American Express has launched a digital payment service called Serve that lets customers choose various options for making payments linked to a single account. The account can be funded from bank accounts, or debit, credit or charge cards and payments to it can be made online, via mobile phones, or at stores honoring American Express.

Carmelo Anthony, who came to the New York Knicks in February from the Denver Broncos, has signed a marketing deal to tout mobile brand Boost Mobile. The partnership includes New York media and marketing, as well as a billboard near Madison Square Garden.

CVS Caremark Corp. has promoted CMO Helena Foulkes to chief healthcare strategy and marketing officer. As CMO, Foulkes led the launch of CVS's ExtraCare discount card and Maintenance Choice program allowing Caremark beneficiaries to pickup up 90-day prescriptions at pharmacies or get them through the mail.

Hollywood's new chief lobbyist, former Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the movie industry can't market itself. He made the comments at the CinemaCon convention this week. He said that because of Hollywood's lack of unified message and marketing, Washington thinks of it as all "red carpets and tuxedoes" rather than as an important sector of the U.S. economy that employs millions and pumps billions into the economy. He suggested theater owners could get involved by hosting Saturday morning community meetings where they could explain problems facing the business. He said he would have been more impressed by such an event …

Toyota's Miyagi assembly plant that makes the Yaris small car will be offline for at least another month. A source said repairs are finished and electricity is back but there are no supplies of natural gas. The automaker has resumed production of three hybrid models but most of its 18 assembly plants are still shuttered and will remain so "indefinitely."

Jockey International has launched its first TV spot with Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow, who signed with the brand last year. Michael Jordan, meanwhile, is touting Hanes. Tebow will tout Jockey's new Staycool underwear designed to help regulate skin temperature using a NASA-developed moisture-wicking product called Outlast. The spot breaks April 4 on national cable, including ESPN, E!, CNN, Spike and Discovery and is paired with an online promotion, "Staycool Challenge."

Advertisers are working with Internet browser developers for a "do-not-track" system. An alliance of seven industry trade groups, including the Association of National Advertisers and the 4As, are talking to Microsoft and Mozilla, among others, about how to make such systems work. The tool would allow surfers to let marketers know they don't want their online activity monitored. Both of the above companies have these tools but advertisers would have to honor Web-user "do-not-track" requests for them to have practical value.

Unilever's Vaseline Men brand today launches a promotion called "Keep Your Grip Challenge." Linked to the NFL and NFL draft, the game, via New York-based Story Worldwide is at KeepYourGripChallenge.com. It asks men to try to keep their grip on a virtual football using keyboards to elude defenders. Brand pitchman Michael Strahan taunts and coaches.

"Hyundai Assurance," a job-loss guarantee that Hyundai Motor America introduced in 2009 when the economy was in deep muck, is getting its walking papers. The marketing gambit allowed buyers to return a Hyundai vehicle if they lost their job or suffered other financial catastrophes during the first year of ownership. But now, with the economy on the mend, the offer is being shown the door by month's end. Surprisingly, only 350 people who bought a new Hyundai during the period in which the offer has been in effect asked Hyundai to take their car back. But it was a …

A study of a series of five large surveys done between 1971 and 2009 in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Britain show beautiful people are happier in general than the hoi polloi. University of Texas-Austin economists who sifted through the data report that the economic benefit resulting directly from one's pulchritude accounts for at least half of one's happiness. The researchers say beauty helps income because good-looking people make more money and marry people who are also better looking and higher earning. "The majority of beauty's effect on happiness works through its impact on economic outcomes," said Daniel …