A growing number of major marketers believe Americans want to reconnect with the past, so they're bringing back old logos, slogans, and mascots in an attempt to cash in on the trend. The list is a long one and includes such national stalwarts as Walt Disney Co., Anheuser-Busch, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken. "People like to bring back the old stuff," said Jack Trout, president of marketing strategy firm Trout & Partners. "These are all classic brands so they have a history... it is sort of reintroducing the brand to a new generation, using the old symbols." Examples include …

A promotion that angry critics said encouraged smoking combined with heavy drinking has been discontinued by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. The promotion raised the ire of three state attorneys general, as well as public advocacy groups. Called "Drinks on Us," the promotion included mailed birthday greetings to young adults containing drink coasters, branded for Camel cigarettes, that encouraged the consumption of well-known alcohol brands including Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, Finlandia Vodka, Kahlua, Bacardi Limón and Bailey's via recipes and slogans such as: "Layer it on. Go 'Til Daybreak," "Mix Three Shots Together Over Ice, then Make Sure You're Sittin'" and …

NutriSystem wants men to get skinny and is going to spend more marketing dollars next year to help them. In 2005 the company spent $35 million and now says it will add a short-form direct response TV, a test of longer-form infomercials and an expansion of its NutriSystem for Men program. Tom Connerty, NutriSystem's chief marketing officer, said NutriSystem has had a men's program for two years but that it only accounts for 15 percent to 20 percent of sales, because "we haven't aggressively gone after them the way we have to women." That will change in the first …

Apparently when it comes to branding, Thomas Wolfe was wrong: You can go home again. At a time when a movie about famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow ("Good Night, and Good Luck") is out and doing well, it seems only fitting that Murrow's old network, CBS, is rebranding its radio unit as CBS Radio. Out is the previous name, Infinity Broadcasting, a leftover from the days when Mel Karmazin ran the show at CBS parent Viacom. The move came in anticipation of Viacom's separation of its businesses, and part of the company's plans to rebrand the radio group includes a …

Web blogs, or "blogs" as they are popularly known, can be a double-edged sword for marketers. On the one hand, they can be used as a valuable marketing tool that shows your constituents you are on the cutting edge of online communications. On the other hand, if not implemented carefully and properly, they can result in a public relations fiasco. Every potential advantage and pitfall must be examined carefully by a company's stakeholders before a large company participates in the current blogging trend. In this article, Lisa Poulson, managing director of global public relations firm Burson-Marstellar, provides a checklist to …

Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is making moves to expand its fine-fragrance business by joining forces with Italian fashion giants Dolce & Gabbana to launch a new line of perfume and beauty products. The deal calls for P&G to produce the perfumes, while D&G will handle all brand-related activities, including advertising. The line will roll in July of next year. The deal marks continuing efforts by P&G to bolster the "Prestige Products" part of its beauty division in order to boost sales and margins. Luxury-brand perfumes are a highly profitable business, and P&G already makes fragrances for fashion names, …

Ford Motor Co., is anxious to repair the damage done by an embarrassing public relations fiasco. Not only is the giant automaker reversing its recent controversial decision to decrease its advertising in publications that target gays and lesbians, now it says it will actually increase its ad commitment to such magazines. The plan calls for Ford to buy ads for all eight of its brands in gay publications; previously only Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo ran ads in such titles. Now, the company will advertise its Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda and Aston Martin brands in the gay press. The move …

Yet another major national marketer is discovering the benefits of online advertising. Michelin North America says it will follow the lead of other marketers in shifting ad dollars away from traditional marketing tactics and into online advertising, increasing its spending for car and truck tires up to 10 percent next year. The company's overall 2006 marketing budget will remain flat to compensate for the online hike. Michelin communications manager Scott Dishman said the marketer will cut back on event sponsorships and will no longer support the title sponsorship of the PGA Championship event in Las Vegas that it has held …

If an agency can't deliver the kinds of commercials you want, just ask your customers to do the job. That's the approach being taken by Kao Corp., which markets Ban deodorant, in a contest designed to create ads that appeal to teenage girls. The contest was announced in magazines like CosmoGirl and Teen People and has already drawn about 4,000 entries from kids 12 to 20 who were asked to submit an image and fill in the blank in the company's "Ban It" slogan. Nine winners will be chosen and will run in an ad in March in US Weekly. …

It appears that consumers are shopping up a storm this holiday season, but not in stores. The place they are all flocking to this year is the Internet, where online retailers are seeing an impressive 33 percent increase in the number of visits, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The market research firm said that during the week of Dec. 4, shoppers visited e-tailers 462.5 million times, up from 348.3 million times during that same week the prior year. The increase is the result of shoppers doing research and comparing prices online before making a purchase, and from e-tailers pushing promotions, said Ken …