It’s been less than a year since Rahm Emanuel became Chicago’s mayor, but the politician has already been called out for not upholding two of his campaign promises—cutting budgets and putting more cops on the streets rather than having them serve as personal security. Well, Rahmbo, NBC Chicago’s Ward Room offers an ultimatum: Pay for your own bodyguards or its Chuck Norris for mayor.

We’d say whichever candidate could get us a Gmail app for our iPhone first has our vote, but it looks like we won’t have to wait much longer. On his personal blog, TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler cites several sources who say the app is coming soon and that “it’s pretty fantastic.”

Not as fantastic—the candy coma after Halloween. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on the other hand, is more concerned that you haven’t OD’d on black licorice. The old-fashioned sweet reportedly contains glycyrrhizin, a chemical that can cause a precarious plunge in one’s potassium levels.

That could put a damper on any plans to celebrate Día de los Muertos, perhaps more widely known as the “The Day of the Dead.” Although the Latino holiday is becoming more recognized, it has much to gain before it becomes marketers’ next big holiday.

As for our next president, a poll by Vanity Fair and “60 Minutes” showed that if Obama were to have a new running mate in 2012, 48 percent of its readers believe Hillary Clinton would make the best replacement for current VP Joe Biden.

Regardless of whose name lands on the Democratic Party’s ticket, product names have found their place on U.K. prime-time TV. For the first time, product placement will appear on the British tube during the popular U.K. soap “Coronation Street,” where Nationwide Building Society logos will appear on an ATM.

We’d like to see this aired during its broadcast as well. It’s “simply the best” way I’ve ever heard of a nation getting its Olympic team pumped. Kudos, Cadbury.



Getting far less support than British swimmers are CDs. According to reports, the compact disc is on its way out, with major labels planning to completely discard the music format by the end of 2012. Say hello to cassettes and 8-tracks for us.

Online streaming might be the future of the music industry, but the same can’t be said for television. Despite more audiences turning to Hulu and other sites for their small-screen viewing, the vast majority of American households are still paying to watch the bulk of their TV programming.

Meanwhile, America’s children are the ones paying for the sugary drinks and sodas ads geared toward them. The Atlantic reports that today’s youngsters will be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents, with obesity—and marketers—largely to blame. An extensive Rudd Center study shows just how much the exposure of kids to the promotion of such products has increased in recent years, doubling from 2008 to 2010.

We’re not sure how Rudd carried out its study, but we hope it can be easily explained. The same can’t always be said, unfortunately, for jargon in the digital world. Teaching a lesson from the most notable water-cooler comics—Dilbert, 10,000 Words blog asserts that if you can’t explain it, don’t say it.

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