Web buzz boosts Super Bowl ads

Many of the buzzworthy commercials that will air during Super Bowl XLVIII have already hit the Web, racking up several million YouTube hits before the big game even starts.

"The trend is to preview the spots, and it's a smart strategy," said David Swaebe, a senior vice president at Boston advertising agency Mullen. "It creates ambassadors out of viewers — people who have already seen the ads will encourage other people to watch them, and it amplifies the impact." Plus, it drives up social media engagement, Swaebe said. "Anything that's dialogue-driven, it's better if you've seen it in the quiet of your own home first rather than in the party atmosphere. And if you've taken the effort to go look (for the ad ahead of time), you will be a better tweeter."

People are clearly making the effort: take the 24-million plus views that Budweiser's Clydesdale spot "Puppy Love" has already scored. "People know to look for Budweiser," Swaebe said. "Each year for them it's, 'What are they going to do to the Clydesdales?' The marketing power behind Budweiser as they're related to sports is supercharged."

Not all the commercials are benefiting from pre-game buzz, though. The much-touted debut of GoDaddy's first "not sexy" ad, a spot centered on bodybuilders racing to a tanning salon, is hovering at around 800,000 YouTube hits. "GoDaddy is maybe going to fall flat this year," Swaebe said. "People expect to see something outrageous from them."

Butterfinger, not a frequent advertiser during the big game, has one teaser with only about 2,000 hits. "Butterfinger is brand new and they don't have a spot that's in the same league."

So which ads should you check out before kickoff? Swaebe likes the aforementioned Budweiser spot, along with the "Finger Cleaner" Doritos ad, the Kia spot parodying "The Matrix" and a Hyundai advertisement featuring "Dad's Sixth Sense."

"But I bet you the best creative spots haven't been released yet," Swaebe said. "Someone's got a surprise that will generate a lot of buzz."

Swaebe's money is on Chrysler, rumored to be doing a commercial with Bob Dylan. As for the trend overall, Swaebe predicted the ads will be "a little less sophomoric and a little more intelligent. Less slapsticky."

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Owner of RAV4 isn’t raving about ‘check engine’ light

I have a 2007 Toyota RAV4 I bought from a large car dealer. After two months the "Check engine" light came on. The Toyota dealer said it was a defective oxygen sensor, which I had replaced. The next day the same light came on again. What control does a dealer have over the check-engine light? Can they set the codes to defer for a period of time? It seems curious that the light came on two months after driving off the lot.

Would it have been more "curious" had the check-engine light come on the day after you purchased the vehicle? Without knowing the DTC fault code that has triggered the light this second time, there's no way to know whether the recurrence is related in any way to the original oxygen sensor fault.

Assuming the original DTC pointed to a failed oxygen sensor, the dealer would have replaced it and cleared the fault code from the computer's memory. That means the light coming on a day later was generated by a completely new fault, or the same fault recurring. It's important to remember that there are several fault codes related to oxygen sensor(s) and their performance that do not indicate sensor failure. Replacing an O2 sensor when the fault is a harness/connector/heater or rich/lean air-fuel mixture won't prevent the code from recurring.

To put your suspicions and paranoia to rest, I don't believe there's any way to manipulate an engine management system to "defer" fault codes in order to conceal a problem. And of course, to do so would — like odometer rollback — violate federal law.

I drive a 2003 Chevy Impala with 106,000 miles. Several months ago the "Service traction system" message came on. I took it to the dealer and their diagnostic check found code C1218 — "Pump motor circuit open." Their test found that the ABS pump motor has had an internal failure and needs to be replaced, at a cost of over $2,000. Would it be helpful to flush the hydraulic lines to clean out any debris that might have caused this failure? Would not replacing the pump have any effect on the ABS braking system?

According to my Alldata automotive database, the C1218 code indicates a voltage issue with the pump motor in the BPMV (brake pressure modulator valve), part of the EBCM (electronic brake control module). A special test lamp can test the EBCM's ability to control the BPMV. If the lamp lights up, the pump motor circuit within the EBCM is good.

Until the cause for the ABS and TCS warning lights and "Service traction system" message is identified and corrected, the ABS and TCS are disabled.

Bleeding/flushing the hydraulic system to remove moisture and debris every two years or so is routine maintenance in my book.

I have a 2002 Chevy 2500HD Silverado with 156,000 miles. About six weeks ago the ABS started activating when stopping from a very low speed with little pressure on the brake pedal. It sounds like the left front wheel. No dash warning lights are on before, during or after this happens. It's like the wheel speed sensor thinks one of the front wheels is locking.

