Apple knock-off stores in Queens, NY, forced to surrender goods, while Apple's HTC patent victory gets US review.

NHL restricts players from social media on game days under new policy.

Borders starts shutting down in California.

Carrefour plans drive-in stores in France.

eBay targets hip mobile shoppers with new campaign.

Esprit pays the price for 'neglecting' its brand.Continue reading...

The concept of mixing alcohol and race cars isn't a brilliant idea in practice, but it seems to be working wonders on the marketing front for Anheuser-Busch.

Budweiser has long been the brew of the American blue collar and it has now extended its multiyear contract with Daytona International Speedway, the track that was built by NASCAR founder William France Jr. and opened in 1959.

The pair have been linked financially since the late ‘70s when Anheuser-Busch sponsored the Busch Clash race, which has become known as the Budweiser Shootout.

The new deal will keep the Shootout intact and continue to allow Bud to be the exclusive official beer sponsor at Daytona, which hosts such big races as the Sprint Cup’s Daytona 500 and Nationwide Series Subway Jalapeno 250, among many others.Continue reading...

Gwen Stefani for HP, Michael Jordan for Hanes, Dr. Dre for HP, Peyton Manning for Sony, Lady Gaga for Polarioid, Lance Armstong for Radio Shack, Michael Vick for… ArTran?

A new study confirms what a lot of people on both ends of the advertising paradigm suspect: celebrity endorsements aren't worth it. My colleague Sheila Shayon earlier pondered this question — find out why the evidence is swinging in favor of taking back the swag bags and shutting down the gravy train.Continue reading...

Every day brings more news of brands signing up celebs as the face and ambassador of their product or service. But with Fifty Cent making almost $8.8 million from a single tweet — if that estimate is to be believed — it has to be asked if the power of celebrity endorsements still holds true. The Kardashians' kollective future is riding on it!Continue reading...

It seems an insurance brand can go one of two ways when it comes to ad messaging. The first: be serious and sincere, presenting the brand and its products or services in a unadorned fashion. The second is the exact opposite of that.

That's why current brand campaigns by US insurance companies are trying to draw attention by being as quirky as possible. Case in point: Nationwide's "World's Greatest Spokesperson in the World."Continue reading...

Brands in the news:

Starbucks' rebranded Seattle's Best Coffee brand arrives in Manhattan.

About.com launches new branding effort.

Amazon reports that e-books outsell hard cover books as Kindle sales triple.

Apple donates MacPaint source code to museum as rocky romance with AT&T unveiled in Wired.

Blekko enters the search engine fray.

Brightkite embraces badges.Continue reading...

World Cup marketing means ambush marketing, whereby (adjusts monocle) "one brand pays to become an official sponsor of an event (most often athletic) and another competing brand attempts to cleverly connect itself with the event, without paying the sponsorship fee and, more frustratingly, without breaking any laws."

While many brands have paid good money to be official FIFA 2010 partners and sponsors, many more have not. That, of course, isn't stopping them from releasing campaigns that cleverly connect their brands to the world's most popular event.

Brandchannel took a look at ten ambush marketing campaigns and graded them (from 1-10) based on overall brand positioning and "World Cup-ocity." (Click here for our scorecard of official 2010 World Cup sponsors' campaigns.)

Brand: Nationwide
Campaign: Nationwide highlights its sponsorship of England's World Cup team by recruiting some colorful characters from the hit TV series Little Britain to put a little laugh next to the brand. Funny, yes, but where's the brand message?
World Cup-ocity Grade: 7 (Actually mentions "World Cup")
Branding Grade: 2Continue reading...