Apple dodges $9 billion in US taxes with bond deal.

Google named Advertiser of the Year. 

Volkswagen makes $10 million donation to the National Mall.

Adidas sales drop on weakening Reebok brand.

Barnes & Noble begins support of Google apps on Nook.

Beam sales rise because of "formula run" on Maker's Mark.

Diet Coke slims down its vending machines.

Ford adds jobs and raises capacity to make pick-up trucks.

Geritol seeks new life with younger consumers.

Huffington Post brings rapid-response "native" ads to its home page.Continue reading...

While the Obama administration continues to deliberate to what extent and how quickly food and beverage companies must communicate more nutrition information on the packages of their products, more CPG leaders are stepping out with their own initiatives to address still-rising concerns about junk food and obesity in America.

Hershey is the latest. The candy leader announced that it will print the amounts of calories, saturated fats, sodium and sugar per serving on the front of all of its packages beginning in the second half of this year and evolving across all of its packaging over the next several years.

"We are doing this because we belive that front-of-pack labeling provides consumers with straightforward information that empowers them to make informed food and beverage choices when shopping," said a Hershey spokesman, according to Candy and Snack Today.Continue reading...

Apple loses iPad Mini trademark, and finds a fan in Kim Jong-un as North Korea rattles saber and tensions rise with U.S., while increased China headaches include hacking threat and iPad regulation.

Discovery Communications expands global channel reach and launches scripted programming.

Novartis loses cancer drug patent battle in India.

Amazon buys Goodreads community-driven user reviews website.

AMC reveals new tagline and logo.

Armani hires Cate Blanchett for $10M campaign.

AT&T scores with March Madness Twitter campaign.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...

In what seems like impeccable timing, Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke delivered a sustainability-focused keynote at the annual City Food Lecture in the U.K., ultimately challenging the accusations made about the company in a damning Oxfam report earlier this week. 

The speech, which focused on the escalating perils of water scarcity, outlined that fresh water overuse poses a serious environmental, political and social hazard. Water is an issue near and dear to his heart, as the Swiss company is the world's No. 3 producer of bottled water, and looking to expand in water-constrained markets such as China.

“It is anticipated that there will be up to 30% shortfalls in global cereal production by 2030 due to water scarcity,” he said. “This is a loss equivalent to the entire grain crops of India and the United States combined.”  What's more, he added, “We could produce what we produce today with half the water we use.” 

In his address, Bulcke cited his company’s reduction of water usage by a third with 1,200 agronomists working with Nestlé to better manage its water use. Bulcke also commented that consumer acceptance of misshapen fruit and vegetables is necessary to cut waste of food products, as well as spoke out against the fuel industry for using food crops to create biofuels. 

Bulcke also took the opportunity to further address the horse meat crisis affecting retailers such as IKEA and manufacturers in Europe, a crisis that compelled Nestle to pull some food products off store shelves last week. “Widespread fraud is being committed by a few across Europe. I understand that many consumers and many of you in the industry feel misled, I feel the same. This should not happen, it is unforgivable. We have let our consumers down.”Continue reading...

The world’s ten biggest food and beverage giants no longer fit the bill when it comes to environmental policies and worker’s rights according to "Behind the Brands," the latest report from international agency Oxfam.  

The “Big 10”—Associated British Foods (ABF), Coca-Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever collectively make $1 billion a day while exploiting millions of people who supply land, labor, water and commodities to make their products and live primarily in developing countries, Oxfam states. 

The report notes that Coca-Cola products are consumed 1.7 billion times per day and 4,000 cups of Nescafé are consumed every second. The Big 10 represent roughly 10% of the world economy.

Oxfam’s report ranks the brands on seven metrics: Land (supply chains free of ‘land grabs’), Women (promotion of women’s welfare), Farmers (treatment and sustainability policies), Workers (fair treatment of agricultural workers), Climate (mitigating greenhouse gas emissions), Transparency (disclosure of information about products and ingredients point of origin) and Water (basic respect of human right to potable water).

“None of the ten biggest food and beverage companies are moving fast enough to turn around a 100-year legacy of relying on cheap land and labor to make mass products at huge profits, with unacceptably high social and environmental costs,” said Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director Oxfam International. “No company emerges with a good overall score. Across the board all ten companies need to do much more.” Continue reading...

In addition to new campaigns for Ford's "Hello Again" music project for the Lincoln brand and Kraft's "We are the World"-like music video for its Miracle Whip dressing during the Grammy Awards telecast on CBS, a host of other brands used the post-Super Bowl platform to make some noise.

Anheuser Busch InBev's Bud Light Platinum debuted its new new campaign by its new "creative director," Justin Timberlake, while Target also used the Grammys to kick off its tie-in with the singer's new album and promote its tie-ins with singer Pink and fashion designer Prabal Gurung:Continue reading...

Some 30-second blocks of Super Bowl airtime are being sold for as high as $4 million — a $500,000 increase from the top seller in last year's telecast, according to USA Today.

The research firm Kantar Media notes that the increase means that the price “is growing at three to five times the rate it did just a decade ago.” 

"No one is holding a gun to the heads of these advertisers," Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar, told USA Today. "Clearly, these are price increases the market is willing to bear." Swallen said he thinks the first 30-seconds-for-$5 million Super Bowl deal could air in 2016.

Those tuning in for the cola giants and other brand marketers suiting up for Game Day are in luck: The number of in-game ads has been going up, Swallen said.

One of the brands shelling out that kind of dough is M&M's, which had a much-heralded spot in the last year’s Super Bowl. M&M's won’t release its commercial or details of the ad in advance, according to a press release. However, the ad is tied to a new "Better With M" spot and social campaign that launched this week.Continue reading...