That's exactly what's happening! Because of an increased air gap between the wheel speed sensor and reluctor ring on the hub due to a buildup of rust and debris, the sensor can't accurately read the rotational speed of the wheel. And since no rotational reading is interpreted as lockup by the system, the ABS engages to bleed off hydraulic pressure to that brake in an attempt to restore rotation.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race-car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com. Leave a daytime phone number.

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Silverado redo earns its awards

Never one to shy from a full-sized pickup truck fight, Chevy redesigned the 2014 Silverado 1500 by trimming some weight, updating the interior and reworking the engine to improve gas mileage. And for this year it's captured Truck of the Year honors from the North American Truck and Car Awards and Motor Trend.

Going nose to nose with the Ford F150, Dodge Ram and Toyota Tundra, Chevy throws its elbows around by combining a refined ride and burly off-road capabilities. Underneath the good-looking body are upgraded shocks, underbody shields and a heavy-duty air cleaner.

Our spacious crew cab tester was fitted out with the Z71 package, upscaling the truck with a luxury finished leather cabin, Bose stereo, a full array of built-in electronics including a 110-volt outlet, five USB outlets, Bluetooth and MyLink. Along with hill and trailer descent controls the $850 Driver Alert package provides a seat vibrating alarm when you're too close or have strayed from your lane. The back-up camera is helpful even though the rear vision is excellent.

The V-8 5.3-liter ECOtec3 engine makes 355 horsepower providing 11,000 pounds of towing and you'll be hard-pressed to know when the fuel-saving cylinder deactivation feature kicks in turning the V-8 into a gas sipping V-4. It also has good acceleration and the 6-speed transmission is smooth. Rated mileage for this engine is 16 miles per gallon in the city and 22 on the highway. The quiet and compliant Silverado is a nice-riding truck owing to improved shocks and dampers. But don't let the smooth ride fake you out. You'll still get some bumping about on rough roads so keep the lid on your coffee.

During my test period I battled a couple of decent snowstorms and the all-wheel drive was flawless. I simply left the Auto setting on and never even had to give it a second thought, confidently plowing through piles of snow, slush and ice.

The exterior, at first glance, hasn't changed much. A huge, squared off, heavily chromed front end remains while some body sculpting creates better aerodynamics. The EZ Lift tailgate and bed include step-up slots in the bumper and hand grips on the rails. LED lighting is new for both the interior and exterior. The crew doors have been changed to front hinges squeaking out a couple of extra inches of interior space.

Even with all the creature comforts added on, the core of the Silverado is a workhorse. Fitted out with either a 5-foot 8-inch or 6-foot 6-inch bed, you're talking about maxing out the payload to nearly a ton. So while you're not going to want to hose out the interior of a leather-laden Z71, it still means business on the worksite, yet will clean up for an evening in the city. And hey, it's a truck, so there's plenty of personal storage space starting with a huge padded center console, two glove boxes and cup holders galore.

Despite recent accolades, Silverados aren't moving off the lots quickly so excellent deals can be had.

With a base of $43,650, our tester with the LTZ Plus Package upgrade priced out at $50,475 — it's a big ticket but competitively positioned. All that being said some model Silverados can be leased for as little as $170 per month.

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Stock investors hit from all sides in January

NEW YORK — Stock investors were hit from all sides in January.

Concerns about the global economy and U.S. company earnings, as well as turmoil in emerging markets, led the Dow Jones industrial average to its worst start since 2009. However, many investors remain hopeful that the problems will not spill over into the rest of 2014.

They even see the downturn as healthy, given the U.S. market's rapid rise last year.

The Dow slid 5.3 percent in January while the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite declined 1.7 percent.

Investors entered the year with some degree of skepticism and nervousness. The stock market went basically straight up in 2013. The S&P 500 index ended 2013 with a gain of nearly 30 percent, its best year since 1997.

"No amount of negative news could derail the market last year," said Jonathan Corpina, a floor trader at the New York Stock Exchange with Meridian Equity Partners.

But no stock market can go straight up forever.

Many investors expected 2014 to be a more muddled and volatile year for the market. Market strategists late last year were looking for the S&P 500 index to notch a modest gain of 4 percent to 6 percent, ending in the range of 1,850 to 1,900.

Investors were also looking for more pullbacks this year and possibly a correction, the technical term for when a stock market index like the S&P 500 falls 10 percent or more. Three months ago, analysts at Goldman Sachs said there was roughly a 60 percent chance that a correction would happen this year.

