Microsoft announced yesterday that its Bing search engine will power search and search advertising across all AOL sites under a 10-year agreement and that AOL will sell all its display advertising, including mobile and video, across nine markets. Observers generally hailed the deals as a good - and necessary - moves for both companies.

The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision Friday ruling that the Constitution guarantees the right of people of the same sex to marry in all 50 states was greeted with glee by brands and marketers.

Depending on how you look at it, fewer kids want soda than they did after McDonald's took the option off its menu boards or, given the opportunity to express their predilection, more kids still want soda than milk, juice or water.

BMW Group yesterday introduced a longer, four-door and five-passenger 2016 Clubman that not only will be its flagship in the U.S. market but also will lead it into the "premium compact" market. It also swung the crushing ball at three under-performing models: its Paceman, Coupe and Roadster. And, BMW says in a blog post, it is "realigning the Mini brand's product and brand strategy."

Major retailers and online merchants including Amazon, eBay, Sears Holdings, Etsy and Google Shopping are following Walmart's lead and say they will no longer sell Confederate flags or merchandise bearing them.

Apple's about-face on its decision to withhold royalty payments for songs played on Apple Music during its three-month free trail - mostly thanks to Taylor Swift's reverent but damning Tumbler post Sunday morning - provides an eTextbook example of how brands need to stay vigilant for the social media snippet that can upend their well-wrought tactics within hours.

It's no secret that advertising is really going geeky on us but the extent to which technology has been overtaking the industry is the talk of the Cannes Lions - the annual festival of graying honchos, celebs like Kim Kardashian and Marilyn Manson and 25-year-old CEOs of $16 billion startups that believes, in its heart, that "creativity is the driving force for business, for change and for good."

Fitbit pushed off the IPO blocks with a burst of energy yesterday, exceeding even heightened expectations. The company raised the share price to $20 Wednesday night after having set a range of $17 to $19 earlier in the week and then surged almost 50% to close at $29.68 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Mark Penn - the former market research entrepreneur, Burson Marsteller CEO and advisor to Bill and Hillary Clinton - is leaving his EVP role at Microsoft by September to form an investment advisory company that will invest in advertising, research, data analytics, public relations, and digital marketing services.

The Food and Drug Administration Tuesday told food marketers that they have until 2018 to eliminate trans fats from all products sold in the U.S., determining, after a "thorough review of the scientific evidence ... that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), the primary dietary source of artificial trans fat in processed foods, are not 'generally recognized as safe'" for human consumption.