Sprint, T-Mobile CEOs brawl over Super Bowl ads

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

T-Mobile (TMUS) CEO John Legere took his first shot after Sprint's commercial aired, tweeting: "Half-assed commercial, half-assed data speeds. #typical @sprint. #SprintLikeHell."

Legere was referencing a Sprint ad that offered to cut the bills of Verizon and AT&T customers in half if they switched carriers.

"Dear Verizon (VZ, Tech30) and AT&T (T, Tech30), Sprint would like to apologize for calling you a ..." the ad said before cutting away to a bleating sheep. T-Mobile was not mentioned.

Meanwhile, Sprint (S) CEO Marcelo Claure was busily retweeting user comments that praised his company's ad, or bashed a T-Mobile spot featuring Kim Kardashian.

Related: NFL's domestic violence Super Bowl spot: 'It's up to us to listen'

The T-Mobile ad featured Kardashian in a spoof public service announcement: "Each month, millions of gigs of unused data are taken back by wireless companies -- tragic. Data you paid for that can be used to see my makeup, my backhand, my outfits, my vacations, and my outfits. Sadly, all lost. Please help save the data."

Claure used an image to respond to Legere's "half-assed" tweet. The message was: "Never sacrifice your class to get even with someone who has none. Take the high road."

Legere responded, "Oh look! You learned how to use the "respond" button. I thought you only knew how to use the retweet button."

The Twitter fight showed no signs of slowing. Even after the clock expired, Legere was still firing off messages.

Related: Kim Kardashian's selfies coming soon in hardcover

Read next: Top Twitter moments of 2014: Celebrities, social activism, sports

First Published: February 1, 2015: 11:54 PM ET

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These Super Bowl ads made this Dad cry

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

So I am not ashamed to admit that several of this year's Super Bowl ads had me reaching for the box of Kleenex.

Call it "dad"-vertising if you will. Or "pa"-rketing. It was refreshing to see Nissan (NSANF), Toyota (TM) and Unilever's (UN) Dove Men make commercials that had positive things to say about fathers.

Advertisers have often relied on lazy, easy joke stereotypes -- treating Dads like bad sitcom characters. Think Al Bundy.

Related: Check out a gallery of this year's Super Bowl ads

But this year's ads celebrated fatherhood and acknowledged that many children have fond memories of their dads.

It's about time. My kids come first. And I know I'm not alone.

It's amazing that it took this long for marketers to realize that ads that tug at the heartstrings of emotionally engaged fathers can be as effective (if not more so) than scantily clad women drinking beer or modeling lingerie.

The commercials for Toyota and Nissan were both very sentimental. I teared up a bit during the Toyota one, which featured a proud dad interacting with his daughter as she grew up.

The Nissan ad was touching but a little too long. I also couldn't get over the fact that a car company chose to focus on the dangerous sport of race car driving and use a song by a singer (Harry Chapin) who was killed in a car crash. But I'm nitpicking.

Still, the Dove ad was the best. It really struck a chord. I thought that it was the most poignant, showing several kids calling for their daddy. I lost it during that one.

It was tough for me to watch this year's Super Bowl without my Dad around. Sports were a big part of our bonding experience -- football in particular.

My Dad would have enjoyed this year's Super Bowl -- and the ads celebrating fathers.

My father took me to my first football game when I was seven. It was a frigid and windy mid-December day in 1980. The New York Jets played the New Orleans Saints at Shea Stadium.

The Saints were 0-14 at the time. Archie Manning -- father of Peyton and Eli -- was their quarterback. The Jets lost. By one point.

I still had a great time with my Dad at the game. But it didn't take long to figure out that I'd be happier as a Giants fan. (Four Super Bowl victories later, I can definitely say, "Thanks, Pop!")

Related: Super Bowl advertisers 'are on trial'

But I now feel conflicted watching football with my sons.

