Lexus has entered the world of film presentation for the first time with an agreement with Shangri-La Entertainment and YouTube. The automaker will present the Sebastian Gutierrez film "Girl Walks Into a Bar" free on YouTube premiering Friday, March 11. The deal is also the first time a major motion picture was created exclusively for Web distribution. "Girl Walks Into a Bar" will premiere in the YouTube Screening Room, a platform designed to showcase top films.   "With 'Girl Walks Into a Bar,' the cast and crew came together to create something different – a high quality, really …

Mike Oddi has rejoined KSL Media as CMO, a new title for the independent media services shop. He will lead KSL's marketing, new business development and PR. Oddi, who is based in KSL's Los Angeles office, most recently was executive vice president-strategic marketing services at Integrated Media Solutions. Before that, he had the same title at KSL.

Having funded a study by Wakefield Research in which teachers reported using 1.5 rolls of paper towels each week in the classroom, Procter & Gamble's Bounty brand began a campaign on Valentine's Day at 1,000 schools to get teachers to buy more P&G cleaning products. The effort used reality maven and mogul model Kimora Lee Simmons dangling a $50,000 designer classroom makeover. The Make a Clean Difference Pledge at Bounty's Facebook page asks parents and teachers to submit their schools. Entries by March 4 become part of the company's "We Love Our School" sweepstakes. The first 500 schools to …

In the States, anyway. The Omnicom media services network, whose roots are in the U.K., turns 21 this month. To mark it's coming of age, the media shop has produced some creative (or gotten one of its sister agencies to do so), making what it touts as a "provocative ad just like our first one in 1990 when we launched as the world's first planning-led media agency." The ad, which uses the tag line, "'We Are The Future," can be viewed at https://twitter.com/phdworldwide

The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to prevent the Federal Communications from using any funds to implement net neutrality regulations. The 244-181 vote approved a spending bill amendment proposed by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.). The defunding vote came one day after House members grilled FCC members about the new open Internet rules, which prohibit broadband providers from blocking content or applications. The defunding measure won't become law unless it is also passed by the Senate and signed by the president. Veteran lawmaker Ed Markey (D-Mass.) was among the Democrats who opposed the vote. “You vote for …

Brown Shoe Company, Inc. has acquired American Sporting Goods Corporation a designer, manufacturer and marketer of athletic footwear, for $145 million in cash plus assumed net debt.   The deal gives Brown Shoe the Avia, ryka and AND1 shoe brands.   For its most recently completed fiscal year, ASG  achieved net sales of $232 million, the majority of which was attributed to its Avia, ryka and AND1 brands, per a company release.

Chrysler LLC has put the Chrysler tagline "Imported From Detroit on a giant building wrap featuring an image of the new Chrysler 200 car. The wrap covers almost the entire west side of the company's 15-story headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. .

Google responded to the brand hijacking scam identified by Symantec's MessageLabs Intelligence business unit, where a message containing text promoting a drug that prevents hair loss and links to a blog on a popular free blogging site bares the search engine's name. A Google spokesperson in an email said "Google has a track record of fighting similar types of scams, and we also recommend that users carefully review online offers that look too good to be true before entering any of their information." Additional information can be found here. This was one page on a blogging platform …

Fran Hauser has been promoted to president of digital for Time Inc.'s Style & Entertainment and Lifestyle groups, the company said Thursday. "Hauser comes with years of experience at style & entertainment mags including People, InStyle, and Entertainment Weekly," reports MediaBistro. Hauser will now manage all of Time Inc.'s women's brands, including lifestyle titles such as Real Simple, Southern Living and Myrecipes.com. Hauser will work under Time Inc. EVPs Paul Caine and Evelyn Webster, and will be expected to grow her groups' online reach. To date, Hauser has served as president of digital for the Style & Entertainment group …

A full 83.5% of all U.S. Internet users watched a Web video in January, according to new data from comScore. That works out to over 171 million consumers. "When it comes to online video, it's hard to find someone who hasn't watched at least one clip in the past month," jokes CNet. What's more, the average online video lasted about five minutes, and those who watched ad-supported content sat through an average of 24 seconds worth of commercials. With a little help from YouTube, Google led the way in total viewership last month, serving video to over 144 million …