Pfizer drops on weaker sales of specialty care drugs and emerging market slump, plans to buy back up to $10B in shares.

UK lawmakers prepare to grill Starbucks, Amazon and Google on taxes.

Con Edison makes progress in restoring NYC neighborhoods' power, while MTA offers free fares in bid to get New York moving again.

Apple's Cook fields his A-team before a wary Wall Street.

Avon sees sales drop in China and the U.K.

Barclay's hit with record U.S. fine.

Burger King tests delivery service in Florida.Continue reading...

Ford has taken some arrows as the auto industry's social-media-marketing leader, most notably around a staged press conference in Sept. 2011 that was pushed out on social media. But for the most part, the automaker's social aggressiveness has helped it conquer new territory. Becoming an acknowledged trailblazer in the arena also has helped Ford sidestep potential problems that can attend companies if they get too far out on social-media limbs.

"Ford being well-respected ... in the social space, has given us an added level of credibility and it has given us a legion of fans who actually act as our eyes and ears and who can flag stuff for us," Scott Monty, Ford's director of social media, told Business Insider. People are "looking out for our best interests and will say, you know, 'You guys might want to take a look at this.'" Including, evidently, the company's CEO.Continue reading...

General Motors' CMO Joel Ewanick made waves this week with the news that he's refusing to buy ads on Facebook until he can be convinced there's any ROI for doing so. The automaker is still committed to engaging on Facebook, as a statement on GM's Facebook page this morning notes:

"Just wanted to let our millions of Facebook fans know, we're still here, and we 'like' you back! We may not be advertising on Facebook at the moment but we'll still be talking with you all daily. If anything, we will be providing more content across our many GM Facebook pages - including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac - to keep the dialogue going."

He's got some sympathies from brand executives of other automakers who are scratching their heads about the value of actually paying for space on the ubiquitous social site. But most car brands (including Kia and Subaru, as the Wall Street Journal noted) are sticking with Facebook ads as well as in beefing up the content and engagement available that doesn't cost them anything (other than staffers' time or agency fees) on their brands' Facebook pages.

Ford strikes the highest-profile dissension with its cross-town rival in assessing the value of paid ads on Facebook. "We are doing more advertising on Facebook," Matt VanDyke, Ford's director of marketing communications, told brandchannel, "and it is a growing and critical part of our media mix."Continue reading...

Ford is pursuing the Millennial generation these days like the rest of the global auto industry. But so far the carmakers' love largely has gone unrequited by a car-reluctant cohort.

Now, Ford hopes that a new Mustang can keep wooing Generation Y the way that its new Ford Fiesta did when it debuted a couple of years ago. Ford design chief J Mays has been telling folks for a while that the 2014 Mustang will comprise perhaps the nameplate's sharpest departure ever from the "pony car" that first excited the baby boomers a half-century ago under the guidance of then-Ford executive Lee Iacocca.

The company will have to be cautious. In the 1970s, after mistakenly believing that the appeal of the original, muscular, blockish Mustang design had run its course with the car market, Ford introduced a vastly diluted design and called it Mustang II.Continue reading...

Amazon looms as nemesis of book publishers, as children's book publisher pulls its titles.

Apple denies designer Philippe Starck's claim of 'revolutionary' device.

Arby's makes social media blunder over Rush Limbaugh advertising.

Archie comics legal battle heats up.

Audi may select its North American plant site this week, with Mexico the favorite, Automotive News says.

CBS emphasizes hard news to regain an edge.

Citigroup reports better-than-expected revenue growth.Continue reading...

Here's the commercial for Madonna's new "Truth or Dare" fragrance deemed too racy by Disney's ABC TV censors.

Below, enjoy some bacontastic branding mmmoves, and more:Continue reading...

For a film with more than 25 identifiable brands on-screen, 21 Jump Street (the new #1 movie, taking in $35 million its opening weekend) does not come across as packed with product placement. As one would expect from a modern update on the 1980s TV series, there are a number of gags made at the expense of brand names.

The movie pokes fun at "Pop Quiznos," Taco Bell, Porsche and a pink VW Beetle. Not to mention Smith & Wesson police bicycles, Glock, Springfield Armory handguns, and other brands sure to resonate with a highly brand-aware Generation Y audience. There is even a gag about a new designer drug created with Doritos. (Incidentally, 21 Jump Street star Jonah Hill was last seen on-screen with Doritos in Superbad.)

But the cleverest product placement of the whole film was probably missed by a majority of the audience. Indeed, not one review or tweet mentions it.Continue reading...

• Go ahead, customize that 2013 Mustang — but watch out for the little ballerina with the inner Black Swan.

• "For sale - a willing and able permanent or temporary employee." Unemployed woman auctions herself on eBay.

• "Eyevertising!" Unemployed Londoner offers ad space ... on his eye.

Below, check out Funny or Die's Kia Optima spoof with Blake Griffin and Jeff Goldblum; Salma Hayek's midnight run for the Milk Mustache campaign; will.i.am drives buzz for Chrysler; and more.Continue reading...