Ann Zimmerman has a peek at Mattel's attempt to create a new toy craze from scratch, starting with the launch of Monster High toys. The product will morph into a full-fledged entertainment company, starting with its own cable-TV kids network this fall and a live-action movie with Universal down the road. "We see the tone as 'Beetlejuice' meets 'Grease' meets 'The Addams Family' meets 'Edward Scissorhands,' " says co-producer Neil Meron who, with partner Craig Zadan, was behind the films "Chicago" and "Hairspray." The Monsters are the spawn of movie characters like Dracula and Werewolf who …

Over at Toyota, which has been muddling through its own public relations fiasco, insiders claim that a new era has dawned, Micheline Maynard reports. For example, when the executive who heads the company's newly formed North American quality group went to Japan recently, he met directly with president Akio Toyoda, who said: "Tell me bad news first." In the past, Steve St. Angelo would have had to deal with a formidable chain of command, he says, and one gets the feeling that bad news was not necessarily welcome. Other current and former executives, as well as others Maynard …

BP's full-page ad in today's New York Times (page A13) carries the headline: "We will get this done. We will make this right" and goes on to assure readers that its employees are working "around the clock" to contain and collect most of the leak. "The ad is perhaps the first response by BP since the spill occurred on April 20," writes Todd Wasserman. Presumably he means by way of paid media. There have been plenty of responses, Ravi Somaiya points out in Newsweek, but they've just been terribly wrongheaded. The short piece detailing some unchoice …

David Lieberman writes that AT&T's move to offer pricing options on its smartphone data services starting Monday is likely the first step toward an industry shift away from a flat fee to charges that are based on how much people actually use their phones to access videos, music and data. AT&T, which is the exclusive wireless provider for Apple's iPhone in the U.S. (at least for now), says there will be two options: subscribers can pay $15 a month for 200 megabytes of data (about 100 minutes of streaming video) under the DataPlus plan. The DataPro plan offers …

Mars is launching a new campaign for yet another extension of its M&M's line: Pretzel Chocolate Candies, Elaine Wong reports. The effort kicks off at 12:30 p.m. EST today with a performance by the "American Idol" finalists in New York City that can be viewed live on Facebook facebook.com/mms. Mars sponsors the "American Idol" 49-city summer tour. The company says the launch is one of the biggest for the product in a decade. TV ads staring the Orange M&M "spokescandy" debut June 14; print will include general interest and entertainment titles. In …

Ford is extending a custom graphics offering it developed for the new Fiesta subcompact to its entire line of cars and trucks by the end of the summer, Brent Snavely reports. Among the 50 or so choices currently available at www.fordcustomgraphics.com are cute flowers, artsy dots or stripes and funky tattoo-like prints. The graphics cost from $200 to $1,200 and will be installed at Ford's dealerships. Visitors spend an average of 15 to 20 minutes on the Web site; there have been more than 10,000 hits so far. Jim Abraham, Ford's licensed accessories manager, sees the …