Frank Luntz, author of a forthcoming book titled Win: The Key Principles to Take Your Business from Ordinary to Extraordinary, says that only a few of the more than 10,000 political ads on TV this election cycle actually move voters based on polls and focus groups he has conducted in 20 states. Some of the techniques that seem to work are making it look like that you're not really a politician, being anti-Washington and talking straight into the face of the camera. Don't use actors and be serious. After all that viewing, Luntz concludes: "It's no …

Janet Babin reports about Nordstrom's plans to open a concept store in the Soho section of New York City that will give all of its profits to charities. Details aren't plentiful yet, but observers are impressed. "I think this is a fantastically crazy idea, because it not only benefits the charities," says Trutina Financial retail analyst Patricia Edwards, "but it also improves the Nordstrom brand in Manhattan, where they want to be able to bring a full-line store." But Christopher Gergen, who is with the Hart Leadership Program at Duke University, has a few cautionary thoughts …

Ben Fritz reports that Redbox plans to launch a Web-based digital-delivery service next year that will work in conjunction with its $1-per-night movie kiosks. It is in discussion with several possible partners about the expansion. "The disc business is still very strong and will continue to be for quite some time, but we need to get into this space to take advantage of the gradual transition to digital," says CEO Mitch Lowe. It will be difficult to maintain the $1-per-night price of Redbox' kiosks. The company can acquire physical discs at standard prices and then rent …

Two years ago, Bruce Einhorn reports, Taiwan's HTC was virtually unknown in the U.S. Now it's the market leader in Android phones -- the only segment of the market that's growing faster than Apple's iPhone. HTC got its first big break when Microsoft awarded it a contract to make smartphones in 2002. It set up U.S. headquarters close to Microsoft's home office and quickly became the world's top producer of Windows phones. But CEO Peter Chou worried that a brandless HTC would forever remain a low-margin manufacturer of commodity products. "We were doing pretty well, we …

The Food and Drug Administration rejected its third weight-loss drug this month, Qnexa, which is manufactured by Vivus and is a combination of two existing drugs -- phentermine, a stimulant that is approved for short-term use as a weight loss drug, and topiramate, an epilepsy and migraine drug, Andrew Pollack reports. Vivus says that the FDA has asked for a thorough evaluation of the drug's potential for causing birth defects and heart problems. "It looks pretty bleak out there for anyone trying to get a drug approval for weight loss," says Dr. Ken Fujioka, director of …