Airline executives say they can no longer provide the cheaper fares that made air travel an attractive substitute for car trips. Even Southwest Airlines -- which has long used the marketing slogan "You are now free to move about the country" -- has eliminated its self-imposed cap of charging no more than $299 for any one-way flight. Now it charges close to $400 each way on some routes. In the three decades since deregulation, the nation's major airlines have operated with the simple strategy that bigger was better, and that the way to win the industry dogfight was to …

Hooters has signed a deal to have its logo -- an owl whose eyes are seen in the word Hooters -- on the racing silks of jockey Kent Desormeaux when he mounts Big Brown in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday. The three-year-old is favored to become the first horse in 30 years to win the Triple Crown. Big Brown was named for the shipping company by his original owner, Paul Pompa Jr., in 2007 after Pompa renewed a contract with UPS Freight for his company, Truck-Rite Corp. UPS signed a marketing deal with Big Brown's new owners earlier this …

Wal-Mart's faster, cleaner and friendlier approach to merchandising is clearly resonating with shoppers. On Thursday, it reported a 3.9% increase in same-store sales in May, much better than the 1.6% percent gain that analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected. Executives from different departments offered presentations on how different categories are embracing Wal-Mart's "save money, live better" campaign begun a year ago. Dottie Mattison, svp and gm for apparel, says that the company is focusing on offering the lowest prices on such big brands as Hanes and Fruit of the Loom. That means an emphasis on low prices while focusing …

The commercialization of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's image is contributing to tension between rich and poor in some countries, according to Aleida Guevara, the eldest of Guevara's four children by his second wife, Cuban revolutionary Aleida Marc. Guevara helped Fidel Castro overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and was executed in 1967 while trying to foment a revolution in Bolivia. He became a pop icon thanks to a 1960 photograph. Variations of the image -- featuring Guevara with a defiant stare and starred beret -- can now be found the world over on T-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and refrigerator …

Wal-Mart Store wants to be the low-cost destination for drugs and health care, doing for the category what it did when it made its initial steps into the food business 20 years ago. Today, groceries are Wal-Mart's biggest revenue generator, making up 41% of its annual sales. Along the way, the retailing juggernaut has dramatically reshaped the grocery store industry. The chain says that health and wellness products (including pharmacy sales) made up 9% of its overall $374.5 billion in revenues in the 12 months ended Jan. 31. The company is aiming to increase electronic prescriptions at its stores by …

Paramount Pictures' main studio is absorbing the marketing, distribution and physical production departments at its specialty label, Paramount Vantage, signaling a further retrenchment in Hollywood for the independent-movie market. Warner Bros. recently closed two of its art-house labels and absorbed a third specialty label, New Line Cinema, into the main studio. In recent years, Hollywood studios have been quick to establish specialty labels to take advantage of the burgeoning market for independent movies -- small, inexpensive films such as "Juno" -- that can become profitable if they achieve wide acclaim. While Paramount Vantage has recently been involved in …

Warren Buffett is out talking to cable TV anchors, magazine writers, shareholders, Congress, foreign investors, and even to a former Wall Street analyst who is writing a book about him. He's generating newsy sound bites at press conferences. He's even popped up in a CNBC documentary, "The Billionaire Next Door: All Access," which delves into all things Buffett. Not to mention a recent guest appearance on the daytime soap opera "All My Children." He's talking about pretty much anything. The question is, why? Buffett in the past has tended to share his thoughts only on specific occasions, such as …