After a year off, beverage giant Pepsi will be back in the Super Bowl with three :30 spots for Pepsi Max (ditto for Doritos), reports Natalie Zmuda, and will join its sibling in a "Crash the Super Bowl" campaign. The effort is being billed as the company's largest Power of One partnership ever. Joint in-store promotions for the two brands are planned. This year's CGC contest will take the idea of discovery a step further, awarding a contract for a joint Pepsi Max/Doritos ad to the person whose commercial ranks the highest on the ad meter. PepsiCo is …

Julie Jargon reports that a TV ad is set to air today in the nation's capital, blaming fast food giant McDonald's for heart disease. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine chose Washington, D.C., because it has the second-highest rate of deaths from heart disease in the country and because the district has more McDonald's, Burger King and KFC restaurants per square mile than eight other similar-sized cities. In the commercial, a woman weeps over a dead man lying in a morgue. In his hand is a hamburger. At the end, the golden arches appear over his feet, followed by …

Free nights and up to triple bonus points are being offered to loyal guests of major hotel chains to fill rooms this fall and win repeat customers, reports Rebecca Heslin. They come at a time when travel is slow and business travel is still down compared to pre-Recession days. "Demand is better this year than last, but it still isn't terribly strong," says Henry Harteveldt at Forrester Research. "There are a lot of enticing offers out there. They just aren't quite as rich or extravagant as a year ago, because they don't have to be." Hotels also are …

When Dick Richards noticed a link buried in a list on the home page of Zappos that advised, "Don't ever click here," he did, of course, and opened a YouTube video of the Muppet rock band performing, as lead singer Beaker lip-syncs, "Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down." It is a not-so-subtle message to Zappos' customers and perhaps to its employees as well, he writes. Another link opened a company-produced video in which employees talk about their favorite Zappos values -- there are 10 values in total -- with the same conviction and enthusiasm that …

So it's okay to talk about four-hour-long penile erections during family TV time -- we even joke about having to explain this to the kids -- but ads for products that help women get sexually aroused have to be aired only when the tykes can't hear them? What is this about? Abby Ellin takes on this issue with a look at advertising for Zestra, a product having to do with sexual arousal, which faced the mighty challenge of trying to create radio ads without using the words sex and arousal. One station offered to air them from 11 p.m. to …

In its first major effort since the death of its namesake in 2008, Newman's Own is repositioning with the line, "Let the food speak for itself" and the national launch of its "Thin & Crispy" frozen pizza line. Eleftheria Parpis reports ads include "quotes" from the food and its ingredients. One print effort shows a pizza saying, "My only preservative is your freezer." A banner ad prompts consumers to "just ask the pizza" about its all-natural ingredients. The crust, when rolled over by one's cursor, says: "I stretch, I crunch ... I have to work hard to be …

For the upcoming holiday season, Gap is prepping a campaign that involves Foursquare co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai as well as Lauren Bush, co-founder of the non-profit Feed Foundation. Natalie Zmuda reports that the work will support charitable efforts, including CampInteractive, which is supported by the Foursquare founders. Last year, the start-up partnered with Pepsi to donate 4 cents for every check-in to the non-profit. Gap is no stranger to working with famous and not-so-famous faces. For its "Create Your Own Gap" campaign in 2008, it tapped a list ranging from the recognizable, like Liv Tyler, to …

Emily Bryson York reports that the demand for convenient packaged food that counts toward daily fruit or vegetable requirements is increasing, driven not just by parents but by kids as well, and major food product companies are launching items with reduced fat, calories or sodium as school gets underway. Kraft's Lunchables have undergone changes in packaging and advertising on the heels of healthier reformulation, resulting in sales gains the company says are about 10%. ConAgra's Chef Boyardee brand is promoting whole-grain pastas, while General Mills' Yoplait is advertising Go-Gurt,a yogurt that can go into a lunchbox frozen and be …