General Motors has signed on as a larger sponsor of Fox's new musical contest reality show, "X Factor." The sponsorship, which is likely to be something like Ford's long-time sponsorship of "Idol," will probably give the automaker product integration opportunities. Unlike "American Idol" deals, it won't be season long. Pepsi has said it would be exclusive sponsor of the program. The show is getting a lot of interest at the upfronts. General Motors has had Chevrolet vehicles in CBS's "Hawaii Five-0" and TNT's "Men of a Certain Age."

McGarryBowen, Burger King's new ad agency, launched Verizon's Droit, helped Crayola improve sales and turned Disney tourism around. Now the agency has to figure out how to breath new life into the No. 2 burger chain. The company tapped the agency's New York office for general market and multicultural marketing.

U.S. auto sales dropped 4% in May, the first drop since August from inventory shortages, high gas prices, higher vehicle prices and economic worries. While Hyundai and Kia saw improvements, Toyota, Honda, GM and Ford slipped. Chrysler improved.

Social media means brand building for JetBlue, and the company is serious. JetBlue's SVP marketing Marty St. George challenged ad agencies last year to look him up on Twitter if they wanted to work with the brand. Now the airline has 1.6 million followers on Twitter, writes columnist Todd Wasserman. He says the carrier also has about half a million Facebook fans, second only to Southwest. JetBlue has also tried location-based services. Read more for Wasserman's Q&A with St. George about the media, consumers and, of course, flight attendant Steven Slater of the six pack and escape slide.

In its first national ad push, "We Help," Hhgregg says extensively trained staff that helps consumers choose major appliances and electronics products is what sets the chain apart. The company bought rights to the Beatles' "Help!" to use in marketing. The company, which has 175 stores, had $2.1 billion in revenue last year, versus Best Buy, with revenue of nearly $50 billion.

Protobrand, a Boston branding firm, recently released a list of the 25 most powerful consumer brands in New England in 2011. Some companies made great strides this year, jumping up a few places -- such as Monster.com and Fidelity -- or appearing on the ranking for the first time, like Reebok, which stripped rival New Balance of its spot at number 15.

David Fincher's new film, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," seems to have a trailer. It looks like a pirated leak, but one blogger theorizes that because of the high-quality audio, and that it opens with the MPAA red band, it is a legit trailer. Sony denies it, but hasn't taken it off YouTube.

Hilton's Homewood Suites has a 10-year veteran in the marketing driver's seat with Carla Raynor. The global marketing chief has been in her current position for two years, and she seems to be aggressively seeking attention for the brand. The company's mascot, a yellow duck named Lewis, had a big presence -- literally -- in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, part of a three-year partnership. The company has actually been spending less on measured media each year since 2008. Raynor said the key is looking more at "the customer journey with the brand," instead of "putting our energy and investment …

This Memorial Day weekend in Southern California brought giant "X" shapes to the sky. The studio behind the film hired planes to leave giant encircled "X" smoke trails in the sky. Weird UFO-type sky shapes here.

CVS Caremark snagged a multibillion-dollar contract to provide mail-order pharmacy and other services to over five million U.S. federal employees, retirees and dependents. The company bested Medco Health Solutions in the deal. The three-year deal boosts CVS's pharmacy benefits management business. Medco currently provides the mail order services until its deal with the Federal Employee Program ends this year. The company said sour grapes: the contract only generates $3 billion annually, about 4.5% of its yearly revenue.