The biggest story in the global branding game over the past few months was the innovative partnership between Pepsi and Beyoncé–a deal that gives an unprecedented degree of creative power to the world’s biggest pop star. Mark Bittman may not think it’s OK for celebrities to sell soda, but that won’t stop Pepsi’s new frontwoman from dominating America’s biggest PR stunt, The Super Bowl.*

One thing you almost certainly won’t hear Beyoncé discussing in 2013: the relationship between soft drinks and obesity. A certain other soda, on the other hand, just announced plans to address the issue directly.

This surprises us as much as anybody, but Pepsico‘s mortal enemy Coca-Cola just took a first step into the public health fray by creating a campaign designed to address America’s obesity epidemic–all in the company’s own best interests, of course.

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We’re not sure what’s worse: this butt-level video of Justin Timberlake “heading into the studio” to lay down some hot new jams, the countdown clock that follows, or his ambiguous series of “I think I’M READY” tweets.  But hey, what do we know? We clicked on it, didn’t we?

OK, so there will be a new full-length, it will be produced by Timbaland, and both artists will collaborate with Beyoncé on her new solo record and a Destiny’s Child reunion project. It’s cool–we kinda miss the late 90′s too.

We recently told you about the Demand a Plan campaign launched by social advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The social media campaign geared toward pushing American politicians to pass gun control legislation urges supporters to sign a petition, contact their legislators and mayors, write letters to editors of major publications and voice their support on Twitter and Facebook. The multifaceted project has all its PR bases covered–and now it has a celebrity-filled viral video to boot.

The spot, which features such familiar names and faces as Jon Hamm, Beyoncé, Chris Rock and many others, made it to number 6 on the Ad Age Viral Video Chart this week. Like all of the campaign’s content, the video’s simple, straight-forward, no-frills style serves to promote its overall message: less rhetoric, more action.

PepsiCo recently signed a sponsorship deal with Beyoncé worth a reported $50 million—but we’re not terribly concerned with news about a pop singer promoting a soda company.

We’re more interested in the nature of the relationship between the two parties, which seems to have broken new ground when it comes to sponsorships and invites the question: Who is promoting whom?

Pepsi calls the contract a “brand ambassador” deal, and the accompanying New York Times headline mentions Pepsi’s focus on “collaboration”. What do these terms mean, exactly? Well, Beyoncé won’t just appear on Pepsi products, star in commercials, and perform in next year’s Pepsi-sponsored Super Bowl: Her contract also includes “a multimillion-dollar fund to support the singer’s chosen creative projects.”

Correct us if we’re wrong, but this move is unprecedented—or at the very least extremely rare.

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Today we reach new heights of self-promotion in the entertainment world: HBO just announced the February premiere of an “intimate, revealing”, as-yet-untitled documentary feature starring and directed by jack-of-all-trades Beyoncé.

The HBO group’s press release describes the film as “a fusion of video that provides raw, unprecedented access to the private entertainment icon and high-voltage performances”, so we’re guessing it will combine in-concert clips with more personal footage of fans passing out a la Bieber’s Never Say Never. HBO programming president Michael Lombardo says the pic will allow us to look “beyond the glamour to reveal a vibrant, vulnerable, unforgettable woman”, and we take this to mean that the film will be a little less…arthritic than the channel’s recent dried-prunes-and-fiber-supplements Rolling Stones doc.

So one of pop’s biggest superstars announces her debut full-length film project on the same day that she releases intimate pictures of a first Thanksgiving spent with her infant daughter (whose name will sadly never become a registered trademark). Hmm…Let’s just say we’re curious to see what sort of product Beyoncé looks to promote with this film–because these things never happen in a vacuum.

As long as it’s absolutely nothing like Madonna‘s Truth or Dare, we have a feeling she’ll be OK.

We’re not quite sure why Jay-Z and Beyoncé  would want to fight a Boston-based wedding planning company for the rights to the phrase “Blue Ivy”. The only possible scenario we can imagine involves a special line of Rocawear for toddlers, but something tells us that’s already a thing (please tell us that’s not already a thing).

At any rate, today The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office let the world’s richest entertainment power couple know that they are not the only people in the world legally allowed to repeat their own child’s name–and that the Massachusetts firm Blue Ivy may continue to operate under the title it has used since 2009.

