The North American Soccer League is entering the fourth season of its second life, with the original NASL having lasted from 1968 to 1984. The league begins play this weekend with local marketing and media partners. Over 18 clubs are in play over the next five seasons in the U.S. and Canada. In this Q&A, second-year commissioner Bill Peterson talks tactics.

EBay has launched a global agency search for a rebranding effort. While eBay isn't looking for an agency of record, it is looking for help with a global brand project, per sources. It includes both media and creative, but mostly creative. The company has already made a round of cuts and a handful of large global agencies are competing for the business.

A study has found that young people who enjoy pop songs celebrating booze over index for drinking and binging. Patron tequila, Hennessy cognac, Grey Goose vodka and Jack Daniel's whiskey are most named brands. Sean Combs shills Ciroc vodka; Grey Goose sponsored a 2011 music tour featuring rappers like Lil Jon; Jack Daniel's sponsored a party celebrating top Nashville artists.

The majority of UK consumers don't trust what companies say in their advertising. The Global RepTrak 100 study by the Reputation Institute found that just 15.4% believe the adverts, with the rest neutral, disbelieving or unsure. That is below the 25% mark seen globally and puts the UK in the bottom four of the markets measured, above just France, Germany and Japan.

Sales by the top burger-menu chains was $72 billion in 2013 with just 1.2% growth, according to research firm Technomic. Sales adjusted for inflation declined last year. It said the market has reached maturity and the number of burger-chain locations increased by 1% in 2013. Fast-casual burger chains posted a 10.4% sales growth, compared with just a 0.9% increase for QSR brands.

For the second consecutive year, new car buyers voted Honda "Best Overall Brand" in Kelley Blue Book's annual Brand Image Award study. The company also took the "Most Trusted Brand" honor for the third straight year. KBB.com gives out awards in 13 categories. Among luxury brands, Mercedes-Benz was named the Best Overall Brand. Ford grabbed the Best Overall Brand award for trucks.

UConn defeated Kentucky to win the NCAA men's basketball championship, and NCAA corporate partner AT&T made out like a winner, as well. The title game, played in AT&T Stadium and broadcast on CBS, yielded more than $6.3M in media value for the telecom company via visual and verbal mentions. AT&T had marketing and activations in its hometown of Dallas during Final Four weekend.

Procter & Gamble is selling some of its pet food brands to Mars for $2.9 billion as part of its turnaround plan that includes concentrating on its most profitable core businesses. The world's biggest consumer products maker announced Wednesday that it is selling the Iams, Eukanuba and Natura brands in North America, Latin America and certain other countries.

HTC posted a first-quarter loss for 2014, but hopes its new flagship smartphone - the HTC One M8 - will have better luck than the original HTC One. HTC reportedly posted its second loss in three quarters ahead of the release of the HTC One M8. The original flagship HTC One was a highly rated phone, but reportedly couldn't grab sales because of a poor marketing strategy.

The brand, a division of Daimler AG, makes tiny, foreshortened vehicles just begging for someone to roll them over. And it could also be great marketing, demonstrating just how light they are. Four of the tiny cars were tipped the other day in two different parts of San Francisco. There was a rash of incidents in 2011, which were chronicled on a Facebook parody page. Now the question is how to turn this into good advertising.