Charlie Ergen's Dish Network offers to buy Sprint for $25.5 billion in a bid to one up SoftBank.

ConAgra, Heinz and Nestle lead frozen food battle to reverse negative image.

Nike seeks to regain its edge with fewer ads following Tiger Woods stumble.

Dannon uses Greek-style to leapfrog Yoplait to top of U.S. yogurt business.

Apple clearly enters post-Jobs era.

Justin Bieber sparks controversy with Anne Frank comment.

Boeing sees new inspection order on its 737s.Continue reading...

Heineken’s Star Bottle Arrives Stateside with New Campaign

Heineken’s new taller, sleeker and starred bottle is already available in 170 countries and is now being rolled out in the United States with a new “Arrive Big” ad campaign featuring the brand’s “Man of the World” in such exotic locations as Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Lagos, Nigeria and New York City. In each location, the protagonist finds himself in prickly situations at various clubs, yet somehow ends up with the girl and the beer (and an #arrivebig hashtag, to boot) in the end.

“Our priority is to ‘break the mold’ in beer marketing with cinematic, sophisticated ads that feature our ‘Man of the World,’ a progressive, cultured guy, who is inventive in any situation,” said Colin Westcott-Pitt, vice president of Heineken, in a press release. Heineken doesn’t go so far as to pull a New Coke move and break the mold inside the bottle, of course.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...

Chipotle sales slowdown leads to stock-market plunge.

Kodak risks grow after loss of patent fight.

Samsung passes 10M sales benchmark for Galaxy S3 but iPhone prevails.

Bentley plans SUV.

Cnooc stakes $15B for Canada's Nexen. 

DreamWorks buys Classic Media.

Facebook pace of revenue growth closely watched.Continue reading...

Continuing its annual tradition, Jack Daniel's commissioned graphic designers to come up with their interpretation of America's July 4th holiday. The results (along with short films on their process and inspiratioin) can be viewed at jackdaniels.com/independence.

The brand worked with independent artists in Berkeley, CA; Austin, TX; and Brooklyn, NY, to create five posters centered around the theme of Independence. The poster above, for example, was "sewn entirely by hand using hand-dyed, American muslin fabric soaked in tea and Jack Daniel's."

The project also raises a glass this year to letterpress pioneers Yee-Haw Industries, which produced 10 posters for the project kick-off last year and (sadly) recently shut its doors.

ABC dismisses rumors of Pan Am's demise.

Amazon continues being coy about Kindle sales.

Apple's Siri can handle Viagra but not abortions.

AT&T disturbed by FCC report.

Audi finds success with youthful marketing.

BBC web redesign goes live in the UK.

Carlsberg acquires Vietnamese brewer.

Google and Facebook ordered to de-index counterfeit domains.

Jack Daniel's holiday campaign celebrates brand's Lynchburg, Tenn. roots.

Janet Jackson teams up with Blackglama to design luxury fur line.

Microsoft Office is reportedly coming to the iPad as Windows tablet hopes fade.Continue reading...

SoCo with a Kick

Brown-Forman’s Southern Comfort is joining the flavoured spirits trend, but instead of going for sweet, like Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey or Jim Beam’s cherry-flavored Red Stag, SoCo is bringing out the spice with its new Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper.

The liqueur is splashed with Tabasco and aimed at the shot-drinking young male market as well as being promoted as a key ingredient for spicy cocktails. The brand surely hopes the new product will be a shot in the arm, as the overall Southern Comfort brand had an 11 percent drop in revenue during the quarter that ended July 31.Continue reading...

When it comes to alcohol, Virginia is one of the most conservative states in the nation. Bars can’t post their happy-hour times outside or hang neon beer signs in the window. Any place that serves alcohol by the drink is required by law to also serve food, and until the 1980s, a tavern couldn’t have the word “ale” in its name.

One thing that’s changing, however — liquor brands can now advertise on billboards across the Old Dominion State, as long as they are more than 500 feet away from schools, religious institutions, and daycare facilities, according to the Virginia Statehouse News.Continue reading...