"People did look at these stock market valuations at the beginning of the year with a degree of nervousness," said David Kelly, chief market strategist with J.P. Morgan Funds. "A correction would probably be healthy for the market."

But many investors were surprised by January's turbulence. With one exception, the Dow had triple-digit moves every trading day in January.

Still, with the broader S&P 500 index down just 3.6 percent from its January 15 peak, the downturn is hardly severe.

"There's been some negative news out there — the economic data, corporate earnings and what's now going on in emerging markets — but I'm not convinced the headlines are bad enough to be a catalyst to push us into a correction," Corpina said.

Investors point to the December jobs report, released on Jan. 10, as the event that started the troubles. The U.S. government said employers created only 74,000 jobs in December, the worst month for job creation in since 2011 and far below expectations.

Up until then, weeks of data showed the U.S. economic recovery was accelerating. U.S. companies were selling record levels of goods overseas; layoffs had dwindled; and the Federal Reserve was pulling back on its economic stimulus program, citing an improving economy.

Many investors called the December jobs report as a statistical fluke. But the report has weighed on stocks all month, investors say.

"It set a negative tone for the market," Kelly said.

Other economic reports also painted a picture of U.S. economic growth possibly flattening out instead of accelerating.

Investors combined these economic worries with mixed signals from U.S. companies.

Wall Street is in the middle of earnings season, when the country's major corporations report results for the final three months of the year. Half of the members of the S&P 500 have reported, and the results have been mixed. While fourth-quarter corporate earnings are up a respectable 7.9 percent from a year earlier, companies have been cutting their full-year outlooks and reporting weaker sales, according to data provider FactSet.

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, said Friday that earnings may come in at the low end or below its prior forecasts. It also expects sales at stores open at least a year to be flat. The company previously forecast that sales would be modestly higher.

Wal-Mart's forecast echo the comments from Macy's, Target, Best Buy and other retailers.

Of the companies who have reported so far, 44 companies have cut their full-year profit outlooks while 10 have increased their outlooks, according to data from FactSet.

Adding to concerns about the U.S. economy and earnings were problems in overseas markets.

The bad news started with China. A recent report showed manufacturing activity in the world's second-largest economy unexpectedly contracted in January. The report added to other recent signs that the Chinese economy was slowing down after years of massive growth.

Then came currency troubles in smaller emerging markets, particularly Turkey, South Africa and Argentina.

All three saw their currencies fall sharply against the dollar, as investors began to pull out of emerging markets and return their money to less-risky parts of the globe.

"These governments were financing themselves with (foreign investor money), and now that these investors are looking to go home, there's no source of money to replace them," said Krishna Memani, chief investment officer at Oppenheimer Funds.

On Friday, the U.S. stock market closed out January on another down note. The Dow fell 149.76 points, or 0.9 percent, to 15,698.85. The S&P 500 dropped 11.60 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,782.59 and the Nasdaq lost 19.25 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,103.88.

Investors shouldn't panic yet, money managers say.

They will get the January jobs report next week. Also, another 93 members of the S&P 500 are scheduled to report earnings.

"A 5 percent decline in equities is not an earthshattering event by any measure, particularly after last year," Memani said. "It's still way too early to give up on equities."

___

AP Business Writer Alex Veiga contributed to this report from Los Angeles.

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They’re sold on Magoun Square

If you want to gauge the energy in Somerville's Magoun Square, take a look at the retail storefronts and the empty lots and old garage sites filling up with new housing.

Two years ago there were about a dozen empty storefronts in the retail district at the intersection of Broadway and Medford Street, but now there's a new sign and new venues such as Daddy Jones Bar, Modelo Butcher Market, K-2 Beer & Wine shop and Pennypacker's, a food truck gone brick and mortar, joining the popular Olde Magoun's Saloon.

Winchester natives Greg Huber, 29, and Leah Gallagher, 27, bought a top floor condo in an old Victorian here less than a year ago and already two new single-family houses have sprouted up across the street. Side-by-side auto body and glass shops will soon be sites for about 25 units, the Sons of Italy wants to add housing to its property, and there's talk of other deals recently signed or about to be.

"We're thrilled that we bought in Magoun Square," said Gallagher, who commutes to her financial services job in downtown Boston. "We have friends our age who are also looking to buy here because housing is still reasonably priced and it's a great neighborhood to raise a family."

