Church & Dwight's Trojan brand is a regular advertiser on cable channels but its first product placement will be in Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad" music video. The paid plug, which makes its debut on MTV today, shows two young women purchasing Trojan 2Go condoms in anticipation of a night of gambling, drinking and carousing, Holly Sanders Ware reports. Jim Daniels, vp of marketing for the brand, is frustrated with restrictions the major broadcast networks place on advertising. "We have these media barriers, and so we are looking for ways to broaden our reach," he says. "If this …

The rapid success of Redbox DVD kiosks across the country is instructive, writes Farhad Manjoo. Although it's unlikely that Redbox will survive the transition to streaming video into the home, so what? It's raking in profits in the meantime. "In industries where shifts in technology dictate market conditions, why plan for the next big thing when you can make money with the little steps along the way?" he asks. "By the time GM launches its plug-in Volt, Toyota will have been selling the gasoline-based Prius for a decade."

Jeff Arnett, who has a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama, is the master distiller at the 143-year-old Jack Daniel's Tennessee distillery, where part of his job involves tasting -- and spitting out -- Old No. 7. The former P&Ger can talk endlessly about Jack Daniel's and how to make it, but he's reluctant to use competitors' names. He calls them "SOBs" -- for "some other brands" -- instead.

With Americans cutting back their liquor consumption outside the home, Diageo is tackling one of the toughest challenges in marketing, Burt Helm writes. It is attempting to change consumer behavior by making the cocktail cool again. "A cocktail prepared by a barman carries an air of mystery," says Jon Potter, chief marketing officer at Diageo North America. The basic problem is that people are more likely to imbibe beer and wine at home, not Smirnoff, Jose Cuervo and the other brands of rum, vodka, whiskey, and gin that Diageo pushes. So Diageo has relaunched its Web site, thebar.com, with …

A growing number of forward-thinking marketers appears to be laying the groundwork for long-term growth in a short-term-obsessed world, Jack Neff reports. It may be no surprise to learn that Unilever, Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble are prominent among them, but take a look at how they are reporting their results as part of the mindset. Wal-Mart has stopped issuing monthly sales figures, partly to help it focus on the future. Unilever (and L'Oreal) have scrapped earnings forecasts. And P&G, while not ditching earnings guidance entirely, has pulled back and left open the door for further revisions as it …

General Motors is asking its Saturn division not to play up its pending sale to Penske Automotive Group even though some dealers think it is the biggest thing the brand has going for it, John D. Stoll reports. GM doesn't want the Penske connection to overshadow the Saturn brand name, at least until after the deal is closed. That is creating a dilemma for some dealers who are eager to throw off the tarnished yoke of GM. "People want to buy from someone they like," says Scott Davies, owner of Saturn of Wichita, Kan. "A lot of customers won't buy …