There is a great deal of debate as to whether Area 51 actually exists and if "The X Files" stories are based on real-life events. There is no debate as to the authenticity of The Coneheads, who traveled from Remulak in the 1970s to appear on "Saturday Night Live." They are back in a spot from State Farm, which also features company spokesman Jake, recreating an on-going "State of Distress" spot with Prymatt questioning Beldar as as to the authenticity of Jake from State Farm and his khakis. A second spot will break in June.

Consumer product makers are becoming media companies, and they're hiring. They are hiring writers, full-time, for their blogs and to be their voices on social media. Casper, a mattress company that somehow has young tech engineers and Silicon Valley visionaries working for it, is hiring journalists and gearing up to start its own standalone Web publication to "own the conversation around sleep," said Lindsay Kaplan, Casper's vice president of communications.

Buick has trademarked "Avenir" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That's the name of the concept vehicle it unveiled at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, that could show Buick's design direction for the future. The automaker also filed trademarks on "Buick Regal Sport Touring" and "Buick LaCrosse Sport Touring."

Six media companies control the news. A new media consolidation suggests maybe that number is increasing. Verizon will acquire AOL for $4.4 billion, or $50 per share, or a 17% premium over AOL's Monday closing price of $42.59. AOL's brands include, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, and Engadget. "Verizon's vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multiscreen network platform," said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam.

In a major turnaround, FCA U.S. - the former Chrysler - turned a $2.6 billion profit for the first three months of this year, compared with a $690 million loss during the first quarter of 2014. But the vast bulk of its earnings coming from tax benefits as it changed its tax status when Chrysler became a wholly owned subsidiary. There were, nonetheless, some positive signs for the company which saw vehicle shipments jump 8%, to 718,000 cars, trucks and crossovers.

CEC Entertainment Inc., parent to the Chuck E. Cheese's and Pied Piper Pizza chains, is putting more emphasis on appealing to parents as it overhauls its marketing strategy, executives said Friday. Executives at the Irving, Texas-based company, which has a total of 735 units across both brands, said they will continue to enhance kid messaging, but also work on keeping the concepts top of mind with parents to help boost same-store sales, especially at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Frito-Lay is the latest brand to jettison the agency-of-record model. North American CMO Ram Krishnan on Friday confirmed that the PepsiCo-owned division was no longer working with Energy BBDO on the Lay's brand and has shifted to a project approach for its creative. "We go project-by-project, brand-by-brand," he said. "We don't restrict ourselves to ... one agency."

Details about how Amazon's proposed delivery drones may work have been published by the U.S. Patent Office. According to the patent, the drones will be able to track the location of the person it is delivering to by pulling data from their smartphone. The unmanned vehicles will also be able to talk to each other about weather and traffic conditions. Amazon submitted its drone patent in September 2014, but the details are only now being published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, after it approved the ideas.

China's smartphone market is shrinking. A new report from IDC claims that smartphone shipments in the last quarter decreased for the first time in nine years. The firm tracked 98.8 million smartphones shipped during Q1 2015, constituting a 4% year-on-year drop and an 8% slip versus the previous quarter. China's smartphone market remains, however, the largest in the world. Apple took the top spot in the country last quarter, with 14.7% of the total shipments in China, per IDC.

A new drug-approval system from Johnson & Johnson will employ an independent panel to review requests from seriously ill people who want to try an unapproved drug without participating in the actual testing of the drug. A committee of doctors, bioethicists and patient representatives will work under the umbrella of the New York University School of Medicine, and will field the hundreds of requests J&J receives.