuelBand, a digital wristband that keeps track of every piece of data you could possibly imagine while you’re working out. Since then, Nike has added the ability to “keep track of the sights they've visited while out for a jog or a bike ride and share said moments / achievements with their mates,” according to Engadget.com.

FuelBand also is getting some love for its latest campaign, while landing Nike and W+K a Grand Prix at the recent Cannes Lions ad festival for its digital efforts to launch and make FuelBand a must-have item. 

Now collectors and fans will be falling over themselves to get their hands on the latest iteration of FuelBand — the limited-edition Ice Fuelband model, shown at top, which Serena Williams debuted at Wimbledon and launches July 27th in London (just in time for Olympics fever), San Francisco and New York at select retail locations, and on Aug. 12th at nikestore.com — marking the first new colorway since the original FuelBand debuted in January.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola US today released it latest London 2012 Olympics Commercial: "Support Our Athletes." As part of the campaign, Coke is featuring an "eight-pack" of American athletes — Shawn Johnson, Henry Cejudo, Alex Morgan, John Isner, David Boudia, David Oliver, Marlen Esparaza, and Jessica Long — in a My Coke Rewards Olympics contest.

Johnson, who retired from gymnastics on June 3rd, was featured in her own Coke spotlight video (see below) two weeks ago and will be covering the Summer Games as a "correspondent" for another of her sponsors, P&G, which last week announced a grant of $75,000 for youth sports development in U.S. gymnastics .Continue reading...

Olympic sponsor Adidas has unveiled the next phase of its Olympic 'Take the Stage' campaign, above. The focus of the spot is Team Great Britain athletes in what's being called the brand's biggest-ever marketing spend. According to Brand Republic, "It's being supported by a large-scale digital output across a dedicated site, www.adidas.com/all2012, Facebook and Twitter, using the handle @adidasUK, with a dedicated hashtag #takethestage, which will run for the next six weeks." Below, check out the official London 2012 Predator shoe and a new addition to Stella McCartney's Team GB Olympics kit — a rain cape.Continue reading...

Ford has been moving from one major social-media marketing innovation to the next, so it comes as little surprise that the brand is mounting a major digital and social effort around the 2013 Ford Fusion mid-size sedan.

"Random Acts of Fusion" is a multi-platform, transmedia campaign that features Ryan Seacrest as its "emcee." It centers around a contest in which consumers will "Unlock" how Fusion is able to "transform" the lives of people who drive it, Crystal Worthem, manager of Ford Brand Content & Alliances, stated.

In its slowly unfolding, almost teasing aspect, unlike previous Ford campaigns predicated on quick social-media participation, the Facebook-centered campaign is building anticipation by inviting fans to register and then stay tuned: "What's in the box? Register below to find out. Ryan will send one to each of the first 2,500 people who sign up for Random Acts of Fusion. Then come back to Facebook.com/FordFusion on July 5th to find out what happens next."

The teaser campaign "is designed to invoke emotion, which the [car] design does," Scott Monty, Ford's director of social media, told brandchannel. And the promotion is built "to go with people where they go — desktop to mobile to digital to social to experiential."Continue reading...