Remember last year, when Nissan was creating lots of buzz around the imminent debut of its Leaf all-electric vehicle? Auto electrification had become a cause célèbre — and celeb, with VIP endorsers.

Nissan's first Leaf TV commercial, which debuted in September, also sparked consumer interest, featuring a polar bear's journey to thank the buyer of a new Leaf, creating a pronounced feel-good moment in brand marketing in 2010.

OK, so where’s the car?Continue reading...

American Apparel seeks rescue financing to avert bankruptcy.

Apple revamps MobileMe, sues Samsung over Galaxy phone; Samsung vows to fight back.

McDonald's launches US hiring blitz today.

Asos could be forced to rebrand in Germany.

BMW's DesignworksUSA expands to China with Shanghai office.

Burger King settles with franchisees over Value Menu.

Dish Network will keep 600 Blockbuster locations open.Continue reading...

"Instead of providing gamers with better and more immersive alternatives to reality, I want all of us to be become responsible for providing the world with a better and more immersive reality.” That’s the theme of Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk, above.

Games are a serious business, projected to grow from $100 million this year to $1.6 billion in 2015, according to M2 Research. That's why brands are getting on board, and not just as a marketing tool.Continue reading...

GM sold 281 Chevrolet Volts last month, and just north of 600 of the “extended-range hybrid” vehicles so far this year. The company has to hope that none of those customers are devotees of Consumer Reports.

The April issue, the magazine's annual automotive special issue, puts Chevy's Volt on its cover — but not because it's their car of the year.Continue reading...

Nissan unveiled its new electric car at the Geneva Auto Show this week: Esflow. Nissan's description: "It looks like a sports car, handles like a sports car and performs like one too. But ESFLOW is different to every other sports car yet built: it's electric. Using technology pioneered in the award-winning Nissan LEAF, the EV concept shows that driving can still be as much fun tomorrow as it is today."

This story is beginning to look familiar to fans of Smart, the original mainstream mini-car.

A troubled new-age automotive brand is counting on Roger Penske for a rescue after its big corporate owners decide they can’t cover the weaknesses of the marque anymore. Penske is all in. But then he decides to get all out.

Of course, that is the story of the end of the Saturn brand, which Penske Automotive Group looked set to buy from General Motors in 2009 before reversing course and allowing GM to kill Saturn as part of a federally mandated brand house-cleaning that also victimized Pontiac, Saab and Hummer.

Will this kind of brand history be repeated with Smart cars?Continue reading...

Under its increasingly assertive industrial policy, the Obama administration has made a clear choice of the favored clean-energy technology for the future of the automobile: electric vehicles. 

And now the administration also has indicated that it is willing to undercut competing alternative technologies in its all-out efforts to boost EVs. That’s why the president’s new budget proposes ending a clean-diesel grant program while attempting to spur the market for electric cars.

Call it scrimp my ride. Expect auto brands that have heavily invested in EVs and near-EVs, including Nissan and government-owned General Motors, to be elated.

Not so happy will be executives of Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz – all, notably, not U.S.-based – who have been fielding entire fleets of new vehicles using fuel-efficient clean-diesel technology and feverishly lobbying in Washington for the same kind of favored treatment that EVs are getting.Continue reading...

Apple's new app store subscription policy gets pushback from Rhapsody.

Bauer and Conde Nast seek new UK revenue opportunities.

Bernie Madoff's first prison interview claims banks "must have known."

Borders files for bankruptcy.

Coca-Cola disputes NPR's secret recipe claim.

Costco squabbles with Coca-Cola over pricing.Continue reading...