Given all that is wrong with the game -- domestic violence and the history of concussions are just the tip of the iceberg -- I do wonder if the NFL will be around by the time I have grandchildren.

Still, that's a topic for another time.

I'm just glad that on football's (and advertising's) biggest night, some marketers decided to stop showing fathers as idiots who can't change stinky diapers or pay attention to their kids because they are too busy working or watching TV.

Instead, they highlighted the important, hands-on role that many involved fathers play in their kids' lives.

Now will these dad-vertisements make me want to go out and buy a brand new Nissan Maxima or Toyota Camry? No.

But I might consider changing my face wash from Neutrogena to Dove.

First Published: February 1, 2015: 11:10 PM ET

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China's anti-corruption campaign snags banking heavyweight

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

China Minsheng Bank released a statement on Saturday saying its president, Mao Xiaofeng, had resigned for "personal reasons." While the statement sought to reassure shareholders that the firm was operating normally, Chinese business publication Caixin said that other bank executives had also been questioned and released.

According to Caixin, Mao was detained last week for questioning by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which investigates corruption within the Communist Party.

Minsheng has a market cap of about $40 billion, making it roughly the same size as Deutsche Bank. Shares tumbled as much as 10.5% on Monday in Hong Kong trading before mounting a partial recovery.

The Chinese government has staged a wide-reaching anti-corruption crackdown since President Xi Jinping took the reins nearly two years ago. The probes have netted top party and government officials, as well as executives at state-run and private companies. One of the most high-profile officials to be detained thus far is Ling Jihua, a top aide to former president Hu Jintao.

Related: China targets executive pay at state-owned firms

Mao joined Minsheng in 2002, and served in a variety of roles at the bank over the years, according to previous stock exchange filings. Prior to that, he served as a director in the China Communist Youth League, a group directly under Communist Party control. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University, as well as graduate diplomas from Hunan University.

One of Minsheng's top stakeholders, Chinese insurance firm Anbang, made headlines last year after acquiring the iconic Waldorf Astoria luxury hotel for nearly $2 billion.

Read next: World's most corrupt industries

First Published: February 2, 2015: 2:28 AM ET

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What Super Bowl? The Ad Bowl has already begun

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Some Super Bowl advertisers have been previewing their ads for days, trying to maximize their multimillion dollar investments. Others are keeping their ads under wraps until game time, believing that's the best way to stand out.

At an average cost of $4.5 million per 30-second ad, the stakes are obviously high.

NBC said ad time during the four quarters of the game officially sold out earlier this week. Almost as valuable is the commercial time during the network's six-hour pre-show -- and after the game, when NBC will show its popular drama "The Blacklist."

Watch: Super Bowl's strangest prop bets

More than ever, Super Bowl advertisers are supplementing their 15-, 30- and 60-second spots with viral online videos and what marketers call "social media war rooms."

But the spots are undoubtedly the most important part. On top of what's paid to NBC, companies pay advertising firms huge amounts of money to distill brand messages into funny, timely, celeb-filled, sex-soaked ads.

The game will feature 15 first-time Super Bowl advertisers.

"If you would have told me 10 years ago that Chevy wouldn't be in the Super Bowl, but that Wix.com or Dove products for men would be, I'd be very surprised," Richard Kirshenbaum, the CEO of ad agency NSG/SWAT, said on CNN's "New Day."

"But there's a new lineup. There's a new America," he added.

Wix, a website-building company, is one of the first-timers. Chief marketing officer Omer Shai told CNNMoney that it prepared almost a dozen "teaser" ads ahead of Sunday.

"We are updating and changing the campaign on a daily basis according to performance," Shai said. "This is the year that we're comfortable [taking] the brand to the next level."

Other newbies include the online insurance company Esurance, the glue brand Loctite, the toenail fungus treatment Jublia, and the mobile game maker UCool.

Related: Preview 17 Super Bowl ads

Household names like McDonald's (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO), Budweiser, and BMW will be present, too.

