Kraft-owned Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate is showcasing its Fair Trade Certification credentials with a new “Global Ambassadors” program.  Through a Facebook-hosted application process, the program will select and send 10 U.S. and U.K. residents to the Dominican Republic to assist the brand in helping the country’s cocoa farming community. Participants will spend 14 days in the D.R. next spring, learning about the community and helping to build a gravity-fed water system to ensure consistent access to fresh, potable water.   The brand's full Maya Gold line was already Fair Trade Certified in the U.S. as well as U.K., and …

Bank of America may still be in the public doghouse for the federal bailout money it received, but one thing the financial services provider is doing right is its mobile website, according to a study. Mobile web banking is no longer the poor sibling of downloadable mobile apps, according to Change Sciences Group, which also evaluated the sites of BB&T, Chase, ING Direct and PNC.  The 70-page report looks at the current state of the art of mobile web banking and placed BofA at the top of those evaluated. With all the focus on downloadable mobile apps, the mobile web …

U.S. Internet ad spending is now on pace to expand 13.9% to $25.8 billion, according to revised estimates from eMarketer. The estimates, which are based on an "meta analysis" of various industry estimates and methods, also projects that U.S. online ad spending will expand 10.5% in 2011, which would be followed by double digit growth through 2004 when U.S. online ad spending will reach $40.5 billion. "Increases in online spending will far outpace those for total media spending, which will inch up by 1.2% next year after rising 3% in 2010," eMarketer said in a released issued this morning. …

eMarketer has increased its forecast for U.S. online ad spending to $25.8 billion in 2010, up 13.9% from last year. The market research firm updated its estimate based on the latest figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, showing third-quarter Internet ad sales reached $6.4 billion, up 17% from the year-earlier period. eMarketer projects a 10.5% increase in U.S. online ad dollars in 2011, followed by double-digit growth every year through 2014 when spending will reach $40.5 billion. Read more here. Total media spending is expected to increase only 1.2% this year to $168.5 billion. "It may seem ironic, but …

Kraft Foods is seeking a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Starbucks Coffee Company. Kraft contends that Starbucks is violating the terms of the companies' 12-year-old agreement giving Kraft exclusive rights for sales, marketing and distribution of Starbucks roast and ground coffee in grocery and other retail outlets.  The injunction filing is separate from and does not affect the continuation of arbitration proceedings now underway regarding  the dispute between the companies. Starbucks, which wants to take control of the retail business as of next March 1, has maintained that it can legally terminate the contract because Kraft …

Social data-driven online ad network RadiumOne is partnering with American Media Inc. to allow the celebrity news and health publisher to give advertisers the ability to retarget its online readers across the Web. RadiumOne's AudienceMatch for Publishers platform also promises to find "lookalike users" to those on AMI's 14 Web properties and allow the publisher to offer ads reaching similar users on the Web's top 500 sites. AMI operates companion sites for publications including Star, Shape, Men's Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Natural Health, and National Enquirer. RadiumOne, launched in October by Blue Lithium founder Gurbaksh Chahal, will be working …

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2010-12-04-cash-credit_N.htm

o of Madison Avenue's Big 3 forecasters - Interpublic's Magna and WPP's GroupM units - have significantly upgraded their forecasts for the worldwide ad economy in 2011. The other, Publicis' ZenithOptimedia unit, revised its slightly downward. The forecasts were released late Sunday in anticipation of presentations that will be made Monday morning at the opening of UBS annual Media Week conference in New York. Interpublic, which over the past couple of years has shifted its method for estimating the ad economy based on media company revenues, now expects the global ad economy to expand 5.4%, an increase of nearly …

Fila USA originally planned to use two professional models and one "real" woman in a new ad campaign for it Body Toning System fitness apparel. But the "extraordinary" results of the New York City casing call prompted a revised campaign featuring seven non-models. Twenty finalists were picked from the entry pool of non-professional models ages 25-50. Fila ended up selecting a total of seven women, due in part to the unwillingness of the celebrity judges to narrow the field below those leaders. The campaign is focused on how a woman feels about herself, and so it is only …

Popular music discovery app Shazam has launched a new ad offering that allows marketers to take over the "listening screen" that appears while a song is being identified by iPhone and iPod users. Instead of the usual blue Shazam screen, those using the free, ad-supported version of the app will see ads covering three quarters of the display. A viewer can tap on the interactive unit to get more information or simply allow it to retract to the top of the screen. Fox Broadcasting will be the first company to employ the new ad option with a campaign for …