Much of the ascension of the Hyundai brand in the US market has been about hand-holding, ranging from its trailblazing 100,000-mile warranty introduced several years ago to the groundbreaking Hyundai Assurance program in 2009 that promised Hyundai buyers that the company would pick up their car-loan payments if they lost their jobs.

So it's not surprising that Hyundai's newest brand-wide play is a program called Assurance Connected Car, which provides a free platform of safety and maintenance services across its lineup of vehicles that come equipped with its Blue Link telematics system. In advertising, the brand has tapped the musical legacy of Bob Marley and his song, "Three Little Birds," to remind Hyundai customers that they "don't need to worry about a thing" if they have the system.Continue reading...

Marilyn Monroe died back in 1962 with eight milligrams of chloral hydrate and 4.5 milligrams of Nembutal floating around in her system. The 36-year-old former foster child’s death was listed as a “probable suicide” by the L.A. County coroner.

While Monroe’s final years weren’t her best, she had already seared her image onto the collective American culture with her work in such classic films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven-Year Itch and Some Like It Hot, not to mention her sultry birthday serenade to President John F. Kennedy, who also happens to be the last person she called on the phone.

Like Monroe’s original name of Norma Jean Baker, most folks have pretty much forgotten about Monroe’s bad times and her image has become a symbol of sex and glamour. That’s been a lucky gift for Anna Strasburg, the wife of deceased father of method acting Lee Strasburg, the recipient of all Monroe's worldly goods.

Strasberg spent years taking various entities to court so she would clearly have the rights to Monroe’s image when it comes to commercial items. She cashed in and sold the rights to Jamie Salter’s Authentic Brands Group LLC and media company Neca LLC, according to Bloomberg. Salter, meanwhile, is already raking in cash every time any Bob Marley-related item causes a cash register to ring.

Don’t worry about the septuagenarian Strasberg. She stayed on as a minority partner in the company that planned to sell Monroe-branded makeup, lingerie and other products. The latest deal for the company has Macy’s launching a new line of Monroe-inspired clothing on March 15th, following the opening of the first Marilyn Monroe cafe (in Oakville, Canada) in November.Continue reading...

The UK's Galaxy chocolate has caught some flack for its new TV campaign: a spot featuring actress Audrey Hepburn in a scene from her film Roman Holiday. The actress—who passed in 1993—is captured searching for a digitally inserted Galaxy chocolate bar in her purse and later eating the candy bar in the back of a car.  

The Mars-owned brand's commercial is the latest in a growing number of spots (remember Dior's commercial with Charlize Theron that "co-starred" Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Marlene Dietrich?) that have been criticized for using deceased figures, as the latest volley in a growing firestorm over the increasing use of CGI in Hollywood, which includes plans to take more deceased performers' holograms on tour.

Ugh omg they're making Audrey Hepburn sell chocolate?! This is horrifying use of technology :(feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat…

— Felicia Day (@feliciaday) March 1, 2013

It's also not the first attempt at reviving Hepburn, who has been featured in a controversial Gap commercial as well. While a bit jarring, the technology behind the ads speaks to the incredible accomplishments of visual effects (VFX) artists.Continue reading...

Since entrepreneurs launched the "relaxation" beverage category several years ago, brands with catchy names like Vacation in a Bottle and Drank have mostly gone nowhere, at least in terms of the volume of sales that some expected. Beverage Digest has called the sector "one of the more conspicuous underperformers," with Americans seemingly less eager to kick back with such brews than they are to power up with energy drinks.

But now one relaxation player, Marley Beverage, believes that it can leverage the visage of reggae icon Bob Marley and an official association with his family to consolidate a huge chunk of the segment — and maybe even re-energize this type of functional beverage overall.

Marley sold two million cases of its ready-to-drink Marley's Mellow Mood sodas and teas last year, and Kevin McClafferty, president of the Southfield, Mich.-based brand, told brandchannel that he expects Marley to double that volume in 2013. In addition to other expansion plans, a new deal to distribute Marley's Mellow Mood in more than 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide will be key to fulfilling that goal.Continue reading...

Often when a celebrity dies, no matter what kind of damage they may have done to themselves, the culture, or their families, their image suddenly gets cleaned and polished up quite nicely. 

Whoever is controlling the after-death image of Frank Sinatra, though, appears to want to go in the other direction. The mystique of Sinatra – a lady-killing, cocktail-swilling, cocked-hat-wearing Vegas-owning charmer with a sweet singing voice – isn’t getting cleaned up at all. Instead, his famed tippling ways are being amplified by Jack Daniel’s, which is bottling the Ol' Blue Eyes magic with Sinatra Select whisky.

To support the launch, Jack Daniel’s parent Brown Forman is now opening “Sinatra Experience” installations in duty-free shops at airports across the globe that will allow travelers to take a sip of the limited-edition whisky, check out images of Sinatra in action, and listen to his tunes.Continue reading...

Albert Einstein has been dead since 1955 but that doesn’t mean the fuzzy-haired genius isn’t still causing controversies. 

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a beneficiary of Einstein’s will, was not happy back in 2009 when General Motors Photoshopped the well-known face onto the body of a buff bodybuilder in an ad that ran in People magazine for its GMC Terrain SUV. On “Einstein’s” arm was an “e=mc2” tattoo and the ad carried the tagline of “Ideas Are Sexy Too.”

Ideas may be sexy, but Hebrew University was not amused. It sued GM in 2010 and finally got its answer from a judge this week. Judge A. Howard Matz of U.S. District Court found that the use of Einstein’s image was “tasteless,” but not illegal, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. In addition, the judge noted that, even if the action had been illegal at some point, the University had no right to claim Einstein’s image as their own since it had been more than 50 years since Einstein’s death.Continue reading...

Pepsi’s marketing gurus have been appealing to consumers through music seemingly for eons. Much of that perception is due to the success the soda maker has had in tying its name to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Even after the guy’s been laid to rest for more than three years, and earning more than ever, Pepsi is still celebrating its legendary association with the performer.

Back in May, Pepsi announced its deal with the Michael Jackson estate and Sony Music to an exclusive global marketing partnership that included featuring the Gloved One on a billion limited edition Pepsi cans released around the world, starting in China.

As part of its music-based global "Live for Now" platform, the Pepsi brand is reminding consumers that it's been 25 years since Jackson's iconic Bad album was released — an anniversary that director Spike Lee is marking with a documentary, and which Pepsi celebrated in late August in a concert with Billboard and singer Ne-Yo, who performed such hits as Closer from the album, which was released on Aug. 31, 1987.Continue reading...

We've just passed the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death from an overdose of barbiturates, but the world still can’t keep its collective eyes off of her visage — or brand. She may not have an annual week dedicated to her as Elvis does, but her doe-eyed, beauty-marked visage is stronger than ever.

Forbes, which has made something of a cottage industry out of tracking dead celebrities' brands, estimates that Monroe pulled in $27 million in 2011, third behind Michael Jackson and Presley in the dead-celeb sweepstakes.

Her image and likeness are controlled by Authentic Brands Group and partner NECA, which purchased the Monroe brand in 2010. The plan in process now, according to the Associated Press, is to upgrade “Monroe offerings from trinkets to cosmetic lines, spas, salons and apparel.”Continue reading...