Coca Cola has a 60-second ad rebuking Internet "haters" that won't be seen until the game. But the company has already released clips with stars like Danica Patrick, Michael Sam and Robby Novak, better known as Kid President.

A Coke representative said the ad is "intended to disrupt the complacency that's set in around online negativity" -- something that anyone who's spent time on Facebook or Twitter knows about.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking ad of the game will be the one commissioned by the NFL for its "No More" initiative, intended to stop domestic violence and sexual assault.

"The spot, which features a woman calling 911 and pretending to order a pizza because her husband is in the room, is based on a real 911 call," said the ad blog Spot Bowl, which called it a "game-changer."

It said the NFL was giving over "some of the airtime it normally reserves for light-hearted self promos" for the PSA.

Marketers come to the Super Bowl with a wide variety of missions.

For Victoria's Secret, its ad is part of a weeks-long campaign leading up to Valentine's Day.

For TurboTax, the timing is right, too, because it's tax season.

Weight Watchers is using the stage to introduce a rebooted brand.

NBC will be promoting several of its forthcoming shows, like "Odyssey" and a variety show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Most of the ads will, in one form or another, strive to make 110 million viewers laugh -- and, most importantly, remember the advertisers.

First Published: January 31, 2015: 3:58 PM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

2.1 million cars recalled for crash sensors

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

All the vehicles had previously been recalled for this issue but the manufacturers' repairs have not stopped the problem. The sensors, which are designed to sense a serious impact, were made by auto parts supplier TRW (TRW).

The earlier fix, which involved installing devices to protect the airbag sensor module from electrical surges, was very effective, reducing inadvertent airbag deployments by about 85%, according to NHTSA. But some unwarranted deployments were still occurring.

Manufacturers will now entirely replace the impact sensors with new units. It will take some time to have the new sensors ready. Meanwhile, NHTSA is instructing vehicle owners who have had not had the initial recall fix done to contact their dealers had have it done.

Related: Cars with the best resale value

"Even though it's a temporary solution until the new remedy is available, they and their families will be safer if they take the time to learn if their vehicle is covered and follow their manufacturers' instructions," NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said in an announcement. "A hassle is much better than a family tragedy."

About half of the vehicles were also involved in recalls for faulty Takata airbags. Those airbags have faulty inflators that can explode, shooting out sharp metal fragments.

Related: Ford recalls police cars

That makes attention to this recall especially important, NHTSA said, since occupants in those cars can be badly injured by their airbags.

The vehicles involved are Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Liberty, Honda Odyssey, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix and Toyota Avalon.

Related: Honda hit with $70 million in fines for failing to report accidents over 11 years

The vehicles involved are all from model years 2002 through 2004. The age of the vehicles can make it difficult to track down current owners since many of these cars and trucks will be with their second or third owners. For that reason, NHTSA as taking extraordinary steps to get out word of this recall.

For more information car owners should go to http://www.safercar.gov/.

First Published: January 31, 2015: 11:59 AM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

In football they trust: Polynesians' pipeline to the American dream

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"As Polynesian kids, we were much bigger than the other kids in high school so it was natural for us to excel and do well in football, said Tongan Tony Vainuku.

Vainuku is the director of the documentary, "In Football We Trust," which debuted at the Sundance Film festival this past week.

The film chronicles the lives of four young NFL hopefuls in the Salt Lake City area, which boasts one of the largest Polynesian communities outside of Samoa and Tonga.

"The Polynesian football phenomenon is a big thing but not many people including our own community in Salt Lake City and Utah know anything besides that," said co-director and producer Erika Cohn.

Related: NFL gets billions in subsidies from taxpayers

For many Polynesian families, playing football is the road to a good education and way to support the entire family.

But that journey to the top isn't all glitz and glamor.

Recruited and groomed for the NFL

Al Lolotai. Manu Tuiasospo. Haloti Ngata. Troy Polamalu.

