The world's biggest automaker will be rolling through mud for the next six months before it gets production back to pre-earthquake/tsunami levels. The company says the worst of suspensions are over and that output will start ramping back up this summer. Toyota president Akio Toyoda said the company was giving dealers the timeframe upfront so they can talk to customers about supply.

Food marketers, "rewriting the rules for reaching children in the Internet age," are using online games and other new media to blur the lines between entertainment and advertising, reports Matt Richtel in an article that ran on the front page of the Times print edition.General Mills shows up a lot in the article, from the lead about a 10-year-old girl playing and sharing a Honey Nuts Cheerios game...to the recent closing of the company's Millsberry virtual world in compliance with an industry-wide pledge "to reduce marketing of their least nutritious brands to children"...to comScore's reporting that the Lucky …

What do Apple, Burberry, Old Spice and Abercrombie & Fitch have in common?  Yep, they're all brands that were once down in the dumps, but have since enjoyed healthy resurrections.Janet Fowler provides brief summaries of nine such marketing turnarounds, often the result of new product lines or image overhauls. She also includes Nintendo, Mini Cooper, Lacoste and two lines of athletic shoes - Puma and Keds, the once-fading 100-year-old brand which boomed back in the '80s as trendy footwear for teenage girls, then went into a decline, and has now come back via designer styles like wedge heels. The bottom …

Hoover got lots of publicity earlier this week when it announced the pulling of all its ads from ABC to protest the cancellation of daytime soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live."  But publicity was precisely the point of the move, writes Jim Edwards in BNET's ad industry column "The Tagline." And that, according to the BNET headline, made a "mostly bogus boycott" into an "act of PR genius."Using figures reported by Ad Age's Brian Steinberg, Edwards points out that the vacuum cleaner marketer's total annual spend on ABC is only $353,000 ($243,000 on soaps). But, …

With a Montgomery, Alabama law firm dropping a lawsuit disparaging both Taco Bell's advertising and the quality of its meats, the Yum Brands chain has launched a new ad campaign -- disparaging the law firm.  One of the campaign's first volleys --- a full-page print ad -- appeared in The Wall Street Journal, and the paper's law blogger Ashby Jones noted that "most large corporate clients would use the voluntary dropping of a lawsuit as an opportunity to do, well, nothing. To quietly let the matter drop and move on with other matters at hand."But Yum's anything …

Brandweek may be gone, but the new sexier Adweek -- in an article whose headline starts by asking "Kate and William Condoms?" -- brings us a rundown of tie-in merchandise for next week's Royal Wedding.  Sales of such goods in the UK could top $42 million.While government guidelines call for all these souvenirs to be "in good taste," Adweek thinks not. Former Rolling Stone intern turned Adweek staff reporter Emma Bazilian takes us from a British kitchen (where a full-sized Kate and William-emblazoned refrigerator holds a Dunkin Donuts Royal Wedding Donut) to the loo (commemorative towels and toilet …

Bd's Mongolian Grill CEO Rodger Head discusses how he plans to get customers to think of the brand as more than a stir-fry concept. The stir-fry chain, which has 34 locations in 13 states, primarily in the Midwest, finished 2010 with a 3% drop in same-store sales. Those losses year-to-date have narrowed to 2.4%, and the average check has inched up 40 cents. He is optimistic the chain can open as many as five restaurants this year and achieve a 1% gain in same-store sales.

Boca Raton, Fla.-based Office Depot has chosen Fort Lauderdale-based Zimmerman Advertising as its agency. It has been a rough couple of years for Office Depot, as a weak economy took a toll of sales and profits. Last fall amid deteriorating results, the company announced the departure of Steve Odland as chairman and CEO and a search for a replacement is now in its six month.

Domestic sales of MillerCoors fell 2.6% in the last fiscal year, including a 1.4% decrease in the fourth quarter, endingt March 31. MillerCoors is the Chicago-based joint venture of London-based SABMiller PLC and Denver-based MolsonCoors LLC. SABMiller's global volume grew 2% for the full year, helped by 3% growth in the fourth quarter.

Ford Motor has significantly modified its big Taurus sedan, the brand's flagship, only three years into the slow-selling current model's life. The revised car is due out early next year as a 2013 model, and the most dramatic feature is the speed at which Ford has changed the engine lineup, suspension, front and rear styling, power steering, brakes and trim. The car will be unveiled today at the New York International Auto Show.