The "Branomics Bra" lingerie package aims to piggyback on Japan's booming economic growth to "help bust sizes to get bigger." Wishful thinking.

"Branomics" is just the latest marketing stunt attempting to capitalize on Japan's craze for "Abenomics," itself an all-or-nothing marketing stunt created as part of an ambitious rebrand of Japan's top politician. The "Branomics" package comes with a bow and arrow for good reason. A core detail of Prime Minister Sinzo Abe's "Abenomics" is the "three arrows" for growth: stimulus spending, monetary policy shifts and regulation easing.Continue reading...

It turns out that still, business and politics make difficult bedfellows as 'disruptive' Mark Zuckerberg finds himself—and Facebook—the target of progressive scrutiny over his newly minted political agenda. 

The Facebook CEO’s FWD.us super PAC focuses mainly on immigration reform in the name of creating a better, brighter workforce, but the group, which includes Silicon Valley superstars Bill Gates, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman and Dropbox's Drew Houston, is getting push-back from a coalition of nine liberal grassroots organizations including Progressives United, CREDO, the Sierra Club, the Daily Kos and Democracy for America, all of whom pulled their ads from Facebook after FWD.us began running ads for the Keystone Pipeline, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and attacks on Obamacare.

Groups boycotting the ads cite the "cynical" strategy behind them. “Leaders in the technology community have every right to talk about how immigration reform will benefit their businesses,” Progressives United's Josh Orton Feingold told Mashable. "But instead, FWD.us has chosen a strategy that’s condescending to voters and counterproductive to the cause of reform."Continue reading...

First, his slogan was "Change." Then it was "Forward." So tonight, as President Barack Obama lays out his second-term agenda tonight in his first  State of the Union since winning re-election, he'll also be giving a sense of what his presidential brand looks to stand for in the final years of his administration, too.

It's reported that he plans to focus on unfinished business such as immigration reform, educational improvement, gun control and climate change. The White House also promises an emphasis on the still-stagnant U.S. economy and ideas for federal spending to stimulate it. 

At the same time, an unspoken part of Obama's agenda remains outmaneuvering the opposition Republican Party, which is facing its own crossroads as the president grabs the spotlight again this evening.Continue reading...

The National Rifle Association is anything but shirking from a fight as efforts to regulate firearms in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. shooting massacre take shape. As a brand, it's staking out bold, unyielding territory that looks to cede few if any points.

President Obama’s sweeping proposal to reducing gun violence, announced Wednesday, aims to close background check loopholes, and ban military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. His initiative was accompanied by a new Twitter hashtag: #NowIsTheTime. 

The tenor of the NRA's response, however, took further shape on Tuesday with a provocative ad that portrays Obama and other political leaders as hypocrites for allowing their families to be protected by gun-toting federal agents while they dismiss calls for armed guards in schools. Continue reading...

It doesn’t much matter what a high-ranking Republican’s actual politics are. At some point along the way, if he or she wants to be accepted by mainstream Republicans, he or she should pay some kind of homage to beloved GOP icon Ronald Reagan. And to those who somehow besmirch his name or his policies, look out.

As for those of you who try to actually own a piece of the 40th US president's hallowed legacy, be ready to feel the heat. The 54-year-old American Security Council Foundation (ASCF) is feeling it right about now after it trademarked one of Reagan’s most famous campaign mottos: “Peace Through Strength.”

That has left a few Republicans, especially those who worked in the Reagan White House, feeling a little frustrated. Seventeen former members of Reagan’s national security team put their names on a letter to the ACSF asking it “to back off its intent to sue any organization using the slogan in a proprietary fashion,” according to HumanEvents.com.

“For those of us who proudly served with President Reagan, it is unimaginable that anyone would seek to own a phrase immortalized by him – and, as a result, made not only an enduring feature of our country’s political lexicon, but a touchstone for all those who love freedom, and understand what is required to safeguard it,” they wrote, the site reports.Continue reading...

It's hard to think of a brand that is more in crisis today than the Republican Party. Not even JCPenney or Groupon, Kodak or BlackBerry come close.

The dimensions of the licking that the Grand Old Party took at the polls on Tuesday are still unfolding, but Republican leaders and rank-and-file members alike are trying to figure out, exactly, just where they go from here.

They certainly wasted little time in getting started. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, already was communicating via social media in the wee hours of Wednesday that his party needs a new outreach to Hispanics and other minorities — but one based on the appeal of conservative principles such as the importance of the family and hard work.

Beyond that basic formula, there's little agreement within the party ranks about where and how Republicans need to proceed in order to bolster the flagging morale of partisans, try to make back some of the lost ground in elections in 2014 and, of course, ultimately do better in capturing the White House in 2016 when two-term President Obama can't run again.Continue reading...

Brand Obama is facing a significant challenge today as so-called Obamacare (the sweeping healthcare reform law that was introduced on March 2010) goes before the Supreme Court (ABC News is live-blogging). It's a bit of a setback as the president is also actively campaigning for re-election in November.

The Obama Campaign’s social call-to-action documentary The Road We've Traveled, available on the President’s new YouTube platform, is the jewel in the crown of the President’s social media persona.

Directed by the Academy Award winning director of An Incovenient Truth, Davis Guggenheim, it's narrated by Tom Hanks and has racked up almost 2 million views since it debuted on March 15th.Continue reading...

In America, everything remains political, and that includes brand preference. According to YouGov BrandIndex, Republicans and Democrats (surprise!) do not completely see eye to eye on brand trustworthiness.

But there is hope that our nation's partisan divide will be healed… with Cheerios.Continue reading...