General Motors yesterday confirmed Detroit's second-worst kept secret -- the first being the dire financial plight addressed by the appointment of an emergency financial manager yesterday -- when it announced that Commonwealth, Chevrolet's agency of record, will heretofore consist solely of Interpublic's McCann Worldgroup with Omnicom's Group's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners taking a powder.

Fisker Automotive co-founder Henrik Fisker is, by many accounts, an inspired designer with a devoted following -- unabashed ambassadors of the $110,000 hybrid Karma have included Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio -- but they no longer include his colleagues at the company. Fisker yesterday resigned from the green automaker and made the news public with an email to selected member of the press.

If there were any doubts that Samsung has taken a bite out of Apple's cachet as the digital pocket device of the moment, the manufactured hoopla, random speculation, unabashed wishes and informed analysis surrounding tomorrow evening's "Samsung Unpacked" event at Radio City Music Hall in New York puts it all in perspective. The iPhone has more than just a formidable technology competitor; it has a competitor with some buzz-making chops.

In what the New York Times characterizes as "an unusually critical opinion" and the Wall Street Journal calls "a stinging blow," a New York Supreme Court judge found yesterday that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on containers that hold more than 16 ounces of sugary beverages doesn't hold water.

Whole Foods announced Friday that it would require products sold in all of its stores in North America to divulge on their labels if they contain genetically modified organisms [GMOs] by 2018. The retailer says it is just giving consumers what they want.

The face of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, says the design changes he previewed yesterday at a press event in Menlo Park, Calif., are all about giving consumers greater control over a product he's calling "the best personalized newspaper in the world." But "Ad Age"'s headline probably gets to the real reason behind the forthcoming larger graphics and specialized feeds tailored to users' interests: "Facebook News Feed Redesign Gives Marketers What They've Pined For: Bigger Ads."

The Europeans are really, really, really serious about creating a level competitive playing field, as Microsoft learned once again yesterday to the tune of a $732 million fine for a mistake it chalked up to a "technical error." Or are they?

It seemed like dj news all over again in Manhattan yesterday: Paparazzi jockeying for position outside the state courthouse, scribes jostling for a seat inside and Martha Stewart -- "dressed in a short brown skirt and matching vest over a cream-colored shirt," according to Reuters' Karen Freifeld -- in the glare of it all.

Roy Brown, Jr., by all accounts of his death at 96 recently, was a man of refined taste and affability who unfortunately had a singular negative achievement for which he will always be remembered. "Somebody had to take it on the chin for what was the disaster at Ford known as the Edsel," writes Hot Rod's Thom Taylor, "and that person was Roy Brown."

Using full-page ads in 10 Sunday newspapers, Anheuser-Busch InBev humorously, if indirectly, addresses a class-action lawsuit filed in several states last week that claims the brewer waters down several of its brands, and that the actual alcohol content of the brewski does not reflect the amount indicated on the label.