Their names have filled college and NFL rosters in the last several decades. There have been more than 200 Polynesians who have played professionally in NFL and CFL.

Getting to play at a top college and eventually the NFL like their peers before them has inspired many Polynesian youth to start young and play football in high school.

"If I keep making the right choices and keep my head straight, things start falling in place you know, I'll get my degree. I'll go on and get a good paying job in the league. If I'm in the league you know, the first couple checks go to the family," said Harvey Langi, one of Utah's top high school running backs interviewed in the film.

The average salary range for a NFL player ranges from $750,000 to $22 million for top players, according to Spotrac.com.

Related: Who is the richest NFL team owner?

During his senior year in high school, Langi received football scholarships offers from almost every top Division I school. But a trespassing incident that involved suspected marijuana use limited those choices as schools withdrew their scholarship offers.

"It's just so much pressure on your shoulders. It's like I could hardly carry it sometimes," Langi said in the film.

"If you fail this Harvey, all of your scholarships will be gone. That's when it hit me. If it's in my system and I test positive, I'd get just a regular job and be a normal person and if it comes out negative, I tell myself I'm going to make it today in the field," he said.

Langi tested negative for marijuana and was suspended but allowed to stay on the football team at Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah.

"The thing that's difficult for the kids that are growing up is that their parents expect them to play in the NFL at the cost of everything else. It's hard to get in there. It's even harder to stay. And if kids grow up thinking well that's what I'm going to do and nothing else, they're a long shot to success in life period," said former Green Bay Packer and Philadelphia Eagle player Vai Sikahema, the first Tongan to play in the NFL.

Langi ended up committing to the University of Utah but after a year he decided to go on a mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for two years.

"A lot of people think I'm just doing my mission because maybe I'm scared of football -- scared of not playing because I didn't do good my first year. I'm not scared. I can still play ball. I want to be a running back. I want to show that Polynesians can be a running back in the league. And I know I have the ability to do it," Langi said in the film.

After returning from his mission, Langi is now playing football at Brigham Young University.

A vehicle to stay out of trouble

For other families, football was a means to stay out of bad situations and finance an education.

"It does take a toll on your family. Sacrifice is something huge for us where we feel we're going to do whatever we need to do with whatever means we have," said Kauta Bloomfield, mother of Leva and Vita -- brothers who were profiled in the film as they struggled to disassociate their ties from gangs while playing football. Leva was sent to juvenile detention after he brought a gun to school.

Their father Fua was a former Brigham Young University running back who founded one of Utah's first Polynesian gangs.

"When I look back we did invest a lot in Leva and Vita because they were the oldest of the nine (children). We always figured that we invest all of this time and money into them it's all going to pay off -- which it did, they got full ride scholarships, however it did take a lot of time from our younger kids," Bloomfield told CNNMoney by phone Friday. "So when they did make bad choices it did make me question myself as far as parenting -- where was it worth all of that, because they still ended up making other choices."

Leva and Vita completed their high school coursework and Leva is now playing football at Snow College and Vita is a football coach at the University of Utah.

A means to something greater

For Fihi Kaufusi, football was never the end game.

"Football is not always going to be there for me. I may have a good body -- body type for speed and stuff but that's going to only last so long. I got to figure it out...school job and a career," Kaufusi said.

As the oldest in his family, Kaufusi's mother pushed him to set an example for his other brothers and sisters.

After returning from his mission with the LDS church, Kaufusi is now playing football at Weber State University.

"I used football as a means of transportation to get where I needed to go. I knew in my heart, football was going to be done soon for me and I wouldn't be able to continue on after college," Kaufusi said by phone Friday. "But I can use it to get me to college and to get my degree and that would do a lot for my family."

