• For Coke, 'Powerade Zero Grape Is It'
    As sales of its fizzy sodas dropped globally in the first quarter for the first time since 1999, Coca-Cola is betting heavily on its Freestyle dispenser that allows consumers to mix up their own concoctions - Sprite Zero with Raspberry, anybody? - to woo back younger consumers who want to be in control of their gustatory experiences.
  • Turbulent Tweets Rock American, US Airways
    The social media skies have been anything but friendly for American Airlines Group and its recent merger partner, US Airways. On Sunday, a tweet from "Sarah @QueenDemetriax" said: "@americanAir hello my name's Ibrahim and I'm from Afghanistan. I'm part of Al Qaida and on June 1st I'm gonna do something really big bye."
  • Mobile Phones' Main Competitors May Be Earlier Models
    Consumers who are consciously coupled to a competing product - be it an Apple iPhone 5s or an rival Android - might be excused if they think about drawing up uncoupling papers upon reading Samsung's newspaper ad for the new Galaxy S5 this morning on the back page of the New York Times' "Business Day" section.
  • Google Offering $1,500 Glass For Limited Time
    Any adult in the U.S. with a spare $1,500 plus tax - and no fear of looking like a dork, being called out (or worse) as a digital Peeping Tom or fearful of being hacked themselves - will have a limited opportunity to buy the Explorer version of Google Glass on Tuesday starting at 9 a.m. EDT.
  • Walmart Sowing Organic Wild Oats
    Saying it was "trying to disrupt the market," Walmart yesterday announced a deal to revive the Wild Oats organic brand that "may potentially have big implications for the organic-food industry," as Andrea Cheng puts it in MarketWatch.
  • Beckham, Fuller, Diageo Team Up On New Scotch
    Retired soccer star David Beckham and the never-idle entrepreneur Simon Fuller are partnering with Diageo to develop and market a premium, single-grain Scotch called Haig Club that "showcases butterscotch and toffee" and is targeted not only to current users but also "those who have always wanted to try whisky." And have a spare 65 bucks or so to spend on the experience.
  • Captain America Knocks 'Em Boffo
    Marvel characters continue to create awe and wonder at the box office with Captain America's second offering, "The Winter Soldier," setting an April box office record over the weekend by grossing an estimated $96.2 million domestically. It pulled in $110 million more overseas. The combined total is worthy of a classic "Boffo" in the "Variety" headline, with a story that points out that the sequel to the 2011 debut has already crossed the $300-million mark thanks to overseas openings the week before.
  • Samsung Told The Selfie Stops At The President
    Samsung may be learning a lesson this week that most of us observed by watching Mr. Smith a long time ago: What flies in Hollywood doesn't having any relation to the real politick of Washington, D.C. And so it is that headlines are calling out both Samsung and Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz for "punking" the President with a moment reminiscent of Ellen DeGeneres' selfie-fulfilling prophecy at the Oscars that did, indeed, set a record for the most retweets.
  • Amazon Strikes Its Match With Fire TV
    Looking at the email Amazon users received yesterday announcing the new Fire TV device, there's little to distinguish it from, say, Apple TV, including the $99 price and a gaming capacity its handlers say isn't really what it's about. But it's not really about what it delivers now that also might set it apart from Roku and Google Chromecast, commentators are pointing out, as it is about what it might deliver in the future: highly targeted advertising, perhaps in novel ways.
  • Walt Is Not Alive But Disney Is Making News
    Walt Disney couldn't stay out of the news this week - from the rollout of the MyMagic+ service and MagicBand bracelet for its theme park visitors that has been a billion dollars or so in the making to news that visitors to the Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea theme parks rose 13.8% for the just-ended business year to its animated "Frozen" setting new records to an effort to restore the birthplace of Mickey Mouse (in Kansas City) to a report about a "surprise press conference" by CEO Bob Iger during which he revealed plans to "thaw out Walt Disney's cryogenically …
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