Mr. Bill -- the small clay figure who first appeared in "Saturday Night Live" short films three decades ago -- is being revived as a debit-card holder who gets roughed up but keeps on going in a new spot for MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. The 30-second spot casts Mr. Bill as an urban professional on his daily routine: Mr. Hands pours hot coffee on him ("coffee: $2"), a personal trainer launches him off a treadmill ("gym: $59/mo."), and an opened briefcase flips him onto the windshield of a city bus ("briefcase: $120"). Mr. Bill, rolling with the endless punches, just enjoys …

Tyson Foods says that it is "voluntarily" withdrawing the antibiotic-free chicken label awarded by the Agriculture Department because of "uncertainty and controversy over product labeling regulations and advertising claims." Dave Hogberg, svp of consumer products for Tyson, says the company still supports "the idea of marketing chicken raised without antibiotics" and believes "there needs to be more specific labeling and advertising protocols developed." Tyson's unexpected move follows months of confusion surrounding its hot-selling Raised Without Antibiotics chicken, which the company touted as part of a $70 million advertising campaign launched last summer. Tyson has begun designing and ordering …

Some McDonald's owner/operators are starting to push back on the dollar menu credited with much of the chain's turnaround. Several McDonald's stores in New York have stopped offering it, for example, and in one Texas market franchisees voted down local funding to advertise the dollar menu this coming September. They're looking to support higher-margin items instead. Ed Bailey, a franchisee with 63 restaurants in the Dallas area, says that the platform is best kept as a low-key, everyday-value proposition. "When you begin to advertise it and make it your marketing campaign, encouraging franchisees to do it because transactions are …

Starbucks appears to be pulling out all stops to boost sales and loyalty as customers increasingly shun specialty coffee because of rising gas and food prices. Starting today, it will offer free Wi-Fi for frequent customers, along with a host of other membership benefits designed to encourage customers to return more frequently. The free wireless Internet access for those customers is good for two hours per day; after that, they have to pay. Other frequent customer benefits beginning today include free syrups and milk choices, free brewed coffee refills and a free tall beverage with the purchase of a …

Jacques Diouf, director-general of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, blames the rising price of food worldwide on governmental subsidies to develop biofuels and says that "nobody" understands the diversion of food to fuel cars." Speaking to more than 60 heads of state gathered in Rome at the U.N.'s food summit yesterday, Diouf claimed "rich countries have created a distortion of world market with the $272 billion spent on supporting their agriculture." In a document, the U.N. task force on food also says that the world needed to "reassess" subsidies and tariffs on biofuels. The FAO's food …