That whooshing sound you hear? It's the sound of the web wobbling as Lady Gaga's new single, Born This Way, spreads online today. The Vogue cover girl will be featured on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper on Sunday — tied to her appearance at the Grammy Awards that night.

HP isn't the only brand you'll see at Sunday's Grammy Awards on CBS. TurboTax is sponsoring a backstage lounge for artists and performers, hosted by CBS correspondent Shira Lazar. She will be interviewing nominees and winners, promoted by a #grammyguide sponsored hashtag on Twitter.

As TurboTax seeks to remind music fans to keep it top of mind this tax preparation season, its Twitter and Facebook posts will also highlight its Grammys sponsorship this weekend. It's also promoting TurboTaxMojo.com, which redirects to its YouTube channel for its Grammy coverage.

Lazar will also be part of the Grammys live-stream coverage on YouTube, which has its own #grammylive hashtag.

HP's new global marketing campaign celebrates how people around the world are using HP technology to pursue their personal and professional passions.

The launch of its worldwide "Everybody On"  tagline and branding campaign – "spanning music, fashion, community activism, business and more" – is being executed via an integrated marketing campaign featuring print, broadcast, online and social media.

It's timed to the launch of three new WebOS-enabled mobile devices this week: the Pre3 smartphone, a mini-smart phone called the Veer and its Touchpad tablet. 

The campaign also builds on the brand's “The Computer is Personal Again” campaign, and will be in evidence this weekend as part of its continuing support of the Grammy Awards on Sunday and Grammy-winning artist Alicia Keys.Continue reading...

Lady Gaga is having a(nother) moment.

She's on the March cover of Vogue (her first), hitting newsstands around the time that she unveils her new single at the Grammy Awards (Feb. 13), where she's been nominated for six Grammys; and her second Viva Glam collection for MAC, which launches Feb. 17.

She's also being honored (though not yet inducted) by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in May, which is including her in its first nod to women rockers, and releases her highly anticipated next album on May 23.

Continuing her sideline as an enthusiastic endorser of brands, she's using her social clout to help launch SkyGrid Groups, a new social platform. And, according to Forbes projections, she could topple U2 this year as the world's top-grossing act.

(Update: here's Vogue's profile)

What do the Super Bowl, Grammy Awards, Oscars, and the 2012 Vancouver Olympics have in common?

Huge audiences.

Big "event" broadcasts in 2010 have reversed the trend of shrinking TV audiences. The Oscars drew its largest audience in a half decade; the Grammy's, its largest in six years. The Olympics was the first program to rate higher than American Idol since 2004. February's Super Bowl was the most watched TV program of all time.

With the ability to raise ad rates on such events as much as 10 percent now a real possibility, broadcasters are cheering the development. "What you see in television is the classic example of supply and demand... Yes, rights fees will keep going up. And, yes, ad fees will keep going up," said the chairman of Fox Sports.Continue reading...

When Weatherproof posted a massive billboard – in Times Square – featuring President Barack Obama in one of the brand's jackets, the White House was not amused. Following some wrangling, during which time Weatherproof milked the press for all it was worth, the brand agreed to remove the ad.

So what is the brand doing now that it lost the "endorsement" of a President from Illinois? It's getting the endorsement of another President from Illinois.

A Weatherproof billboard on Las Vegas Boulevard will feature a photoshopped image of President Abraham Lincoln in front of the White House “wearing” one of the brand's jackets. It's the same style President Obama was pictured wearing. The ad, which will run until the end of the month, features the slogan “Fit for a President.”Continue reading...

Sneak preview of ABC's 'Lost' leaks onto the Internet. [Business Insider]

Retailers quickly selling out of Wii Fit Plus leads to negativity. [Consumerist]

Gene Montesano and Barry Perlman, co-founders of Lucky Brand, are leaving. [WWD]

Pre-teen boys forgo showers in favor of Axe body sprays. [NY Times]

Hewlett-Packard donates to former CEO Fiorina's opponent for Senate. [Gawker]

Amazon feels pressure to lower e-book prices. [WSJ]Continue reading...

At last night's Grammy Awards, the performer who opened the show – alongside Elton John – is being touted as not just a talented young artist, but also as the next cultural movement in the music industry.

This past year, Lady Gaga took the music industry by storm with an album that spawned four Number 1 hits. She also led digital music in 2009 with sales of more than 15 million downloads.

But the real story isn't even her music, which she writes – it's her entire act. The 23-year old, born Stefani Germanotta, wears offbeat costumes and is known for her "visual theatrics." Alice Cooper, himself one of music's more outrageous personalities, calls Lady Gaga "very vaudevillian." And it's that flamboyant, but accessible and intriguing style of entertainment that Lady Gaga is using to connect with both fans and brands.Continue reading...