First Published: January 31, 2015: 10:34 AM ET

17.42 | 0 komentar | Read More

2.1 million cars recalled for crash sensors

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

All the vehicles had previously been recalled for this issue but the manufacturers' repairs have not stopped the problem. The sensors, which are designed to sense a serious impact, were made by auto parts supplier TRW (TRW).

The earlier fix, which involved installing devices to protect the airbag sensor module from electrical surges, was very effective, reducing inadvertent airbag deployments by about 85%, according to NHTSA. But some unwarranted deployments were still occurring.

Manufacturers will now entirely replace the impact sensors with new units. It will take some time to have the new sensors ready. Meanwhile, NHTSA is instructing vehicle owners who have had not had the initial recall fix done to contact their dealers had have it done.

Related: Cars with the best resale value

"Even though it's a temporary solution until the new remedy is available, they and their families will be safer if they take the time to learn if their vehicle is covered and follow their manufacturers' instructions," NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said in an announcement. "A hassle is much better than a family tragedy."

About half of the vehicles were also involved in recalls for faulty Takata airbags. Those airbags have faulty inflators that can explode, shooting out sharp metal fragments.

Related: Ford recalls police cars

That makes attention to this recall especially important, NHTSA said, since occupants in those cars can be badly injured by their airbags.

The vehicles involved are Acura MDX, Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Liberty, Honda Odyssey, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix and Toyota Avalon.

Related: Honda hit with $70 million in fines for failing to report accidents over 11 years

The vehicles involved are all from model years 2002 through 2004. The age of the vehicles can make it difficult to track down current owners since many of these cars and trucks will be with their second or third owners. For that reason, NHTSA as taking extraordinary steps to get out word of this recall.

For more information car owners should go to http://www.safercar.gov/.

First Published: January 31, 2015: 11:59 AM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

In football they trust: Polynesians' pipeline to the American dream

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

"As Polynesian kids, we were much bigger than the other kids in high school so it was natural for us to excel and do well in football, said Tongan Tony Vainuku.

Vainuku is the director of the documentary, "In Football We Trust," which debuted at the Sundance Film festival this past week.

The film chronicles the lives of four young NFL hopefuls in the Salt Lake City area, which boasts one of the largest Polynesian communities outside of Samoa and Tonga.

"The Polynesian football phenomenon is a big thing but not many people including our own community in Salt Lake City and Utah know anything besides that," said co-director and producer Erika Cohn.

Related: NFL gets billions in subsidies from taxpayers

For many Polynesian families, playing football is the road to a good education and way to support the entire family.

But that journey to the top isn't all glitz and glamor.

Recruited and groomed for the NFL

Al Lolotai. Manu Tuiasospo. Haloti Ngata. Troy Polamalu.

Their names have filled college and NFL rosters in the last several decades. There have been more than 200 Polynesians who have played professionally in NFL and CFL.

Getting to play at a top college and eventually the NFL like their peers before them has inspired many Polynesian youth to start young and play football in high school.

"If I keep making the right choices and keep my head straight, things start falling in place you know, I'll get my degree. I'll go on and get a good paying job in the league. If I'm in the league you know, the first couple checks go to the family," said Harvey Langi, one of Utah's top high school running backs interviewed in the film.

The average salary range for a NFL player ranges from $750,000 to $22 million for top players, according to Spotrac.com.

Related: Who is the richest NFL team owner?

During his senior year in high school, Langi received football scholarships offers from almost every top Division I school. But a trespassing incident that involved suspected marijuana use limited those choices as schools withdrew their scholarship offers.

"It's just so much pressure on your shoulders. It's like I could hardly carry it sometimes," Langi said in the film.

"If you fail this Harvey, all of your scholarships will be gone. That's when it hit me. If it's in my system and I test positive, I'd get just a regular job and be a normal person and if it comes out negative, I tell myself I'm going to make it today in the field," he said.

Langi tested negative for marijuana and was suspended but allowed to stay on the football team at Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah.

