Coca-Cola has poured millions of pounds into British scientific research and healthy-eating initiatives to counter claims that its drinks help to cause obesity, an investigation by the "Times" can reveal. The drinks giant, a major sponsor of the Olympics, the Fifa World Cup and the Rugby World Cup, has financial links to more than a dozen British scientists, including government health advisers and others who cast doubt on the commonly accepted link between sugary drinks and the obesity crisis.

AOL and TalkTalk have agreed terms on a new partnership that will see AOL supply advertising and news content for TalkTalk's Web site. AOL will now power the news and TV guide sections of TalkTalk's online platforms with content from The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, ITN, Channel 4 and AOL's own news, travel & lifestyle sections, among others. This will also include video and display advertising through AOL's technology properties.

Cadbury is looking to breathe new life into Milk Tray with the launch of an ad campaign to find a new "Milk Tray Man," the popular James Bond-style character who last starred in the brand's ads 13 years ago. Debuting on screens tonight with a 30-second TV ad by Fallon, the GBP4m multiplatform campaign forms part of Milk Tray's 100th anniversary. The spot stars a former Milk Tray Man, actor James Coombes, as he kicks off the nationwide search for the brand's latest "Man in Black."

Since pledging to introduce pay in excess of the National Living Wage, supermarket brands Lidl and Morrisons have both seen a positive boost to brand health, suggesting that other supermarkets would be wise to follow suit. The move is expected to cost Lidl GBP9m, but has led to a noticeable spike in customer appreciation. According to YouGov brandIndex, its buzz rating rose from a score of 16 to 29 in a week. It has been a similar story for big four supermarket Morrisons.

The outsourcing giant, which is running the pitch in-house, began approaching agencies last week to see whether they were interested in completing an RFI. The brief is for an Army recruitment ad that will run on TV after Christmas. J Walter Thompson usually handles recruitment campaigns for Capita on behalf of the Army. The agency was part of the Capita-led consortium that won a pitch for the Ministry of Defence's Recruiting Partnering Project in 2012.

The new global division, iProspect Enterprise, has been set up with international hubs in London, Chicago and Singapore, and will offer specific digital consultancy for B2B brands. The London hub was officially launched yesterday, with founding clients Microsoft, Intel, and Regus. The new division has also entered into an partnership with LinkedIn, the networking platform for professionals, which will give iProspect Enterprise exclusive access to its back-end data.

Google is attempting to counter the threat from ad-blocking and rivals Facebook and Apple by radically improving the loading speed of Web pages on smartphones and tablets. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) aims to simplify the structure of mobile web pages and place the data needed to deliver them closer to users both physically and virtually in a bid to to achieve almost "instant" delivery of articles to anywhere in the world. The project is its early stages, and the company hopes to launch AMP next year.

Almost 800,000 new digital jobs will be created in the next few years, with half in London and the South East, according to a report. To address the "alarming" north-south divide, communications giant O2 is launching a scheme in St Helens to promote the digital economy. Over the next three months, firms in the area will be offered a digital makeover, while grants will be given to young people to gain workplace experience.

Searches for baking products online have increased by an average of 22% since the current series began on 5 August, but even more significantly, sales of baking products have risen by 214% compared to the weeks before it started at a selection of retailers analysed by Summit. The first programme of the new series triggered a 112% increase in searches for baking products compared to the previous night. The rise was slightly more modest, at 55% following the second episode and 22% after the third episode,

The regional publisher has axed eight free print titles in the Midlands and folded a further three into paid-for titles in the North West and South. The company announced the closures in a statement to shareholders this morning in an update on its "cost reduction programme." Johnston Press said the closures will "allow the group to focus resources on its digital offering in those and adjoining markets where the growth potential of digital is stronger."