OK, here’s the backstory: In February the couple sought to trademark their daughter’s name after “fashion designer Joseph Mbeh submitted an application [for] “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” on January 11th, only four days after the child was born”. Shameless!

Mbeh claimed (unconvincingly) that he didn’t plan to use the name himself–he just wanted to pitch his “Blue Ivy” fashion line to Hova and bride while owning the rights to said brand. Hmm…that sounds a little bit like blackmail, no? It’s almost as bad as the toy company that released a pair of dolls named “Sasha and Malia” back in 2009, claiming that the fact that the dolls shared the names of the new President’s daughters was just an incredible coincidence.

Glad that’s all settled, but for the record we’re still a little weirded out by the fact that the pair has “plans to reserve their child’s name for possible use as a brand name for a line of baby-related products, including carriages, diaper bags and baby cosmetics”. Would that plan really work?

Most importantly, we hope Blue Ivy’s delicate ego will survive this unfortunate branding fail.

Throughout its more than three-decade history, MTV has gone from showcasing the latest and greatest meetings of pop music and short film to being a platform in which the stars of reality TV find new ways to behave badly–again and again.

The question has been asked repeatedly over the past few years, but after a somewhat lackluster Video Music Awards and the cancellation of the network’s most valuable property, “Jersey Shore“, we have to repeat it: is MTV still relevant? And where does the brand go from here?

With all the talk of Snooki and “Teen Mom”, it’s easy to forget that last year’s VMAs, starring Alicia Keys and a pregnant Beyonce, earned the highest ratings in MTV history. Still, an awards show that only involves six actual awards is very different from the VMAs we knew as kids. And the fact that the biggest moment of last night’s ceremony was a hug exchanged between Rihanna and Chris Brown reveals something about its relevance.

In a telling interview with Forbes, MTV’s executive vice president of music and talent Amy Doyle emphasizes the network’s continued focus on, well, music.

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How do you get 1.13 billion people to “do something good, somewhere, for someone else”? Why, you show them a Beyoncé video, of course! Throw in some impressive CGI and inspiring imagery from around the globe and you’re golden, baby!

For this year’s World Humanitarian Day, which took place on August 19, the United Nations partnered with digital ad agency Droga5 to reach hundreds of millions of people with that very simple, universal message. The campaign, titled “I Was Here” (Twitter hashtags #WHD2012 and #IWASHERE), drew its inspiration from a Beyoncé song of the same name, so of course she was a natural choice to take part in a campaign that will also help burnish her humanitarian cred (the video already has well  over 4 million views):

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Song-and-dance-man/branding expert Jay-Z and chef Mike Shand used to be tight like that, but the sparkle on their relationship seems to have dimmed: Jay just filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Shand for failing “to to perform on significant aspects” of a contract that named him as head honcho in charge of remaking the baseball-themed 40/40 Club‘s menu into something really special (as opposed to the overpriced bar food lineup now featured on the club’s website).

Following a January re-launch, this is the second big move that Hova has made in an ongoing attempt to improve his Flatiron District sports bar/nightclub’s reputation for…closely resembling a cross between a sports bar and a night club. And he didn’t pick Shand out of thin air, either: The reported California native also served as personal chef to both Jay and wife Beyoncé on recent tours. We’re guessing Shand didn’t care for “Watch the Throne” either, huh?

We can’t imagine this story will hurt business at the 40/40 club too much–who goes there to eat a fancy dinner anyway? But Mike Shand might have some trouble getting work as a high-end celebrity chef in the near future.

A fascinating story in The New York Times today considers a strangely uneven relationship: Despite the fact that rapper, producer and super-mogul Sean “Jay-Z” Carter owns only a fraction of a percent of the NBA’s Brooklyn-bound Nets franchise, his heavy hand is visible in nearly every corner of their re-branding project.

Not only is Jay-Z headlining opening week at Brooklyn’s monster Barclays Center venue, aka the Nets’ new home field; he also helped design the team’s logos and advised their PR squad on everything from music selections (more indie, “less Jersey”) to security practices (“be sensitive” when checking attendees for weapons).

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