The first global campaign for Coca-Cola's Fanta brand in nearly five years is launching in the United Kingdom and is scheduled to run in other markets throughout 2010. It targets mothers and the core teenage market, Joe Thomas reports. The multimillion-pound campaign carries the tagline, "Grab a taste of Friday." It hopes to connect with drinkers by tapping into the good feelings associated with the end of the working (and school, presumably) week. It launches today with a "Countdown to Friday" clock that appears on an ad screen in London's Piccadilly Circus. The effort will include …

General Motors is pulling out all the stops to make an impression in California, where it is expected to announce the initial markets for the electric car when the Los Angeles Motor Show opens to the media tomorrow, Tim Higgins reports. A giant Volt banner hangs outside the convention center where the auto show will be held, and the company has been driving models around the city. GM engineers talked with local schoolchildren about electricity and let slip the news that California will be one of the markets where the Volt will be available when production begins late …

David Holthaus reports that online shoppers spent about $900 million online yesterday and that employees will spend an average of 14.4 hours shopping from a work computer this holiday season, according to the Information Systems Audit and Control Association. That's not only great news for the likes of "traditional" online retailers such as Amazon, Macys.com and Bestbuy.com, but also for some upscale newcomers to the Web such as the Italian fashion houses Giorgio Armani and Valentino, Bloomberg's Chiara Remondini and Armorel Kenna report. Designer Roberto Cavalli and shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo SpA have also opened e-stores …

Quick, name a hot product that has seemingly come out of nowhere and is not a device that fits in your pocket and connects to the Internet. Right you are! Antibacterial hand gel! Buyology author Martin Lindstrom tells a somewhat convoluted anecdote about a shopper who reaches behind the items in the front of an aisle to purchase a unit from the back to make the point that "fear of contamination has permeated the shopper's psyche." It all ties into an activation of the amygdale area of the brain, which is responsible for generating fear and danger, as well …

There's an entirely new vibe at a certain big-box retailer, Michelle Conlin writes: Supersize signs screaming dirt-cheap prices. And new merchandise, too: Groceries. It may sound like Wal-Mart, but don't tell that to the executives at Target behind the moves. "We're not trying to be anyone else," maintains CEO Gregg W. Steinhafel. "We're working hard to convey both sides of our brand." Steinhafel's challenge is to compete on price without losing the cachet that made hipsters dub Target "Tarzhay." Steinhafel's colleague in making a big deal about low prices has been the "natty" CMO, Michael Francis, who draws his …