The Magoun neighborhood got a big boost with the 2012 opening of Maxwell's Green, a successful 199-unit high-end apartment and townhouse complex built on a brownfields former factory site — a project that drew the attention of Huber and Gallagher to the area. And then there's the long-delayed Green Line extension from Lechmere, which will stop along Lowell Street when it opens in 2018. And the Somerville bike path is coming up to the area from Davis Square this spring.

Longtime residents such as Courtney O'Keefe, a former alderman and advocate for the neighborhood, knows that the area her parents moved to 30 years ago to open a sub shop is about to change.

"You'd like to keep it as a little secret, a hidden gem, but the word is getting out," said O'Keefe, 33, who moved back. "But there is some room for growth here that fits in with the neighborhood and maintains what's now a nice balance between longtimers and newcomers."

O'Keefe adds that the rebirth of the retail district has been more important than the promise of the Green Line. "I've been saying all along not to put all our eggs in the Green basket," she said.

Other Somerville locals such as Dimitra Tsourianis Murphy also see the potential. After working for the Lyons Group opening and managing hip Hub venues, she returned to her roots and bought a building in Magoun Square and just over a year ago opened Daddy Jones Bar, a cocktail bar with Greek food and a neighborhood feel that draws natives and newcomers.

"Magoun Square used to be a drive-through area and now there's a reason to pause here," said the 33-year-old Murphy, who says the square could use some clothing shops as well as a local business association. "I'm seeing a lot of young families moving in, which is really great for the neighborhood."

You can still buy a single-family here in the mid-$400,000s, unlike Davis Square a mile away where housing prices are astronomical. Few want to see that happen in Magoun, but condo conversions are picking up.

"There's still old-timers here with two-family houses who live in one unit and rent the other to one of their kids," said Ted Tobin of KSS Realty, which co-developed Maxwell's Green. "But there's more young buyers looking to get in on the ground floor of something special. Being able to wake up and have places to go in your own square adds to the appeal. This area has a bright future."

Huber and Gallagher are already thinking of buying an investment property in the neighborhood.

"I'm a real believer in Magoun Square," said Huber, who commutes to his medical sales job in Burlington. "It's a nice, homey place, and the retail area has just taken off. There's no doubt it's up and coming."

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Porter Sq. Galleria goes to L.A. firm

The Porter Square Galleria has a new owner under a $35.55 million deal that closed yesterday.

Los Angeles real estate investment management firm CBRE Global Investors bought the 57,265-square-foot retail center from KS Partners.

Built in 1989, the property is 100 percent leased, with a two-level Walgreens, Anna's Taqueria, Potbelly Sandwich Shop and Rock'N Fitness as tenants.

"This is part of our urban retail plan for a fund that is sponsored by CBRE Global Investors," senior managing director Kim Hourihan said. "We loved the location, being right at a T stop and ... sort of the crossroads there in Cambridge."

The galleria is an "urban retail trophy" in a highly developed area, which is very popular now with investors, said a source close to the deal, who also cited the square's "great" demographics.

KS Partners, a real estate investment and development company with offices in Woburn and New York, could not be reached.

The sale was brokered by Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, which declined comment.

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Neiman Marcus breach hits 19,000 Bay Staters

The credit and debit card information of more than 19,000 Massachusetts residents was among the data accessed by hackers who breached Neiman Marcus Group's point-of-sales system.

The number likely is greater because the luxury retailer doesn't have the addresses for about 31 percent of the owners of the 1.1 million cards possibly compromised during the breach from last July 16 through Oct. 30, the company divulged in a letter to the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation this week.

Of the approximately 2,400 payment cards that already have been used for fraudulent transactions, 47 of them belong to Massachusetts residents, Neiman's general counsel said in the Jan. 25 letter. That number also could grow, because Neiman has the addresses of just 71 percent of those card-holders.

The letter also revealed that while the malware that allowed hackers to collect, or "scrape," customer card data was installed on the company's system as early as last July, separate, related malware that enabled the scraping to occur "appears to have been clandestinely inserted earlier in 2013."

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Web attack traffic soars

The U.S. had the third-highest percentage of observed cyber attack traffic in the third quarter of 2013, and hackers managed to shut down websites more often in the first three quarters of the year than in all of 2012, according to a new report.

Akamai, the Cambridge company that delivers almost one-third of all Web traffic, observed attack traffic originating in 185 countries or regions during the third quarter, up 10 over the previous one, according to the company's "State of the Internet" report.

