A couple of weeks ago, New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser wrote about a limited-edition American Girl doll named Gwen, who is homeless. The back-story is that dad walked out, leaving mom and daughter to fend for themselves. Bloggers evidently have been kicking around the irony of a $95 toy representing homelessness for a few months now, as Amy Graff points out in SFGate's "The Mommy Files" blog, but Peyser kicked the controversy up a notch. Whatever the vibe Barbie sent about body image, she didn't "politically indoctrinate" the young Peyser with messages such as "men are bad" and …

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne created a separate brand Monday for Dodge Ram trucks and also announced a management shake-up, Greg Gardner reports, fueling speculation that there will be an alignment that could reduce the profile of the Chrysler and Dodge brands. Mike Accavitti and Peter Fong, who had been named president and CEO of the Dodge and Chrysler brands, respectively, in June, are gone. Olivier Francois, a marketing heavyweight from Europe, is not only replacing Fong but also will coordinate global marketing strategies, brand development and advertising for Chrysler and Fiat. Francois is credited with reviving Fiat's Lancia and …

Apparently crowdsourcing the name of the new version of Vegemite -- iSnack 2.0 -- was not such a good idea after all. "The new name has simply not resonated with Australians -- particularly the modern technical aspects associated with it," says Simon Talbot, head of Kraft corporate affairs. But the company is not giving up on the power of the people to decide. A new round of voting commenced Oct. 2, Abe Sauer reports.

In the wake of a devastating product recall last spring, the pistachio nut industry is launching a first-ever broadcast campaign -- to the tune of $15 million -- that features sexually risqué executions, Bruce Horovitz reports. In one, a real-life dominatrix cracks open a shell with a whip. Says the voiceover: "A dominatrix does it on command." Another stars Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's out-of-wedlock grandchild, standing next to a bodyguard. Says the voice-over: "Now, Levi does it with protection." "We want to get some sizzle out there," asserts Dominic Engels, vp of global marketing for …

Wal-Mart is eliminating display cases that promote the latest hot movie titles, striking yet another blow to reeling Hollywood studios already suffering from changing consumer buying patterns. "We think the new strategy implies Wal-Mart no longer sees DVDs and Blu-ray discs as traffic drivers," says J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan. Studio chiefs dispute that conclusion, Nat Worden reports, and Wal-Mart would not comment. But the move is part of its larger "Project Impact," which devotes more shelf space to top-selling products and cuts back on laggards. The Digital Entertainment Group estimates that overall U.S. retail sales for DVDs fell 13.5% …

Many observers consider Harrah's Total Rewards program, which was rolled out as Total Gold in 1997 and renamed a year later, to be the gold standard of customer-relationship programs, Michael Bush reports, including David Norton, who happens to be svp-relationship marketing at the company. "It's certainly the best program in the gaming industry and, more broadly, in loyalty," he says. David Frankland, principal analyst at Forrester, puts it right up there with Disney and 1-800 Flowers. One reason for its success is that it mines and tweaks a lot more data than most direct response programs do, such as …

Bank of America, the new owners of the Merrill Lynch Wealth Management group, is bringing back the charging bull in a new, $20 million print, TV and online ad campaign that carries the theme "help2," Elaine Wong reports. "The bull is alive and well," and "He is on your side," says Claire Huang, head of marketing for BofA's global wealth management, global banking and global markets units. The overall target is the affluent, of course, but even among themselves the affluent are different from one another. Financial concerns change depending on age. The executions address younger consumers' fears about …