The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the president of the bakers union in court-ordered mediation with Hostess Brands said he's "not too optimistic" that a settlement will be reached or the company's liquidation plan (now adjourned to 11 a.m. EST on Wednesday) reversed:

In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union President Frank Hurt, who’s not attending the mediation being held in New York Tuesday afternoon, said he’s heard "not a word" about how the talks are going. But he doesn’t think a deal will be reached to head off the Twinkie maker’s liquidation because his members aren’t prepared to take the labor concessions Hostess says it needs to survive.

Will brand loyalists have more success convincing President Obama to nationalize Twinkies — or will Pabst ride to the rescue and save Twinkie the Kid? Stay tuned.

Update: The announcement that mediation failed came at 7:08 p.m. ET: "Hostess Brands Inc. announced today that a mediation today with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union was unsuccessful. The Company will have no further comment until a hearing scheduled for tomorrow at 11 a.m., EST, before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York"

[Image via]

It is said that the Academy Awards are the Super Bowl for those who don't love sports. Well, the comparison may be more approriate then originally intended. Whereas football fans have suffered game blackouts thanks to fights between cable carriers and the NFL Network, Oscar fans may face similar blackouts as Disney's battle with Cablevision Systems heats up. And it's not just the viewers who may suffer; awards-show advertisers face a loss of millions of eyeballs.Continue reading...

In Britain, a price war has erupted among grocers rushing to capitalize on the demise of Woolworth’s. Formidable supermarket chain Asda seeks to knock non-food rival Tesco from the number one spot.

As part of an expansion of its non-food stock, Asda announced it will increase the volume of goods sourced through its US owner, Wal-Mart. The partnership with Wal-Mart will allow Asda to offer cut-rate prices on non-food items -- from candles to bedding -- challenging main competitor Tesco for market share. Asda already sources 40% of its goods from Wal-Mart.Continue reading...

Brands hate scandals, so it comes as no surprise that many are distancing themselves from Tiger Woods.

Gatorade's move to discontinue its line of Tiger Focus beverages is intriguing because the brand had been quietly planning to drop the line long before the golf phenom's recent affairs became printed on every tabloid.

In fact, before Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade (Irony Alert: Tiger represents Buick, but hasn't been seen in a TV advertisement since late-November) Beverage Digest published a report stating the product line was scheduled for termination. Editor John Sicher explains:Continue reading...

It's got to sting when you go slumming, only to have the slum-dwellers tell you that you don't measure up.

To review: under pressure from Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's, and with its brand value in decline, Starbucks introduced Via instant coffee with an in-store taste-test promotion intended to prove that the new instant can't be told apart from the store brew. Not the best way to maintain a brand that was built upon premium-quality coffee and the idea that Starbucks stores are America's "third place" (after home and work), we thought.

Starbucks demolished Nescafé in the '90s. Why would they now want to copy them?

Nescafé had the exact same idea, it seems. En route to brandchannel HQ this morning, we saw Nescafé workers (happy to pose with their banner) setting up a sampling station for a taste test of their own. Their graphic contrasts an unbranded, but clearly Starbucks-looking paper cup of instant (over a package that uses the Via colors) with a ceramic mug featuring the updated Nescafé logo above a Taster's Choice package. The copy reads: "A lot of hype. OR a lot of flavor."Continue reading...