The Price Chopper supermarket chain and Dole Food are using mobile devices to get consumers to eat more salad. In September last year, Dole was prepping an mail campaign targeting current and past members of Price Chopper's loyalty program to increase the roster of its Dole Salad Mobile Club. At the same time a marketing firm pitched Price Chopper with a QR code program. A hybrid effort was born, wherein Price Chopper sent out over 40,000 postcards for Dole in November that had both a QR code and a short code for texting. The cars went to people in …

Imagine if no Elvis impersonators were allowed in Memphis, Harleys in Milwaukee or whiskey in Lynchburg. Whatever the reason, the Girl Scouts can no longer sell their cookies outside the historic Savannah, Ga., home of Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts. Why? Peddling on a public sidewalk is a violation of city ordinance.

Southern Comfort's new campaign, timed with Mardi Gras in New Orleans on March 8, embraces both old-school marketing and new media. A social network program on Facebook and Twitter as well as Foursquare mixes with outdoor advertising in the new push. A billboard at the corners of Royal and Canal streets in the French Quarter will be ground zero for Foursquare users. Those who check in at the billboard can enter a sweepstakes to win a trip for four to Mardi Gras 2012. The billboard was created by Arnold Worldwide in Boston.

It's official, Ford's new Focus gets 40 mpg, but only the special-edition version of the car, according to newly released Environmental Protection Agency numbers. That means Hyundai Elantra is the only compact in a class that includes Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and Chevrolet Cruze that will get 40 miles per gallon on the highway with the regular model. The regular Focus will get 28 mpg in city driving, and 38 mpg on the highway.

Buyers over 65 are becoming a bigger part of the pie. J.D. Power and Associates reports that last year a quarter of new car buyers was at least that old. That's up from 18% in 2007, 19.5% in 2008, and 21.7% in 2009. The reason for this trend is both that society is aging and older drivers were better able to afford a new vehicle during the recession than were younger consumers.

Kraft is trying a less traditional message with its new campaign for its Athenos line of Mediterranean food. The effort for the brand, which includes hummus, Greek yogurt, feta cheese and pita chips, is via New York-based Droga5. The campaign, with an "Approved by Yiayia" tag line, and Athenos' first-ever television push comprises three spots all cast and filmed in Greece. Katherine Boulukos, a founder of the Greek Museum in New York City, consulted on the campaign, which centers on an opinionated, somewhat acerbic elderly lady, "Yiayia," the Greek word for grandmother. In the ads she comments on different scenarios.

Harris Corp. has snagged a $75 million deal to help 7-Eleven with its HD TV ad network for its 6,200 stores. Harris, based in Melbourne, Fla., will handle the electronic backbone of 7-Eleven TV, which serves product ads, entertainment, news, weather, sports and other information to customers in 7-Eleven stores.

Women's specialty chain Chico's FAS increased marketing spend by $4.4 million in fiscal Q4 of 2010, with e-marketing initiatives the main focus across the company's three brands -- Chico's, White House/Black Market and Soma Intimates. Overall full-year sales increased 11% year-over-year.

It looked like a video a couple of college girls in L.A. just kind of threw on like a pair of Levi's. Actually, it was a deliberate viral video thrown on the web BY Levi's. The "Real View Girl" video in which a pair of girls visit different parts of the city with a camera strapped to the butt of one of the callipygian collegians, was not an examination of men's examinations of women's behinds, but a subtle pitch for form-fitting jeans. Very subtle: you only see the jeans once, and a Levi's sign appears briefly at one point in …

In spite of the foibles, drama and tragi-comedy sideshow that is always a part of the celebrity circus, a new study suggests that print ads using a celebrity endorser produced a 9.4% higher consumer readership than ads without. The Survey of the American Consumer from Starch Advertising Research also found that print ads with an entertainment celebrity garnered 15.1% more readers than those without.