Industries

Papa John's estimates that they sold an estimated 75,000 pizzas on Thursday in Ohio during a promotion that offered pizza lovers the chance to snag a pie for just 23-cents. More than 80 Papa John's locations in Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Toledo, and Columbus took park in the one-day special.

The promotion netted more than $17,500, with all proceeds going to the LeBron James Family Foundation. Papa Johns also donated an additional $10,000 to James' foundation, as well as another $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.

Paja Johns offered the promotion to Ohioans after backing the wrong team in the playoffs, and giving away t-shirts making fun of "cry baby" LeBron James. After numerous complaints, Papa Johns decided on a 23-center special, taking inspiration from LeBron's #23.

Obviously more than just Cavs fans showed up for the special deal, and throughout the day there were reports of long lines, traffic problems, and complaints about long waits.

According to a renowned airbrush artist, Dove's "real beauties" might not be so real afterall. In a profile published in The New Yorker online, Pascal Dangin of Box Studios was quoted as saying that he extensively retouched photos used in the Campaign for Real Beauty.

Lauren Collins, who wrote the article, said that she had mentioned the Dove ad campaign "that proudly featured lumpier-than-usual 'real women' in their undergarments." She says, "it turned out that it was a Dangin job."

To which Dangin then said, "Do you know how much retouching was on that? But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone's skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.'"

Since the articles publication, attempts to contact Unilever, Dove's parent company, were unsuccessful. However a spokesman for the campaign creators at Ogilvy & Mather cast doubt on Dangin's claims, but did say that they are attempting to colelct details of his work.

A spokeswoman for Ogilvy said:

"We are unsure right now what he did. He works with Annie Leibovitz, the photographer. And we don't have any record of him actually working on any of the Dove campaign.

Where's the beef? It is now in Atlanta. Wendy's, which was founded and based in Ohio, has been acquired by the parent company of Arby's. The Atlanta based chain had been trying to obtain control of the Dublin, Ohio, based chain for over a year. $2.34 billion of Triarc Companies Inc was the number that Wendy's board agreed to today.

Pam Thomas Farber, the daughter of founder Dave Thomas whose passing seemed to have doomed the 3rd largest hamburger chains fortunes, expressed her displeasure with the takeover by Triarc Companies Inc.

"It's a very sad day for Wendy's, and our family. We just didn't think this would be the outcome"

Wendy's stock price has plummeted over the year and billionaire Nelson Peltz, who is the largest shareholder of Triarc, has made it his goal to takeover the weakened company. Following a poor quarter he finally won over the board who agreed to $26.78 for the company who had traded over $40 a share just a year ago.

Another one bites the dust! Frontier Airlines has now filed for bankruptcy after a credit card processor indicated that they would begin withholding receipts from the airline's ticket sales. Stockholders are now quite nervous, and are considering pulling out to avoid further losses.

According to a statement, Frontier said that they would continue to operate without disruption during the bankruptcy proceedings, offering their full schedule of flights, honoring reservations, and paying both its employees and suppliers.

Denver-based Frontier said that they were forced to file for bankruptcy protection "following an unexpected attempt by its principal credit card processor to substantially increase a 'holdback' of customer receipts, which threatened to severely impact Frontier's liquidity." The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New York court on Friday.

Cleveland travelers will be able happy to hear the Continental Airlines has added three new non stop flights to their Hopkins Airline hub. Non stops to Greensboro, NC, Omaha, Neb., and Savannah, GA, will all begin on Monday.

"Continental is pleased to be able to expand the range of destinations from our Cleveland hub with these new flights to Greensboro, Omaha and Savannah," said Robbie Anderson, senior director, Cleveland. "We will continue to add additional nonstop destinations from Cleveland over the next few months, including Paris, which will be the second city in Europe with nonstop service from Cleveland."

Here is the schedule of the flights according to the companies press release:

The new flights to Greensboro will depart Cleveland each day at 11:45 a.m., and 7:30 p.m. Flights from Greensboro to Cleveland will depart at 6:41 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. A third round trip flight will be added on April 6, 2008.

The daily flights to Omaha will depart Cleveland each day at 9:20 a.m. and 8:50 p.m. The flights from Omaha to Cleveland will depart at 7:35 a.m. and 11:35 a.m. A third daily flight will be added on May 4, 2008.

The boycott of the world's most popular auction website - eBay.com - which began last week has been extended for at least another week, if not longer. Both sellers and buyers alike are boycotting the site in response to changes in eBay's feedback system and listing fees. While the boycott has been downplayed by both eBay officials and others who cite numerous failed strikes in the past, this strike is already beginning to have a major impact on the company and may force them to reconsider the changes.

