Barry Janoff chats with Antonio Lucio, global CMO for Visa, which recently extended its contract with the International Olympic Committee to become one of three worldwide partners, along with Omega and Coca-Cola, whose current deals run through 2020. Visa is also an official partner of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Janoff and Lucio spoke in a subway station below Grand Central Terminal where Visa had set up a viewing area with an 8' x 14' flat-screen TV showing its Olympic ads in 3-D, 3-D wall posters, stair risers, wall wraps and speed-skating great Dan Jansen in person. Although …

Speaking of Unilever's Dove, an Ogilvy & Mather spot for its new Dove Men + Care line during Super Bowl XLIV has moved the perception needle on the brand, according to Zeta Interactive. The ad shows a man going through different stages of life and carries the tagline, "Be comfortable in your own skin." Before the spot ran, three of the most popular terms associated with Dove were "soap," "beauty" and "deodorant," Elaine Wong reports. But the "Journey to Comfort" commercial turned that around, generating words such as "Super Bowl," "ad" and "men." It also finished …

CMO Simon Clift is leaving Unilever to spend more time with his family in Brazil and to "do something different (in that order)," he says in an email response to a story by Jack Neff. He once ran the company's personal-care brands in Brazil and has an adopted Brazilian son and a house in the colonial town of Parati, two hours outside Rio de Janeiro, Neff reports. The outspoken and colorful Clift, 51, was president of marketing before gaining the CMO title and has been running the Unilever operations with a maverick's flair for nine years. Rumors …

Helen Walters showcases a fascinating short film exploring how, in the not-too-distant future, we "may recontextualize the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change the way in which we operate within it."

Brand manufacturers aren't the only victims of product counterfeiting, according to Jeremy Wilson, a criminal justice professor at Michigan State University. "It's not just Louis Vuitton losing money on a handbag," he says. The underbelly of the knock-off trade is child labor, lost jobs and human trafficking, Wilson says. As a result, Amber Hunt reports, MSU has launched the Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program -- A-CAPPP -- which it says is the first comprehensive research and training program designed to address counterfeiting. Working with agencies such as the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, the Department of …

NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol once called wrestling impresario Vince McMahon "the greatest promoter since P.T. Barnum." Blogs Peter J. Schwartz: "That's some high praise for Barnum." McMahon has an incredible knack for building brands and constantly reinventing his company to stay relevant. In the 1980s, his World Wrestling Entertainment story lines featured cartoonish heroes vs. villains. The product became edgier in the '90s. Now it's featuring "family-friendly" shows with guest hosts like William Shatner and Shaquille O'Neal. Last year alone, WWE's marquee event, WrestleMania, generated $64 million in revenue from pay TV, gate receipts, sponsorships …

Kraft may have written the book on "old school" values like integrity and family, as one observer tells Emily Bryson York, but North America's largest food company is becoming decidedly more contemporary in the look and tone of its advertising and packaging. "All the way from [CEO] Irene [Rosenfeld], the marketing is important," says Dana Anderson, senior vp-marketing, who adds that the bar for creative is higher than in the past. Consider the defiant message of a new campaign that, former agency executives say, would once have been rejected as "too edgy": "We are Miracle Whip and we …