Dean Foust has an interesting piece on companies that recruiters steer away from when they're looking for executive talent. Surprisingly, Coca-Cola is one of them. It appears that its executives' career development may be victims of the success of its brands. Foust tells the tale of telegenic Jack Stahl, who rose to president at Coke and had a reputation for financial savvy and operational discipline before he was tapped to be CEO at Revlon. Stahl failed at the cosmetics firm, particularly with the launch of the Vital Radiance line, because "he didn't know what he didn't know," according to …

PSA Peugeot Citroën will produce an electric minicar in Europe based on Mitsubishi Motors recently launched i-MIEV, the companies say. Production will begin in October 2010. The tiny i-MIEV, which was launched in Japan in June, is the first mass-market electric car powered by new-generation lithium-ion batteries, John Reed reports. It gets all of its power from its battery. Mitsubishi plans to begin global sales of a right-hand-drive version of the car later this year and to enter left-hand-drive markets in 2010. "Many industry observers and participants think a new generation of electric cars planned by several carmakers …

Nancy Talbot, who with her husband opened in 1947 the first of what would grow into a chain of nearly 600 stores and a successful mail-order business selling "timeless" women's wear, died Sunday at 89, Bryan Marquard reports. Merchandise tended to reflect Talbot's style and affection for bright colors. Red and orange were her favorites, and they figured prominently in the chain's catalogs. The front doors to her stores were painted bright red. "Metaphorically, that's really who she was -- very alive, a bright, brilliant person," says her daughter Polly Talbot Donald of Boulder, Colo. "Our customer wants …

New ads for Kraft's Philadelphia cream cheese use the word "pheeling" -- a combination of "Philly" and "feeling" -- to describe the happy state of mind consumers attain when using the brand. One spot shows a boy spreading cream cheese on a bagel for his mother; another depicts a couple indulging in an evening snack of strawberries and cream cheese, Elaine Wong reports. Chitra Ebenezer, marketing director for the brand, says the goal of the campaign is to get consumers thinking about the product more often. It includes an original jingle, "Something to Remember" by the band Life-Sized Human, that …

The experts tell Kimberly Chou that when hard times hit, we consumers would rather gaze upon the girl next store than an "avant-garde spectacle." Magazine publishers and advertisers are delivering the goods just that way. "Fresh faces, innocent eyes" make for a "more unassuming and simple canvas," says Tom Julian of brand consulting firm Tom Julian Group. Ymre Stiekema, a blonde, blue-eyed Dutch teenager who opened the spring/summer 2009 Milan show for Prada, is one example of the less-edgy look that you can expect to see more of during New York Fashion Week, which kicks off Sept. 10. …

On its 100th anniversary, Volkswagen-owned Audi is changing its logo for the first time since 1990. The tweaking reflects a more "pure and clear" identity and emphasizes the brand's focus on design, Alex Brownsell reports. Audi is also featuring a funny video of a man and his lawn mower on a Web site named ElectricityUntamed, leading Fast Companyblogger Kit Eaton to speculate that it's going to announce an electronic car at the Frankfurt Motor Show on Sept. 15. Another clip shows a high-voltage arc leaping an air-gap at an electricity substation. Well, see …

Consumers aren't letting the recession get in the way of their love affair with high-definition TVs, smartphones and network gear that allows them to make faster connections to the Internet for activities like online gaming and viewing videos, according to a new study by Forrester Research. Half of U.S. adults are gamers; almost three-quarters of American households have a broadband Internet connection; and nearly half of those households own an HDTV, with 10 million units sold in 2008, Cliff Edwards reports. And their fling with the Internet is about to grow much more intimate. "In the next several …

All of a sudden, Procter & Gamble's got game, reports Barry Janoff, morphing in just the last month into one of the biggest players in both professional and amateur athletics by cutting deals with the National Football League and the U.S. Olympic Committee. He interviews Kirk Perry, P&G's vp-North America, and Lisa Baird, CMO for the USOC, about the Olympic deal announced earlier this week. The games are the No. 1 sport of interest for women and the No. 2 sport of interest for men behind the NFL, according to Perry. "When do sports fans in Pittsburgh, Dallas, Cincinnati …