"The thing that's difficult for the kids that are growing up is that their parents expect them to play in the NFL at the cost of everything else. It's hard to get in there. It's even harder to stay. And if kids grow up thinking well that's what I'm going to do and nothing else, they're a long shot to success in life period," said former Green Bay Packer and Philadelphia Eagle player Vai Sikahema, the first Tongan to play in the NFL.

Langi ended up committing to the University of Utah but after a year he decided to go on a mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for two years.

"A lot of people think I'm just doing my mission because maybe I'm scared of football -- scared of not playing because I didn't do good my first year. I'm not scared. I can still play ball. I want to be a running back. I want to show that Polynesians can be a running back in the league. And I know I have the ability to do it," Langi said in the film.

After returning from his mission, Langi is now playing football at Brigham Young University.

A vehicle to stay out of trouble

For other families, football was a means to stay out of bad situations and finance an education.

"It does take a toll on your family. Sacrifice is something huge for us where we feel we're going to do whatever we need to do with whatever means we have," said Kauta Bloomfield, mother of Leva and Vita -- brothers who were profiled in the film as they struggled to disassociate their ties from gangs while playing football. Leva was sent to juvenile detention after he brought a gun to school.

Their father Fua was a former Brigham Young University running back who founded one of Utah's first Polynesian gangs.

"When I look back we did invest a lot in Leva and Vita because they were the oldest of the nine (children). We always figured that we invest all of this time and money into them it's all going to pay off -- which it did, they got full ride scholarships, however it did take a lot of time from our younger kids," Bloomfield told CNNMoney by phone Friday. "So when they did make bad choices it did make me question myself as far as parenting -- where was it worth all of that, because they still ended up making other choices."

Leva and Vita completed their high school coursework and Leva is now playing football at Snow College and Vita is a football coach at the University of Utah.

A means to something greater

For Fihi Kaufusi, football was never the end game.

"Football is not always going to be there for me. I may have a good body -- body type for speed and stuff but that's going to only last so long. I got to figure it out...school job and a career," Kaufusi said.

As the oldest in his family, Kaufusi's mother pushed him to set an example for his other brothers and sisters.

After returning from his mission with the LDS church, Kaufusi is now playing football at Weber State University.

"I used football as a means of transportation to get where I needed to go. I knew in my heart, football was going to be done soon for me and I wouldn't be able to continue on after college," Kaufusi said by phone Friday. "But I can use it to get me to college and to get my degree and that would do a lot for my family."

First Published: January 31, 2015: 10:34 AM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

What Super Bowl? The Ad Bowl has already begun

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Some Super Bowl advertisers have been previewing their ads for days, trying to maximize their multimillion dollar investments. Others are keeping their ads under wraps until game time, believing that's the best way to stand out.

At an average cost of $4.5 million per 30-second ad, the stakes are obviously high.

NBC said ad time during the four quarters of the game officially sold out earlier this week. Almost as valuable is the commercial time during the network's six-hour pre-show -- and after the game, when NBC will show its popular drama "The Blacklist."

Watch: Super Bowl's strangest prop bets

More than ever, Super Bowl advertisers are supplementing their 15-, 30- and 60-second spots with viral online videos and what marketers call "social media war rooms."

But the spots are undoubtedly the most important part. On top of what's paid to NBC, companies pay advertising firms huge amounts of money to distill brand messages into funny, timely, celeb-filled, sex-soaked ads.

The game will feature 15 first-time Super Bowl advertisers.

"If you would have told me 10 years ago that Chevy wouldn't be in the Super Bowl, but that Wix.com or Dove products for men would be, I'd be very surprised," Richard Kirshenbaum, the CEO of ad agency NSG/SWAT, said on CNN's "New Day."

"But there's a new lineup. There's a new America," he added.

Wix, a website-building company, is one of the first-timers. Chief marketing officer Omer Shai told CNNMoney that it prepared almost a dozen "teaser" ads ahead of Sunday.

