Starting next year, Coors Light will have exclusive access to Nascar logos in advertising, packaging and promotions, as well as the right to brand the Pole Award, which goes to the fastest-qualifying time in each race. Coors will pay $20 million for the five-year deal. Coors Light, the No. 3 light beer, has picked up some sales ground on Bud Light and Miller Lite this year, and it hopes the high-profile sponsorship will continue that momentum. Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser, which has held the official beer role since 1999, is reshuffling most of its Nascar sponsorship activities. It …

Nike has unveiled an athletic shoe called the Air Native N7 that is designed with a larger fit for the distinct foot shape of American Indians. Its design features several "heritage callouts"--as one product manager describes it--including sunrise-to-sunset-to-sunrise patterns on the tongue and heel of the shoe. Feather designs adorn the inside and stars are on the sole to represent the night sky. Tribal wellness programs and tribal schools nationwide will be able to purchase the shoe at wholesale price and then pass it along to individuals, often at no cost. Nike says all profits from the sale …

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has introduced a bill that would have the government set new nutritional standards for the foods and drinks that schools sell to students outside cafeterias. The current version of the legislation requires the Agriculture Department to begin developing the rules behind the standards, but industry and public health advocates favor speeding things up by writing the standards into the legislation itself. What those standards should be is the issue. Public health advocates want to ban the sale of Gatorade and Powerade, which typically contain as much as two-thirds the sugar of sodas and sodium, as …

The All Candy Expo in Chicago last week wasn't all candy. The trade show added snack, cookie and biscuit exhibitors for the first time, as well as a section it called "gourmet marketplace"--a nod to the growing consumer attraction to premium and upscale snacks, as well as fortified, natural and organic munchies. New candy products dominated the largest gathering of candy makers in the U.S. with fresh approaches to sugar, cocoa butter, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and natural flavors. Candy makers also were jumping on the bandwagon of "portion control," packaging candy and cookies in 100- to 150-calorie …

Amazon.com jumped into the digital music download business Tuesday by offering 2.3 million songs that can play on any portable device and--in typical Amazon fashion--more than 1 million of the tracks are being sold at a dime less than tracks at Apple's iTunes store. Amazon's catalog is about one-third of Apple's. The service--called Amazon MP3--includes more than 180,000 artists from more than 20,000 labels. The music is being sold without digital rights management software, allowing consumers to listen to downloads on any device they choose, including personal computers, Zunes, Zens, iPods, iPhones, RAZRs and BlackBerrys. Major music …

Wrigley will announce today that the American Dental Association is granting its ADA seal for its Orbit, Extra and Eclipse sugarless gums. No chewing gum has ever received the coveted seal, which denotes it provides an oral health benefit. It's found on Crest toothpaste and Listerine mouthwash and about 400 other products. Orbit is the nation's top-selling gum; Extra and Eclipse are in the top five. The seal will be a focal point in ads for the three brands and on packages. A three-year clinical study showed 8% fewer cavities, and a two-year study found a 38% …

Microsoft is in talks to buy a minority stake in the social-networking Web site Facebook, a sign by the software giant to jump-start its online business at a time when Google is widening its lead in the fast-growing Internet-advertising business. If these talks bear fruit, it could purchase up to 5% of the closely held startup for $300 million to $500 million. But Google has also expressed strong interest in a Facebook stake. Microsoft also has quietly granted broad powers to Brian McAndrews--an advertising executive who joined Microsoft last month through its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive. McAndrews …

One of the most amateurish and mind-numbing creative executions ever on television--campy spots for HeadOn external analgesic headache remedy--are proving to be highly effective. From 2005 to 2006, HeadOn grew 234%, according to Information Resources Inc. And for the first half of 2007, the brand looks to be on track to double sales. HeadOn ranks No. 9 in the external-analgesics-rubs category and logged $6.5 million in sales last year, up from just $1.9 million in 2005, not including Wal-Mart. The rapid-fire "HeadOn, apply directly to the forehead" spots are arguably among the worst commercials ever from a creative …

NASCAR has finally and officially managed to brand everything. If you don't believe it, think of a product and then Google it along with the word "NASCAR" and see what you get. If you Google "fruit," for example, you get NASCAR-approved mangoes and a three-pack of NASCAR briefs by Fruit of the Loom. This sort of branding works because NASCAR's fans are passionate and extremely loyal to their favorite drivers. A photo that made the email rounds a while back shows a big guy at a race with Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s No. 3 shaved into his hair ... his …

Investment bankers and private-equity funds are training their sights on designers who have the potential to be marketed and developed as global brands. Driving their interest is a shift from bigger "megadeals" to smaller-sized transactions. Investors are eyeing companies with sales of between $2 million and $100 million that have the potential to grow. Those on the prospect list include Anna Sui, Catherine Malandrino, Hussein Chalayan and Phoebe Philo. Given recent turmoil in the credit markets, the pace of mergers and acquisitions activity has slowed. According to Dealogic, year-to-date M&A deal volume in the general retail sector …