Kellogg, which boosted ad spending by 17% for its third quarter, is becoming a latter-day case history of the belief long promulgated by the American Association of Advertising Agencies that the best business decision a marketer can make in hard times is to advertise. Kellogg's sales of ready-to-eat cereal category were up 2% for the quarter, on top of the "stunning" gain of 7% a year ago, Emily Bryson York reports. CEO David MacKay says the company is focusing on its eight best-performing cereals, including the Kashi organic brand, which delivered double-digit growth in the quarter. So, too, did …

Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target are limiting the number of heavily discounted books that customers can buy online in order to stop other booksellers from purchasing and reselling them, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg and Miguel Bustillo report. Wal-Mart's limit is two copies; Amazon's is three; Target's is five. The price war involves the top 10 hottest book pre-orders, including yet-to-be-released titles from Stephen King, John Grisham, Dean Koontz and James Patterson that are priced at about $9, a substantial discount off their list prices The head buyer at the Boulder Book Store, in Boulder, Colo., says he had intended to …

Dozen of streets, squares and schools bear Nelson Mandela's name. He is the subject of countless books and movies. Now there's a $24 burger with fries named after him that's sold in a joint named Café Mandela in Copenhagen. Advisors have begun to fight back to protect the name and legacy of the 90-year-old South African icon, Alex Perry reports. The Nelson Mandela Foundation has agreed on a code of conduct banning the commercialization of his name or image by his four official charities and has asked 44 charities that he supports to sign on. Other causes …

Luke Ryan, a grizzled street musician who plays Grand Central Terminal, tells Stephanie Clifford that he'd sworn to never sell out to commercial interests after seeing Neil Young make the same pledge in a documentary. "I said, 'Wow, that's a lot of integrity. That's me, too.' How, then, to explain the Axe Instinct sign sitting in his guitar case this week, along with the free samples he hands out, and the addition of the Axe jingle, "Look Good in Leather," to his repertoire?? "I realized two things," Ryan says. "First is, Neil …

N.E. Marsden, a HuffingtonPost blogger and volunteer coordinator of Fairness and Integrity in Telecommunications Media (FITMedia), lays out the case the latter organization has been making to get the Federal Communications Commission to further regulate embedded TV advertising such as, say, the German submachine gun brand that has been so prominent in episodes of "24." Marsden applauds the FTC's rules, taking effect Dec. 1, to force bloggers and "stealth corporate marketers" to disclose when the former accept payment for endorsing products. "Though the details have been hotly contested, the principle is sound: People have a right to know when someone …

It also claims its marketing is resonating with consumers despite the carping of former vp of marketing Mike Jackson, who says GM is wasting efforts with at least five ad campaigns in the past six months.