After watching footage of Royal Caribbean's new Oasis of the Seas 5,400-passenger luxury liner a couple of weeks ago, Marketing Daily's Karl Greenberg wondered if it really needed to leave port, being that "it encompasses within it a good percentage of the Earth's surface." Well, its 20 stories, 13 retail shops, 21 pools and 24 restaurants are nonetheless slipping out tomorrow on an inaugural seven-day cruise of the Caribbean, and the Journal's Mike Esterl reports that it and other seaworthy behemoths that will launch soon are entering choppy waters. Cruise lines have been offering steep discounts …

General Motors vice chairman Robert Lutz, 77, who has overseen sales and marketing at the automaker since agreeing to postpone his retirement plans in July, has new marching orders. He will remain as vice chairman but will serve as an adviser on design and product development, GM says in a statement released on its Web site this morning.Mark Reuss, who was vp of engineering, has been named president of GM North America. Susan E. Docherty has been named vp, vehicle sales, service and marketing operations, and will report to Reuss. Christopher Preuss, vp communications, will now …

Wal-Mart's price slashing has led to a big drop in the stock prices of competing retailers. With that much power, can Wal-Mart cause deflation? Big as it is, the short answer is no, say economists interviewed by Jeremy Hobson.

"I don't know what the future holds," Oprah Winfrey told her business partner Gayle King years ago, "but I know who holds it." There's a lesson there for every marketer in how to cultivate a leadership brand, John Baldoni writes. Leaders have an identifiable persona that is a reflection of what they do and how they are perceived. So practice what you preach, act on principle and insist on integrity. Be like Oprah, in other words. One last thing: If you make a mistake, act quickly and make amends. If you've created …

Alex Palmer's take on a court victory by private label infant formula maker PBM Products over Mead Johnson has David vs. Goliath overtones. Mead Johnson had claimed that PBM's store brand infant formula -- sold at Walmart, Target and Kroger stores -- was less nutritious than its Enfamil LIPIL. PBM was awarded $13.5 million in damages by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It's one of the largest damages awards ever granted for a false advertising case, Palmer reports. "It's a gross, false, misleading ad," says Joe Shields, director …

Most news stories this morning are playing up the fact that it may take a year or so for Ed Whitacre and the General Motors board to find a replacement for the fired Fritz Henderson, as Sharon Silke Carty reports in USA Today. Whitacre said so himself. It's also clear that the new leader will come from outside the company. Vice chairman Bob Lutz said so, opining that the board would be looking for "the world's best businessman with a deep automotive background, huge credibility, fast on his feet, charismatic personality, able to convince investors that they …

AT&T is dropping its lawsuit that charges that Verizon's advertising was misleading consumers into thinking AT&T offers no service where it has no 3G network. Verizon, in turn, is dropping an earlier, if less well-covered, suit it filed against AT&T that sought a ruling to affirm the accuracy of Verizon claims, including "America's Most Reliable 3G Network," Rita Chang reports. "It seemed like a no-win situation for AT&T," says Andrei Jezierski, a partner at marketing consultancy i2 Partners. "There's more than anecdotal evidence that there's issues with their network, and making a big issue of it …

Some parents are saying Mattel's new line of black dolls, called "So in Style," isn't black enough, despite the company's efforts to gather input from a number of high-profile black women, Ann Zimmerman reports. The criticism underscores how difficult it is for large commercial companies to please a widely diverse black community with a single image or two, she writes. Five of the six dolls feature fine-textured, waist-length hair; half of them have blue or green eyes. All have the skinny body of a traditional Barbie. "I thought it was unfortunate that once again we're given a …