Abbott Laboratories became the latest drug company to swallow the bitter -- but evidently palatable -- pill of paying a huge fine for marketing a drug off label. All told, it will pay $1.6 billion in combined civil and criminal penalties and plead guilty to one criminal count of misdemeanor violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for "misbranding" the drug Depakote.

Captain America is not a doddering relic of Nazi-smashing days after all -- at least when, through Hollywood special-effects and marketing magic at its best -- he's teamed with the likes of a magnate/genius inventor/smart-aleck with a funky goatee who tools around (and above) town in a suit of Iron, a hulking, raging, green superhero with anger issues and a few other well-meaning misfits (including a gorgeous heroine, of course) who join forces with a Norse god who pulled the protection of Earth as his day job to beat back a nefarious extraterrestrial force led by a weaselly villain who …

Michael Jackson is hardly the first celebrity who has posthumously sung the praises of a brand but one wonders exactly what the folks at Pepsi are thinking in enlisting a dead man to endorse a product that has been perennially in pursuit of a new generation since 1963.

Supporters of a bill in California that would require marketers of foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients (GMOs) to state so on their labels delivered a petition yesterday with nearly a million signatures asking that a referendum on the issue be included on the ballot this November. The odds are good that it will be: There are nearly twice as many signatures as are required to force a vote.

Supporters of a bill in California that would require marketers of foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients (GMOs) to state so on their labels delivered a petition yesterday with nearly a million signatures asking that a referendum on the issue be included on the ballot this November. The odds are good that it will be: There are nearly twice as many signatures as are required to force a vote.

A drastic situation calls for uncommon measures, RIM has decided, so with its BlackBerry's market share eroding and faith in the company's ability to regain its prestige status among business users slipping, its new leadership team is resorting to a ploy more usually seen with juicer demonstrations at big-box stores: It's giving away "alpha" versions of a BlackBerry 10 device that is slated to roll out sometime in the semi-near future.

When I first heard about Microsoft investing $300 million or so in Barnes & Nobles' Nook division yesterday, I was reminded of the New York Yankees of a time when George Steinbrenner was still running the show and had a penchant for signing marquee players who were just a little bit past their prime. That's not to say that the likes of Jason Giambi and Randy Johnson didn't have productive years in pinstripes; just that they were eclipsed by younger prospects with sprightlier legs.

One thing that's clear about the growing dust-up over Kashi's use of the work "natural" in its labeling is that marketers are being held to a higher standard of clarity than before. It's not just consumer watchdogs issuing press releases and hoping they'll garner a few paragraphs in the mainstream media. Consumers are taking to the digital ramparts and stories such as this are becoming larger than passing headlines in the 24-hour news cycle, as we most recently witnessed with the "pink slime" story.

No one is doing cartwheels at Betsey Johnson, LLC this morning. Most of its 63 retail stores will be closing in coming weeks and roughly 350 employees will lose their jobs after the licensee that operates the retail operation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Still, the seemingly irrepressible namesake and creative backbone of the enterprise is managing to put a neon front on a dreary backstory.

Brook Barnes' piece in the "New York Times" this morning, wondering who will succeed Rich Ross as chairman of Walt Disney Studios, poses several conundrums confronting Disney chief Robert Iger that are faced today by most large companies with a collection of fiefdoms ruled by their own powerful chieftains. The primary one is: "Does running Walt Disney Studios require a brand manager, or a strong movie hand?"