There may be a lesson emerging here: Do not idly use a musician's name for gain. Their lawyers will find you, no matter what rock you roll under, and put your name in headlines. First , there's the 50 Cent/Taco Bell mêlée. Now Axl Rose's lawyers are very upset about Dr Pepper's promise to deliver a free can of soda to consumers who registered at a Web site for a coupon upon the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" album. Apparently, Dr Pepper's servers crashed under the demand of fans and not …

Ford CEO Alan Mulally plans to tell Congress today that he is accelerating his company's development of hybrid and electric vehicles and is willing to cut his salary to $1 a year if Ford uses any federal funds, Monica Langley and John D. Stoll report. Mulally says Ford will explain to Congress it is rushing to launch new hybrids and electric vehicles by 2011, including a battery-powered commercial van and compact sedan. A plug-in electric vehicle that can be recharged from a standard electrical outlet should follow in 2012, he says. Ford chairman William Ford Jr. says the …

Anderson Cooper did a nice profile of 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps on "60 Minutes" last night. Most of it explores Phelps' winning, down-to-earth personality (despite his otherworldly will to win), but about the 6:00 mark on the video, Cooper and Phelps discuss the alchemy of turning his sports achievements into real gold. There have even been sponsorship offers for his bulldog, Herman. Phelps' agent, Peter Carlisle -- who is seen advising against a $5 million sponsorship offer that come across on his BlackBerry as Phelps speaks at an event for Visa -- believes that the total of his …

Bob Garfield expends nearly 4,000 words this week on advertising widgets, downloadable software applications that sit on a users desktop until certain predefined conditions are met -- let's say the fare between two cities hits a threshold low -- and the downloader is dinged with the news. Or take InStyle's Hollywood Hair Makeover widget, which allows users to superimpose the coiffures of Jennifer Aniston or Cameron Diaz on their own photos. Widgets are underutilized and they're cheap to employ. That's really all you need to know but, as usual, Garfield provides an entertaining ride with some great lines. Here's …

Unilever's Axe is promising "girl-approved hair" with a line of shampoos, conditioner and styling products it is launching for men this week, Ellen Byron reports. The introduction follows the June debut of a men's hair-care line from Procter & Gamble's Gillette that's "engineered with charged cleansers" to help men "take charge of your hair," according to its TV campaign. Axe's ads show that with bad hair, even male models can't pick up girls. "We found that 85% of guys think their hair is pretty good, but more than half of women don't agree," says David Rubin, director of Unilever …

A new push for the Pantene hair-care line -- estimated to be about $100 million -- touts an upgrade in silicon technology that translates to stronger, shinier hair, according to Elaine Wong. The campaign stars former beauty editor and television fashion celebrity Stacy London. A teaser campaign a couple of weeks ago directed consumers to Secrettogreathair.com; sampling inserts inside major Sunday newspapers have heralded the brand's latest positioning. Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley recently blamed the company's failure to attain an annual 5% gain in the beauty category to last spring's failed restaging of Pantene. Called Parthenon, that …