Ellen Byron reports that Procter & Gamble is launching an aggressive online and couponing push for its redesigned Pampers. While P&G always intended to spend aggressively on the revamped product, it is advertising "early and often," says P&G spokesman Bryan McCleary, because some mothers have claimed that the re-engineered Pampers cause rashes or even chemical burns. P&G has maintained all along that the diapers use the same type of absorbent gel as the older version and that rashes are common. New ads link to a video in which Jodi Allen, vp of Pampers in North America, says: "Please …

Public schools across the nation are seeking corporate and charitable sponsors, promising them marketing opportunities and access to students in exchange for desperately needed donations, Jennifer Levitz and Stephanie Simon report.

No less than Howard Rubenstein, the dean of the public relations industry, says that BP has "created a Frankenstein of a PR problem" by trying to minimize the problem it created. "You can't do that in a crisis of this magnitude," he tells Bruce Horovitz. That said, there are steps the company can and should take to repair its disintegrating image. Rubenstein suggests quickly getting billions of dollars into the hands of Americans whose lives and livelihoods have been upended, for one. Other PR executives offer more long-term initiatives, from going "ultra green" to giving free gas to nonprofits …

After a period of very mellow marketing -- virtually no spending at all last year, according to Nielsen -- Coca-Cola is expanding the distribution of its Mountain Dew competitor, Mello Yello, and is rolling out redesigned cans that look a lot like the original that first appeared in 1979, Elaine Wong reports. Out-of-home, radio and digital ads will support the effort, which is targeted to teens and young adults, as well as older consumers who may remember the brand's original packaging. One outdoor execution is a twist on British singer-songwriter Donovan's signature line: "They call me Mello Yello." …

Ad Age's World's Hottest Brands roundup features 30 brands that do particularly well on a global, regional or local level, from Argentina's Banco Hipotecario to Tata Nano, India's "car for everyone." Then there are more familiar names like BMW and Nintendo Wii. "It's surprising what you can learn about local marketing from the parochial approach of South African chicken chain Nando's as it expands into three continents," writes Ann Marie Kerwin in an introduction to the report. "Or how customer service can be the differentiator that makes an upstart brand like Brazilian airline Azul." The paradigm …

Sales growth has accelerated at Starbucks, John Jannarone writes, and there's reason to believe that it will continue even as it has scaled back on the rapid outlet expansion of the late Nineties and early Aughts. McDonald's coffee initiatives may have less of an impact on Starbucks' sales than some analysts predicted because customers would have to go out of their way to switch allegiances. Only 23% of U.S. Starbucks locations have a McDonald's within a quarter-mile, according to Morgan Stanley's John Glass. Spending on marketing is up, too, which has probably contributed to the company's consumer-products business …

Michael Oneal interviews Don Thompson, who took over as McDonald's No. 2 and chief of operations in January and has been on a world tour ever since because, he says, the company's business is in its restaurants and not in an office. "I wanted to get out and see our teams and understand the relevance of how they do business and what things we might do from a corporate perspective to support them," he says. McDonald's gets 36% of its operating earnings from Europe, but Thompson cautions that it is not a monochromatic market, any more than the U.S. …