Abercrombie and Fitch got into hot water with its push-up bikini top aimed at girls. Walmart's tween makeup line raised a few parental eyebrows. Now it's Skechers turn in the hot seat.

The brand's Shape Ups for Girls commercial (above) has been out since September, but it's still raising hackles among parents and others who don't feel "slimming" shoes should be targeted at girls.Continue reading...

Super Bowl XLV was a record-breaking platform for some brand marketers.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of mediocre advertisements among the five dozen national spots that appeared between kickoff of the Super Bowl and the game’s end.

The overall entertainment level and presumed effectiveness of the event's body of work was below par.

But several spots and brands sank even beneath that low mean. Here they are, in one correspondent’s view, in alphabetical order by brand.Continue reading...

Super Bowl madness is upon us, but this year's lineup of game advertisers is not nearly as interesting as the companies that aren't returning from last year.

Of course, being in one year and out the next is not unusual — Super Bowl advertisers can rotate as often as the Chicago Bears changed quarterbacks in their losing bid to get into this year's Super Bowl. But the real story in 2011 is whether or not brand marketers think ponying up somewhere around $3 million for 30 seconds (yup, that's $100K per second) is worth it.

Papa John's, for one, doesn't think so.Continue reading...

Super Bowl ads start to rev up as Audi sets the stage, CareerBuilder returns with monkey theme, PepsiCo boosts spots to seven, Skechers taps Kim Kardashian, and CarMax signs up for first national Super Bowl TV spot.

Adobe boosts privacy in Flash.

Borders closes in on refinancing.

Chrysler bailout is criticized by federal watchdog panel.

Delta takes “bumping” online.

Groupon discusses an IPO.Continue reading...

* McDonald's promoted McDonald's UK president and CEO Steve Easterbrook to EVP, global chief brand officer, a new position that fills the hole in its senior management team created when former CMO Mary Dillon left in May to join U.S. Cellular. Jill McDonald, currently CMO for McDonald's in the UK and northern Europe, is being promoted to UK CEO.

* Dell put its first U.S. smartphone on sale today: the Aero, which costs $99 with a two-year AT&T contract and runs on Google's Android platform.

* Watch out, Netflix: Apple is rumored to be preparing a 99-cent TV show service.

* Facebook sues Teachbook, a social networking site for teachers, over use of -book in its name; deletes accounts purporting to be from North Korea; and bans marijuana-based advertising campaign.

* Microsoft is now handling all search requests for Yahoo in North America; the global rollout will take until 2012.Continue reading...

Apple faces FTC probe over mobile ads, while its "secrecy irks Congress," says Politico. Apple also buys Siri, a voice tech startup, to compete with Google Voice.

AT&T sent a letter last night to iPad owners, explaining last week's security breach.

Cablevision is buying smaller U.S. cable operator Bresnan Communications.

Cambio, an MTV-style website, launches tomorrow from AOL and the Jonas Brothers.

Polo Ralph Lauren extends Wimbledon sponsorship.Continue reading...

At an average cost of $3 million for one 30-second spot, the Super Bowl isn’t just the biggest day of the year for football fans, it’s also the biggest for many of the world’s top advertisers. In addition, the fact that it can cost another million to produce and promote an ad worthy of Super Bowl Sunday can turn the big game into one high-cost, high-pressure event.

With 106.5 million viewers this year – the highest ever according to the Nielson Company, the brands that scored the biggest were not necessarily the ones that worked with the biggest ad agencies though. In fact, one company that followed the age-old “customer is always right” advice ranked highest on the scoreboard.Continue reading...

Cars.com: The online brand’s ad tapped into consumers’ primordial fears with the compelling story of a prodigious superman who could perform miraculous feats dauntlessly – but was afraid to buy a car, a process that made him “just as nervous as the rest of us.” Cars.com is there to hold our hands. Genius.

Continue reading...