Bank of America backed away from its plan, announced last month, to levy a $5 per month debit usage charge. Yet, it more quietly raised the cost of its basic MyAccess checking account by more than $3 a month earlier this year. Monthly maintenance fees now run $12 a month, up from $8.95.

While the Great Plains has seen plummeting populations with consequent businesses closings and communities evaporating, another demographic trend has breathed new life into the region. Hispanics are arriving in numbers large enough to offset or even exceed the decline in the white population in many places.

Countless video games from Pac-Man to Grand Theft Auto involve a character trying to stay alive while advancing to trickier levels. A character's death ends the game. But in a new game conceived by an interactive marketing manager at Farmington, Conn.-based AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co., death didn't end the game - if the character had life insurance. In that case, the player passes on collected worth to subsequent generations.

Ford Motor Co. has chosen the 2012 International Consumers Electronics Show on Jan. 10 in Las Vegas to offer North Americans their first look at the Ford Evos concept, a plug-in hybrid with gullwing doors. The car made its global debut this fall at the Frankfurt auto show. Ford CEO Alan Mulally will be a speaker at CES for the fourth consecutive year.

At ad:tech New York 2011, Wendy Clark, SVP of integrated marketing communications at Coca-Cola, talked about the "eight principles for maximizing brand value": be shareworthy; integrate; think horizontally; more good, not more more; listen, or "listen twice as much as you talk"; consistency x relevance x scale (done over time); collaborate; and do not accept the status quo -- "Be relentless."

After seven years, the global consumer products company Energizer is replacing the "keep going" campaign, saying the tagline no longer speaks for its household products division. Once simply defined by alkaline batteries, the division's entire portfolio now includes everything from headlamps to lithium batteries to charging stations for cell phones.

Uniqlo has a new queue management system from Lawrence, a Tensator Group Company, at its two new flagships in New York City (Fifth Avenue and 34th Street).

CVS Caremark is joining job fairs across the country to give veterans and military spouses employment opportunities. The effort is part of Hiring our Heroes, a yearlong nationwide campaign to help veterans and their spouses find meaningful employment.

Kyle Busch will be allowed to race in the final two Sprint Cup Series events but without main sponsor M&M's.

Airlines continue to pare base ticket prices down while charging fees for everything else that used to be included in the listed cost. Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Airlines, doesn't see things getting simpler anytime soon.