Dan Neil says that he can't pretend to be offended by the new Carl Jr.'s ads that feature "Top Chef" host and mega-model Padma Lakshmi making "hot sweet love to a Western Bacon Cheeseburger," which, incidentally, brings 720 calories, 33 grams of fat and 1,410 milligrams of sodium to the bedroom. "Young men are coarse, callow, emotional imbeciles with suicidal dietary habits. In other words, from a marketing perspective, these ads are perfection itself, practically verité," he writes. "Meanwhile, if I put on my magic deconstructing spectacles, I can see neo-feminist subversion in these messages. Note the tagline ... …

Tyson Foods and Kemin Industries announced yesterday a new manufacturing venture under way in Scranton, Ark., that produces pet food flavor enhancers known as palatants. The pet food market is one of the fastest-growing packaged-goods categories in recent years, analysts say. As meat profits have been harder to achieve in the past two years, Tyson Foods has launched several joint ventures to boost the company's overall profit stream, including renewable diesel fuel from chicken fat and two pet food ventures to enhance animal food flavors, Kim Souza reports. The Scranton plant is centrally located near several of Tyson's …

Speaking at Ad Age's Digital Conference last week, Unilever CMO Simon Clift said that "brands are now becoming conversation factors where academics, celebrities, experts and key opinion formers discuss functional, emotional and, more interestingly, social concerns." He warned that marketers who do not adapt to the new reality are putting their brands in peril, Jack Neff reports. In the spirit of this new dialogue, Ad Age offers five "New Rules for Marketing" that it invites readers to debate or supplement (but, interestingly, in an email to editor Jonah Bloom jbloom@adage.com rather than in the public comment section). The rules, …

Meanwhile, back in the trenches of day-to-day marketing, Kimberly-Clark's Huggies and Procter & Gamble's Pampers are reengaging in the fabled Diaper Wars with some decidedly contemporary social tactics: they want moms to feel good about spending more on diapers that not only keep baby dry but also have an altruistic component, Ellen Byron reports. Huggies is launching a new line of premium diapers this month called Pure & Natural that contain aloe, vitamin E and organic cotton. The diapers will be sold in an outer bag made of 20% post-consumer recycled materials. P&G, meanwhile, last week hosted a …

In a far-ranging interview with Elaine Wong (who'd have thunk that he talks every day with five grade-school classmates, or that his all-time-favorite P&G ad is Pamper's "Peace on Earth"), retired Procter & Gamble global marketing officer Jim Stengel, 53, talks about what's been keeping him busy over the last six months. Besides consulting to companies on products that don't compete with P&G's, Stengel is writing Packaged Good, which will be published next year. It will examine how successful brands "do marketing differently and derive principles from that," he says. Graduate students at UCLA are competing …

High-end retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom are creating an aura of prestige at new outlet stores and, in return, the outlet category is gaining cachet among shoppers looking for bargains in the recession, Sandra M. Jones reports. Saks, for example, is rolling out new prototype outlet stores under the Off 5th banner at the rate of three to five a year. The stores are clean, bright and uncluttered, with fixtures on casters that allow for quick and inexpensive makeovers as merchandise changes. Nordstrom is expanding its outlet stores at almost the same pace as …