Dining chains have scant time to enjoy the recovery this year, as gasoline prices are likely to rise sharply and impinge on both operations costs and volume as consumers drive less. "It can't be good," said Popeyes CMO Dick Lynch, who said there's a correlation between gas prices and QSR sales. Fast food restaurants, which owe their existence to post-WWII car culture, may face the biggest test. Popeyes is touting a Butterfly Shrimp Tackle Box for $4.99; Dairy Queen is launching a "crave-worthy" push with a "So good it's riDQulous" tag; Arby's just launched a push, saying of its fare, …

Rebecca Van Dyck, former senior director of worldwide communications for Apple, has been named global CMO of Levi Strauss & Co. At Apple, Van Dyck led worldwide marketing and communications for products like iPhone, iPad, and iPod.

Tap Me, Inc. has launched what it says is the first in-game advertising platform that lets game designers put ads within games that are in context, rather than disruptive. The company says the ads are contextually relevant to what is happening in the game, and don't interrupt play or take players away from the game.

The second-biggest athletic gear maker said net income in the fourth quarter dropped by 7 million euros, or three cents per share, from 19 million euros the year before because of higher marketing costs. The company launched an advertising campaign in the U.S. at the start of the NBA season. It plans to launch its biggest global ad campaign this month and to open 100 stores this year, most of them in emerging countries. China, Russia and North America are growth markets where it plans to generate half of its planned 50% sales increase by 2015.

A new report compiled by eMarketer predicts Google will see double-digit increases in revenue and take its market share to over 75%. Microsoft's Bing will see a 16.4% rise in revenues to $1.47 billion by year's end, per the report. Said eMarketer principal analyst David Hallerman, "The U.S. paid search market is, more and more, a two-company game and yet there's no real competition." He said even though Bing is gaining revenue, Google's share is still rising as the combined revenues at Microsoft and Yahoo continue to fall.

General Motors is a completely different company than the firm that went bankrupt in 2009. A federal bankruptcy judge is scheduled today to give final approval to the liquidation of the last pieces of the original 102-year-old "old GM." The final liquidation will bring some compensation to bondholders who lost money during the bankruptcy, and clear the way for environmental reclamation at polluted GM sites.

"Two and a Half Men" was pulled for the season, but its troubled star, Charlie Sheen, has some 910,000 followers on Twitter, one day after starting up an account. That means he has the digital muscle to endorse brands, according to Arnie Gullov-Singh, CEO of Ad.ly, a Beverly Hills firm that writes messages on Twitter or Facebook for celebrities who, for a fee, endorse products or brands.

Dan Vaden will assume the director of marketing position at Virginia International Raceway. He will be leaving his role as owner and president of Vaden & Associates, based in Danville, Va.

Arby's new campaign shows how its food puts people in a sanguine state of mind. The humorous ads use a character named R.B. who helps different people who normally wouldn't associate, meet over Arby's food. The ads will run on shows like "American Idol," "The Bachelor," "Desperate Housewives" and "The Office."

McD's is putting the clown aside for now as it focuses on grownup things like lattes, rather than kid's meals. It's part of the company's effort to somehow move upscale. Because of the widening girth of the average American, the chain is trying to distance itself from its roots, with things like fruit smoothies, WiFi and more cafe-like seating.