We are becoming a nation of track-a-holics, Bruce Horovitz writes, and marketers are "keenly hip to this growing consumer demand." The phenomenon started with tracking FedEx and UPS packages online in the mid-Nineties, but it has exploded to include everything from consumers following the progress of their pizza as it wends its way through the Domino's assembly process to a Web site that helps parents monitor their infant's sleeping, eating and, well, patterns that require a Pampers or similar product. The Pizza Tracker is more than a marketing tool for Dominos, giving it a window into the online world …

Before jetting off on vacation in the Caribbean earlier this month, General Motors marketing chief Bob Lutz met with the automaker's agency brand teams and, according to someone who has knowledge of the short sessions, "crapped all over the advertising." Cadillac's ads starring Kate Walsh from Modernista were deemed to be too dark and Chevrolet's yet-to-run campaign from Campbell-Ewald was thought to be too lifestyle-focused, Jean Halliday reports. But the most severe criticism was reserved for the Buick LaCrosse "photo shoot" spot featuring effete West Coasters. "That Buick commercial tested very well," Lutz said in a Web cast, …

In an opinion piece, Cameron Stracher, the publisher of the New York Law School Law Review, rather subversively suggests that "manscaping," or "body defoliation," or just plain shaving to some of us, has moved into the mainstream because Gillette, Schick and other manufacturers are themselves pushing hairlessness. This would include a YouTube video Gillette has issued titled "How To Shave Your Groin." "In the best tradition of hucksterism," Stracher writes, "we must have what we don't need." (Which, in this case, is less of what we actually have. Go figure.) Anyway, having recently …

Outspoken iconoclast he may be, but the Post's headline suggests that U2 lead singer Bono is just plain "off his rocker" for breaking one of marketing's cardinal rules: "Promote your own interests, not a competitor's." Paul Tharp reports that Bono is a co-founder of Elevation Partners, which has invested $435 million into smartphone maker Palm. At the same time, he's appearing in commercials for its archrival Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, as part of a tie-in coinciding with the release of U2's latest album, "No Line on the Horizon." Tharp questions whether the move might make …

In the year that celebrates the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and the moon landing, pollster John Zogby posed the following question in a recent poll: Would the legacy of the baby boomers be "helping to bring lasting change in social and cultural values and ending a war," or "ushering in an era of consumerism and self-indulgence," or "nothing at all, nothing really special." Well, it appears that Americans believe that most boomers put away the love beads and bought into "diamonds are forever" shtick. Forty-two percent say the baby boom legacy is consumerism and self-indulgence; 27% say changing values …

Kmart is reviving it blue-light specials but blue balloons will replace oscillating light bulbs to alert shoppers to the aisle where they can find their timely bargains, Sandra M. Jones reports. (Although a few stores are reportedly dusting off the vintage bulbs of yore.) "We asked ourselves: How do we bring some fun and excitement back to the store?" says spokesman Tom Aiello. "We have incredibly priced items that we couldn't offer all day long, but we could offer for an hour." As it turns out, Kmart needed to go no further than its own institutional memory for the …

Responding to Apple's protests that it had lowered its pricing, Microsoft has adjusted at least one of the ads in its "Laptop Hunters" campaign, Rupal Parekh reports. In "Lauren and Sue," law student Lauren shops around in the hopes of finding a computer under $1,700. In the original version, Lauren says: "This Mac is $2,000, and that's before adding anything." Her mom Sue responds: "Why would you pay twice the price?" Microsoft COO Kevin Turner last week crowed about a call from Apple's attorneys complaining about the ads. "Microsoft plans to keep running …