Hirsute celebri-model Fabio is appearing in Old Spice web ads, but P&G has been mum about whether he is going to replace or efface the current Old Spice guy. The Oregonian got only hints from Dean McBeth, senior digital strategist at the agency that does the Old Spice work, Wieden + Kennedy, at the Social Media Club Portland.

Nascar Pro Championship presented by Sprint coincides with TNT's coverage of 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup series and continues through the final race on Nov. 20. It also gains exposure to an already established audience by being featured within Car Town, the largest automotive and motorsports game on Facebook with about 9 million users.

A recent TV advertisement for Target featured two people eating a "garlic ice cream" at a "garlic festival." Both exist in Gilroy, Calif., which has a yearly garlic festival. Even though Gilroy doesn't appear anywhere in the ad, citizens of the town are leaving comments on YouTube such as "born and raised in Gilroy and the timing couldn't be better for this commercial! July 29th, 30th & 31st -- See you there!" Brian Bowe, executive director of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, thinks the ad is "pretty darn funny." Although the Garlic Festival Association says Target's ad …

The Orleans County Agricultural Fair in Vermont wants to create the largest parade of Cadillacs, and the automaker is helping out financially. The parade launches the fair in Barton, Vt., the boyhood home of Henry Leland, who created and sold Cadillac, then created and lost Lincoln. The longest caddie-parade record is held by a car club in the Netherlands that some years back lined up 102 Caddies.

James Fox left a job as director of marketing for a well-known wine company while in his 40's to follow his bliss. Today, he teaches yoga and "mindfulness" practices to inmates at San Quentin. In this Q&A story he talks about how he got into yoga when he hurt his back and became a dedicated practitioner. About teaching the practice to prisoners: "I love it."

A new study on paid search firms says Google depends a lot on Wall Street for revenue. How about Facebook? Columnist Jim Edwards points out that we must hang fire on that question until an IPO. "Both Google and Facebook play in the same-size ballparks -- they're both massive and have an almost infinite pool of advertisers to draw from," he writes. But Google's Q2 2011 earnings show revenue from people willing to click on ads is, however, finite. Total aggregate paid clicks actually declined in the last quarter, "an unusual event, but Google's revenue still increased because …

Bill Vlasic, the New York Times' Detroit Bureau writer who penned Taken For a Ride about Chrysler's "merger of equals" with Daimler Benz, has written a new one that digs into the fall and resurrection of Detroit's automakers. The book officially goes on sale Oct. 4, but the buzz is big about the sniping among auto brass in the book. The book reveals a lot about the companies' efforts during a mounting crisis starting in 2005. In the 382-page manuscript, Ford Motor Co.'s vice president for global marketing, sales and service, James Farley, uses an expletive to describe …

Kmart is changing its approach to fashion with a new campaign focused on individual style rather than name brands or trends. The campaign, "Money can't buy style," will debut this fall and will feature non-actors in Kmart looks they've created themselves. The new campaign, created in collaboration with Peterson Milla Hooks, will include 20 people in a variety of pieces from the fall 2011 Kmart collections, selected and styled by each individual. The 20 people were chosen from around the country by Kmart for their individual style, the company reported.

Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Ill, wants to be the largest host for electric vehicle-charging stations. The company plans to install 800 charging stations across the country by the end of the year. They will have a high-speed direct current charger that can add 30 miles of range in as few as 10 minutes of charging time, or a Level 2 charger that can add up to 25 miles of range per hour of charge. Installations have already begun at more than 60 locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and Chicago.

A lot of questions are in the air regarding athlete endorsements. Could the NFL lockout have hurt such deals for Peyton Manning, Michael Vick and other high-profile NFL players? Could contretemps between NBA owners and players hurt such deals for LeBron James and Kobe Bryant? How about the Women's National Soccer Team and star players Hope Solo, Abby Wambach or Alex Morgan? And what's the future of golf post (maybe) Tiger Woods? David Schwab, the managing director of First Call, a division of global sports and entertainment marketing, consulting and talent representation firm Octagon talks to Big Lead …