For the last year and a half, Patrick Robison has been plotting the overhaul of Gap jeans. The result is the 1969 Premium Jeans line, which officially makes its debut today. The look that the brand's evp of design was trying to capture, it appears, was the one he himself was exhibiting at a launch party in Los Angeles last week. "Robinson, 42, was dressed head-to-toe in Gap denim with his shirt unbuttoned to halfway down his chest," Andrea Chang writes. "Many shoppers, he said, often felt they had no choice but to drop hundreds on premium denim because …

Procter & Gamble is launching three new products in what it's calling the biggest innovation in the 40-year legacy of its Scope mouthwash brand: Scope Outlast mouthwash, Crest Plus Scope Outlast toothpaste and Oral-B Floss Picks Plus Scope Outlast Flavor, Antoinette Alexander reports. The Outlast technology is formulated to attach to receptors in the mouth to deliver a long-lasting, fresh feeling, according to P&G -- five times longer compared with brushing alone with ordinary toothpaste. The target is a younger, image-conscious consumer 25 to 35, says Christine McGovern, Scope brand manager. A multi-pronged marketing campaign comprised of print and …

Dell has taken the wraps off of the Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition, a 10-inch netbook targeted to kids. It has wireless Internet access, weighs less than 3 pounds and comes loaded with entertainment and educational content, Gabriel Madway reports. The netbook comes clad in the Viacom channel's trademark "green slime" design. Additional designs are based on programs such as "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "iCarly." In the future, Dell intends to roll out more co-branded products in areas such as pro sports that will target markets such as college students. "The PC, like the smartphone, has become a 21st …

The 55-calories Select 55 brew -- which Anheuser-Busch is proclaiming to be "the lightest beer in the world" -- is now in 15 test markets across the country including Arizona, Chicago and Dallas. It is available in 12-ounce, 6- and 12-pack bottles and 12-ounce and 12- and 18-pack cans, Kenneth Hein reports. A-B is "dipping their toe in the water to see what's there," says Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer's Insights. "The industry is soft right now so they are trying a lot of initiatives ..." Miller-Coors' MGD 64 replaced MGD Light in the middle of last …

It's almost as if the supermarket industry (see above) is channeling Allen Adamson's thoughts about customer service. At a time when Netflix has offered a $1 million prize to whoever can best improve its algorithmically based recommendation system, Adamson says he prefers the personal recommendations of the "scruffy" owner of a video store in the small town where he vacationed. There are some things digital technology can't do as well as a flesh-and-blood person, he says, and smart companies recognize this. "Above all, they can't replace the personal touch that often helps consumers distinguish one brand from another. In …