It’s not easy being a cruise passenger these days. Sure, you’ve got fabulous live shows to attend, shuffleboard aplenty, and heaping steam tables of food to consume, but you’ve also got to live with the possibility that a fire could break out and shut down the rest of your trip, or that the engines might fail and leave all the toilets not working properly for days.

Unfortunately for thousands of passengers, the above instances have already occured in a streak of accidents that have plagued the cruise industry over the last six months, affecting several of Carnival Cruise Lines ships and now Royal Caribbean. The incidents have surely affected the industry's latest numbers as potential customers have been deterred from traveling while loyal cruisers have opted out of their choice vacations. To help rebuild the industry’s fundamental base and hopefully encourage passengers to travel again, the industry’s trade group, Cruise Lines International Assn., has just adopted a passenger bill of rights, the Chicago Tribune reports.Continue reading...

As promised, a slew of new ad campaigns made their red carpet debut during the Oscars telecast Sunday night on ABC and in local markets. Below, check out new campaigns for Samsung Mobile (starring director Tim Burton and a unicorn), Kristen Chenoweth for Royal Caribbean, Jennifer Aniston for Aveeno, Naomi Watts for Pantene and more. Then tell us which (if any) you think deserve best in show—and which marketers should have saved a million dollars or so.Continue reading...

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...

P&G sees profit soar and revenue drop in latest earnings report.

Kimberly-Clark pulls back in Europe.

Twitter encourages brands to find and use their authentic voice.

Apple earnings report on Thursday will be closely watched.

AT&T sees slowing in wireless-subscriber growth.

Barbie CMO looks to Royal Caribbean cruise experience launch in new year.

Best Buy shakes up management.Continue reading...

As Hollywood's year winds to a close, it's a weekend of "colons." Three sequels are hitting theaters with the industry hoping audiences are more interested in seeing an old idea again over anything new.

The Hollywood fare opening this weekend — Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and ‪Alvin and The Chipmunks: Chip Wrecked‬ — use colon-tastic titles in lieu of roman numerals. Sequels they are nonetheless. Even the product placement and marketing seems reheated.Continue reading...

Tough guy Mickey Rourke laughing at himself in Snickers ad is great, though it's no Steven Seagal for Mountain Dew commercial. (via)

Get the "real story" behind Apple's "Think Different" ad campaign.

Google is being lobbied to quit a lobbying group: the US Chamber of Commerce. To find out more, Google: "Google + quit + US Chamber of Commerce."

Parental SEO alert, from "12 Harsh Truths About the Internet": "If you want your kid to be Googleable, you'll have to give them a weird-ass name."Continue reading...

AOL reorganizes into four business units.

Apple softens stance to lure mobile ads, as iAds seen as rare failure for Steve Jobs.

AT&T deal with T-Mobile granted a delay by judge.

BBC to make World News available through Comcast.

China Mobile tops Millward Brown ranking of Chinese brands.

Deloitte sees gamification as one of the top tech trends of 2012.

Facebook seen as not needing Wall Street to go public; tests private messages between people and pages.

HP dumps its iPad rival on eBay.

IHOP opens fast-casual IHOP Express.

Ikea sues Irish home retailer for allegedly copying prints.

Intel tells customers they can turn up the heat in server rooms.

Interbrand named branding agency of the year by Marketing magazine.Continue reading...

Of the handful of movies opening this weekend, only one -- Adam Sandler's "Jack and Jill" -- has anything to offer the practice of product placement. But that one promises to make up for all the others.

This year has already seen one product-packed Adam Sandler movie. February's "Just Go With It" featured nearly 50 brands, from YSL to Budweiser to Pizza Hut and Pepsi to Sony Ericsson.

And sure, the best Adam Sandler movie jokes now appear in the reviews before the film's release, but in the last 13 years the actor/producer has 12 $100-million films. So when Adam Sandler farts, brands listen. Continue reading...