General Motors’ marketing idea looks so hip and so cool: Instead of directing people to their local dealerships for more information at the end of TV commercials, they tell consumers to “Google Pontiac.” Which is great, except Mazda bought the words “Pontiac” and “Pontiac Solstice” as search-engine terms in its advertising efforts around the launch of the redesigned Mazda MX-5 two-seater sports car. (more)
A judge has ordered PepsiCo Inc. and its advertising company to pay $250,000 to the 1950s doo-wop band The Flamingos for using their recording, I Only Have Eyes For You in a commercial without permission. (more)
Shares of digital music service Napster Inc. surged more than 30 percent in premarket trading on a report that it was in discussions with Google Inc. for an alliance that could include a sale. (more)
Visa International launches its Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games campaign in what it says will be one of the largest branding exercises in marketing history. (more)
EBay is being sued by Tiffany’s for helping to peddle counterfeit jewellery online. (more)
The Coca-Cola Co., already locked in a decades-long clash with PepsiCo Inc. for supremacy in the cold beverage business, may be about to pick a fight with the nation’s No. 1 hot beverage powerhouse: Starbucks Corp. (more)
Computer maker Dell Inc. says it plans to add 5,000 jobs in India over the next two years, bringing its work force in the country to 15,000. (more)
America Online has teamed up with Mark Burnett, creator of the reality series Survivor and The Apprentice, to create an online treasure hunt called Gold Rush! (more)
America Online is launching its “AOL High Speed” ad campaign, created by Omnicom Group’s BBDO, to promote AOL’s new broadband partnerships. (more)
The NFL is targeting a fast-growing market for gear: female football fans. Women consumers are snapping up NFL-licensed pastel jerseys, pink caps and other gear designed in the styles, sizes and colors they want. (more)
After months of negotiations with at least five media companies–including an Internet company–for the rights to a new, eight-game prime-time football package, the National Football League decided to bolster the NFL Network with its first regular-season games, beginning this fall. (more)
This year, Super Bowl ads will be anywhere you want them to be: on TV during the game, on the Web, on your iPod, even on your wireless phone. (more)
Retailers big and small are competing to provide the massive televisions, party decorations, furnishings, jerseys and food to metro Detroiters throwing Super Bowl bashes. (more)
The secret to Genentech’s success is its culture. The company is built on work that really matters and employees who love what they do — and that’s what makes Genentech the best company to work for in 2006. (more)
For those who know that love doesn’t have to taste like a box of chocolate, Jones Soda Co. is serving up love by the bottle, with the exclusive launch of its 2006 Valentine Pack. (more)
The moment the power goes out is no time to start pawing through drawers for batteries. One solution: flashlights that use a hand-crank generator to light the night. (more)
“In the early years, I was standing out on the corner trying to get people to come into the theater,” says Robert Redford with a laugh, acknowledging that these days the number is more like 40,000. But he says the goals - to create a lab to develop new talent and a place for that talent to showcase new work - haven’t changed. (more)
A Wakefield man lost his appetite when he found “dog sh*t” listed among the ingredients on a packet of ham. (more)
WPP group’s Martin Sorrell has often warned the ad industry about the threat posed by management consultants muscling into the business. Now his fears have come to fruition as one of his biggest clients, Ford Motor Co., has asked Accenture to put a microscope to its upcoming marketing plans. (more)
Motorola should be cautious to avoid RAZR burn, a leading market analysis firm is warning. But in the same market analysis, Boston-based Strategy Analytics predicts that cell-phone shipments worldwide will hit the landmark 1 billion units next year. (more)
Summer is still two months away but cola companies are already making a splash. (more)
When Cassie Johnson competes with the U.S. curling team at the Winter Olympics in Italy, she’ll have an entourage of friends and relatives cheering her on, all making the trip to Turin with the help of Bank of America Corp. (more)
Somehow Lexus has never managed to make a credible rival to the BMW 3-Series in the $40,000-something range. (more)
To find the right agency, MINI Cooper devised a quirky trial-by-immersion. (more)
In its latest move to broaden its iPod and iTunes franchises, Apple Computer Inc. has introduced “iTunes U,” a nationwide expansion of a service that puts course lectures and other educational materials online and on-the-go via Apple’s iTunes software. (more)
Reebok India has written to sports management firms protesting against its brand ambassadors sporting rival Nike’s logos on their trousers. (more)
Over the last few years, La-Z-Boy Inc. shareholders might have felt that the stock was behaving too much like the company’s name. Steady sales and dividends in the past five years haven’t been enough to lift a sagging stock price. (more)
With Americans recycling more and more every day, many municipalities have begun using advanced, multimillion-dollar machines to sort through the deluge of soup cans, beer bottles and newspapers. (more)
Better-for-you foodies  from Newman’s Own to Stonyfield Farm to Whole Foods Market  have a near-heretical message: Their grub could provide partygoers a nutritionally friendly Super Bowl. (more)
With more and more phones capable of video and 3-D graphics, now avatars can stand in for real faces. (more)