Thirty-five percent of attack traffic was carried out by computers in China, 20 percent was carried out in Indonesia, and 11 percent was carried out in the U.S., up from 6.9 percent the previous quarter, the report found. What's unknown is where the people who were controlling those computers are from, said David Belson, the report's editor.

"We believe these countries have large numbers of compromised computers that are being used to originate malicious traffic," Belson said.

One of the most common types of attacks is a distributed denial of service — or DDoS — in which thousands of computers controlled by one person overwhelm a website, making it inaccessible, said Charlie Miller, a security engineer at Twitter.

Akamai customers reported 281 such attacks in the third quarter, down from 318 in the previous one. However, the total number of DDoS attacks in the first three quarters of last year — 807 — was greater than the 768 reported in all of 2012.

"It could be the toolkits available to launch these attacks are becoming more easily accessible," Belson said. "Or it could be that more Akamai users are reporting them."

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Connector-fix price tag unknown

Massachusetts Health Connector officials, who admitted in October they've incurred "substantial costs" as a result of developing manual workarounds to the disastrous $69 million state Obamacare website, still aren't saying exactly how much that price tag has ballooned.

The Herald first reported Thursday that state officials knew as early as February — nine months before the launch — that parts of the site would probably be delayed.

In an Oct. 25 memo, Dr. Jay Himmelstein of UMass Medical School lamented to website developer CGI that the state has "already incurred substantial costs to develop and implement operational workarounds."

But state officials yesterday refused to say exactly how "substantial" those costs have become.

"The commonwealth is committed to holding CGI accountable for the cost of workarounds made necessary by their IT system failures, and is exploring ways to do so," said spokesman Jason Lefferts. "The workarounds and alternative pathways to coverage have allowed us to maintain our existing gains in coverage while offering subsidized health insurance to thousands of new people through the Affordable Care Act, despite CGI's shortcomings."

A CGI statement said: "CGI and its more than 300 team members working on the Connector site are dedicated to delivering continuous improvements in system performance and the user experience for the residents of Massachusetts." Flummoxed Bay Staters have encountered long waits and crashes while trying to sign up for federally mandated health insurance.

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Hub producer sues MJ’s estate, Anka

A Boston-based producer who hit his stride in the '80s with the electro-funk band the Jonzun Crew is suing the estate of Michael Jackson and Paul "Having My Baby" Anka for $10 million, claiming the King of Pop and the iconic Canadian crooner cut him out of the credits on their Grammy Award-nominated single, "This Is It."

Michael Jonzun alleges in court filings "This Is It" is nothing more than a remake of the love song "I Never Heard," which Jackson and Anka co-wrote in 1983 and Jonzun said he was asked to produce and tinker with in 1990. His suit states Jonzun "still has the tapes of the versions he created in his possession." He told a federal judge yesterday he has a contract to back up his one-third ownership in the hit.

But Los Angeles attorney Jeremiah Reynolds, one of the Jackson estate's Wilshire Boulevard defenders, told U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper, "We strongly believe these claims do not have merit. I just want that on the record."

"This Is It" was also the name of Jackson's swan-song documentary released in 2009 when his sudden death at age 50 derailed plans for a world tour. The film grossed nearly $262 million worldwide.

Jonzun told Casper he believes Massachusetts has jurisdiction over his case because "Mr. Anka performs here regularly," "the song is being sold in Massachusetts," and "Jackson has books being sold here. The list goes on and on."

The online database AllMusic credits Jonzun with discovering New Edition and with producing J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf's 1984 solo album "Lights Out."

Casper took under advisement arguments by Reynolds, Boston attorney Catherine Bednar on behalf of Anka, and Boston attorney Brian Devine, representing Jackson's doomed comeback tour promoter AEG Live, that she should throw Jonzun's suit out because he filed it in October 2012.

That's 18 days after the three-year window of opportunity he had to stake a claim against the two superstars under the federal Copyright Act, they said. Jonzun then missed the 120-day deadline to serve them with summonses, they added.

Jonzun, 59, of North Falmouth, weighing in by speaker phone, cautioned Casper, "The defendants are using a smokescreen of sorts to distract you." He said their protests that his civil action missed the deadline "are really just a wall for stopping me from moving forward because the case has merit."

Jonzun also sued the metal band Limp Bizkit for copyright infringement in 2003 and reached an undisclosed out-of-court settlement,

He assured Casper yesterday he is actively searching for a lawyer, adding, "It's not easy getting someone to take on AEG Live, Paul Anka and the estate of Michael Jackson on a contingency fee basis."

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