Because grocery brands are prepared to accept much more stringent restrictions on kids' marketing than fast-food chains, The Children's Advertising Review Unit is having difficulty drafting new guidelines for marketers who target children. A failure by CARU--a unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus--to get its members to agree on new voluntary rules could invite intervention from the federal government. On the other hand, some marketers may abandon CARU if it promulgates rules they feel they cannot follow. Kraft, PepsiCo, Mars, Campbell Soup and Dannon signed a pledge Oct. 6 as part of Bill Clinton's Alliance for …

Walt Disney Co. says it will stop licensing its characters for food products that are unhealthy, and it will also ban trans fats products at McDonald's restaurants in its theme parks. The guidelines take effect immediately for licensing deals, but will be phased in as existing contracts expire. Most Disney licensing deals end by 2008, but a Kellogg Co. deal for cereal has another seven years to run. In addition, Disney Consumer Products has licensing deals with Kellogg's Keebler division, Coca-Cola's Minute Maid and McDonald's for Happy Meals. Disney's guidelines include limiting portions and calories in kids' packages; limiting …

Sears, which had done little to call attention to its Lands' End offerings at retail since it acquired the brand in 2002, is creating stores-within-stores to showcase the casual apparel line. Until recently, Lands' End crewneck golf shirts, coats and cashmere sweaters were scattered about Sears's apparel section according to season, style or category, making them hard to find. Lands' End has hired and trained the salespeople working within the 10,000-square-foot outposts to know the nuances of its apparel, such as how to clean its cashmere sweaters. The Lands' End stores also offer lounge areas and Internet kiosks to …

Volkswagen's Audi is introducing a small SUV, the Q5, a small coupe, the A5, and a $130,000 mid-engine sports car, the R8, over the next 18 months to boost unit sales from 83,000 in 2005 to 100,000 in 2008. Unlike two other luxury auto brands with German roots--Mercedes and BMW--Audi has lost money in the U.S. for years, despite pioneering engineering developments like all-wheel drive and strong performance elsewhere around the world. Revolving door management, inconsistent marketing, and inattention to customer needs are responsible for its stunted growth. It also needs to advertise more consistently--not just when introducing …

As an influential woman in her community, Emily Grant is paid to spread product samples and coupons among friends and acquaintances. She has soaked herself in a Ralph Lauren fragrance called Hot, taken Nutella samples to her sons' play dates, and painted her hallway with a light-blue shade of Benjamin Moore paint. Word-of-mouth advertising has mushroomed in recent years as companies try to reach an increasingly inaccessible consumer base. Most programs target big-spending groups, such as moms and teenagers. Efforts vary in how aggressive they get. Some agencies and companies--such as Procter & Gamble's Vocalpoint and Tremor programs--do …

Consumers are balking at the high price of organic foods, leading some observers to speculate that it's a fad destined to crash like the low-carb craze. Organics are a $14 billion business with a brisk growth rate, but they account for only 2.5 percent of total food sales, despite hundreds of millions spent by major marketers in the past 12 months to make them mass. Major marketers' success in the segment has come not from organic versions of their stalwart brands but from independents they've snapped up, such as General Mills' Cascadian Farm and Kraft's Back to Nature. With …

Adidas today breaks its biggest-ever basketball push in the U.S., with a campaign that takes on Nike's celebration of individual superstars, like Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Called "It Takes 5IVE," the campaign emphasizes the concept of team over individuals and features Tim Duncan, Gilbert Arenas, Tracy McGrady, Chauncey Billups and Kevin Garnett. Adidas also has inked a partnership with EA Sports to create a video game in which the five Adidas-sponsored players square off against NBA teams. All five "team members" will soon have their own signature shoe, retailing from $80 to $130. Adidas is trying to …

Disney Mobile, the cell phone service for kids, is planning a holiday marketing plan for the critical fourth quarter on the heels of an integrated rollout campaign that wrapped up this month. TV ads for the initial campaign focused on the responsibility level of kids with a Disney Mobile phone. The stories particularly struck a chord with women surveyed by Ad Track, USA Today's weekly poll, with 19 percent saying they "like the ads a lot." Out since June, Disney Mobile has four key features that give parents more control over their children's cell phone usage: Family Locator, a …

A cyberspace version of the "most beautiful baby" contests that newspapers used to run is coming online, thanks to a new promotion by BabyGap and Kodak's EasyShare Gallery. The retailer, a division of Gap, Inc., is inviting consumers to upload photos of their children ages four and under at the KodakGallery.com/babygap microsite. Judges will narrow down the pool of entries to 20 semifinalists, made up of 10 boys and 10 girls. Consumers will then decide the two final grand-prize winners--one boy and one girl--via online voting. The two top winners will participate in a professional BabyGap photo shoot, then …

As marketers become aware that a review from an influential blogger can make or break a product introduction, many are starting to include blogs in their marketing plans. By the official launch time, a product may already have been slipped into the hands of bloggers several months before. Feedback from their online discussions with other devotees can help inform a marketer's subsequent advertising and media strategy. Says Peter Hirshberg, chief executive of Technorati, a blog-tracking service, a year ago companies balked--now they see bloggers as an opportunity. Edelman Public Relations, which monitors scores of blogs devoted to following …