The Association of National Advertisers applauded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which vacated, or set aside, the Food and Drug Administration rule requiring the graphic warnings on all tobacco products or ads. "We're not ventriloquist dummies through which the government speaks," Dan Jaffe, ANA's group exec VP for government relations, told Ad Age. He pointed out that the First Amendment "doesn't stop the government from speaking on its own and using whatever images they want [but] it stops them from making [a marketer] say what it want [them] to say." Read the whole story...

The No. 1 seeded woman in the world entering the 2012 U.S. Open is the new global ambassador for Citizen, which already has a roster that includes Eli Manning, Paula Creamer, Matt Kenseth and Kim Clijsters. Marketing with TV, print and digital featuring Azarenka will hit this fall. Read the whole story...

For the second time this year, General Motors will halt production of the Chevrolet Volt for several weeks - but company sources insist the move does not signal problems with the plug-in hybrid which got off to a slow start after its introduction in December 2010. In fact, GM expects to report that demand has surged to a record for the Volt this month, more than doubling year ago levels. Depending on what happens the rest of this week, August sales could near 2,500, TheDetroitBureau.com has learned. Read the whole story...

The fresh coconut water brand has signed its first NFL endorsers - Vernon Davis, Larry Fitzgerald, Eric Decker and Devin Hester - for a multi-media campaign, who joins such athletes as Josh Hamilton, Dustin Pedroia and Joakim Noah as Vita Coco seeks to ride the category's wave of popularity. Read the whole story...

Ira Kalb, professor of marketing at USC, and head of Kalb & Associates points out that while Neil Armstrong hadn't the slightest interest in self aggrandizement, he would have had a great platform had he been interested in marketing himself. "Why was he given so much of the credit? Brand marketers will tell you that it was because of one of the most powerful forces in branding-being first to a new position," he writes. "Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon. He was also the first human to take a step on any physical world beyond the Earth. Moreover, he was the first to explore a mysterious new world with TV cameras and so many people around the world watching." Read the whole story...

Ford may want to consider getting back to infotainment basics: two tin cans and a string. That may at least please Consumer Reports. The Dearborn automaker's efforts to improve MyFord Touch again don't make Consumer Reports happy. The magazine, which panned MyFord Touch version one says in a blog that even with updates to make it less distracting, the system "still frustrates us like few other control systems in any other brand's automobiles." In the piece, whose headline says the new version stinks, CR argues that there aren't any knobs or buttons, as on old-fashioned radios in cars. Instead, it depends on pushing icons on a touch-screen, steering wheel controls and voice commands. Read the whole story...

Wal-Mart Stores wants grocery stores, corner stores, food stores, mom and pop stores, and probably any stores at all (except maybe philatelic) to hit the bricks. The gargantuan global retail chain isn't saying that, of course. Rather, it merely suggests consumers in Chicago, Atlanta and Albuquerque, N.M. compare prices. And it is going to help. Ads in those cities -- as well as on an online site -- suggest shoppers take a photo of their grocery receipt, upload it and send it to Wal-Mart, where "price-checking wizards" will compare those prices with the prices at the nearest Wal-Mart supercenter and then email results back to the consumer within a couple of days. The company is hoping consumers will post the results on social media. And then never shop anywhere but Wal-Mart again, ever, for anything. Read the whole story...