Whither American marketing ingenuity? How did we let the Brits come up with the idea of "put-pocketing" -- the act of actually slipping money into people's pockets in busy tourist areas - on behalf of a client (in this case, mobile phone operator TalkTalk). A video shows two men carefully placing banknotes into the pockets and bags of unsuspecting passers-by. London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), however, doesn't think the idea of recruiting about 20 reformed pickpockets to recirculate the equivalent of about $200,000 is such a good idea. "This kind of thing would …

Paramount Pictures is shelving Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated psychological thriller, "Shutter Island," six weeks before its scheduled release because it says it won't have enough money to market it effectively until next year, Joe Flint reports. Trailers for the movie, which is adapted from Dennis Lehane's best-selling novel and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, have already been playing all over the country. It had been set for an Oct. 3 release and will now debut on Feb. 19, too late for the next Oscars. "Our 2009 slate was green lit in a very different economic climate and as a result …

Nokia is entering fiercely competitive laptop market with a netbook -- the Nokia Booklet 3G -- that will use Microsoft's Windows software and Intel's Atom processor, Tarmo Virki reports. It offers up to 12 hours of battery life and weighs 1.25 kilograms, according to an announcement this morning. Detailed specifications, including market availability and pricing, will be forthcoming on Sept 2. Although margins in the netbook market are razor thin, it is growing rapidly. "We are fully aware what has the margin level been in the PC world," says Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia's key phone …

Burger King has joined Carl's Jr. in attacking the Golden Arches over the size of its burgers, Mike Hughlett reports. It is temporarily promoting a $1 double cheeseburger that it says is bigger than McDonald's biggest-selling U.S. sandwich. In one ad, one young man wants a BK double cheeseburger; his pal says he wants McDonald's because he has "tiny hands" and is afraid that BK's larger double cheeseburger will make them look "even tinier." McDonald's spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling responds that "the attention from our competitor is flattering." Late last year, McDonald's raised the price of its double cheeseburger …

Unilever's success in its second quarter -- 4% organic sales growth and 2% volume growth -- can be credited to a product portfolio well suited to recessionary times, as well as some price "adjustments." But that would be selling Paul Polman, its CEO since Jan. 1, short, Jack Neff reports. The Procter & Gamble and Nestle veteran has created a more efficient organization that's better attuned to marketing. Polman says he isn't surprised as much by Unilever's results last quarter as by those of its competitors. "There must be a whole area of the market disappearing that we are not …

ConAgra Foods CEO Gary Rodkin is on a quest to find "the big, singular insight that will drive behavior change," Helen Coster reports, and he's using theories about consumers' buying habits to convince grocery stores to give his 45 consumer brands the shelf space they deserve. For example, a group of 20 marketing types observed people munching Orville Redenbacher in their natural habitats for nine months and came back from the field with the insight that popcorn is a "facilitator of interaction." A resulting TV and online campaign expounds on the tagline, "Spending time together: That's the power of …

Boeing launched a massive public relations offensive Thursday, hoping to convince Congress to extend the life of the C-17 cargo plane, which has been in production since the early 1990s and has relied on congressional funding since 2006. Funding for the plane garnered widespread support in the past because its parts come from more than 650 suppliers in 43 states. Boeing ran full-page advertisements in local newspapers in California and about 450 union members staged a rally near the plane's assembly line in Long Beach. Eighteen U.S. senators also wrote a letter seeking supporting in keeping the finding spigot …

As major marketers respond to the complaints of consumers and obesity activists and remove high fructose corn syrup from some well-known brands, the Corn Refiners Association is lashing back with an advertising and public relations campaign "to correct the impression that refined sugar is healthier than HFCS," Emily Bryson York and Natalie Zmuda report. The TV spots depict sympathetic characters such as mothers in a kitchen and a young couple on a picnic blanket chatting about whether corn sweeteners are bad for you. "It has the same amount of calories as sugar, honey, and it's fine in moderation," says …