It’s that magical time of the year when brand preferences are being lodged in the consumer psyche by any means necessary, be it free online shipping offers or conventional “doorbuster” style shopper stampedes. (Plus, in an admirable show of advance conditioning, there are those sidebar Four Loko-fueled parking lot brawls.)

But the romance of the brand is a notoriously ephemeral thing, as any casual survey of thrift-store Tickle-Me Elmo and Tamagotchi displays will promptly demonstrate. To do the job right, in this as in so many other realms, we would do well to heed the example of the Germans. As Bloomberg’s Chris Reiter reports, Deutschland’s [...]

Who is BMW trying to kid with that latest commercial for their "advanced diesel" technology, which they run at least every 6 minutes on, for one example, MNSBC? "Americans are always finding ways to be more responsible"??? First of all, bullshit. We are not. Americans do everything we can to avoid responsibility, and we know it. We still haven't ratified the Kyoto agreement, have we? Why not? Ask India and China. Secondly, BMW is telling us this? The German company, BMW? Don't blow diesel fumes up our ass. We know you, Germany. You are a world leader in green energy programs. You may like our crime fighters and [...]