"We are updating and changing the campaign on a daily basis according to performance," Shai said. "This is the year that we're comfortable [taking] the brand to the next level."

Other newbies include the online insurance company Esurance, the glue brand Loctite, the toenail fungus treatment Jublia, and the mobile game maker UCool.

Related: Preview 17 Super Bowl ads

Household names like McDonald's (MCD), Coca-Cola (KO), Budweiser, and BMW will be present, too.

Coca Cola has a 60-second ad rebuking Internet "haters" that won't be seen until the game. But the company has already released clips with stars like Danica Patrick, Michael Sam and Robby Novak, better known as Kid President.

A Coke representative said the ad is "intended to disrupt the complacency that's set in around online negativity" -- something that anyone who's spent time on Facebook or Twitter knows about.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking ad of the game will be the one commissioned by the NFL for its "No More" initiative, intended to stop domestic violence and sexual assault.

"The spot, which features a woman calling 911 and pretending to order a pizza because her husband is in the room, is based on a real 911 call," said the ad blog Spot Bowl, which called it a "game-changer."

It said the NFL was giving over "some of the airtime it normally reserves for light-hearted self promos" for the PSA.

Marketers come to the Super Bowl with a wide variety of missions.

For Victoria's Secret, its ad is part of a weeks-long campaign leading up to Valentine's Day.

For TurboTax, the timing is right, too, because it's tax season.

Weight Watchers is using the stage to introduce a rebooted brand.

NBC will be promoting several of its forthcoming shows, like "Odyssey" and a variety show hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Most of the ads will, in one form or another, strive to make 110 million viewers laugh -- and, most importantly, remember the advertisers.

First Published: January 31, 2015: 3:58 PM ET

15.30 | 0 komentar | Read More

January was a terrible month for stocks

Stocks have been having a pretty bad 2015 so far.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The Dow shed 3.7%, the S&P 500 has lost 3.1%, and the Nasdaq is over 2.1% lower.

Talk about a bad start to the year. A quick glance at the chart below shows what a whiplash ride 2015 has been so far with 7 days where the market swung up or down more than 200 points.

Related: Bears warn: A crisis could be near

There's an adage on Wall Street that the early days of the year are a good predictor of the full-year. Historically speaking, there's only about a 50-50 probability that the stock market will end the year on a positive note if January saw market declines, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.

Dan Greenhaus, chief strategist at BTIG, points out that five of the last six down January's (2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2014) have not prevented the S&P 500 from finishing higher for the full year.

The one exception was 2008, but that was the year of the financial crisis.

But investors might take comfort that January of 2014 was even worse and stocks rebounded significantly to hit record highs in December.

"In an effort to note something positive we can say that while the [S&P 500] index is down [3]% or so this year, the index finished January 2014 down by 3.6%!" Greenhaus wrote in a recent research note.

This time last year the market was worried about an emerging markets meltdown and the impact of the Federal Reserve pullback on so-called quantitative easing (aka bond buying). Those fears are mostly gone. This January investors are worried about cheap oil and the global economic slowdown.

The energy and financial sectors were the biggest losers for the month. Energy is easy to understand. Oil fell below $50 for first time in early January and acted as a psychological trigger that spooked investors. This was followed up by earnings reports and announcements from Big Oil showing major cutbacks in spending and operations. There's little doubt that it will be a leaner year ahead in the energy sector.

Related: America's No. 2 oil company cuts spending

Financials were a bigger surprise. The big bank CEOs blamed Washington regulations for sluggish performance, but the reality is many bank's core investment banking and trading have been suffering.

There was one bright spot in January: Bonds.

As the stock market gyrates, investors have been fleeing to bonds. Several European nations even have negative yields on their bonds, a sign of just how much demand there is for a so-called safe asset.

In the U.S., the 10-year government bond yield is now down to 1.66%, the lowest point since the spring of 2013.

First Published: January 30, 2015: 3:54 PM ET

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