In observing that Coca-Cola commercials are sometimes so wrapped up in telling stories that the star of the show sometimes seems to be an afterthought, Brian Stelter invites us to play a game called "Spot the Coke Can." That non-commercial attitude pays dividends in other ways, of course, and one of them will be in evidence today when MTV shows the premiere of the music video for "Open Happiness," the catchy song for Coke that debuted last winter.

Crocs came out of nowhere in 2002 to sell more than 100 million pairs. Everyone, it seem, was wearing them, even as the fashion world mocked their pedestrian style. But now, reports Ylan Q. Mui, Crocs has a lot of excess inventory on its feet and mounting red ink on its balance sheet. The company is, in fact, in jeopardy of failing by the end of September, when some heavy-duty debt comes due. "The company's toast," said Damon Vickers, who manages an investment fund at Nine Points Capital Partners. "They're zombie-ish. They're dead and they don't know it." …

There's still no Web evidence of United Airlines responding to the viral video posted by Dave Maxwell, and his band, Sons of Maxwell, that tells a tale about the former mauling the latter's guitar. "United Breaks Guitars" was cited in the lede of Karl Greenberg's round-up of declining satisfaction among airline customers yesterday and he was not alone in bringing attention to it. Visible Measures says there were 30 unique placements with 3.2 million views and 14,000 comments over the first 10 days of its release. The video tells the tale of Maxwell's $3,500 Taylor …

In four short years, Wal-Mart has gone "from whipping boy of the political left to corporate leviathan now welcomed with open arms by a Democratic White House" writes Ann Zimmerman, who traces the metamorphosis to a reputation survey that found that the company had, in turn, gone from "corporate darling to demon." The retainer's board told then-CEO Lee Scott to turn things around. His early efforts were "ham-handed," Zimmerman writes, but then Scott hired Leslie Dach, an Edelman executive with ties to the Dems, to head corporate communications. He also stopped defending Wal-Mart's policies and started to …

The 60-something "Connery-meets-Castro-meets-Hemingway" gent who "doesn't always drink beer" but imbibes Dos Equis when he does has given the Heineken USA brand a 17% sales bump at a time when other imported beers are headed in the other direction, Jeremy Mullman reports. Euro RSCG created the character who the police "often question just because they find him interesting." "There's never really been an import brand that's been built so clearly through advertising," says Benj Steinman, publisher of Beer Marketer's Insights. Aging men aren't usually the stuff of beer commercials, but Interesting Man's sense of mystique plays to the qualities …

In a blog post, Ignited executive creative director Mike Wolfsohn complains that material it painstakingly prepared for a review by the online retailer Zappos received only a cursory glance by the client, Brian Morrissey and Andrew McMains report. "If agencies are going to spend weeks preparing their response, the least any client can do is commit 30 minutes to look at it," Wolfsohn says. According to Morrissey and MeMains, Wolfson's post echoes the private complaints of many agencies that have participated in the review for the $7 million account. Zappos business development and marketing executive Aaron Magness says …

The seemingly ubiquitous price cuts that restaurant chains have been offering in recent months are not only failing to boost bottom lines, they're also failing to attract as many customers as expected, Julie Jargon reports. "We've been hearing from a lot of restaurant management teams that discounting wasn't driving the traffic they hoped for," says Barclays Capital analyst Jeffrey Bernstein. Yum Brands says earnings in its fiscal second-quarter rose 10%, excluding an acquisition-related gain, but same-store sales in the U.S. declined 1% due to an 8% decline at Pizza Hut despite discounts for online pizza orders and other deals. …