Toy maker Mattel is partnering with Izod for a promotion that features a life-size version of a roller coaster-style drop from a Hot Wheels track. The gigantic toy track will be at the infield of the Indianapolis speedway, where the legendary race is run. Team Hot Wheels, a crew of stunt drivers, will try to break the world record for a distance jump using the Hot Wheels track, by driving a yellow racecar down the ramp, which is perched upon a 10-story-high version of a kid's bedroom door. The "Hot wheels for Real" program includes a sweepstakes giving away prizes …

Mercedes-Benz, the favored vehicle of upper-echelon members of the Third Reich, is named after a Jewish child, writes Peter Orosz of Jalopnik. He writes that the vehicle is named for the granddaughter of Hungarian rabbi and scholar Adolf Jellinek. Apparently, Jellinek's son Emil, who became the Austro-Hungarian Consul in Nice, was a racecar enthusiast who drove Daimlers. He met a Sephardic Jewish woman in Morocco, married her, and named their daughter Mercedes. He appended the Mercedes name to his own and then insisted that the 1901 Daimler model be given the Mercedes name as well since the Daimler …

Can Madison Avenue sweep under its couch? Columnist Jim Edwards is somewhat hopeful that Unilever's "preferred vendor" roster of TV ad producers and Britain's media buying probe will shine daylight into advertising's dark spaces. "Both moves could make it difficult for agencies to continue to collect "volume discount" rebates from producers and media vendors," he writes. The issue deals with who gets the media dollars after an agency pays the bills for production and the media buy. He notes that clients -- the ones paying the production and placement bills -- don't know enough about so-called rebates agencies …

Callaway is launching a display ad program promoting its Razr Drivers. The effort includes a banner ad on ESPN.com that lets viewers fill in the blanks to personalize the ad. "So much power, it's like having ___ in my golf bag," says one. Consumers can share their version of the ad on Facebook. The sharing process also makes consumers "like" Callaway on Facebook.

Fiat, which bought 20% share of the Auburn Hills, Mich., automaker when it took a controlling stake in it, then bought 5% more in January, added another 5% on Tuesday contingent on higher sales of Chrysler vehicles outside North America, compensation to Chrysler for Fiat's use of its technology and recruitment of dealers in Europe and Brazil to sell Chrysler models. The Italian company plans to raise its stake another 5% by year's end.

Australia is the first government in the world to introduce proposed laws that would ban logos and branding from tobacco packaging. The laws would make logos, branding, colors and promotional text illegal beyond packets. It also would put product names in standard colors and positions in a regular font and size on packets colored a dark olive/brown, a color that has the lowest appeal to smokers, per government research. Health warnings with graphic images of the harmful effects of smoking will have to make up 75% of the front of the packaging and 90% of the back. Big Tobacco, …

California is where the quick serve business started back in the 1950s. But new player -- ironically an East Coast startup -- Five Guys is making inroads against a quirky, bible-toting chain that never left home: In-N-Out. Even though In-N-Out has the most loyal customers in the business, analysts say it better prepare for a David and David battle, since both tout fresh food, hand-cut fries and a somewhat anachronistic approach to fast food that sticks to the basics. Five Guys, privately held, has 770 locations in the U.S. and Canada. It now has 27 locations in California, but has …

The company's culture has focused on creative outreach and customer service (the chain has 1.5 million Facebook fans and drew 35 million website visits over last year's holiday-shopping period), which has helped it more than double global sales over the last five years and expand the global footprint of its Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Terrain and Free People stores. In February, the $2.3 billion Philadelphia-based company launched a bridal business. It plans to open 50 to 55 stores this year.

The retailer Save-A-Lot, a division of Minneapolis-based Supervalue, has a goal of doubling store count to 2,400 locations by 2015. The discount chain, which looks to grow in the U.S., has been trying co-branded stores with a Hispanic-oriented operator in Texas and a test with drug store operator Rite Aid at 10 stores in South Carolina. In addition, some licensees are experimenting with new offerings to drive better returns, such as deli departments. The St. Louis-based company, operated mainly by independent licensees, has had an expansion mindset since Craig Herkert became CEO of the parent company two years ago. …

Peter Arnell's wife Sara now runs the New York agency, which is as much known for wooing companies as for the work it has done for companies. He has filed a lawsuit against the agency and parent Omnicom, saying the firm owes him a million dollars worth of expensive books he bought with agency money. Since he left, the agency has withered, going from a shop with a staff of 170 and $16.3 million in revenue to an office with 50 staffers, and three clients -- Belvedere Vodka, ConEd and GNC. That's a long fall from the agency's heyday. The …