First, the bad news, as brought to us by Business Week's David Welch and Carol Matlack and echoed in a host of other stories around the net this morning: "Chrysler needs cash and competitive new models now -- neither of which Fiat can bring." To wit, Fiat made absolutely no commitment to help finance Chrysler, which is heavily in debt, and it remains to be seen how the two companies will fund development of jointly built vehicles.

In fact, it could cost Chrysler hundreds of millions per model, and take three or four years, just to retool its factories to make its own versions of Fiat's cars. But, as the story concedes, "there are some good fits." The Detroit Free Press' Mark Phelan takes it from there. "Allying with Fiat should provide Chrysler with the vehicles and powertrains it needs to offer a line of appealing and fuel-efficient small cars" like the award-winning 500 city car, the Grande Punto subcompact and Bravo compact, he writes. Fiat is also among the world's leaders in diesel technology, which Europeans overwhelmingly choose as a way to reduce emissions and fuel consumption.

"Fiat, in exchange, gets the dealer network and assembly capacity it wants to become a player in its return to the United States," Phelan writes. In addition, Fiat will benefit from Chrysler's expertise in minivans, rear-wheel-drive cars, pickups and Jeeps. Read the whole story...

There is a direct relationship between the confidence people have in the economy and the attention they pay to Super Bowl commercials. When consumer confidence is weak, recall is 11% lower than average and 36% lower than in good times, according to a Gallup & Robinson study of 12 years' worth of surveys about recall and likeability of Super Bowl advertising.

The economy isn't the only factor at play in when it comes to recall, warns Scott Purvis, president of the market-research firm. The content of an ad is important, as is the quality of the game. Even so, Purvis says, "about one quarter of change in recall is related to the change in consumer confidence."

NBC has told ad buyers it has about 10% of its Super Bowl ad inventory left to sell -- about six or seven 30-second spots -- at a record $3 million per 30-seconds. Buyers, however, suggest the network may have as many as 10 or 11 spots left, Brian Steinberg reports. Read the whole story...

Veteran business journalist Barry Janoff launched a daily sports marketing Web site, www.NYSportsJournalism.com, last week that covers breaking news, deals and ad campaigns as well as commentary, Q&As and blogs. Janoff has already broken a few stories, including today's exclusive about members of the New Jersey Nets partnership marketing unit spending a day working as an employee with the Nets' marketing partners.

The "A Day in the Life" program was set up to give staff members a better understanding of the day-to-day workings of companies like Budweiser, Aflac and Vonage. A staffer may, for example, ride a Bud delivery truck to see what goes on at retail.

"We want to know first-hand how they go to market and how they advertise, learn more about new product launches, and understand what obstacles [our partners] face everyday," says Brett Yormark, president and CEO of New Jersey Nets Sports & Entertainment. Read the whole story...

Here's something for that very special person in your life who still already has everything: A $75,000, 12-carat diamond-encrusted SpongeBob pendant from Simmons jewelry.

Bit too pricey for your downsized budget right now? How about a Sponge Bob T-shirt, then, adorned with crystals and images of marine life and featuring SpongeBob next to a garbage can labeled "Save the Big Blue." The shirts, which celebrate the character's 10th anniversary, will cost $98 at retail later this year (but some of the proceeds go to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation).

Richard Tedesco reports it's all part of a huge merchandising blitz Nickelodeon and Viacom are building around its -- don't say it Richard ... ah, too late -- "iconic" SpongeBob SquarePants character.

"These are just the first of many new partnerships that we'll be announcing with SpongeBob," says Hal Snik SVP of Domestic Licensing at Nickelodeon Consumer Products. "We're trying to find relationships for products ... that are special, hand-crafted, unique and high-end." Read the whole story...

Kraft has been telling us that macaroni and cheese sales are up for some time; it now looks like happy days are here again for the entire pasta segment. Sales of pasta products in the U.S. -- including frozen and refrigerated pasta, canned pasta, soup mixes and prepared dinners - rose 5% last year to $6.4 billion, according to American Italian Pasta Co., the nation's largest manufacturer of dry pasta.

This is despite the fact that prices at retail rose steeply last year due primarily to commodity price hikes.

"Pasta has been vindicated," says Carol Freysinger, spokeswoman for the National Pasta Association, who admits that pasta consumption had been falling 1% or 2% annually for years because of high-protein diet fads. "There's this renewed vigor, this renewed energy in the pasta companies," she says. "They really got beat up by the low-carb diets, which showed to not be that effective in the long run." Read the whole story...

A grand name in the news-synopsis business, Rob Roy Buckingham, died in Sarasota, Fla., Dec. 31. He was 88. In 1962, Buckingham became head of the New York Times News Service, Dennis Hevesi reports, which at the time sent roughly 20,000 words of synopses of Times articles to about 50 newspapers a day between the hours of 3 and 11 p.m. Earlier, Buckingham was a foreign correspondent for United Press. Read the whole story...

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