Tucked into a piece about a new national ad campaign for Sabra hummus, Stuart Elliott reports that the following food marketers substantially increased ad spending in the first quarter compared with a year ago, according to the Kantar Media research division of WPP: ConAgra Foods (22.9%); H.J. Heinz (45.2%) Hershey (81.2%); General Mills (15.5%); Kraft Foods (17.8%); J.M. Smucker (12.4%).

Sheryl Connelly, who tracks cultural trends for Ford Motor, says that cars don't connect with today's youth the way that they did with boomers, or even Gen Xers. Smartphones and the Internet are more apt to serve the role as "magic carpets" that sweep kids away "from the square world of mom and dad." Some facts: In 1978, nearly half of U.S. 16-year-olds and three-quarters of 17-year-olds had driver's licenses; by 2008, only 31% percent of 16-year-olds and 49 % of 17-year-olds did. The share of miles driven by Americans 21 to 30 fell to 13.7% in 2009 …

Yesterday's launch of the high-end Fusion ProGlide razor is a key part of Procter & Gamble's plan to turn Gillette into a brand that offers a portfolio of men's grooming products, including facial scrubs, lotions, moisturizers, shampoo and body washes, David Holthaus reports, competing against he likes of Schick, Unilever and Nivea. "Shaving is at the core of men's grooming routine," Matt Wohl, general manager for Gillette's new products, tells him. "It gives us the leeway to go into other parts of the body." Both P&G and Schick are trying to make the scraping of blade …

Andrew Hampp conducts an amusing interview with octogenarian Betty White, who credits her appearance in a Snickers commercial during last year's Super Bowl with reviving her 62-plus-year career and making her the "it girl" of the moment. He points out that White has appeared in several ad campaigns in recent years -- 1-800-Pet-Meds, Snickers and Sleep Better among them -- and asks White what her criteria are when working with advertisers? "I've always done ads for brands I actually use -- that's how you build loyalty," she says. "I mean, Snickers -- I've been eating them for years …

The Star-Ledger's Susan Todd reports on the trend among pharmaceutical companies to basically shrug off the "whopping" fines they receive for off-label marketing in light of their ability to squeeze more money from their top products. "Pfizer became something of a poster child after it agreed to pay a record $2.3 billion fine to settle allegations that it illegally promoted a number of its medicines," Todd writes. But she points out that between 1999 and 2004, the company allegedly generated $10 billion alone by selling its seizure drug Neurontin for unapproved uses. It's hardly unique.

Saint Consulting Group, a firm started by a former newspaper reporter and political press secretary 26 years ago, has made a specialty out of creating clandestine operations around the country that are designed to thwart the expansion of Wal-Marts, Ann Zimmerman, with contributions from Dionne Searcey, reports. Saint is hired by competing supermarket chains worried about the impact of Wal-Mart's low prices on their bottom lines. In documents obtained by the reporters, company founder P. Michael Saint jokingly calls his staff "Wal-Mart killers" and describes the tactics it uses as "black arts." In an interview, however, he …