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Posted
Jul 08 2009, 12:04 PM
by
Catherine Holahan
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 The models lean seductively over the hood of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, wearing only tiny yellow underwear emblazoned with the car's logo. Grasping a wash cloth, they rub down the car until it sparkles as an unseen cameraman asks about the car.
The videos, broadcast on YouTube, use sex appeal to sell Camaros to guys. Only the models aren't women, they're men.
The racy commercials are part of a new advertising campaign targeting gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
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Posted
Jun 19 2009, 09:19 AM
by
Catherine Holahan
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Updated 8:20 p.m. ET
Blame recession cuts. Pizza Hut is slicing the "pizza" from its store name on its boxes and some store signs. The fast food chain will now brand some stores as "The Hut."
However, contrary to earlier reports, the iconic chain won't be changing its name, a Pizza Hut spokesman said Friday. The boxes and some store signs will say "The Hut." Others will retain the Pizza Hut name.
Pizza Hut has recently expanded its menu beyond pizza to include pasta, giving it some reason to alter its branding. Media and advertising trade publication MediaWeek characterized the name change as an attempt to transform its stores into hip hangouts. There are more than 10,000 Pizza Huts worldwide.
The new "Hut" stores will be more than simply places to place a delivery order, according to MediaWeek. They will include televisions that broadcast programs such as "Wheel of Fortune" and "Entertainment Tonight."
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Posted
Jun 15 2009, 05:18 PM
by
Catherine Holahan
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 The music has officially stopped playing at
Virgin Megastores. The last of the iconic record shops closed today, June 14. The
New York
Times, present for the last day of business at the chain's landmark store
in Union Square, described the
closing as "particularly dispiriting."
That's putting it mildly. Sure, it's not as
though the demise of Virgin Megastores is surprising. Record stores have long
struggled for relevance in a digital age defined by à la carte downloads and
illegal file-sharing sites. Even the music discovery part of the record store experience
-- long touted by store owners as what would keep people coming into their
shops -- has largely been usurped by ad-supported music blogs and MySpace
pages.
But Virgin Megastores' closing is more than another
example of consumers pushing aside an old distribution model for a newer,
more-immediate one. It is a symbol of the inability of the music industry as a
whole to successfully adapt its business for digital consumers. As such,
Virgin's closing is downright depressing.
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Posted
Mar 11 2009, 10:56 AM
by
James Dlugosch
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner site InvestorPlace.com.
One of the interesting consequences of the credit crisis, economic havoc and bailout nation is the intense change in corporate behavior.
Businesses, especially those seeking government bailouts, are being scrutinized for what may appear to be egregious, self-indulgent spending under the guise of marketing and relationship building.
Business culture has embraced unabated spending on market-related activities, including sponsorships of sporting events and boondoggles to prime locales like Las Vegas or the Caribbean.
These activities often took place with question as to value. Anecdotally, it was accepted that such practices more than paid for themselves with hard-to-measure brand equity.
Today some are claiming that these garish expenses do not provide any value whatsoever. At a minimum, such spending simply looks bad in times of distress. Like most things, though, the pendulum is swinging too far.
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Posted
Jan 22 2009, 05:54 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Timothy Geithner is one of 42 million Americans who prepare their own taxes online -- and now he might be the most popular. Except in the case of Geithner, the Treasury Secretary-designate, it seems he didn’t follow the directions.
At his confirmation hearing Wednesday, Geithner admitted to more than $40,000 worth of mistakes on his tax returns from 2001 to 2004 while he worked for the International Monetary Fund. Geithner says it was an innocent mistake.
When Senator Chuck Grassley asked him what program he used to prepare his taxes, he answered, “I’ll answer that question, but I will say these are my responsibilities, not the tax software’s responsibilities, but I used TurboTax to prepare my returns.”
The chamber crowd laughed in response.
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Posted
Dec 19 2008, 01:32 PM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
In the midst of one of the worst holiday shopping seasons on record, JC Penney decided that CEO Myron Ullman needed a little extra incentive: Assuming that the stock is trading 11.3% higher in three years' time, he will receive up to 500,000 shares through a grant award.
Flagged by the footnoted blog, the bonus is "to provide an incentive for performance during the current economic environment and to recognize Mr.Ullman's willingness to continue his service to the Company" -- you know, given all the other opportunities in retail at the moment. If this seems a bit superfluous, that's because it is: The 61-year old Ullman has a regular salary of $1.5 million and bought brought home a total of nearly $8 million last year, according to Reuters.
Of course, regular workers face long hours and layoffs over the next few weeks.
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Posted
Oct 20 2008, 08:02 AM
by
Minyanville
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Newspaper editors used to growl, "If it bleeds, it leads."
That meant that any horror tale -- murder, car crash or bridge collapse -- landed on the front page, with a picture, because it sold papers.
The recent stock market plunge shot a lot of red arrows onto traders' screens, and many portfolios hemorrhaged value. Like the general press's preoccupation with train wrecks, the financial press has benefited from the financial pile-up at the corner of Wall and Main Streets.
The basic question: Will the surge in online readers, print circulation and cable TV viewers last
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Posted
Oct 08 2008, 11:50 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Just when I think Yahoo can't get any worse, its shares go even lower. Two analysts cut price targets for the stock today, driving shares to a five-year low of $13.20. They have since recovered to $14.09. Here's what the stock price tells me investors are thinking: 1. They have lost all faith in CEO Jerry Yang's ability to navigate the company through increasingly tumultuous waters. Competition from Google and Microsoft is overwhelming the company. The share price is a direct message to management that Yang must go. 2. They recognize that a slowdown in online advertising is inevitable. Yahoo could have previously counted financial companies and carmakers as big customers. But with the turmoil in those industries, that revenue is no longer secure.
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Posted
Sep 08 2008, 08:34 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) says the online partnership between Yahoo and Google will erode competition and probably result in higher prices.
On its Web site, ANA, which represents about 400 companies, says it sent a letter to the US Justice Department’s antitrust division after reviewing the agreement and meeting with executives from Yahoo and Google.
The letter "notes that a Google-Yahoo partnership will control 90% of search advertising inventory and expresses concern that the partnership will likely diminish competition, increase concentration of market power, limit choices
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Posted
Sep 05 2008, 09:40 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Microsoft is paying Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to help promote its Windows operating system. The first one is out (I've included a link below), and you can decide for yourself if it was worth it. The ad has some cute moments, and it may be considered effective in that it has a lot of people talking today. Is it funny? No. Will it help sell Windows? No. Microsoft calls it an "icebreaker" to reintroduce itself to viewers.
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