MGD 64, which has only a little more than half MGD Light's 110 calories, tested well enough in Madison, Wis., late last year to persuade Miller to greenlight a roll out in major Midwestern markets starting March 1. It will be backed by print, radio and outdoor ads. There will be a clear focus on placing ads in and around health clubs, executives close to the situation say, noting that the tagline used in the trial market--"As light as it gets"--was well-received. At 64 calories, the brand is the lowest-calorie mass-marketed domestic beer to date, although Beck's Premier Light, …

Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé and H.J. Heinz are supporting a plan to certify that the palm oil they use in everything from margarine to cosmetics doesn't accelerate the destruction of tropical rainforests. The companies have joined a consortium of 200 oil producers, commercial buyers and environmental groups to improve the industry's image and avert a consumer backlash. Under pressure from retailers and environmental groups, U.S. and European consumer goods and food companies have been leading the push for higher standards in the palm-oil industry. To improve palm oil's tarnished image, the Malaysia-based Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil--as the …

Huge sales for the Wii, "Halo 3," the "Guitar Hero" franchise, and other big sellers drove videogame industry revenue up 43% in 2007 to nearly $18 billion. The red hot Nintendo Wii, which couldn't meet demand over the holidays, sold 6.3 million units in 2007, compared to 4.6 million units of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and 2.6 million for Sony's Playstation 3. The best-selling game for the year on a single console was Microsoft's "Halo 3," at 4.82 million units, followed by Nintendo's mini-game collection "Wii Play" with 4.1 million units. "Halo 3" now stands amongst some of the …

A McKinsey report predicts that "traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective in 2010 as it was in 1990." In today's environment, where independent information is plentiful, traditional one-way messages to consumers no longer work. As a new set of community technologies develop on the Internet, we should not be surprised to discover that the sociology of how we buy will come to resemble pre-industrial markets. In the post-industrial world, reputation, relationships and recommendations can come at any time from anywhere to affect a purchase decision. Before you entirely discard the notion of advertising, however, it is …

Richard Knerr (pronounced nur), who with partner Arthur Melin had a talent for turning seemingly quirky ideas like the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee and the SuperBall into national passions, died from complications of a stroke on Monday at his home in Arcadia, Calif. He was 82. Knerr and Melin started their company, Wham-O, in a garage. In the first year, it sold as many as 40 million Hula Hoops; by 1960, 100 million--a mark no other toy had ever reached. After too many households had several hoops, the fad evaporated, leaving Wham-O marooned on a mountain of tubular …