Stock markets plunge on unsettling economic news.

Bank of America says some of its debit cards were compromised.

Coca-Cola plans $4-billion investment in China.

HP to spin off PCs and exit tablets.

Maserati to build SUV in Michigan at Chrysler plant.

MetLife leads variable-annuity sales.

Motorola can't solicit rival offers to Google's, papers say.

Nissan plans to quadruple market share in China.

Volkswagen isn't interested in buying Opel from General Motors, report says.

President Obama begins his vacation on Martha's Vineyard.

When Porsche started selling its cars in Korea back in 2003, it sold 80 of them in the first year. Last year, the company sold 708 and it is on pace to sell more than 1,000 in 2011, according to the Korea Herald. 

The “well-to-do” of Korea are falling in love with foreign luxury cars, the site reports. Bentley sold vehicles there last year, while Maserati and Ferrari each sold about 50.

It’s not as if Korea is known for its open roads, while Seoul is known to have some of the worst traffic in the world. The allure?Continue reading...

The first preview for the weighty, moody new NBC TV series (coming this fall) about the iconic brand, The Playboy Club, is out.

The question is, will Playboy be able to capitalize on the attention to bring a little of its former luster to a brand that many now know more as a E! reality show staple? Besides paying homage to house that Hef built, it's also a potential windfall for the city of Chicago following the cancellation of FOX's Chicago Code.

Clearly, when it comes to new releases, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has the weekend nearly to itself. So before we get to our look at upcoming releases, here's a look at another retro 60's brand that popping up on US TV screens this fall.Continue reading...

The big product placement story out of Limitless, the new #1 movie at the box office (with $19 million in US ticket sales), is Maserati — not how the auto brand actually performed in the film in its minor 20-second scene, but how it leveraged that role into a "limitless" amount of publicity.

After the Hollywood Reporter wrote a 1,000-word piece gushing over the car's role (which we suspect may itself be product placement), the story flooded the web. Even Limitless' Wikipedia entry now contains a mention of Maserati's "guerrilla-style" product placement.

Despite the cool-sounding term "guerrilla-style," there is nothing at all "guerrilla" to the Limitless Maserati product placement.Continue reading...

Vroom vroom.... This weekend in product placement is all about the automobiles. We've already looked at how this weekend's season finale of HBO's Big Love falls in love with the new Mini Cooper, a convertible version of which gets a big scene (above).

As we consider this weekend's crop of new films — Limitless, Paul and The Lincoln Lawyer — there are Lincolns, Masertais and ... Winnebagos? You betcha!Continue reading...

Of all the product placements to make news, Maserati's role in the upcoming drama-thriller-cautionary tale (and latest unexplainable Robert De Niro film) Limitless is a curious one to examine. But that is just what the Hollywood Reporter does, noting that the auto brand paid nothing to appear in the movie.

The Maserati's history of product placement is long and fascinating. But the Hollywood Reporter may accidentally expose the brand's most intriguing product placement of all: The Hollywood Reporter. Continue reading...

Adidas forecasts better year. 

Allstate sues Merrill Lynch over mortage-backed securities.

Apple will today unveil second generation iPad — which may lead to a tablet price war — as brand aims to shed elitist label.

Bentley, Bugatti and Maserati compete for top end with new models at Geneva Auto Show.

CBS has almost sold out March Madness ad time as it promotes broadcast-sharing scheme with TBS. 

Chick-fil-A eyes new products and markets.Continue reading...

We've written about the classic cars in the the upcoming film Drive Angry 3D (and how featuring the classic models supports marketing of the current models). Now, a new clip gives us even more of the Chevy Chavelle (above).

But before we get to Nic Cage destroying some Chevys, Jason Statham is poised to wreck a few of his own in this weekend's The Mechanic. They're going to need one. That, plus an all-Statham Product Replacement Quiz, after the jump. Continue reading...