Disney acquires Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, plans to restart Star Wars franchise.

Apple sees executive refuse to apologize for mapping flaw, so he and retail chief are to depart as design head Jony Ive takes on bigger role and Apple shares slip post-shakeup.BP returns to profitability and raises dividend.

BP returns to profitability and raises dividend.

Activision goes big for CoD: Black Ops 2.

Aldi revamps as German consumers reject austerity.

Bayer acquires Schiff for $1.2 billion.

Burger King boosts marketing and makes demographic inroads.

Ford profits reflect North American gains and European woes.Continue reading...

It's a little unusual that Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. thinks he's Bob Marley reincarnated, especially given he was 9 years old when the reggae legend passed. Snoop Dogg's name change to Snoop Lion is not all that unusual among the celebrity set, however.

Snoop Lion, as the artist formerly known as Snoop Dogg will now be known, claims he found himself on a trip to Jamaica in January and is pursuing a higher calling. "I have always said I was Bob Marley reincarnated," he announced. "I feel I have always been a Rastafari. I just didn't have my third eye open, but it's wide open right now."

Apparently tired of singing about drugs, alcohol, and women, Snoop Lion is — of course — releasing a reggae album under his new persona, titled — of course — “Reincarnated.” He's calling it an album he hopes his "kids and grandparents can listen to."Continue reading...

As promised last month, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning's Airtime has gone live, with the tagline "Create shared experiences with the people you know, and the people you want to know." The social video chat service from Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker is officially on the air, launching at a New York press conference with Jim Carrey, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Ed Helms, Joe McHale, Jimmy Fallon, Olivia Munn, Alicia Keys and Snoop Dogg in attendance.Continue reading...

It's a well known fact that the brand value of dead celebrities lives far beyond the celebrities themselves. Bob Marley may have died in 1981, but his name has made him immortal, at least in terms of earning power. Elvis continues to have perennial brand presence, getting an extra boost from Graceland's year-long celebration of his life in this, the 35th anniversary of his death.

But this past weekend, a whole new form of dead celebrity worship came to life at the Coachella music festival in California. On Sunday night, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog performed "live" on stage with Tupac Shakur, the rapper who was killed in 1996. Of course, Dre and Snoop performed live; Tupac's performance was a holographic video with updated audio tailored to the crowd. Still, the image was so seemingly alive and so stunning that it may prompt a Tupac tour, according to The Wall Street Journal.Continue reading...

L.A. rapper Snoop Dogg may be best known for his tunes — he performed Thursday night at the Doritos Jacked six-story vending machine stage at SXSW — but the guy sure likes his sports. A few years ago, he started the Snoop Youth Football League to help get underprivileged kids playing the game. 

That little venture got him some good publicity when it launched but then caught him the other way back in November when the Pilson jets in Chicago had its players “banned from taking part in a playoff game,” allegedly because of a “$22,000 bill for the team's equipment (that) had been left unpaid.”

It may be a Dogg eat Dogg world, but he's not giving up on sports team ownership — Fuse TV reports that he's becoming a part owner of the Los Angeles Riderettes of the brand new Lady Arena Football League.Continue reading...

Google taps David Beckham to promote Google+ as company grapples with social search fallout, and apologizes for Kenyan flub.

Apple's iPad 3 expected to go on sale in March with HD screen and faster chip. Apple also joined the Fair Labor Association, opening suppliers' doors to labor rights watchdog in transparency response to Foxconn fears — the first tech brand to do so.

Bentley courts Maybach fans including Jay-Z — who has just signed on as the face of (and an investor in) Duracell.

British films to be pitched as a global brand.

BT will offer free Wi-Fi at London Olympic Games.

Disney Studios quickly fills CMO position.

Dr Pepper brand name is removed from Texas town.

Easyjet fined for barring disabled passengers.

Excedrin recall expands to Canada.

Olivia Munn strips off for PETA.Continue reading...

What would Bob Barker think? Snoop Dogg kicked off Celebrity Charity Week on The Price is Right on CBS today by winning more than $70,000 for his charity the Snoop Youth Football League, his youth football league based in Chicago. TPR host Drew Carey and the longrunning game show's producers are matching the contestants' winnings to boost the charitable donations this week, which will also see Jenny McCarthy, Neil Patrick Harris, Chris Daughtry, and Heidi Klum take part for their favorite charities. Below, the Doggfather — a tireless endorser — talks backstage about his latest star turn.Continue reading...

Air New Zealand isn’t above doing something a little scandalous to bring in customers and publicity. Two years ago, it painted uniforms onto the skin of supposed members of a ANZ flight crew for an ad campaign, raising more than a few eyebrows.

Then a year ago, the airline introduced a brand mascot: a raunchy puppet named Rico, who starred in an online-only ad campaign in which he used “sexual innuendo and chats with B-grade celebrities,” such as David Hasselhoff, Richard Simmons, Snoop Dogg and Lindsay Lohan, to help sell the airline, according to New Zealand’s Stuff.

Rico found some success, collecting 4.5 million YouTube viewers and more than 48,000 Facebook fans along the way. ANZ is likely the only major airline that had a series of online ads starring a puppet that all opened with the text, “The following video contains language and themes of a sensitive nature. Viewer discretion is advised.”Continue reading...