Nickelodeon is drawing a line in the sand that likely never would be sanctioned by the network's amiable cartoon hero, SpongeBob SquarePants: It is going to refuse to give in to public pressure to ban ads for non-nutritious foods despite all the concerns about childhood obesity.

"As an entertainment company, Nickelodeon's primary mission is to make the highest quality entertainment content in the world for kids," the company wrote in response to four Democratic US senators' pleas to the network, according to the New York Times. "That is our expertise. We believe strongly that we must leave the science of nutrition to the experts."

The Viacom-owned network has no plans anytime soon to mimic Walt Disney Co., which a year ago unveiled a strict set of nutritional standards and said it would ban ads for noncompliant foods from its child-focused cable channels by 2015.Continue reading...

The latest brand to call the San Francisco 49ers’ new stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. home is Yahoo. The venue, aka Levi’s Stadium (or better, the 'Field of Jeans'), is just down the road from some of Yahoo's offices and will provide an off-campus media hub for the growing internet brand. 

The 10-year deal makes Yahoo the “exclusive online sports content, social networking, and photo and video sharing partner," of the stadium. The company will get to place its logo on the new Fantasy Football lounge as well as install Flickr-branded photo-sharing booths in the stadium's concourses. The booths will have a direct tie-in to the stadium's big screen, as Yahoo hopes it will encourage fans to use Flickr first before uploading to Instagram or Facebook.Continue reading...

The influential J.D. Power & Associates ranking of Initial Quality of auto brands in the US is out today, and the big winners are General Motors and some of its brands, as well as Porsche, Audi, Hyundai, Kia, and Chrysler. 

The main losers in status, defined by the exhaustive study of quality perceptions among American consumers, are BMW, Ram, Mazda and Nissan. Ford and Lincoln brands basically broke even on a combined basis compared with their reduced status from a year ago.

Porsche came out as the top-performing brand overall, rising from third place in 2012. But for the first time, GM could be considered the top-performing company overall in the closely watched study, placing two brands—GMC and Chevrolet—in the top five of the Initial Quality Study (IQS) released today. The annual survey measures the number of problems on 2013 cars and light trucks that buyers report after 90 days of ownership, and so it's a crucial look at very current consumer perceptions and marketplace realities.Continue reading...

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” appears to be the motto Turner Broadcasting is using these days as it heads into its second straight summer Media Camp that helps five innovative startups commercialize their businesses to Turner's stable of networks, as well as other Time Warner media properties. 

“As you might expect, companies of our size and maturity often don’t move as fast as we’d like," said Balaji Gopinath, VP-emerging technology at Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting, according to Ad Age. "Here’s a way for us to spread out the innovation across the startup ecosystem and work collaboratively to define what entertainment might look like in the years to come.”Continue reading...

At United Airlines, soon it will no longer be just the number of miles that passengers fly that helps boost their frequent-flyer standing but also how much they spend. 

According to the Chicago Tribune, those who hope to qualify for the lowest elite tier of United's MileagePlus program will need to either fly 25,000 miles or 30 segments and spend a minimum of $2,500 on United tickets, extra-legroom upgrades, or on partner airlines, such as United Express or Panama’s Copa Airlines. Those with MileagePlus co-branded credit cards are out of luck. Spending on those won’t count toward the minimum levels needed. Neither will taxes, fees, and charges on your bill. Only base fares and fuel surcharges are part of the equation, the Wall Street Journal reports.Continue reading...

Procter and Gamble is a gargantuan global force in branding, with such names as Bounty, Cover Girl, Dawn, Gillette, Pampers, Scope and Tide in its brand portfolio. So why not take over the biggest media city in the world?

In what P&G calls "the largest consumer event in the company's 175 year history," New York City is being blitzed on June 19 with 25 P&G brands as part of "The Everyday Effect," a new campaign. Throughout the city, P&G will distribute more than 40,000 products at strategically timed moments. The company will offer free Scope mouthwash samples to coffee drinkers, Febreze car vent clips to taxi drivers, and Iams dog treats to people walking their dogs.Continue reading...

As luxury brands look to get a better hold on digital-savvy consumers, Burberry has teamed up with Google's Art, Copy & Code to reimagine beauty advertising. 

The interactive ad, dubbed Burberry Kisses, invites users to send a virtual kiss-sealed letter to someone special. Users take a photo of their pout via the camera on their computer, tablet or mobile device, then add one of five Burberry lipstick colors, write a short note and send via email. The website show's a map that follows the kiss' journey and uses street and landmark imagery.Continue reading...

Almost two months after a building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,127 garment workers, reports have surfaced that claim Walmart has continued to accept shipments from garment factories supposedly on its blacklist over safety and quality concerns, according to ProPublica. 

The largest retailer in the world, which was one of several major Western brands that refused to sign on to the Accord on Bangladesh Safety, released a list of rejected garment factories in May that the company says it refuses to do business with due to repeated safety and labor violations. However, according to import and export data, Walmart has been receiving product shipments from two of the factories on the list, Mars Apparels and Simco Dresses. 

Mars was supposedly dropped in 2011, although it was still shipping garments to Walmart as recently as last month, while Simco was placed on the list in January, even though it continued to ship to Walmart Canada into March of this year.Continue reading...