As part of CEO Leslie Moonves' strategy to turn CBS into a full-fledged media enterprise, the company is reviving CBS Records, the storied former home of artists such as Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Tony Bennett, Miles Davis, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen. The rejuvenated label will start out small, with an eye toward the Internet age. CBS plans to sign a handful of songwriters whose music will be incorporated into shows on the CBS broadcast network, the youth-oriented CW television network and the company's fledgling digital platforms. In the past, networks would buy music rights to cover a program's …

The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report that slams the Food and Drug Administration. It says the agency's ability to halt misleading drug advertising is "limited," that it has failed to stop repeat offenders and that it has no consistent system for policing bad ads. The GAO chastised the FDA for similar reasons in 2002. If the FDA discovers drug ads it believes are false or misleading, it issues warning letters to companies. The letters are almost always obeyed. But the GAO report claims that the FDA has inconsistent criteria for evaluating drug ads. It also states that …

Audi will put its marketing emphasis on Sun Belt states as it launches a more flamboyant marketing style in the coming year. "We are going to where America is heading," says Scott Keogh, the company's chief marketing officer. The German automaker's newly revealed Southern strategy aims at booming cities, such as Miami, Phoenix and Tampa-St. Petersburg, all of which are economically sound and fueled by solid construction and business climates. Audi will be cast as a lifestyle achievement and aspiration rather than a triumph of German engineering--a move similar to what BMW has done in the last …

Even Procter & Gamble is looking to push the envelope with viral marketing, and has already underwritten online campaigns for mainstream brands like Folgers coffee, Crest toothpaste and Febreze fabric spray. Perhaps the most provocative effort is a playful new campaign for ThermaCare heat wraps that asserts that men can suffer from menstrual cramps. Known as "Men With Cramps," the campaign is backed by an estimated $1 million budget. It includes two special Web sites, a fake documentary and video clips, all purportedly the work of an imaginary institute that is studying the imaginary problem of "cyclical nonuterine …

Digital billboards that allow marketers to change their message as often as they'd like are helping to boost renewed interest in the outdoor medium. Computer-controlled LED displays offer many new opportunities, including the ability for companies to sell space in a time-share arrangement. They also open up high-profile locations to more advertisers. The same billboard, for example, could show a Starbucks ad for a mocha latte during the morning commute, movie listings from the local theater complex during the ride home and a late-night entertainment venue after the dinner hour. Digital billboards are drawing mostly local advertisers, …

Ian Beavis, Kia's U.S. marketing chief, says his dealers are screaming for the company to increase production of its smallest model, the Rio. "People are coming around to the idea that gas is going to be a factor for all time." Kia is not alone. Pushed by Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit and Nissan Versa--small, front-wheel-drive, fuel-efficient subcompacts introduced this year--the low-price end of the small-car market is up 42.2% through November, compared with a year ago, says industry-tracker Autodata. That's despite the fact that discounts on the economy subcompacts are just 1.5% less than the full …

Yum Brands expects between 200 and 400 of its KFC restaurants to close over the next 17 months for refusing to comply with a strict remodeling campaign that's underway in its 5,500 domestic stores. Changes in the re-imaging project include new awnings, chairs, bucket-shaped lighting and artwork featuring Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland Sanders. Most stores have already completed the update. Franchisees agreed to the timeline for the upgrades about a decade ago as part of an effort to end a long-running dispute with PepsiCo, which owned the chain before Yum. Chuck Peterka, a …

United Airlines has initiated talks to merge with Continental Airlines, and their CEOs have met, people involved in the negotiations say. A merger of the two carriers would create the biggest domestic airline, with a combined value of $9 billion. Spokespersons for both United and Continental declined to comment on the report. Any deal between the two airlines is far from imminent. A person with knowledge of the talks said United and Continental wanted to see how antitrust regulators would react to a possible merger of US Airways and Delta. Delta's management opposes the proposal and intends to …

Taco Bell stepped up a PR offensive yesterday by buying ads in major newspapers headlined "Taco Bell Food Is Safe." The ads spotlight a letter from Taco Bell President Greg Creed outlining the steps taken by the company to assure the safety of its restaurants. With green onions no longer the prime suspect in an E. coli outbreak tied to its restaurants, the fast-food chain now faces a difficult marketing challenge: How to convince consumers its food is safe, when it doesn't know what made them sick. Previously, the company had focused on explaining that it had …

A decade ago, Herbal Essences shampoo was listless. "What this brand needs is an orgasm," Linda Kaplan Thaler, then at Wells Rich Greene, recalls saying in a meeting. A resulting campaign rescued the brand and lasted until 2004, when P&G scrapped it. Now Herbal Essence has scrapped Kaplan Thaler Group and reassigned creative duties for the brand to its Publicis Group sibling, Leo Burnett Co. Since P&G bought Herbal Essences from Bristol-Myers as part of the 2001 Clairol deal, the brand has been doing far better overseas--thanks to rollouts into new markets--than in the U.S., where it has …