Brand Bites: Old Spice, Lululemon, Renault & more

Posted by Abe Sauer on January 13, 2012 01:21 PM

Old Spice is back with a new spot and an old Old Spice Man (Terry Crews) and the goal of blowing your mind.

• Food Network star, celebrity chef and butter-lover Paula Deen reportedly has diabetes — and a new drug endorsement deal with Novartis.

• Here's take on the Top 20 press releases of 2011.

• Yes, why the heck isn’t Gary Busey Kia's National Spokesperson?

Below: Renault steps into gay marriage fray, Lululemon pokes fun at its fans (and itself), and more.

• God, apparently, has it in for Tesco.

• Photographer Terry Richardson shot another controversial ad. Also, water is wet.

• Curious how the Glock became America's favorite handgun?

• In 2010 Cadillac drew fire for teaming up with the Chinese Communist Party. Now it's Mercedes' turn to suffer for its "Che" Cuba marketing.

• Making good on his bet with Denver's mayor, Pittsburgh mayor "Tebows" before his city's skyline.

• Disney's Hong Kong Disneyland has best year ever, loses only HK$237 million ($30.5 million).

• Would you watch MySpace TV?

• Corbis acquires product placement powerhouse Norm Marshall Group.

• In case you missed: eBay's annual “Top Shopped” list.

• Michael Kors is the latest designer taking heat for 'Afriluxe' campaign.

• Mercedes-Benz presentation at CES gets flack for using Che Guevara image.

• New Mexico place brand study finds state suffers from perception of being "close to Arizona."

• Salt Lake City named America's Gayest City. Wait, what?!

• From the Dept. of Obvious Jokes: "Kim Kardashian replaced by dog in Skechers Super Bowl ad." Animal activists are outraged.

• Kardashian, btw, reportedly keeps 90% of her eBay charitable donations.

• Ikea woos French by installing pop-up apartment, including residents, in Paris subway:

• Wheat Thins taps Family Guy characters Stewie and Brian:

• Microsoft is expanding the reach of Kinect:

• British designer Paul Smith designs London 2012 Olympics stamps (via):

• Steve Jobs sighting (?) (via)

• Sugar-based compostable polymer creates animal-edible, biorenewable water bottle.

• Geico for Ron Paul 2012? (via)

• Candidate swag showdown: Rick Santorum sells sweater vest. Obama 2012 counters with Joe Biden beer cozy.

• McDonald's aims to make "The Egg McMuffin of" a catchphrase:

• Renault takes a stance on gay marriage:

• Lululemon added to the "$hit ____ Say" meme with this spoof of yoga junkies:

• New Fuji X-Pro1 digital camera comes complete with "Fuji Guys" YouTube episode on how to use the X-Pro1 digital camera.

• Wimpy burger chain in South Africa caters to blind customers with braille burgers:

• TD Ameritrade disables comments on this Matt Damon-narrated commercial to avert web waggery:

• North Dakota campaign raises eyebrows, while Airplane and Naked Gun director and Wisconsin native David Zucker directs Wisconsin tourism campaign:

• Amnesty UK shows the power of letter-writing:

• Geico's Maxwell the Pig spot takes over Facebook and Twitter everytime this ad runs:

• "Say goodbye to the round pizza." And all preconceptions about what a pizza commercial can be. "It's Pizza Boomerang!" (NSFW - severed "cheesy bread.")