For a swath of American people, the Kardashian family has somehow become the cultural arbiters of sorts for what is cool and what isn’t. So when the pregnant Kim Kardashian went putting names on her baby registry for her bundle of joy due in July, all eyes were on what brands she put on the list.

Consumers won’t be shocked to see that Kardashian went totally high-end with Roberto Cavalli, Baby Dior, Fendi and Chloe making the cut, according to Bhaskar.com. You've got to be sure your kid’s spit-up is on only the nicest gear.Continue reading...

A Bathing Ape (BAPE) celebrates its 8th anniversary in the U.S. today, marking the opening of its New York City flagship store on December 12th, 2004. It's a bittersweet time for many longtime fans, including this writer.

The Planet of the Apes-inspired brand paved the way for many streetwear brands, with a limited edition run of products sparking a huge craze outside of Japan at a time where you could only attain items imported by proxy vendors or resellers. As a result, it was ranked #3 on Complex's "50 Greatest Streetwear Brands" ranking last year.

The New York store, located in SoHo, is still a mainstay for streetwear aficionados, tourists and fans of the Bathing Ape lifestyle — and many of them will be flocking to the store today to pick up the limited edition anniversary gear. With the recent 10th Anniversary of BAPE London, I am reminded of my experiences over the last eight years with BAPE New York and the Bathing Ape brand.Continue reading...

The Chanel Spring/Summer 2013 women's ready to wear runway show at the Grand Palais in Paris on Tuesday raised a few eyebrows, and not just for the new outfits from designer Karl Lagerfeld but for the design of the sets the 68 models strutted on, or the celeb wattage of Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez and her bedazzled four-year-old daughter in the front row.

It was hard to miss the 13 towering wind turbines that dominated the stage, and the solar panels that graced the stage and inspired the tiles on the catwalk. Green, it seems, must be the new black. What’s sexier than a few turbines? "Energy is the most important thing in life," Lagerfeld, who's known for his grand pronouncements, stated. "If I had to build a house, I would put (wind turbines) in the garden.”Continue reading...

As Pinterest starts to overtake Twitter and other websites for referral traffic, it's a tough act to follow. But The Fancy is ready to give it a try.

Geared at fans of great design who already love to suggest new brands and products to their social networks, Mark Zuckerberg and Kanye West are fans of The Fancy, and backers include Ashton Kutcher and PPR head François-Henri Pinault.

But unlike Pinterest, it's not so much about visual scrapbooking as is about generating sales of recommended products, turning users into affiliates. And unlike Klout, no credit is received for influence, only for actual purchase, rewarding users for their taste and influence. It's powering more than $10,000 in sales per day. Modest, but it's a start for a brand that describes itself as “part store, blog, magazine, and wishlist.”Continue reading...

Nike execs must think that they don’t have enough market share or aren’t known by enough consumers or need more clout with the digerati. Unthinkable, we know. Be that as it may, the sporting-goods maker announced at the E3 video-game conference this week a partnership with Microsoft to get into the video-game business together. 

“We’ve moved from being a product company to a services and product company,” commented Stefan Olander, Nike’s VP of digital sport. "Nike+ Kinect Training’ gives everyone access to the same training we give professional athletes. It combines our unique understanding of the greatest athletes in the world with the amazing sensor technology of Kinect for Xbox 360.”

The new product, Nike+ Kinect Training, will hit store shelves before the 2012 holiday shopping season and will only be able to be played on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect. The new add-on, Bloomberg reports, will allow “users to receive feedback from on-screen personal trainers and have a workout designed for them."Continue reading...

Kobe Bryant's mock personal motivation commercial for his latest shoe — the Kobe VII System — for Nike: "Where do you go from the top? You go over the top. The #KobeSystem: Success for the Successful is Kobe's winning, results-oriented philosophy on how to adapt to succeed. You're Welcome."

Celebrity cameos include comedian/actor Aziz Ansari, Hope Solo, LeBron James, Jerry Rice, Landon Donovan, Tony Robbins, Serena Williams, Kanye West,  and Richard Branson.

Find out more (on a more serious note) about the Kobe VII System shoe (Correction: "It isn't a shoe, but a system that adapts with you and allows you to elevate your game," says Nike) below.Continue reading...

BMW projected to beat Mercedes-Benz for US luxury crown.

PepsiCo reportedly mulls layoffs and salary freeze to appease Wall Street.

Kodak bankruptcy report in WSJ slams stock price.

Apple hires Adobe exec to oversee iAds, threatens to sue company behind Steve Jobs doll and rises at Foxconn's expense.

Australia's Commonwealth Bank crowdsources customer ideas.

Arm & Hammer ordered to pull TV commercial criticizing cat litter competitor.

Audi's China sales outstrip Germany.

Boeing closes premier factory in Wichita.

Burberry is now the most popular luxury brand on Facebook, as YouTube, MTV and Coca-Cola lead in FB engagement.Continue reading...

Nielsen this week released its list of the top advertisements of the year.

“The lists demonstrate that reality and scripted shows continued to find innovative ways to integrate brands into their broadcast primetime programming. The best liked ads reflect the enduring value of traditional ad elements that have withstood the test of time – strong creative, simple and engaging messaging, and a solid emotional connection,” says Nielsen in a blog post.

The commercials must have aired in U.S. primetime on a broadcast channel any time from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, 2011. The Likeability Score is the percentage of TV viewers who report to like “a lot” an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing TV, with these scores indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the period (Likeability Index). (100) equals average.

The #1 best-liked ad is Volkswagen's Star Wars nod of a Super Bowl ad ("The Force," or as many called it, "Little Darth Vader") for its new Passat, at top, which scored 231 on Nielsen's Likeability Index. Read about the rest of the top 10 below.Continue reading...