Dell is rolling out a holiday campaign today with a dedicated Web site--YoursIsHere.com--where consumers can send an e-mail video from celebrities such as Burt Reynolds, Estelle Harris, Ice T, Vivica Fox and Brooke Burke that urges friends to chip in on the price of a new Dell product as a holiday gift. The tone of the video message varies, according to the image of the celebrity. For Harris--best known as George Costanza's manipulative mother in "Seinfeld," the pitch is tinged with guilt. The tone from Burke is a soft, subtle sell. Dell also will take over …

Frito-Lay is embarking on an ambitious plan to change the way its potato chip factory in Casa Grande, Ariz., operates and, in the process, create a new type of snack: the environmentally benign chip. Its goal is to run the plant almost entirely on renewable fuels and recycled water. The concept is called "net zero," and it has the backing of the highest levels of corporate executives at PepsiCo. There are benefits besides the potential energy savings. Like many other large corporations, PepsiCo is striving to establish its green credentials, as consumers become more focused on climate change. There …

John Andrews, Wal-Mart's new marketing guru, says that simplicity and integration are the takeaway words for its suppliers going forward. Speaking before a packed room of suppliers at a Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday, Andrews pressed them to integrate their brand marketing to align with Wal-Mart's new bare-bones lifestyle message of saving money to live better. The message of integrated marketing strategy between Wal-Mart and its suppliers isn't entirely new, but does highlight a greater effort by Wal-Mart to push its suppliers into co-marketing. "Theme integration is a must," Andrews says. "You're going to hear that again …

Rcrd Lbl (pronounced: Record Label)--a hybrid record label and blog--is going to post music releases for free downloading, unrestricted by digital-rights management software that limits copying. The company expects to enlist advertisers to cover costs. So far, Richard Branson's Virgin America airline, Nikon, and Puma have signed on. The company is a joint venture of Downtown Records, the independent label behind Gnarls Barkley and others, and Peter Rojas, a journalist and entrepreneur who founded the respected technology blogs Gizmodo and Engadget. Its plans could be read as either a step forward for the ailing music business, or an acknowledgment …

Analysts say a consolidation wave among airlines may create a marketing nightmare of more competition, considerable new operational challenges and potentially less customer loyalty. Delta yesterday denied that it was in talks with United, but says that it open to the "right" deal. Mike Boyd, an aviation analyst with Boyd Group, says that based on recent history like the U.S Airways/America West merger, a consolidated United would face a tangled mess of different fleets, different unions and different policies. He says consolidation only works if it lessens competition, decreases costs or allows higher prices, while, of course, keeping …

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's ruling that Haute Diggity Dog's "Chewy Vuiton" toy was a successful parody of the products from the French fashion company. Judge Paul V. Niemeyer found that Chewy Vuiton is "a joking and amusing parody" that "pokes fun at the elegance and expensiveness of a Louis Vuitton handbag." Louis Vuitton sued Haute Diggity Dog, its principal owner Victoria Dauernheim, and retailer Woofie's Pet Boutique in Ashburn, Va., in 2006 for trademark, trade dress and copyright infringement. It argued that the toy company infringed on …