Acura is under fire for casting of Super Bowl commercial starring Jerry Seinfeld.

American Airlines parent AMR outlines non-union cutbacks.

California Pizza Kitchen plans new prototype and brand renewal.

Citigroup faces executive-pay dilemma after shareholder vote.

Dick Clark's career celebrated as entertainment legend dies at 82.

eBay continues comeback, citing PayPal.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola is mounting a massive music-based global marketing campaign pegged to the London 2012 Olympics, so it makes sense that Coke would partner with the leading musical app (Spotify) on the biggest social network (Facebook) to bring free music to countries worldwide, expanding on a relationship that started last year.

A message posted on Coca-Cola's corporate Twitter feed confirmed the partnership following Spotify's CEO keynote at the Ad Age digital summit this morning in New York: “What goes better with Coke? Music. Daniel Ek just announced @Spotify and Coke partnership.”

The details were forthcoming at a post-keynote press conference: Spotify will be the primary technology for Coca-Cola Music worldwide, with its app integrated into Coke's Facebook presence and Timeline for a ‘seamless social music experience.’

Coca-Cola will leverage the Spotify API and platform through a variety of applications, the first of which was built by independent developers during a two-day Spotify/Coca-Cola “hackers den” held in New York City this past weekend, which will be unveiled at the 2012 Olympics in London.Continue reading...

The NFL and Nike have been gearing up for months for the big unveiling of new uniforms for all 32 teams this week, an opportunity for every team to refresh its image and spirit (and make a ton of extra bucks, to boot) — including the NFL.

And while there were plenty who loved the new looks and plenty who didn’t, the general coverage seemed to agree that the uniforms on the whole didn’t change too dramatically.Continue reading...

As part of its own image evolution, the NFL unveiled its new uniforms today in New York, with a player from each of the 32 franchises modeling his team's look by new league apparel partner, Nike.

According to the Associated Press report, most teams' new cutting edge Nike Elite 51 uniforms (tagline: "Fast is Faster") aimed to combine "tradition with innovation," but one team stood out.Continue reading...

Here's the commercial for Madonna's new "Truth or Dare" fragrance deemed too racy by Disney's ABC TV censors.

Below, enjoy some bacontastic branding mmmoves, and more:Continue reading...

American Express has tapped comedian and uber-tweeter Aziz Ansari for brand's first Twitter Sync TV campaign, which breaks tonight. Check out the :15 version of the commercial below, along with other headlines this hour.Continue reading...

The NFL is always good at bringing the hype. The league has mastered the buildup of everything from draft day right up to the Super Bowl. So why not put the same kind of effort into the fact the league is about to start seven new apparel deals?

According to Ad Age, the NFL Hype Machine™ is in full drive for the switch, which happens next week, with the event being positioned as “an image evolution.” On Monday April 2nd, “NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will cut the ribbon and ring up the first sale as the league opens an NFL pop-up shop in Manhattan to herald the launch of its new apparel deals,” Ad Age reports. The NFL is referring to the pop-up store — called the NFL Shop at Draft, given than it will be located a few blocks south of the 2012 NFL Draft action at Radio City Music Hall — as nothing less than a "huge NFL energy space."Continue reading...

The Olympic creed states that “the most important thing … is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.”

Well, that’s just fine for the athletes, but for Nike and Adidas, they are looking not just to fight well, but to conquer.

Business Review Europe reports that “relations between the sportswear giants (are) even more frosty than usual over their access to leading Olympic stars including Paula Radcliffe, Mo Farah and Mark Cavendish.”

The problem stems from the fact that Adidas is an official London 2012 sponsor, and doesn’t want to be giving Nike any kind of free publicity.

In the past, there has been a gentleman’s agreement made between the two sides to allow athletes to get their medals with their own sponsors’ shoes on their feet, but the growing acrimony has kept that from happening this time around.Continue reading...