According to data released by USAToday on Monday, the number of auctions on eBay have fallen 13% to just 13 million listings, down from 18 million. But there's another effect of the boycott that hasn't yet been quantified - the PayPal effect.

eBay purchased the online payment processing company in October 2002, arguably the most popular payment method for eBay auctions. So in addition to earning revenue from auctions, eBay also earns money by taking a cut of transactions processed through PayPal. With a reduction in auctions and items sold, it can be assumed that the company will also feel the effects through a reduced number of transactions at PayPal.

The original protest thread posted on eBay's discussion board is now over 209 pages long, and is growing rapidly. Scores of eBay sellers have "signed" the pledge agreeing to honor the strike, and have subsequently stopped listing new auctions, shut down their eBay stores, and have altogether ceased their activities on the site. Some have even put up virtual "closed for business" signs in their eBay stores and eBay profiles, alerting potential buyers that they will not be selling during the strike.

So where are all the sellers going? Many have relocated their listings to a site called OnlineAuction.com, which also happens to be accessible by typing in ola.com.

Offering a simple $8.00 per month flat-rate fee to list auctions, and no individual listing fees or final value assessments, OLA is a much more appealing option in light of the policy and fee changes at eBay. OLA is no small potatoes either - as of Monday, their total number of online auctions was hovering near 12 million. With eBay at 13 million and falling, the gap is closing quickly. Many eBay sellers have taken up residence here, and have begun directing buyers to their new auctions at OLA.

As far as payment processing goes, the strike also includes a boycott of PayPal. The next biggest payment processing system, which is simple to use and takes far less in fees, is Google Checkout. Users can store their payment details easily in a Google Profile, for quick and easy payments. Sellers can easily accept payments, which are directly deposited into your bank account by Google, unlike PayPal where it is held in limbo until you cash out.

Playboy Enterprises has launched a new energy drink designed to compete with the likes of Red Bull. Featuring a sleek, 8.4oz black can with the iconic Playboy bunny, the Playboy Energy Drink promises to give "customers a taste of the lifestyle that has always been associated with the Playboy brand."

The drink contains both ginseng and guarana extract, with "subtle notes of fruit and vanilla."

Upon its initially launch, the Playboy Energy Drink will only be available in Boston. Soon, the drink will make its way to other cities across the U.S., including Miami and Las Vegas. Other cities are also set to pick up the drink, but it's not yet clear when.

After eBay recently revealed changes to their fee structure and feedback system, many sellers, who's entire livelihoods depend on the auction site, got angry. Some eBay sellers are so disgusted with the changes that they've banded together and have planned a strike scheduled to commence on President's Day. The boycott, which began today, will run through February 25.

So what's their gripe? Amongst the biggest concerns are how much eBay will now take from you for acting as the middle man, and, in the event a deal goes sour, how much security do you have?

With regards to the fees, the changes mean that most transactions on the auction site will cost more than they would have before. eBay is touting that the new fee structurer is fairer, however several independent comparisons show otherwise. While the difference might only be a handful of change, for those who sell a lot on the site and for eBay who collects the money, it can really add up.

The United States Department of Agriculture issued the country's largest recall of beef products on Sunday, a recall affecting 143 million pounds of beef. Much of the frozen beef was supplied to school lunch programs.

Products affected date back to February 1, 2006, and came from the Chino, California based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co.

The USDA had begun investigating the Hallmark/Westland plant earlier this month when the Humane Society of the U.S. turned over a videotape which showed employees treating cattle to extreme cruelty prior to slaughter. The USDA's investigation revealed that plant employees were allowing non-ambulatory or "downer" cattle to go to slaughter, violating USDA rules designed to keep bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) from entering the human food supply.

All of the questionable cattle had apparently passed USDA veterinary inspectors before becoming non-ambulatory, which is why this recall is being classified as a Class II, or lower level priority recall. According to the USDA, "there is a very, very remote possibility of anyone suffering health consequences from the consumption of this product."

As U.S. automaker General Motors posted its biggest annual loss ever, they announced Tuesday that they planned to offer voluntary buyouts to all 74,000 members of their unionized workforce. GM reported a record loss of $38.7 billion in 2007, which was mostly due to a write down in accumulated tax credits in the 3rd quarter that were expected to expire unused.

GM revealed that they would be offering $140,000 to employees with more than 10 years of service, and $70,000 to all others. They are also offering early-retirement pension incentives of $45,000 for production employees, and $62,500 for skilled trades workers.