The United States Postal Service is in the midst of massive layoffs and soul-searching about its future, as it looks to cut 35,000 jobs as a way of dealing with its $18.2 billion annual loss, but it's still trying to innovate in a digital era when hand-delivered mail seems quaint.

The U.S. Postal Service has just launched a new mobile application for iPhone users that lets the device's camera scan barcodes on shipping labels for "quick, easy and convenient tracking of their packages and other mail. The application stores the label numbers so customers can easily recheck the status of their shipments. The scanner function is available on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2."Continue reading...

David Arquette is still better known in some quarters as husband to Courteney Cox and brother to Rosanna Arquette.

But he's also chairman of Feeding America’s Entertainment Council, where his Hollywood ties have helped attract his friends for a worthy cause.

Thanks to Arquette, stars including Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Rachael Ray, Mario Batali, Josh Groban, Ben Harper and Sheryl Crow and (of course) his wife Courteney are helping with the organization's goal of feeding the one in six Americans (49.1 million, including 16.7 million children) who do not have enough to eat on a daily basis.  

The oranization, formerly known as Second Harvest, is now gearing up for its single biggest day of the year, when Help Stamp Out Hunger returns on May 8th.Continue reading...

If a pharmaceutical company appears in a film, it’s usually the bad guy, so it might be surprising that pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is financing a movie and ceding creative control to the filmmakers.

But GSK is apparently dissatisfied with its previous efforts to market its weight-loss drug, Alli -- a once-promising brand that hasn’t lived up to its high hopes -- and is trying a more indirect route to promote the product. The Times reports that GSK will announce on January 25, at the Sundance Film Festival, which “Academy Award-winning director” it hired for a documentary on obesity.Continue reading...

General Mills, the brand associated with Wheaties and Cheerios, is focusing on digital media and cross-cultural marketing projects in an attempt to increase sales amid the recession.

Recent initiatives include Tablespoon.com, a site that combines content from a variety of food-centric blogs, and a line of applications for Windows 7 and the iPhone created to bolster the Betty Crocker brand. General Mills has also designed a "Virtual Store," which recreates the shopping experience and allows customers to provide feedback to actual retailers through a "Shopper 360" survey.Continue reading...

Most reality television shows consider it a success simply to be rewarded with a second season. Not The Biggest Loser. The NBC show is a reality weight-loss competition, on national TV in the US, that pits morbidly obese contestants against one another for a huge cash prize -- the underlying, feel-good real prize, of course, being their improved health. And the show has exploded with brand extensions.

But will recent negative news hurt the show, and thus, the brand?

The feel-good melodrama of the show, its relentless sentimentality, has made The Biggest Loser a programming hit -- not to mention a growing health-and-fitness consumer brand that generates an estimated $100 million per year. There are Biggest Loser drink mixes, exercise balls, cook books and much more. There is even the Biggest Loser Club, a sort of social media site for the health and weight-loss conscious.

The success of this empire -- the show itself and all the branded products -- depends upon the perception that it is a success. That is to say, people believe in the Biggest Loser brand because they believe the show's narrative. So what happens when a major news story reveals the show to be a little less than forthright?Continue reading...