Pepsi is believed to be teaming up with Amazon.com--the online retailer vying with Apple's iTunes music store--to give away up to 1 billion digital music tracks as part of a year-long marketing campaign. It is also thought that the music will be distributed free of the digital rights management (DRM) technology that limits where downloaded tracks can be played. Pepsi's promotion is to start in February in concert with the Super Bowl. It echoes a giveaway in 2003, in which Apple and Pepsi offered 100 million free tracks. Since Amazon began its download service in September, it has …

A new Nike ad campaign that celebrates the history of running is set to launch today. It has attracted significant buzz because it is Crispin Porter + Bogusky first major work for the athletic-gear company since Nike decided to pull its running-gear ad account from Wieden + Kennedy. The ads--chronicling the history of running--tout Nike's high-tech Nike Plus line of shoes, which help runners track their mileage via a chip in the shoe that transmits workout stats wirelessly to an iPod Nano music player. One spot starts with a bedraggled Stone Age man racing with a spear, …

A recent audit by the U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General found that the adhesive flap that seals Netflix mailers often jams machinery and requires sorting by hand. It has recommended a 17-cent surcharge on every package that requires hand sorting (not just Netflix discs). A research note issued Tuesday by Citigroup claims that 70% of Netflix's return mailers must be sorted by hand, while Blockbuster's envelopes do not cause this problem. The issue could make a big competitive difference for the companies, it says. If Netflix "has to bear the full brunt of this increase (without other …

A automated Santa that Microsoft created for children to instant-message with has been shut down after a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex. After declining the writer's repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated Santa burst out with, "You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else." The exchange ended with the writer and Santa calling each other "dirty bastard." Santa …

General Motors will air just one in-game spot in the Super Bowl this year--a 60-second unit for Chevrolet in the second quarter--but will add some pre-game spots. In the 2007 Super Bowl, GM aired three in-game ads, including two 60-second spots and one 30-second unit. The cutback is prompted by a lack of new-product launches timed to the Feb. 3 game, a company rep says. Chevrolet will place eight spots in Fox's pre-game show, which will air over the course of several hours leading up to the main event. And like last year, Cadillac will have three 30-second …

Higher-end Nokia phones will come with a built-in music service offering unlimited downloads of songs for a year, beginning in mid-2008. Nokia has signed up Universal Music to provide its catalog--including top contemporary musicians such as Amy Winehouse and Kanye West--and the handset giant is negotiating with other companies. It is calling the service "Comes With Music." Nokia managers would never admit to being influenced by the Apple iPhone--which mobile-phone industry insiders regard as clever but technologically unimpressive. The new initiative seems aimed at preventing Apple from dominating mobile music the way its iTunes service has dominated digital music …