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Pepsi advertising on Super Bowl dries up
MILWAUKEE — Pepsi will not advertise its drinks in next year’s Super Bowl, ending a 23-year run so the company can focus on a new marketing effort that will appear mostly online.
Pepsi beverages have been advertised in the Super Bowl since 1987. Frito-Lay, a unit of parent company PepsiCo Inc., will still advertise.
The company, which is based in Purchase, N.Y., wouldn’t say how much it spent last year on Super Bowl ads, but it was one of the biggest advertisers, buying several minutes of commercial time. Ad time last year cost about $3 million for 30 seconds, on average.
Company veteran to lead Buick and GMC divisions
DETROIT — General Motors Co. on Thursday named Brian K. Sweeney, a 20-year company veteran, to head its Buick and GMC brands.
Sweeney replaces Michael Richards, who abruptly left the company on Dec. 10 after just eight days on the job. Sweeney, 42, is the latest in a string of appointments at the automaker, which has been undergoing a management shake-up under Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre Jr.
New reports point toward gradual economic recovery
WASHINGTON — A report on unemployment claims and a forecast of U.S. economic activity pointed Thursday to an economy mending slowly, without the job growth needed to fuel a vigorous recovery.
The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week. But the four-week average for jobless claims, which smooths out fluctuations, fell.
Separately, a forecast of economic activity rose for the eighth straight month in November, a private research group said, signaling the economic rebound will continue into next year.
Associated Press