When the Smart Choices program said late last week that it would "postpone" operations, Kraft announced that it had no plans to stop slapping the label on products where it already appeared. But yesterday the company reversed itself, saying that it will discontinue use, Mike Hughlett reports. "Our plan going forward is to use up our current inventory of packaging, then move to packaging without the Smart Choices logo," says spokeswoman Susan Davison. "Since the Smart Choices program has postponed active operations, it doesn't make sense for us to have a small number of products in the market …

Toyota president Akio Toyoda made headlines at the beginning of the month when he let loose with a profusion of apologies for his company having lost its way. Last week, at the Toyko Motor Show, the company showed off a $400,000 muscle car called the LFA that's powered by a V-10 engine. Inexplicably, according to writer Matthew Debord, it bears a Lexus nameplate, which he describes as the "preferred brand of Midwestern dentists and junior-grade Hollywood agents" with its crossover SUVs appealing to "the soccer moms of northeastern New Jersey." (Give him credit. He didn't …

Wow. Ho, boy. They went and did it again. Speaking of jingles, remember the guy who made a YouTube video about United Airlines breaking his guitar and then giving him the royal runaround about it? Well, he's gotten all sorts of speaking engagements as a result of the incident, now that he's a freshly dubbed guru of customer service and all. And so it was that David Carroll travelled from his home in Saskatchewan to Denver on Sunday to speak to a group of customer service execs. After deplaning, however, he was told he'd …

On the second anniversary of his father's death, Pete Blackshaw, ex-P&Ger and current evp of Nielsen Online Digital Strategic Services, writes fondly and frankly about "one of the original Mad Men." Starting at BBDO, Bill Blackshaw wrote jingles on Madison Avenue for more than 30 years for clients such as Chevrolet, Great Western Savings and Pacific Southwest Airlines. Blackshaw was a "Catholic outsider" in the agency world of the "Golden Age," his son writes. His favorite quote was, "Never trust a guy whose first name sounds like his last." But it wasn't just sour grapes. "He lamented the …

Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald has put the leaders of poor-performing brands such as Braun small appliances, Iams pet food, Duracell batteries and Pringles potato snacks on notice that they face a sale if things don't improve, Jeffrey McCracken and Ellen Byron report. At the same time, P&G is getting closer to a deal to acquire Sara Lee's international household-products unit. It's also looking at the consumer-products portfolio of Schering-Plough, which is merging with Merck, as well as that of Wyeth, which was just acquired by Pfizer. It may be interested in Alberto-Culver, too, although no …