After the long work week wraps up this evening, perhaps you might want to curl up on the couch with a tall, soothing glass of ... Mary Jane's Relaxing Soda with kava?

The Center for Science in the Public Interest gained a victory last week when a federal judge in Brooklyn refused to throw out its class action suit against Coca-Cola's Vitaminwater, which it contends is not as healthy as it sounds. There are, in fact, 33 grams of sugar and 125 calories in every 20-ounce bottle, Sean Gregory reports. "They added vitamins to crap," says Stephen Gardner, chief litigator for CSPI. "And it's still crap. Consumers shouldn't have to assume that the front of a label is a lie. You cannot deceive in the big print and tell the …

Laurel Wentz reports that Unilever's Omo detergent is adding a GPS device to 50 Omo detergent boxes in Brazil that will allow its promotion agency Bullet to follow consumers to their front doors. The idea is to surprise the unwitting consumer with a pocket video camera and an invitation to bring their families to a day of fun in the outdoors. The promotion -- "Try Something New With Omo" -- is in keeping with the brand's international "Dirt is Good" positioning that encourages parents to let their kids have a good time even if they get dirty, Wentz …

President Obama this morning will deliver the "opening salvo" of a public relations effort to convince taxpayers that government bailouts worked in the case of the auto industry, with benefits for both workers and consumers, David E. Sanger and Jackie Calmes report. The president is visiting a General Motors plant in Hamtramck, Mich., that will produce the new Chevy Volt. Nine of GM's 11 plants have canceled traditional summer shutdowns to keep up with consumer demand, and GM and Chrysler have added shifts. In addition, GM has repaid a $6.7 billion loan and it is talking …

A tax lawyer friend of mind cannot wrap his hard-charging (read $500 an hour) mind around the idea of giving away content for free on the Internet. It's as if he never heard of King Gillette, or, as my editor aptly puts it, "Well, duh, give away the phone, charge a fortune every month for service... ." It appears that U.S. videogame makers are finally catching on and, like their colleagues in countries like Korea and China where software piracy is rampant, are giving away subscriptions in the hope that they can make more money …

Devin Leonard, with the help of 15 of his colleagues, has put together a cover story headlined "The New Abnormal" that carries the subhed, "Americans are broke and depressed -- and also swilling $3 lattes and waiting in line for iPhones." The bottom line? "No one knows anything" about the state of the American Consumer. We are, in fact, a nation of schizophrenics who "splurge on high-end discretionary items and cut back on brand-name toothpaste and shampoo." Apple and Mercedes-Benz are thriving while consumer product companies such as Kellogg, as Karlene Lukovitz reports this morning, are …